Glasgow : its municipal organization and administration

Front matter

B4i3q

GLASGOW: ITS MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION

AND ADMINISTRATION

Prefatory Note

My object in the preparation of the following volume is to present to my fellow-citizens, and to those interested in the working of municipal institutions, a comprehensive view of the various means through and by which the complex work of a great corporation is carried on, and the intimate relation in which these and their result stand to the health, happiness, and prosperity of the citizens. The present seems a peculiarly favourable time to undertake such a task. Glasgow has recently been more than doubled in area, has passed through a period of great municipal activity and rapid progress, and this year is naturally marked off from that which is to follow by the re-distribution of the wards and an election involving the entire Council.

During my term of office as Lord Provost I have had prepared an annual survey, necessarily bald and brief, of the outstanding new work of the year ; and in doing so I have felt the need of some such work as the present, which would show clearly the evolution by which, in all the departments of corporate action, Glasgow has attained the high position which she now holds among the great municipalities of the world. Such a work, it seems to me, would serve a useful purpose as a history of Glasgow’s municipal life up to this present year of grace, alike to the citizens of Glasgow and to the numerous distinguished visitors from all lands who come to study the working of our system of local government. Only the corporate side of city life alone, with all its activities, its problems, and its aspirations, is dealt with ; and I place the record before the reader in the hope that its perusal may help to deepen and strengthen civic patriotism, induce a still stronger interest in the important and complex problems of city government, vi

PREFATORY NOTE and show the able and earnest men among us how great and valuable are the services they can render to the community as members of our local parliament, where we should deal only with local and practical issues and supply proved needs, leaving entirely out of consideration all imperial questions. Being non-political in its election and working is the greatest strength of our Council.

For the collection of much of the information that is gathered here, I have to return my warmest thanks to the officers of the various Corporation departments. To Mr. James Paton, the talented curator of the Corporation Galleries and Museum, I am indebted for bringing the material into its present literary form ; and I cannot bear too cordial testimony to the care, zeal, and ability which he has displayed in carrying out a work of considerable difficulty and complexity.

JAMES BELL.

Chapter I. Growth Of Glasgow: Its Causes

Position and bounds of the City : Population : Its gradual increase : Ecclesiastical and Educational influences : The discovery of America : Development of navigation : Effects of the Union : Expansion of commerce : The Lanarkshire coal-field : Scottish iron ore and iron smelting : Great industries of the region : Personal influence : Inventors and pioneers of industrial enterprise, ....... i

Chapter II. Scottish Burghal Constitution

Evolution of burghal government : Early burgh laws : Charters of David I. : Court of Four Burghs : Convention of Royal Burghs : Classes of Scottish burghs : A Royal Burgh : Its powers, privileges, and obligations : Sources of revenue : Election of magistrates : Constitution of council : Encroachment of merchant gilds : Jealousy of crafts : Admission of crafts to share in government : Burghs of Barony : Bishops’ Burghs : Free Burghs : Regalities : Effects of the Union : Municipal Reform Act, 1833 : Abolition of exclusive trading privileges, ......... 9

Chapter III. The Burghal History Of Glasgow

From Village to County: Early vassalage: Created Bishop’s Burgh: Oppressed by Royal Burghs : Made free trading burgh : Efforts to shake off ecclesiastical domination : Lennox Family made hereditary bailies: Charters of 1611 and 1636: Made a Royal Burgh: Further concessions in 1641 : Full emancipation in 1690: Craftsmen versus Merchants : Letter of Guildry : Election of Council in 16th century : Modified in 1606: Procedure and constitution from 1636 to 1833: Burgh Reform Act: Enlargements of Council: Extensions of Royalty: Parliamentary representation, . 18 viii

Chapter IV. Local Government In The Seventeenth Century

Municipal rule about 1620 : Contrast with present day : Appearance of the town : Primitive appliances : Condition of the streets : Statutory functions of the Council : Disaffection of the people : Issue of pasquinades : Interference of clergy : Debt of the City : Devices for its relief : Ordinary sources of revenue : The ladles, mills, and multures : Thirlage of the inhabitants : Stents or direct levies : Method of Stenting : Unpopularity: - Hagbutters sent to the Isles: The plague: Precautions against it: Night in the City: Night-walkers, ....... 28

Chapter V. The Former Masters Of The Council: The Guildry

The Merchants’ House and the Trades’ House: Their distinctions: Former masters of the Council : Powers abolished by Burgh Reform Act : Their exclusive trading privileges : Abolished in 1846 : Their functions as charitable associations : Judicial functions of the Guildry : Former extent: Guild Court of the present day: Its functions: The Merchants' House : Its directorate: Its influence in mercantile and public affairs: Its wealth : Sources whence accumulated : Gifts and mortifications : Its expenditure : The Traded House : How constituted : Its funds : Its charities : The Incorporations : Their precedence, revenues, charities, membership, administration, . . 39

Chapter VI. The Modern Masters Of The Council

Complexity of modern City : Its vast size : Great additions to duties of Council : Changed relations of community and Council : Absorption of suburban burghs : Present bounds of municipal constituency: Legislation of 1891 : Increase of Council: Reconstitution in 1896 : Wards : Voters : Qualifications for municipal franchise : Valuation Roll : Its municipal importance : How made up : Increase in rental : Register of voters : Register based on Valuation Roll : Exceptions : Registration Courts : Table of voters in Glasgow, .......... 52

Chapter VII. The Constitution Of The Council

Annual elections : Triennial retirement of Councillors : Circumstances affecting tenure of office : Contested elections : Ward Committees : Meeting of electors : Nomination of candidates : Official procedure : Acceptance of office : Qualifications of Councillors :

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First meeting of Council : Roll of Council : Dean of Guild and Deacon-Convener : Their anomalous position : Election of Lord Provost : His powers and duties : Magistrates : City Treasurer : River Bailie : Police judges : Master of Works : Representatives to public boards : Bailie of Provan : Officials : Committees and their conveners, .......... 65

Chapter VIII. The Homes Of The Council

Old Town Halls : Recent origin of Glasgow Town Hall : The Ancient Tolbooth of the City : The second Tolbooth : Its erection in 1626 : Described by Sir William Brereton : M'Ure’s description in 1736: Building of the Town Hall: Resolution of Council to leave Tolbooth: Erection of new offices and jail 1810-14: New City and County offices in Wilson Street 1842-4 : Removal of City Chambers to Ingram Street 1874 : Resolution to acquire site in George Square 1878 : Competition for George Square building: Foundation stone laid 1883: Building visited by Queen 1888: Accommodation, cost, etc., .......... 76

Chapter IX. The Corporation : Its Wealth And Activities

Freedom of action as a Corporation : Common Good : Its revenue, liabilities, and assets : Corporation properties : Extent of ancient heritages : Acquisition of teinds : Inventory of property in 1656 : Acquisition of Gorbals lands : Of Provan : Recent purchases of lands : Alienation of heritages : The promotion of legislation : Resistance of aggression : Advantages of private enterprise : The hospitalities of the Corporation : Its charities : Its administration of bequests, ....... 87

Chapter X. Magistrates And Jurisdictions

Magistrates connecting link between Council and Police : Magisterial Authority of bishops and archbishops : Reformed clergy and judicial functions : Growth of Civil Magistrates’ power : Position of magistrates in Town Council : Changes in magisterial functions : Burgh Court — civil side — criminal side : Magistrates committee : Judges of police : Stipendiary magistrates : Statutory duties of magistrates committee : Patronage : Licensing : Police Courts : Assessors : Fiscal : Police offences : Penal offences : Work of the courts, . . . . . . .103

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Chapter XI. The Police Of Glasgow

Popular misconceptions as to police : What police departments of Glasgow really embraces : The friend of the poor: Ancient police functions of Council: Police Act of 1800: Its epoch-making character : Board and rating power : Acts of 1807 and 1821 : Enlargement of board: Extension Act of 1830: Act of 1843 Statute Labour transferred to police: Extension Act 1846: Abolition of police board: Institution of police committee : Acts of 1862, 1866, and 1872 : Committee, board, commissioners : Act of 1895 : Commission absorbed in Corporation : Acts now regulating police : First police force of Glasgow: Expenditure of first year: Establishment and cost in 1815: Early police offices : Police organization of Gorbals, Calton, and Anderston : Amalgamation with City: Force in 1846: Expenditure in 1848: Expenditure 1894-95: Police establishment 1895 : Physique, service, and training of constables : Ordinary duties : Houses for married constables : Lodgings for unmarried men : Pay : Prospect : Pension,. . . . . . . . . . .111

Chapter XII. Streets And Bridges

Silence of mediaeval streets : Condition of roadways in sixteenth century : Causeway making begun : Causewaying of Trongate, etc. : Causeway work in eighteenth century : Pavements first formed in 1 777: Cross plainstones : Police Act of 1800: Provision anent pavements: Statute labour service: Road Trustees created in 1820: Functions transferred to Police Board in 1837 : Statute Labour Department : Its functions : Formation and maintenance of streets : Classes of causeway work : Side pavements : Clyde bridges : Their number, history, and cost : Kelvin bridges : Liability of City for country roads : Statute Labour expenditure and revenue, . . . . . .124

Chapter XIII. Sewers And Sewage

First sewers in Glasgow : Unperceived problems from their construction : Convenience and necessity of sewers : Their pure selfishness : Sewer construction in eighteenth century : Powers under Police Act of 1800 : A charge on statute labour from 1807 : Statutory classification of sewers : House drains must pass Sanitary Department : Sewage from public works : Police powers for dealing with manufacturing refuse : Original condition of sewage : Increase in volume with introduction of gravitation water : Universal adoption of water-closet system: Intolerable contamination of river: Early proposals for dealing with sewage : Parliamentary sanction of Dalmarnock Sewage Works : Their extent : Works : Method of treatment : Successful results : Amount of sewage treated : Cost : Expenditure on works : Annual expenditure : Dalmuir scheme : Its comprehensive nature : The work of the future : Ultimate purification of the Clyde, 136 xi

Chapter XIV. The Fire Brigade

Antiquity of the Fire Brigade : Rudimentary extinguishing appliances : Conflagrations in seventeenth century : Impoverishment of City : Parliamentary and other relief : Buckets and ladders provided by magistrates : Bucket money exacted from new burgesses : Ladders to be kept by heritors : Alienation of bucket money by Merchants’ and Trades’ Houses : Bucket money dispute between Council and Guildry : Colquhoune’s fire-engine : Conflagration of 1672 : Fire-engine from London, 1725 : Sugar-house labourers as Fire Brigade: Fire insurance: Fire establishment in 1800: Transferred to police, 1807: Organization in 1825 : Disputes with insurance companies : Improvements after introduction of Loch Katrine water : Electrical Fire Alarms : Reorganization in 1878 : Fire-stations, engines, and appliances : Fire losses : Salvage corps, . . . 146

Chapter XV. Public Lighting

Beginning of street illumination: Statutory duty of lighting in 1800: Inefficiency of early street illumination: Introduction of gas: Glasgow lighting staff in 1815: Light supplied by gas companies: Expenditure on public lighting in 1870: Lighting of private streets and common stairs : Lighting provisions of Police Act, 1862 : Act of 1866 : Cost of common stair lighting : Recent developments in street illumination : Electric lighting of streets : Welsbach incandescent lights in streets : Extent and cost of Glasgow street lighting, . . . . . . . .157

Chapter XVI. Cleansing

Not originally a municipal duty : Condition of streets in seventeenth century : Middens in streets : Visitation of plague : Edicts of Council as to cleaning : Police Act of 1800 makes cleaning a public duty : Original scavenging staff : Act of 1843 : Appointment of Inspector of Cleansing: Act of 1866: Cleaning of private streets, etc., taken over: Organization of Cleansing Department in 1868 : Cleansing districts : Staff : Premises : Street sweeping : Snow-falls : Watering of streets : Collection of refuse : Refuse despatch works : Disposal of manure to farmers ; to farms and estates of Cleansing Department : Expenditure and revenue, ...... 163

Chapter XVII. Baths And Wash-houses

Growth of public sanitary duties : Public cleaning and cleanliness : Encouragement of domestic and personal cleanliness : Smoke and dirt of Glasgow : Excellence and abundance of

Xll water : Bath clubs : Establishment of municipal baths and wash-houses : First beginnings: Buildings at Greenhead, Woodside, Cranstonhill, Townhead, and Gorbals: Baths and wash-houses for Springburn and Maryhill : Description and accommodation of baths: Of wash-houses: Limited public appreciation : Increasing popularity: Education of masses in cleanliness, . . . . . . . .173

Chapter XVIII

HEALTH DEPARTMENT. I. HISTORY.

Modern origin : Antiquity of the functions : Sanitary work in mediaeval times : Leprosy : Plague : Small-pox : Cholera : Typhus : Attitude of municipality to epidemics : Cholera measures : Modern views of epidemics : Outbreaks of nineteenth century : Municipal action: Beginning of sanitary service in 1857: Enlarged powers in 1862: First medical officer appointed : His early difficulties : Police Act of 1866 : Sanitary Inspector appointed : Establishment of municipal hospital : Extension of hospitals : Hospital free to all citizens: Police Amendment Act of 1890: Further sanitary provisions, . . . . . . . . . .180

Chapter XIX

HEALTH DEPARTMENT. II. INSPECTION.

Unity of the service: Modern trend of health legislation: Sanitary districts: Nuisances: Their variety and causes, detection and abatement : Lodging-houses : Inspection and regulation : Habits of the lodgers : Farmed houses : Their occupants and their owners : Ticketed houses : Their definition, regulation, and inspection : Prevention of over-crowding : The inspected population of Glasgow : Benefits of inspection : Uninhabitable houses : Police powers over : Special committee on : Female inspectors : Missionaries of cleanliness : Drain testing : Inspection of bakehouses, byres, dairies, food, and drugs : Meat inspection : Sanitary condition of factories and workshops : Shop hours, . . . . . . . . . .189

Chapter XX

HEALTH DEPARTMENT. III. DISEASE PREVENTION.

Diseases dealt with : Epidemic inspection and agencies : Notification Act : Inspector’s duties : Disposal of sufferers : Home treatment : Hospital treatment : Inspection of emigrants in transit : Vessels arriving from foreign ports : Importation of disease in ships’ cargoes : Dangers from beyond City bounds : Disease carried in milk : Powers of dealing with milk infection : Control over filthy houses : Reception houses : Their functions: Disinfection: Fumigation: Washing: Sanitary wash-houses — Belvidere and Ruchill, ........... 200

Chapter XXI

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HEALTH DEPARTMENT. IV. TREATMENT OF DISEASE.

Isolation of sufferers : Statutory fever hospitals, Parliamentary Road : Belvidere, small-pox division, fever division, hospital wash-house : Treatment of patients : Cure : Death : Ruchill Hospital : General description : Knightswood : Cost of hospital treatment : Cost per patient : Duration of stay : Total cases treated : Results : Decrease of zymotics : Typhus : Small-pox : Scarlet fever : Measles : Whooping-cough : Cholera and other diarrhoeal ailments : Minor zymotics : General decrease of disease and of death rate, .......... 209

Chapter XXII. The Improvement Trust

Condition of Glasgow in first half of nineteenth century : Views of epidemics then held : Origin of overcrowding : Its regions : Its accumulated horrors : Attempts to deal with the evils: Improvement Act of 1866; Its area and scope: Anticipated cost: Public enthusiasm and ratepayers’ wrath : Defects of the measure : Energy of the trustees : Hopeful financial anticipations : Extensive operations : Displacement o the poor : Collapse of building trade : Paralysis of trustees’ activity : Act of 1880 : Resolution of trustees to build : Their building operations : Houses for the poor : Lodging-houses : The family home : Other improvement agencies : Railways : Streets’ Improvement Act : Glasgow Presbytery’s investigation : Ruskin Society : Glasgow Workmen’s Dwellings Company : Uninhabitable houses legislation : Financial position of Improvement Trust: General results: Pioneer work : Duties in the future, . . 218

Chapter XXIII

THE WATER SUPPLY. I. EARLY SOURCES.

The period of wells : Their growing insufficiency and impurity : Reputation of wells : Private commerce in water : Origin of Glasgow Water Company, 1806 : Works of the Company : Cranstonhill Water Company, 1808 : Competition and rivalry : Charges : Difficulties of Cranstonhill Co. : Gradual tainting of supply : Removal of works : Amalgamation of Companies : New schemes of water supply : Loch Katrine proposed : Water Company’s Loch Lubnaig Scheme sanctioned by Parliament : Found unworkable : Gorbals Water Company formed, 1845 : Proposed extension, 1855 : Rival to Loch Katrine Scheme : Condition of supply about 1855 : Extinction of Companies and river supply: River works for manufacturing uses, .... 233

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Chapter XXIV

THE WATER SUPPLY. II. LOCH KATRINE.

Rival Water Bills in 1845: Gorbals and Loch Lubnaig Acts: Failure of latter: Interposition of Town Council : Resolution to take over water supply : Recommendation of Loch Katrine as source: Merits of loch scheme: Bill of 1854: Opposition and rejection: Bill of 1855 passed: The area of supply: Its natural features: The works : Inauguration by Queen Victoria : Cost : Additions till 1880 : Pumping to high districts : Supply and consumption in 1882 : Act of 1885 : Duplication of works : Craigmaddie reservoir : Capacity of completed scheme : Cost : Physical and chemical properties of Loch Katrine water, ......... 243

Chapter XXV

THE WATER SUPPLY. III. COMMERCIAL ASPECTS.

Increased consumption of water entirely for trade purposes : Use of water power from gravitation : Establishment of hydraulic power works : Station and machinery : Distribution of power : Cost to consumers : Engineering establishment : Cost of water undertaking till 1882 : Cost till 1896 : Indebtedness of Commissioners : Water rates : Gradual reduction : Meter charges : Special charges : Exemptions : Saving to public by reduced charges : Growth of revenue : Annual expenditure, . . . .254

Chapter XXVI. Corporation Gas And Electricity

Gas distribution a natural monopoly: Fostering of industries by company enterprise: Glasgow Gas-Light Company formed in 1817 : Success of the company : Frequent extensions of works: Dissatisfaction of consumers: Formation of City and Suburban Company : Town Council negotiations in 1857 : Provisional agreement with companies made and abandoned : Continued public dissatisfaction : Investigation of companies’ affairs : Council resolution to acquire works : Parliamentary struggle : Glasgow Corporation Gas Act, 1869: Terms of transfer: Properties acquired: Formation of Partick, Hillhead, and Maryhill Gas Company : Contentions with Corporation Gas Department : Purchase of works by Corporation : Extensions of works since 1869: Productive capacity in 1895: Use of gas for heating, cooking, and power : Growth of gas consumption : Revenue : Capital expenditure : Indebtedness of department: Sinking fund: Application of surplus revenue: Electric lighting-. Recent origin in Glasgow: Corporation provisional order in 1890: Electric lighting placed under Gas Department : Acquisition of established works : Erection of station at Waterloo Street : Method of distribution : Increase of demand : Price of electrical energy : Financial results, ........ 262 xv

Chapter XXVII. Municipal Markets

Markets in mediaeval times : Their distribution in old Glasgow : Statutory recognition in Police Act of 1800 : The markets of that period : Removal of Flesh Market to Graham Square : Markets now owned by Corporation, by Markets Commissioners, and by Local Authority : The Bazaar : Development of fruit trade : The Cheese Market : Finance of Bazaar property : The Bird and Dog Market : The Clothes’ Market : The Market Commissioners : The Cattle and Horse Market : Powers and rights of the Commissioners : Slaughter-houses : Dead Meat Market : The Fish Market : Finance of the Market Commissioners : Foreign cattle : Landing places, lairages, and abattoirs : The Canadian and United States cattle trade, ...... 276

Chapter XXVIII. The Corporation Tramways

Tramway lines a natural monopoly : Direct working versus leasing : Origin of Glasgow tramways : Act acquired by Corporation : Lease assign to British and Foreign Tramway Company : Formation of Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company : Agreement with Corporation : Construction and opening of lines : Planning of routes : Modifications of agreement between Corporation and company : Expenditure on lines : Tramway Company’s Bill in Parliament in 1887 : Negotiations for renewal of lease : Failure to agree : Corporation resolution to work lines : Negotiations for company’s stations, plant, and stock : Resolution of company to compete with Corporation : Negotiations broken off : Equipment for Corporation undertaking : Inauguration of Corporation service : Opposition of Tramway Company : Its failure : Traffic under Corporation management : Financial results, . . - . . . . . 292

Chapter XXIX. The Clyde Navigation

Ancient rights of Glasgow in the river: Their confirmation by Charles I.: Primitive condition of the channel : Early efforts towards its improvement : Formation of harbour at Port- Glasgow : Smeaton’s proposals : Act of Parliament based thereon : Golborne’s recommendations : Sanctioned by Parliament : Success of Golborne’s operations : Rennie and Telford’s reports : Deepening of the river : Introduction of steam navigation : Formation of Special Board of Trustees in 1825: Board as constituted in 1858 : Improvements in lower part of river : Dredging methods and plant : Disposal of Dredgings : Cost of dredging : Extension of quays : Formation of wet docks : Graving docks : Ferries : Harbour passenger traffic : Cost of undertakings : Debt : Revenue, .......... 304

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Chapter XXX. Public Halls And Entertainments

Uses of public hails : Limits of municipal responsibility : Original meeting-places in Glasgow: Old Town Hall : City Hall, its origin and accommodation : St. Andrew’s Halls, accommodation : Acquisition by Corporation : District halls : Statutory obligation : Town Council and public entertainments : Early patronage of football, etc. : Golf in Alexandra Park : Model yacht ponds : Encouragement of music : City ministrels : Saturday afternoon concerts : Band performances in parks, etc., . . .318

Chapter XXXI

THE PARKS. GLASGOW GREEN.

Ancient common lands of the City : Green no part of these : First acquisition of ground : Gradual increase of area : Final purchase in 1792 : Proposals to feu portions : Parliamentary powers to alienate : Original use as a washing green : Prohibition of manufacturers bleaching : Old washing-house : Cattle grazings : Rents therefrom : Improvement of .Green : Glasgow Fair shows: Preachings and debates: Mineral wealth: Proposals to work coal, ........ 326

Chapter XXXII. Modern Parks And Recreation Grounds

Kelvingrove Park : Growing need for open spaces : Acquisition of Kelvingrove lands : Additions to the park : Bunhouse Recreation Grounds : Queen’s Park : Purchase of ground : Crosshill and Govanhill Burghs : Additions of Camphill Grounds to Queen’s Park : Alexandra Park : Purchase of park by City Improvement Trustees : Purchase of East Kennyhill : Golf in Alexandra Park : Model yacht pond : Cathkin Braes Park, a gift to the City : Conditions of gift : Gift of Maxwell Park to Pollokshields : Transfer to Park Trustees : Springburn Park : Ruchill Park : Bellahouston Park : Extent : Conditions of transfer to Parks Trustees : Recreation grounds : Open spaces : Children’s playgrounds : Disused graveyards : The Botanic Gardens : Physic Gardens in Old College : First Botanic Gardens : Royal Botanic Institution : Gardens removed to present site : Kibble Conservatory : Financial difficulties of institution : Advances from Common Good : Transfer to Parks Trustees : Contents of gardens and greenhouses : Popularity : Scientific value, ........ 335

CONTENTS x

Chapter XXXIII

SCIENCE AND ART. ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS.

Recent origin of municipal museums : The Corporation Galleries : Art collections of Archibald M'Lellan : His will : Condition of his estate : Purchase of M‘Lellan pictures and buildings : William Euing’s gift and bequest : Extension of galleries : Neglect of collections : Graham- Gilbert bequest : Renewed interest in galleries : Reid gift : Kelvingrove Museum : Its origin : Extension : Comprehensive character : Statutory powers to support museums, etc. : Projects for new buildings : International Exhibition scheme : Success of exhibition: Surplus: Public subscription: New Art Gallery and Museum buildings: Special exhibitions : District exhibitions : People’s Palace on Glasgow Green : Camphill Gallery : Value of buildings and collections, .... 349

Chapter XXXIV

EDUCATION. LIBRARIES.

Public Libraries Acts not adopted in Glasgow: Former poverty of public libraries: Stirling’s Library : Its career and vicissitudes : Agitation in favour of Libraries Acts : Thrice rejected by householders: Present position of the question: Mitchell Library: Its founder : Constitution : Early experiences : Miller Street premises : Special features of the library : Benefactors : Popularity : Number of volumes : Readers : Finance : Difficulties and their solution, ...... 362

Chapter XXXV

EDUCATION. SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS.

Grammar School of Glasgow : Its antiquity: Under Town Council at time of Reformation: Rebuilding in 1601 : Masters and doctors : Teaching in seventeenth century : Scots schools and English schools : Teaching of music : A teacher of mathematics : School rebuilt in 1656 : Council visitation of school : Salaries, fees, etc., in eighteenth century : Curriculum : School removed to George Street, 1789 : Extension of staff, 1815: School transferred to John Street, 1820: Called High School of Glasgow: Gradual enlargement of curriculum : The School Board : Educational endowments in charge of Council : City Educational Endowments Board : General Educational Endowments Board : Unity of educational administration : Endowments yet in charge of Council: Imperial grants, . . . . . . . 37 1 xviii CONTENTS

Chapter XXXVI

EDUCATION AND CHARITY. HUTCHESONS’ HOSPITAL.

Administration of charities entrusted to municipalities : The founders of the Hospital : The original mortifications : Their dual aim : Support of the aged : Education of the young : Erection of the Hospital : Later benefactors — Blair, Baxter, Scott, Hood : Investments : The Gorbals lands : Vast increase in value : Early administration : Admission of women : Abandonment of Hospital residence : Incorporation by Royal Charter: Act of Parliament, 1872: Enlarged powers: Educational Endowments Commissioners’ inquiry : Allocation of funds between charity and education : Hutchesons’ Educational Trust : Powers and obligations : Administration : Number of Hospital pensioners : How qualified and selected : Gradual growth of revenues : The patrons and their committees, ....... 383

Chapter XXXVII. Public Charity

Care of the mediaeval poor : Badge beggars : Council stents for support of poor : General Session supervision : Founding of Town’s Hospital : Failure of General Session funds : Council’s grants in aid : Periods of exceptional distress : Lord Provost’s statement to Select Committee on Distress : Depression in Glasgow from 1848 till 1895 : Statistics of relief funds: Operations of 1895: Cause of distress: Its extent: Relief works : Charitable assistance : Subscriptions : Distribution of aid : Suggestions for future, 395

Chapter Xxxviii. Religion

The gradation of municipal duties ; Unsatisfactory relations of Council to City churches : Origin of the connection : Limits of City Parish : Division into parishes quoad sacra : Early stipends : Their gradual increase and present amount : Cost of City churches : Revenues derived from them : Negotiations between Presbytery and Council : Act of 1879: Committees of 1889: Failure of Negotiations: Present position: Council representative to General Assembly, ....... 409

Introduction

ACCORDING to tradition, it was while taking his accustomed walk in Glasgow Green on a pleasant evening in the spring of 1765 that the idea of the separate condenser to the steam-engine flashed across the mind of James Watt. Every circumstance connected with that conception was momentous and memorable. No invention, in any time or country, was fraught with such far-reaching and revolutionary consequences in the economic and social relations of the human race. One of the first and most obvious consequences of Watt’s improvements of the steam-engine was the concentration of the industrial population into large communities. The inventions of Arkwright and others in the textile industries had already laid the foundation of the factory system of industry, and had struck the first deadly blow at domestic employments. Had steam-power not promptly followed on textile improvements, the factories of the country would inevitably have been planted along the water-courses great and small, and the industrial population would perforce have been scattered. That such a distribution was actually begun is demonstrated by the fact that ere the significance of steam-power was perceived, the Lanark Mills on the Clyde, the Catrine on the Ayr Water, Deanston near Doune on the Teith, and Stanley on the Tay, and other huge establishments were erected, and all were, in effect, a distribution from Glasgow. Their sites were fixed on account of water-power ; but no sooner did the influence of steam manifest itself than they languished, and the drift of population thereupon was steadily towards the towns. It was steam thus that determined the growth of our great industrial towns, that transformed the population of Great Britain, and drew the dwellers from fairly distributed villages and hamlets into densely packed active centres.

In favourable situations towns grew up with phenomenal rapidity, and these vortices of population being established, they drew with ever-accelerating force masses of the rural populace within their boundaries, and the sweep of their influence extended in increasing radius over the country. And so from the later part of the eighteenth century numerous moral and social problems began to take shape, which it became the task of town authorities in the