JS 
 I B41 Bell.- 
 
 I 
 
 ^B Southern Branch 
 
 r of the 
 
 University of California 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 Form L 1
 
 /<^ 
 
 Form L-9-15?)i-8,'24
 
 GLASGOW: ITS MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION 
 AND ADMINISTRATION
 
 PUBLISHED BV 
 
 JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW, 
 Jublishcie to t\u Snibfreit!). 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. 
 /few York, • The Macmillan Co. 
 London, ■ ■ Simpkin, Hamilton and Co. 
 Cambridge, - Macmillan and Bo^ves. 
 Edinburgh, - Douglas and Foulis. 
 
 MDCCCXCVI.
 
 IT 
 UJ 
 
 HI 
 
 < 
 
 I 
 o 
 
 > 
 
 I-
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 Its Municipal Organization and 
 
 Administration 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR JAMES BELL. Bart. 
 
 LORD PROVOST OF GLASGOW, 1892-95, 1895-96 
 
 AND 
 
 JAMES PATON, F.L.S. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE MUSEUMS ASSOCIATIONS OF THE 
 UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 
 
 
 Glasgow 
 
 James MacLehose and Sons 
 
 Publishers to the University 
 1896 
 
 59394
 
 « 
 
 c 
 
 r« ■ 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 • • 
 
 • • 
 
 • • • 
 • 
 
 .*. 
 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 • 
 
 • • 
 
 • » * 
 
 : • 
 
 « 
 • 
 
 c c 
 
 ••• 
 
 •• 
 
 « 
 
 • 
 
 • • « 
 
 • 
 
 • •• 
 
 • • 
 
 • 
 ••* 
 
 « 
 
 • • 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • • 
 
 :•. 
 
 
 
 
 • •• 
 
 « • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • « 
 
 
 w 
 
 «"^* 
 
 
 • • 
 
 • •• 
 
 • •• 
 
 • • • 
 
 • • • 
 
 ) * 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 .•- 
 
 « e 
 
 
 • r 
 
 v: 
 
 •• • 
 
 
 %•: 
 
 • • 
 
 • 
 
 :•: 
 
 • 
 
 « 
 
 • 
 • 
 
 • • 
 
 • • 
 
 *• 
 
 « 
 
 
 • 
 
 4 C 
 
 "••! 
 
 
 • « 
 
 • • 
 
 • • • 
 
 • • 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 * 
 
 • 
 
 GLASGOW • 
 
 ?rintrb nt llu anibrrsitg JDrcss bg 
 
 ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO,
 
 \ 
 
 c-i 
 
 3^^ 
 
 <0 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 /O 
 
 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 insti- 
 tutions, a comprehensive view of the various means through and by which 
 
 ^ the complex vv^ork 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 
 
 '-v 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 depart- 
 ments 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 consider- 
 able difficulty and complexity. 
 
 JAMES BELL. 
 
 \^th October^ 1896.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 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 11. 
 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 : Con- 
 stitution 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 161 1 and 1636: Made a Royal 
 Burgh: Further concessions in 1641 : Full emancipation in 1690: Craftsmen versus 
 Merchants : Letter of Guildry : Election of Council in i6th century : Modified in 
 1606: Procedure and constitution from 1636 to 1833: Burgh Reform Act: Enlarge- 
 ments of Council : Extensions of Royalty: Parliamentary representation, . 18
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Municipal rule about 1620: Contrast with present day: Appearance of the town: Primi- 
 tive 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 :
 
 CONTENTS ix 
 
 First meeting of Council : Roll of Council : Dean of Guild and Deacon-Convener : 
 Their anomalous position : Election of Lord Provost : His powers and duties : Magis- 
 trates : City Treasurer : River Bailie : Police judges : Master of Works : Repre- 
 sentatives 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: Accommoda- 
 tion, 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 Magis- 
 trates' 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, . . • . . • . '03 
 
 b
 
 X CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 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 1S07 and 1821 : En- 
 largement of board: Extension Act of 1830: Act of 1843 Statute Labour transferred 
 to police : Extension Act 1846 : Abolition of police board : Institution of police com- 
 mittee : 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 XH. 
 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 : Pave- 
 ments first formed in 1777: 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 XHL 
 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 con- 
 dition 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, .....,.,,.. 1^6
 
 CONTENTS xi 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FIRE BRIGADE. 
 
 Antiquity of the Fire Brigade : Rudimentary extinguishing appliances: Conflagrations in seven- 
 teenth century: Impoverishment of City: Parliamentary and other rehef : 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 : Con- 
 flagration 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 intro- 
 duction 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 181 5 : Light sup- 
 plied 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 de- 
 spatch 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
 
 xii CONTENTS 
 
 water : Bath clubs : Establishment of municipal baths and wash-houses : First begin- 
 nings: Buildings at Greenhead, Woodside, Cranstonhill, Tovvnhead, 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. IL 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 — Belvidei'e and 
 Ruchill, ........... 200
 
 CONTENTS ,^iii 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 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 Improve- 
 ment 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 pro- 
 posed : 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
 
 xiv CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. II. LOCH KATRINE. 
 
 Rival Water Bills in 1845: Gorbals and Loch Lubnaig Acts: Failure of latter: Inter- 
 position 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 gravi- 
 tation : 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 com- 
 panies 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 : Indebted- 
 ness 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
 
 CONTENTS 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 Com- 
 missioners : 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 tram- 
 ways : 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 con- 
 dition 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 navi- 
 gation : 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
 
 xvi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 PUBLIC HALLS AND ENTERTAINMENTS. 
 
 Uses of public halls : 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 : Parlia- 
 mentary powers to alienate : Original use as a washing green : Prohibition of manu- 
 facturers bleaching : Old washing-house : Cattle grazings : Rents therefrom : Improve- 
 ment 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 : Crossbill 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
 
 CONTEA'rS xvii 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 SCIENCE AND ART. ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS. 
 
 Recent origin of municipal museums : The Corporation Galleries : Art collections of Archibald 
 IM'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 : Kelvin- 
 grove 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. LIBRxARIES. 
 
 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 En- 
 dowments Board : Unity of educational administration : Endowments yet in charge of 
 Council : Imperial grants, . . . . . • • • 37'
 
 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 e.xceptional 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 repre- 
 sentative 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 improve- 
 ments, the factories of the country would inevitably have been planted along 
 the water-courses great and small, and the industrial population would per- 
 force 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 W^ater, 
 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
 
 XX INTRODUCTION 
 
 second half of the nineteenth century to cope with and seek to solve. The 
 many and grave difficulties of a congested population were not apparent in 
 the early stages ; the steady infusion of new and healthy blood into town 
 life at first masked some of their more tragic forms ; and the symptoms 
 that were observed were looked on as dispensations of Providence which 
 had to be accepted with resignation, rather than as calls to exertion for 
 their amelioration. 
 
 Nor, indeed, were those in power in our cities and towns in the early 
 part of the nineteenth century in a position to cope with the difficulties 
 which were afflicting the populace. The Town Councils were close Cor- 
 porations sitting in secret conclave, and were out of sympathy with the desires 
 and wants of the mass of the population. They were looked on with suspicion 
 and dislike, an unwilling obedience was rendered to their rule, and the taxes 
 they imposed, unequal in their incidence, were grudgingly paid, under the fear 
 that they might not be applied to their legitimate uses. Within the Councils 
 there was little enthusiasm for arduous and long-continued effort ; behind 
 these bodies there was no stimulating influence of healthy public support ; 
 they were face to face with sullen dislike and suspicion. Whether the people 
 lived or died was not the care of the Town Councils — that might be left to 
 the churches and the charitable organizations ; sufficient for them if public 
 order was enforced and external decency maintained. 
 
 In the fulness of time the Scottish Burgh Reform Act of 1833 was 
 passed, and with that great instalment of democratic rule civic life and activity 
 assumed new aspects. The people began to perceive that they had a direct 
 interest in their Councils, and some control over their Councillors. Council 
 and community found themselves in touch with each other, and the vague 
 and inarticulate feelings and aspirations of the multitude found coherence, 
 distinctness, and expression in the narrow circle of the Council. And as the 
 experience of the new order of things increased, more close, intimate, and 
 sympathetic became the relations between the Councils and the electors, and 
 the more readily were the feelings and dumb purpose of the community 
 reflected and interpreted in the Council halls. And as the burgh franchise 
 was lowered, and electors from lower and yet lower strata in the social edifice 
 were added to the constituency, in proportion grew the sympathies of the 
 Councils, and enlarged views of their functions and responsibilities more 
 and more possessed their minds. 
 
 While thus Councils were being returned well-equipped and ready to 
 discharge their duties, there were no light tasks ready to be grappled with. 
 The central problem — that which in its sweep embraced every other — was 
 the health of the multitudes drawn into the towns. How to enable the 
 working population, and even the poor, to live healthy, decent, comfortable 
 lives, how even to add some enjoyment to these lives, was the momentous 
 question which offered itself for solution.
 
 INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 This vast question was only unrolled by degrees ; nay, it is only now 
 in course of opening up, and its portentous issues are by no means yet fully 
 revealed. In its crudest, incipient form it presented itself with the clearness 
 of a trumpet call when the populace were being decimated by the periodical 
 epidemics which scourged the cities. At first, thought was given to nothing 
 more than dealing with the individual attack, and that only when the enemy 
 had established a firm hold on the citadel of life. By slow degrees only 
 was it perceived that the true policy is to exclude epidemics, that, according 
 to the pithy proverb, " prevention is better than cure." Hence the formation 
 of permanent Sanitary Departments and Health Committees, and the inception 
 of the vast undertakings of these bodies. 
 
 With the progress of the labours of Health Authorities and the opening 
 up of their vast field of operations, there came an entire revolution in the 
 conception of the responsibilities of- Town Councils towards the citizens they 
 represent. In the earlier part of the century the duty of the Corporation 
 to the individual was chiefly negative and repressive. He had simply to be 
 kept from being a menace and a trouble to his neighbours ; but the zeal 
 which had, at one time, possessed the Council for the spiritual welfare of 
 the people had long died out, and the supervision of schools for the masses 
 had ceased. The health of the City, it was now perceived, involved the 
 health of the individual, and the recognition of this fact opened up hitherto 
 undreamt of spheres of action and usefulness. It was not simply light, air, 
 and water that now were in question ; the food of the people and the 
 conditions under which they laboured came under supervision ; even their 
 recreations and enjoyments became the care of the Councils. So came the 
 parks, recreation grounds, play-grounds, open spaces, the band performances 
 and concerts, the libraries, and the museums and art galleries — all modern 
 developments of municipal activity. 
 
 As regards the health and comfort of dwellers in towns down even to 
 the lowest stratum incalculable good has been effected. Unfortunately the 
 evils attendant on city life neither begin nor end within the cities. They 
 pollute equally the heavens above and the earth beneath. The sky for miles 
 away is darkened with fog-begetting clouds of smoke, and the water-courses 
 are poisoned with all the burden of pestilent refuse they will carry. Till 
 these two crying evils are remedied as far as current knowledge and practical 
 skill permit, country populations will have just and heavy grievances against 
 the dwellers in towns. Both the sewage and the smoke nuisances are 
 among the problems — let us rather say, they also are a phase in the pro- 
 blem — which all urban communities have to face. 
 
 Another phase of municipal work which has emerged with popular election 
 and democratic organization is the supervision and control of what we may 
 term civic monopolies. In this connection it is not necessary to enter into 
 any discussion of the debated question of municipal communism, or to inquire
 
 xxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 how far it is the duty of a Council to become a universal provider. The 
 municipal right of control over undertakings which in the case of Glasgow, 
 at least, have been absorbed — the water, the gas, and the tramways — can 
 be defended on quite other considerations. Water, like air, is an indispensable 
 requisite of existence ; like air it should be free to all, and so it is : there 
 is no private property in the element, and it is only for its distribution, for 
 bringing it to the door of every citizen, that a rate, on the convenient basis 
 of rent, is levied. Gas, electric light, and tramways are on a different plat- 
 form. It is open to any citizen to use these conveniences or to supply 
 himself with such illuminants and conveyance as he may elect. He is called 
 on to pay only for the service he receives ; and that service is made self- 
 supporting, but it is not a source of profit. It is however obvious that an 
 unlimited range of gas-pipes could not be laid through the public streets 
 and into the premises of consumers, nor could more than one set of tramway 
 rails be tolerated in the thoroughfares. These services belong to the order 
 of natural monopolies ; they could not be trusted to the uncontrolled charge 
 of any private body, and certainly the first right, even duty, to administer 
 them rests on the Corporation. 
 
 Thus along many paths the later half of the century has seen numerous 
 and vital developments of municipal activity. The energies of Town Councils 
 have not been expended in windy verbosities, but they have been directed 
 to practical issues of the utmost consequence to those who have confided 
 municipal office to them. The qualities which make a good Town Councillor 
 are simply those which belong to the successful business man : method, 
 precision, accurate judgment, and prompt decision, and with these character- 
 istics the elected Councils have been well endowed. So it comes that in 
 many — almost all — the important modifications of social legislation the towns 
 and cities have been pioneers ; frequently their proposals have at first been 
 rejected by Imperial Parliament, and in the end passed only with timid 
 hesitation and doubt, and yet these very measures in the end became the 
 general law of the country. So also it comes that municipal rule is now 
 being recognized as coming closer to the every-day interests of the people 
 than the enactments of the Imperial Senate, that the future developments 
 of municipal activity are being looked forward to with lively and personal 
 interest, and that the true significance and value of municipal institutions 
 are being daily better recognized and more widely appreciated. 
 
 The power for good or evil of a Corporation such as Glasgow, dealing 
 with the daily life and wants and interpreting the aspirations of three 
 quarters of a million of human beings, is almost inconceivably great. What 
 that power involves gives neither thought nor concern to the man in the 
 street, who, seeing the smooth and monotonous flow of daily life, dreams not 
 of the unresting care, labour, and watchfulness by which the great machine 
 is kept in harmonious action. And yet in the discharge of their duties to
 
 INTRODUCTION xxiii 
 
 the citizens, the Magistrates and Council find it necessary to employ a body 
 of officials and servants numbering upwards of 10,000; they administer a 
 revenue which exceeds two millions sterling yearly ; they hold property 
 worth more than ten millions, and they carry a burden of debt which 
 amounts to the quite respectable total of more than eight millions. The 
 income equals that of a modest kingdom ; it is applied to purposes much 
 more directly beneficial to the people, and the servants of Glasgow 
 Corporation certainly earn their pay in a manner far more directly useful 
 than do the armed hosts of the nations. How numerous, how diverse, how 
 far-reaching are the activities of the civic authorities, and how varied are 
 the duties of the cohorts of municipal officials and servants, the following 
 pages will serve to show. 
 
 Let it be distinctly understood that in this narrative of municipal develop- 
 ment and activity no claim for superiority or special merit is made on behalf 
 of Glasgow. It certainly is the case that the City, in its history, gives 
 the most complete possible illustration of the growth of a Scottish Burgh 
 beginning with the small missionary settlement and its mythical see, passing 
 through the phases of the ecclesiastical domination of the Bishops, the 
 Regality, the Royalty, and capping the edifice in the County of the City. 
 Further, it affords an illustration of commercial and industrial expansion 
 without parallel, we may say, to avoid controversy, in Scotland. And in 
 the train of that expansion came all the complications and difficulties of 
 a congested population ; but in Glasgow these came in an aggravated form. 
 In our sore need and straits our municipal activities were stimulated to high 
 and strenuous exertions, and there was so much to do that their record is 
 all the more striking. But while the task was great, let it be acknowledged 
 with profound gratitude that the City was in many respects favourably 
 situated for coping with its difficulties, and in nothing was it more blessed 
 than in the bounteous supply of water our fathers brought to us from the 
 romantic lochs of the Perthshire Highlands.
 
 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. 
 
 The County of the City of Glasgow, as established by Act of Parliament 
 in 1893, occupies a situation on the western extremity of the Lower Ward 
 of Lanarkshire, overflowing into the County of Renfrew. It bounds with 
 Dumbartonshire on the north-west side, and to the north the city extends 
 to near the confines of the County of Stirling. The municipal boundary 
 is much more irregular in form than the main area of continuous population. 
 The latter, fairly compact and closely built, measures about five miles 
 from north to south, and as much from east to west, but within that area 
 are included the police burghs of Partick, Govan, and Kinning Park. The 
 municipal area of Glasgow embraces 11,861 acres lying on both banks 
 of the Clyde, which has a course of five and a half miles on the borders 
 of and within the City. As the river approaches and touches the City 
 bounds it flows in an exceedingly tortuous channel, giving a correspondingly 
 sinuous outline to the portion of the boundary which is along the river 
 bed, but after entering the City at the Green it pursues a fairly straight 
 course west by north till it expands into the firth and sea-lochs beyond 
 Dumbarton. 
 
 The population within the municipal area, as defined by the City of 
 Glasgow Act, 1 89 1, according to the census of that year, was 656,185. 
 In three contiguous police burghs, which, in every way, except in municipal 
 authority, form part of Glasgow, the dwellers in 1891 numbered 111,581, 
 thus making the total population of the geographical area as at 1st April, 
 1 891, equal to yGyjGS. But outside these well-compacted and densely- 
 populated boundaries the real population of Glasgow straggles in every 
 
 A
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 direction into suburban villages, which have been originated, and even into 
 ancient burghs, which have been vitalized, by contiguity to the City. Taking 
 into account only the neighbouring villages and populous areas around the 
 City, the population which Glasgow may claim as its own numbered in 
 1 89 1 not less than 820,000 persons. Allowing for the normal growth of 
 population during the five years which have elapsed since the census was 
 taken, it is certain that geographical Glasgow has now a population of 
 about 900,000 souls. 
 
 The bounds of the ancient Royalty of Glasgow were so narrow that 
 no sooner did the population begin to increase in a marked manner than 
 its limits were overflowed, and therefore in modern times repeated changes 
 and extensions of the municipal boundaries were demanded. The formation 
 of minor burghs and the development of populous areas around the City 
 were the cause of numerous variations in the heads under which census 
 returns were from time to time made up, so that it becomes difficult to 
 obtain a strictly accurate view of the progressive growth of the population. 
 Thus, having regard to the municipality alone, we find the population in 
 1 89 1 was 656,185, while in 1881 it reached only 511,415, giving an 
 apparent increase, within ten years, of no fewer than 144,770. But the 
 City of Glasgow Act of 1891 added to the municipality the whole population 
 of the Police Burghs of Crossbill, Govanhill, Pollokshields, Pollokshields East, 
 Maryhill, and Hillhead, besides various other populous areas which had not 
 been formed into Burghs ; and therefore the real increase of population was 
 not nearly so great as the census returns show. For our present purpose, 
 however, a general view of the progress of the population alone is required, 
 and putting aside minute statistical statements, it may be taken that the 
 population of Glasgow, amounting in 1896 to 900,000, was in the middle of 
 the century 329,000, and that in 1801 the City, with its suburbs, contained 
 only 83,769 persons. Thus, within ninety years the increase has been more 
 than tenfold. For the initial stages of this expansion, unparalleled in the 
 experience of cities in the old world, we have to go back into the eighteenth 
 century. The various periods at which the population of the City was 
 ascertained, with more or less accuracy, previous to the era of the Decennial 
 Census, which dates from 1801, may be thus tabulated: 
 
 Reformation Period, 1560,. 
 Before Union of Crowns, 1610, 
 After Union of Kingdoms, 1708, 
 Before Rebellion, 1740, 
 Before American War, 1763, 
 After American War, 1780, 
 For Statistical Account, 1791, . 
 
 Here it will be observed that the real starting-po 
 
 growth of the population of Glasgow maj' be fixed at or about 1740: and 
 
 4,500 
 
 7,644 
 12,766 
 
 17,034 
 28,300 
 
 42,832 
 
 66,578 
 
 nt of the phenomenal
 
 CAUSES OF ITS GROWTH 3 
 
 the entire development of the City is practically comprehended within the 
 century and a half which has elapsed since Prince Charles Edward severely 
 taxed both the endurance and resources of its sturdy Presbyterian inhabitants. 
 
 From the small basis of 17,000 inhabitants in 1740 the City multiplied 
 itself tenfold in about sixty-five years, while the tenth part of the present 
 population was reached ninety years ago. 
 
 Whence this enormous expansion of population ? It is the outcome 
 of many causes, the chief of which we may notice in their historical 
 sequence as they in turn came to bear on the prosperity, wealth, and 
 development of the City. 
 
 With the beginnings of Glasgow we have little concern, and of them, we 
 possess but scanty definite knowledge. The Romans erected their great 
 Antonine wall within sight of the position now occupied by the Cathedral ; 
 but whether at that period a village nestled on the banks of the Molen- 
 dinar burn cannot be affirmed ; nor are there many grains of truth to be 
 winnowed from the heap of monkish fables which have accumulated around 
 the history of St. Kentigern and the See which, in the middle of the sixth 
 century, he is said to have founded in Glasgow. That such a missionary 
 ecclesiastic settled, laboured, and established a Christian community, at 
 Glasgow there is not any doubt. Though his Episcopal dignity is but 
 shadowy and the limits of his See must have been ill-defined, yet the rever- 
 ence in which his person is held in the Catholic Church, and the way in 
 which his name and deeds bulk in monkish chronicles, indicate the deep 
 impression his life and service made. It is not till the lapse of more than 
 five centuries from the days of St. Kentigern that Glasgow really emerges 
 into historical light and begins to occupy a distinct place in Scottish records, 
 and again it is in its ecclesiastical relations that the City appears. In, or 
 shortly after, the }'ear i i 1 6 the See of Glasgow was revived or established 
 anew under a deed termed " An Inquisition of David, Prince of Cumbria," 
 during the reign of that Prince's father, Alexander I. This inquisition or 
 memoir of Prince David — "the sair saunct" for the Scottish Crown — sets forth 
 the foundation of the Church in Glasgow, and the ordination of St. Kentigern 
 as Bishop of Cumbria. It maintains he had many successors in the See, 
 but the revolutions and the troubles in the country destroyed the Church 
 and almost effaced Christianity. The document next narrates the restoration 
 of the Bishopric and the appointment of John Achaius, the Prince's tutor, 
 as first Bishop of Glasgow. It then proceeds to give on the evidence 
 and oath of five Juratores a list of the territorial possessions of the See 
 which were both numerous and widespread. Thus were the foundations of 
 Glasgow laid in missionary enterprise. Its primitive activities centred around 
 the spiritual welfare of a widespread district and there was reason for the 
 motto which at a later date was chosen for the City, " Lord, let Glasgow 
 flourish by the preaching of Thy Word."
 
 4 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 The spiritual interests of the people being thus cared for, the See grew 
 in power and wealth and more than once it happened that the Bishop of 
 Glasgow was Chancellor of the Kingdom. In a turbulent and unsettled 
 country such a power would attract a peaceful and industrious population 
 around its immediate centre, where some measure of security could be assured, 
 and where also the wealth and ostentation of ecclesiastics would create 
 considerable demand for active service. 
 
 Next in order as fostering the growth of the City, and arising out of its 
 ecclesiastical establishment, was the foundation of the University of Glasgow. 
 That Institution the City owes to its Roman Catholic Bishops, the Bull of 
 Pope Nicholas V. having been obtained by James II. at the instigation of 
 Bishop Turnbull. The date of the Papal Decree founding the University is 
 7th January, 1450-51, and in the document the City is described as "a 
 place well suited and adapted to that pifrpose on account of the healthiness 
 of the climate, the plenty of victuals and of everything necessary for the 
 use of man." 
 
 But the preaching" of the Word and the dissemination of such intellectual 
 light as the Church encouraged notwithstanding, the growth of Glasgow and 
 its industrial and commercial development were, in the fifteenth century, but 
 meagre. The City was planted on the western limits of civilization, beyond 
 it rolled the mysterious ocean through whose virgin wave no keel had ever 
 ploughed. It was remote from the great lines of mediaeval intercourse from 
 which the commercial grandeur of Venice, Antwerp, and other wealthy cities 
 had been acquired. It was a poor little town, planted in a very poor and 
 thinly peopled country, within reach of a small river which, flowing towards a 
 Highland region peopled by wild and lawless races, fell into a trackless and 
 unexplored ocean. Thus, with indifferently fertile land, with a variable and 
 rigorous climate, with no natural wealth nor valuable products calculated at 
 that time to excite the cupidity of commercial communities, and with the 
 simple wants of the people supplied by their own rude industries — with these 
 and many similar conditions, industrial enterprise and commercial expansion 
 were not to be looked for. 
 
 In the last decade of the fifteenth century occurred the great event which, 
 more than any external circumstance, affected the fortunes of Glasgow. On 
 the 1 2th October, 1492, Christopher Columbus, sailing westward, in the 
 hope of thereby reaching the Indies and of tapping by a new route the rich 
 stream of Oriental commerce, came in sight, not of the land he looked for, 
 but of the outposts of a great continent. The discovery of America at 
 once changed the geographical position of Glasgow. Through the ages the 
 tide of civilization and trade had been steadily flowing westward and it had 
 reached its apparently furthest limit, but now it took a leap across the 
 great ocean, and Glasgow, instead of being on the outer rim of human 
 activities, found itself in the track of the great inter-continental traffic which
 
 CAUSES OF ITS GROWTH 
 
 5 
 
 was bound to grow with the growth of Transatlantic population. The sig- 
 nificance of the discovery was not at first obvious to the inhabitants of 
 Glasgow. It was but slowly that the tide of population crossed the great 
 Atlantic to possess the new continent. The current of commerce was at 
 first only meagre and it was in the hands of southern, and at that time, 
 more adventurous nationalities. But the Continent was too vast to form, for 
 any length of time, the dominion and the exclusive customer of any power, 
 and it soon became apparent that the balance of the world was affected by 
 the discovery of America. To it all people could flow, and from its virgin 
 resources all nations could draw. 
 
 Something had to be done to prepare Glasgow to seize and to enjoy 
 the advantages of its new position. The Firth of Clyde presented to the 
 North Atlantic the best and most convenient opening and shelter in the 
 north-west of Europe, but between the City and the waters which would 
 carry any sea-going vessel there were about fifteen miles of a comparatively 
 small stream, full of shoals and fords, incapable of bearing boats wath more 
 than a few tons of cargo. About the end of the sixteenth century some 
 efforts were made by the citizens to remove the principal obstruction from 
 the bed of the stream at Dumbuck Ford, but the operations undertaken 
 were very inadequate for the necessities of the case. The upper part of the 
 Clyde is rapid-flowing and subject to violent floods which carry down vast 
 quantities of silt which deposit in the sluggish tidal waters of the lower 
 reaches. These conditions necessitate constant dredging, a work hardly 
 possible of adequate accomplishment without the aid of steam and modern 
 appliances. The mercantile spirit of Glasgow demanded outlet in some way, 
 and in their difficulties the citizens, in 1658, approached the Town of Dum- 
 barton, seeking there a harbour. But the rulers of that then decaying and 
 spiritless burgh declined to entertain the proposal on the ground that " the 
 influx of mariners and others would raise the price of provisions." Ten 
 years later the citizens obtained from Charles II. a charter for the establish- 
 ment of a port and harbour on the south bank of the river, and under that 
 provision Port-Glasgow, which has long ceased to be the port of Glasgow, 
 grew up. Port-Glasgow was for the City a dismal failure. In the year 
 1692 a report on the finances, trade, and general condition of the City was 
 prepared, in connection with a general inquisition into the condition of 
 Royal Burghs, ordered by the Convention of Burghs in the previous year. 
 The report on Glasgow is couched in the gloomiest possible terms, but it 
 must be remembered it was the interest of the several burghs to picture their 
 condition in the most dismal hues, with the hope of thereby obtaining the 
 greatest possible measure of relief from public burdens. According to the 
 report, the annual value of the foreign trade of the City was not more than 
 ;^205,ooo Scots (;^i 7,083 Sterling). The shipping consisted of fifteen vessels 
 of, in all, I 182 tons burden. Seven of these were in the harbour and
 
 6 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 eight were for the present abroad " uncertain of their home-coming be- 
 cause of the war." " There are," says the report, " some houses and sallaries 
 at Port-Glasgow, but by reason of the great decay of trade there is nothing 
 got for them, yea, not so much as it cost the town in upholding them." 
 It was quickly discovered that to become a trading city a port at Glasgow 
 was a necessity; and in 1688 the Town Council spent ^1666^ on the 
 construction of a quay at the Broomielaw, after which the deepening of the 
 river went on slowly but steadily. Even into the nineteenth century it was 
 no uncommon experience for vessels of shallow draught to be stranded in 
 mud banks, requiring both crew and passengers to get out and give the 
 craft a shove off. To men yet living a citizen in narrating his experience 
 of travelling by water from Glasgow, mindful of the bumping and jolting 
 he experienced, affirmed that it was more a hurl than a sail he got on the 
 Clyde. Withal, the carrying capacity of the river grew with the growing 
 demand ; and as trade presented itself, the citizens were able to give it free 
 course to the confines of Glasgow. 
 
 By the beginning of the eighteenth century the trading instinct of the 
 people was active and eager, but it was not correspondingly intelligent and 
 far-seeing. In no town of Scotland was the projected Union of the King- 
 doms more unpopular and more violently opposed than in Glasgow, to no 
 town did it bring greater increase of trade and prosperity. Indeed, from 
 the Union may be said to date the real commercial development of the 
 City. Before that period Scotland was, it is true, an independent kingdom, 
 but poor, isolated, and incapable of expansion. Its traders were excluded 
 from English colonies and settlements in America, where an English popu- 
 lation was rapidly growing up and whence an important and increasing 
 trade was flowing. The terms of the Union were denounced from pulpits, 
 the document was burned openly at the Market Cross, and the proposals 
 gave occasion to a violent and long continued riot. And yet the Union 
 so bitterly opposed immediately opened up this promising and rapidly 
 expanding field to the mercantile enterprise of Scotland and soon colonial 
 produce, sugar and tobacco, figured prominently on the trade lists of Glas- 
 gow. To these staples was quickly added cotton, and on such colonial 
 produce was founded the mercantile prosperity of the City. Foreign enter- 
 prise being thus begun the international trade of Glasgow branched out to 
 all quarters of the globe. Many other products and manufactures were 
 added to the list of the City's enterprises, and the grip on trade obtained as 
 an immediate result of the Union has never for a moment been relaxed. 
 
 To the surface of the soil and to agricultural products of the district 
 Glasgow owes but little, but the fact that the Clyde flows through, and 
 that the City is built over, the richest coal and ironstone region in Scotland, 
 explains, above all, the present-day population, industry, and wealth of the 
 
 ^ Scots money : that currency alone was recognized in Scotland before the Union.
 
 CAUSES OF ITS GROWTH y 
 
 community. \\'hatever may have been the essential conditions of com- 
 mercial prosperity in earlier times, coal is king in the nineteenth century. 
 At what time mineral fuel first was used in the West of Scotland we 
 need not inquire. In the Town Council records we find that in 1578 
 Fergus Kennedy, a servitor of the Archbishop and son of David Kennedy 
 of Knokdaw, obtained a lease for three years of the " coilheuchtis and 
 colis withtin the baronie " of Glasgow, for the modest annual payment of 
 £40 Scots " with thretene scoir and ten laidis of colis," which lease he 
 incontinently made over and assigned to Matho Boyd for a substantial profit. 
 From that day to this coal has not ceased to be worked in Lanarkshire, 
 although the extent and value of the mineral wealth of the region came 
 to be but slowly recognized and to form a factor in commercial develop- 
 ment. The Royal Commission on Coal Supply of 1871 estimated the 
 total available amount in the Clyde Valley at more than two thousand 
 millions of tons, of which nine hundred millions of tons were within 1060 
 feet of the surface. From that total stock the annual draught now amounts 
 to about fifteen million tons. 
 
 The beginnings of the great iron industry in Glasgow can be stated with 
 precision. Iron manufacture is of comparatively recent origin in Scotland, 
 the first record of the industry dating only from 1750, when two furnaces 
 for making charcoal iron from hematite ores were erected in Argyleshire. In 
 1760 the celebrated Carron Works were founded, but it was not till 1782 
 that the Clyde Works in the immediate vicinity of the City were established. 
 The whole annual output of Scotch iron at that time did not exceed 1500 
 tons, but thenceforward furnaces increased apace and the quantity made in 
 1796 exceeded 18,000 tons. Previous to the earlier years of the nineteenth 
 century the clay-band ironstone of the coal measures was the only Scottish 
 iron in use, but the discovery, in 1801, by Robert Mushet, of the black- 
 band ore, added an enormous store to the mineral resources of the West of 
 Scotland and exercised a powerful influence on the development of the 
 industry. After the discovery and application, in 1828, of the hot blast, by 
 James Beaumont Neilson, a phenomenal expansion of the Scottish iron 
 industry took place. Then it became indisputably not only the principal 
 industry of the Glasgow district, but the centre around which all later 
 industrial enterprises more or less clustered and out of which they grew. 
 
 From the deepening of the river and from the exploitation of the 
 mineral resources of the Lanarkshire coal-field have directly sprung the 
 commerce and the great industries which at this moment are the mainstay 
 of Glasgow. The huge chemical industries, the vast and varied engineering 
 undertakings, and the Clyde shipbuilding — that marvellous monument of a 
 long list of intrepid, sagacious, and skilful men — are derived most obviously 
 from the causes above enumerated. The experience and details of these 
 industries belong to the commercial history of the city, with which we have
 
 8 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 here nothing to do, dealing as we are with the physical and political causes 
 which together have operated towards the building up of one of the most 
 important commercial cities in the world. 
 
 Nor can we take any account of the personal element which contributed 
 in no mean degree to the growth and well-founded prosperity of the City. 
 What we owe to the untiring industry of our ancestors, to their Scottish 
 thrift, to the patience with which they battled with and conquered adverse 
 circumstances, to their prudence, honour, and uprightness, and to the higher 
 motives of religious conviction, — how much of the City's prosperity is due to 
 these qualities it is impossible to measure. The benefits which flowed from 
 the genius of individual citizens have in many instances been more contri- 
 butions to the progress of humanity than to the prosperity of the community 
 amongst whom they dwelt. The work of James Watt, — how mean it would 
 be to say it benefited Glasgow ! It revolutionized the world. Only in a 
 lesser degree did the discoveries of Joseph Black widen the limits of chemical 
 science and influence the development of both scientific and technical 
 chemistry. To name pioneers of progress of our own time is a delicate 
 task, but surely there can be no question of the propriety of alluding to the 
 President of the Royal Society, Lord Kelvin, not only in relation to his 
 scientific eminence, but in connection with the services he has rendered to 
 mankind in ocean telegraphy and in navigation. Of the hosts of men of 
 more limited reputation who have materially contributed to the progress of 
 industry and specially to the industrial development of Glasgow we may but 
 record the names of David Dale, herd-boy, hawker, manufacturer, turkey-red 
 dyer, banker, and evangelist; in chemical industries of Charles M'Intosh, 
 Charles Tennant, and Walter Crum; in the iron trade of Mushet, Neilson, 
 John Wilson, and the Baird family; in shipbuilding and engineering of 
 Robert Napier and John Elder ; in navigation of Henry Bell, David 
 Napier, and Sir George Burns, Bart. It is something to feel assured that 
 of these illustrious sires worthy sons are still amongst us, maintaining the 
 best traditions of Glasgow industry and commerce, and in the march of 
 enterprise and progress continuing to keep the lead handed down to them 
 by a long line of prudent and capable ancestors.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 SCOTTISH BURGHAL CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Evolution of buighal 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, 1S33: Abolition of exclusive 
 trading privileges. 
 
 The present system of municipal government in Scotland has grown up 
 out of customs sanctioned by immemorial usage, and out of chartered 
 grants and privileges which may be said to be coaeval with settled govern- 
 ment and social organization in the country. Modern legislation, it is true, 
 has worked tremendous havoc with the ancient and primitive burghal con- 
 stitution, but while it has excised and pruned down many features which 
 might have a romantic interest for the antiquary, while it has moulded and 
 modified others almost beyond recognition, and while specially it has added 
 immensely to the functions and activities of municipalities, withal, there 
 remains a core of the ancient powers, privileges, and duties embraced in 
 the constitution of a Scottish burgh of the earliest date. We have had no 
 revolution in municipal government, and, although we have had ample and 
 needed reformation, enough remains to give a substantial ground for a 
 proud claim to unbroken tradition and historic continuity over a period of 
 more than eight centuries. 
 
 The beginnings of burghal constitution and rule in Scotland cannot, from 
 the absence of records, be fixed by precise dates. The formation of a 
 burgh implies a certain aggregation of inhabitants within narrow limits ; 
 and with the growing of such a population grew and increased the 
 necessity for recognized authority, social organization, mutual forbearance and 
 protection. It is not, therefore, surprising to find that a code of rules and 
 customs for the government of burghs should have been formulated soon after
 
 lO MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 populous places were established and a certain amount of civilized rule 
 and authority was evolved. That minute and detailed code, eulogized by- 
 Professor Cosmo Innes as the most ancient and well-authenticated in the 
 world, is known as the " Leges et Coiisiietudines Biirgoruvi Seotiae" " The 
 Laws and Customs of the Scottish Burghs." That this code must have 
 been drawn up, recognized and acted upon so early as the end of the 
 eleventh century is obvious from the fact that it received legislative sanction 
 during the reign of David I., 1124-53. 
 
 To the reign of that enlightened monarch, David I., may be traced the 
 definite institution and recognition by royal authority of burghs in Scotland. 
 Not only did these burgh laws receive his sanction, but in several of the 
 charters under which grants in favour of his well-beloved brother-church- 
 men were made, there is mention of his burghs of Edinburgh, Dunfermline, 
 Haddington, Perth, Stirling and others. No actual charter of any Scottish 
 burgh, it is true, is extant or comes into direct evidence earlier than in the 
 reign of William the Lion, but it is remarkable that his grants are in the 
 form of confirmation and recognition rather than in terms of original erec- 
 tion. Thus, in the case of the ancient Burgh of Rutherglen, the charter 
 grants to the burgesses all the customs and privileges they had conceded 
 to them in the reign of David I., and it specifies the boundaries over which 
 these burghal privileges extended, which, it may be said, in its wide sweep 
 included the area of Glasgow, at that time doubtless an insignificant village. 
 The recapitulation of rights enjoyed by Rutherglen under King David and 
 specially the indication of boundaries warrant the assumption that Rutherglen 
 had documentary recognition as a burgh under that monarch. 
 
 The legislative sanction given to the " Laws and Customs of the Scottish 
 Burghs " rendered it unnecessary to enumerate the rights and duties of a 
 community in the institution of a burgh. The four burghs, Berwick, Rox- 
 burgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling, by which these laws were first formulated, 
 at this early period formed a superior court of appeal in relation to 
 general burghal privileges and responsibilities. They constituted a court, 
 moreover, for the trial of appeals from the deliverances of the King's 
 Chamberlain in his annual inquisition in the burghs and for the protection 
 and regulation of trade. When and how these communities acquired such 
 ascendency and judicial authority is not known. To keep up the number 
 of four in this burghal court appears to have been regarded as essential, 
 for when the Burghs of Roxburgh and Berwick fell into the hands of " our 
 enemies the English," an Act of Parliament of David II. appointed Lanark 
 and Linlithgow to be substituted for them, but without prejudice to the 
 rights of the two southern burghs when they should be freed from the 
 hated foreign yoke. 
 
 In 1405 the court of the four burghs ordained the attendance of two 
 or three sufficient burgesses from every Royal Burgh south of the Spey at
 
 SC0T77SH BURG HAL CONSTITUTION II 
 
 the annual meetings of the court to take cognizance of all matters con- 
 nected with the welfare of the whole burghs. In this ordinance we find 
 the germ of the Convention of Royal Burghs, a municipal parliament 
 which continues with us to the present day. In 1454 the seat of the 
 annual court of the four burghs was fixed by charter of James II. in 
 Edinburgh, and under that document its duties were defined to determine 
 appeals from the burgh courts of the kingdom and to regulate the stand- 
 ards of weights and measures. The court was in the middle of the 
 sixteenth century formally merged into what is now known as the Conven- 
 tion of Royal Burghs. At that time the Convention was a powerful and 
 influential body. As a court of appeal it decided between conflicting 
 burghs and between magistrates and burgesses. It apportioned the share of 
 the various burghs towards national taxation, it had the power of altering 
 the set or constitution of burghs, and of empowering them to deal with their 
 common lands and other properties ; it had the framing of regulations for 
 domestic and foreign trade, and it had the right of negotiating commercial 
 treaties with foreign cities and states. Deprived now of almost the last 
 relic of these powers, the Convention is yet a venerable institution with a long 
 and picturesque record. Dynasties have risen and fallen, but the Convention 
 of Royal Burghs remains, one of the most ancient corporations in the 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 Of burghs in Scotland there have existed from very early times three 
 distinct classes — Royal Burghs, Burghs of Regality, and Burghs of Barony. 
 A fourth kind, or rather a modification of the class of Burghs of Barony, 
 may also be distinguished as Bishops' Burghs. In the latter the learning and 
 astuteness of the superiors, as well as the wealth and importance of the 
 cities over which they ruled, warranted and secured more extensive powers 
 and privileges than were generally conceded in the case of ordinary Burghs 
 of Barony. It was, however, by no means the case that the various burghs 
 in any of these grades possessed equal powers and privileges. The charters 
 in some cases were far more liberal and conceded greater powers than were 
 granted under other charters instituting burghs of the same class. 
 
 The Royal Burgh was the most complete and perfect form of burghal 
 constitution in Scotland. In it the one indispensable condition of burgess- 
 ship was the owning of a toft or rood of land within the burgh which was 
 held by the vassal in feu, originally, for a fixed yearly payment direct to 
 the Crown. This rent or feu was collected by the ballh'us regis or King's 
 Bailie, a royal functionary who at first combined the duties of both a magis- 
 trate and a tax gatherer. In addition to the lands held in feu by the 
 individual burgesses there were generally conveyed to the community con- 
 siderable tracts of land to be held in common, the inalienable property of 
 the burgh, in return for which the authorities became responsible for the 
 maintenance of the King's peace, for law and order within their limits, and
 
 12 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 for military service to the Crown. A Royal Burgh was thus originally a 
 property of the Crown, farmed in feu to the individual burgesses. A second 
 source of revenue to the Crown consisted of the fines, impositions, and 
 dues connected with the administration of justice in the burgh courts. The 
 trouble and expense of collecting the feu duties and the uncertain nature 
 of the revenues from courts at a very early period occasioned a change in 
 the collection of royal revenues, and about the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century it became the practice to lease these to the respective burghs for 
 a fixed annual payment. Ultimately, a permanent arrangement was arrived 
 at under which these sources of revenue were granted to the communities 
 in feu farm for payment into the Exchequer of a fixed annual reddendum. 
 
 A third source of revenue, originally a perquisite of the Crown, was 
 also at an early date assigned to the individual Royal Burghs. That con- 
 sisted of the tolls or petty customs exacted on all articles of commerce 
 which entered or left the burgh. These exactions, most unfair in their 
 incidence and costly and troublesome to collect, were scruj^ulously exacted, 
 although probably with little profit and certainly no real advantage to the 
 Crown. When assigned to the burghs they were generally farmed out and 
 became a permanent and important source of municipal revenue. The 
 right of exacting petty customs is still exercised in several Scottish Burghs 
 though it is altogether at variance with modern ideas of trading, and at 
 best is now, to such as exercise their rights, only a source of great irritation 
 and little revenue. 
 
 Connected with this system of petty exaction was another trade privilege 
 granted to Royal Burghs, of much wider scope and, according to the 
 spirit and light of the times, of much greater importance. This was the 
 grant of exclusive privilege of trade, both domestic and foreign, invariably 
 conveyed to the burgesses. In the case of the early founded burghs especially, 
 these exclusive privileges sometimes extended over large districts beyond 
 the limits of the burgh itself and often included the areas of burghs 
 subsequently established. The city of Perth, thus, had exclusive privileges 
 in certain trades over the entire county, and the bounds of the exclusive 
 activity of other burghs were not much more limited. These exclusive 
 powers gave rise to an enormous amount of jealousy, ill-feeling, and liti- 
 gation as the balance of population and industrial activity changed from 
 centre to centre. No case is more striking than that of Glasgow, which in 
 its trading activity was assailed from three sides, by Rutherglen, Renfrew, 
 and Dumbarton. The original royal grant to Rutherglen included Glasgow 
 within its area of exclusive trade, and no sooner was the City erected 
 into an ecclesiastical burgh with certain trading privileges than it came 
 into conflict with its ancient and burghally superior neighbour. The assertion 
 of the charter rights of Rutherglen and of the other contiguous Royal 
 Burghs and the resistance of these by Glasgow continued, as we shall see,
 
 SCOTTISH BURGHAL CONSTITUTION 
 
 13 
 
 to be a source of violent contention and litigation for centuries, and these 
 struggles did not end till Glasgow became the stronger of the contending 
 communities. 
 
 Although the unfettered right of burgesses to elect their own magistrates 
 and rulers has from early times been esteemed one of the principal and 
 most highly prized of the privileges of a Royal Burgh, it does not appear 
 that it was an original and fundamental condition in the erection. The 
 ballivus regis who first acted both as magistrate and collector of Crown 
 dues was clearl}- a petty State functionary whose duties and office must have 
 continued as long, at least, as the individual feus, fines, and other dues 
 were collected on behalf of the Crown. But when these were farmed to 
 the communities the necessity for such Crown officials ceased, and there 
 is evidence that, about the beginning of the fourteenth century, the right 
 of the Royal Burghs to elect their own magistrates w^as recognized. In 
 the Leges Biirgoruui there is a regulation that at the first mute court 
 after the Feast of St. Michael the alderman and the bailies, prepositi, shall 
 be chosen by the good men of the town who are leal and of good fame, 
 meaning thereby that all burgesses in the full enjoyment of their privi- 
 leges were entitled to a voice and vote in the election. 
 
 The origin of the larger body, the Council, is similarly involved in 
 obscurity, but in the Staluta Gilda originally framed for the town of 
 Berwick-on-Tweed and afterwards accepted as the recognized standard for 
 other Scottish Burghs, it was ordained by common consent, that the com- 
 munity of Berwick shall be governed by twenty-four good men of the 
 better, more discreet and more trustworthy of that burgh thereto chosen, 
 together with the mayor and four bailies. 
 
 The Royal Burghs, as corporate bodies, when they commuted the town 
 rents for a fixed annual reddendum, came to occupy the same position as the 
 other great feudal vassals of the Crown, and in that capacity they were 
 entitled to representation in the parliament of the country. Accordingly, 
 in 1326, in the parliament assembled at Cambuskenneth by Robert the Bruce, 
 representatives of the burgesses and free tenants of the realm were for the 
 first time admitted to sit and vote. Representation went with taxation in 
 that parliament, and probably the former was due to the latter, for the 
 most important legislative enactment passed was the granting to the King 
 of the tenth of a penny on all rights according to the " old extent " of 
 King Alexander III., towards the expense of the wars of the monarch. 
 
 The grant of a burgh with its privileges and duties was to the com- 
 munity. The whole of the burgesses, without distinction or exception, stood 
 theoretically on equal terms in the eyes of the law, but the times did not 
 favour such patriarchal arrangements, and pure democracy was little under- 
 stood and less encouraged in the Middle Ages. As in the great continental 
 cities the government was taken by those who had the power, so in the
 
 14 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 humbler Scottish burghs a ruh'ng class, if not a ruling family, quickly made 
 its appearance. Class distinctions appear among the burgesses as early as 
 the reign of William the Lion. Merchant gilds existed in the burghs at 
 that time and their privileges and position were recognized by statute. 
 These confraternities of merchants were established for the purpose of main- 
 taining and regulating the monopoly of trade granted to the burgh, and 
 their regulations chiefly related to buying and selling within the limits 
 assigned to the individual burgh which, as we have seen, were sometimes 
 very wide. While all gild-brethren were bound to be burgesses, the converse 
 did not hold — that all burgesses should be gildsmen ; on the contrary, the 
 gild was from the very first recognized as an aristocratic and exclusive 
 body from the membership of which certain classes of burgesses were 
 expressly excluded. The Leges Burgoriun enact that no dyer, butcher, nor 
 shoemaker shall be admitted to the gild till he swears to exercise his 
 craft by his servants onl}', and in certain specified gilds, fullers and 
 weavers were not qualified for membership. The distinction between 
 merchants and craftsmen, thus early introduced, rapidly accentuated itself. 
 The socially inferior classes of burgesses were excluded from office and 
 authority, and the merchant gilds seized and monopolized the privileges 
 primarily conceded to the community. The power and exclusiveness of 
 the gildry oligarchies were increased by numerous Acts of Parliament 
 designed to confine foreign trading privileges to merchants possessed of 
 property of specified amounts, and to wholly exclude all craftsmen from 
 "using merchandise," and so the merchant class secured at first predominant, 
 and ultimately sole and absolute, authority in the government of the burghs. 
 Naturally the craftsmen resented these invasions of their primal rights, 
 and as they grew in numbers they insisted on recognition and began to 
 demand their share in the public administration. The struggle began in 
 the fifteenth century and waxed fiercer and fiercer till it culminated in the 
 seventeenth century. Already, in the fifteenth century, the crafts insisted 
 on their right to meet and each to choose their own chief officer or deacon, 
 and in 1424 by Act of Parliament that right was conceded to them. The 
 power and jealousy of the gilds is manifested by the repeated repeal 
 and re-enactment of that statute. But in 1469 the crafts scored a further 
 victory in securing the right to have a representative of each corporation 
 to participate in the election of burghal officers. The extent and value of 
 this concession may be gauged from the other section of the enactment, 
 which is to the effect that all officers be elected yearly and that the 
 "chesing of the new officaris be in this wise — that is to say, that the aulde 
 counsail of the toune sail cheise the new counsail in sic nowmyr as ac- 
 cordis to the toune ; and the new counsail, and the aulde of the yeir befor, 
 sail cheise all officaris pertenying to the toune as aldermen, bailyis, dene of 
 gild and utheris officaris ; and that ilka craft sail cheise a person that sail
 
 SCOTTISH BURGH AL CONSTITUTION 
 
 15 
 
 have voce in the said electioune of the officaris for that time and likewise 
 yeir by yeir." Next the craftsmen succeeded in wresting to themselves a 
 certain share in the nomination of members of council, but the majority of 
 councillors and of superior officers, the provosts and bailies, continued to be 
 of the merchant rank. The disabilities of the burgesses of the craft rank 
 were gradually removed. They finally conquered to themselves a fair share 
 of burghal office and honour, but it was not till the present century that 
 all restrictions on trading by others than the merchant rank were removed. 
 
 Throughout the entire course of the independent history of Scotland 
 the power of the Crown was comparatively weak and restricted. The 
 Royal Burghs never attained a position of great influence in the State, 
 while, on the other hand, the barons and ecclesiastics extorted from their 
 nominal head, power, privilege, and authority with unbridled rapacity. The 
 villages and towns which grew up around the strongholds of barons or 
 under the shadows of the cathedrals were, from an early date, fostered both 
 as a source of power and of revenue to their overlords, and follow^ing the 
 example of the crown, these populations were formed into burghal com- 
 munities. For this purpose Crown charters were obtained either by 
 favour, persuasion, or threat, granting not to the community, but to the 
 overlord, burghal rights, and in this way the inferior class of Burghs of 
 Barony arose. In the majority of cases it was left to the superior to 
 organize and deal with his burgh according to his own will. He had the 
 power to impose duties, to collect revenues, and to appoint magistrates 
 entirely in his own hands, although in some instances the charters pro- 
 vide for the nomination of magistrates by the vassals. Of the same 
 general character were the charters granted to bishops for erecting their 
 cities into burghs, but the greater general importance of the cathedral cities 
 over barons' villages put the Bishops' Burghs on a higher plane, though the 
 citizens may have had quite as little independence and control over their 
 own affairs. 
 
 In the progress of time many of these subordinate burghs succeeded 
 in securing to themselves the privileges of domestic and foreign trading 
 which were an exclusive right of the Royal Burghs as at first constituted. 
 Burghs with the chartered right of trading became known as Free Burghs. 
 Still further pushing their aggressions, a much more dangerous and serious 
 power was wrested from the Crown in the establishment of regalities or 
 Burghs of Regality, in virtue of which, exclusive power of criminal juris- 
 diction within their own borders was conceded to the superiors. This was 
 a power originally demanded by, and for obvious, but dangerous reasons, 
 first conceded to the clergy ; but the grasping barons quickly followed 
 in their wake, and in the end no inconsiderable portion of the kingdom 
 was covered by regalities, so that the Crown was deprived of a large 
 portion of its highest and most sacred prerogative. Rights of regality con-
 
 l6 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 tinued till 1748, when by Act of Parliament all heritable jurisdictions in 
 Scotland were abolished. 
 
 The burghal system of Scotland here briefly outlined, with its close 
 corporations and self-constituted powers, continued with practically no other 
 modification than that above mentioned, till the passing of the Burgh 
 Reform Act of 1833, when the first instalment of the democratic con- 
 stitution of the present day was enacted and put in force. Under that 
 Act the persons entitled to vote for Members of Parliament under the 
 Reform Act of 1832 were also the qualified electors of Town Councils 
 within Royal Burghs. The Reform Act of 1832 re-constituted the parlia- 
 mentary representations of Scotland which had previously been settled in 
 1707 by the Act of Union. In the interim the balance of population had 
 shifted considerably. Many Royal Burghs had decreased in importance ; 
 some had disappeared altogether leaving no trace of their existence, except 
 in record, while other communities had expanded or sprung into existence. 
 At the period of the Union there were in Scotland seventy Royal Burghs 
 entitled to be represented in Parliament, but four of these in Fife, Newburgh, 
 Earlsferry, Auchtermuchty and Falkland, had ceased to send representatives 
 to the Scottish Parliament. They were therefore excluded from the list of 
 Royal Burghs entitled to representation in the Imperial Parliament and 
 others were grouped for the return among them of one member. In 1832 
 two additional Royal Burghs were disfranchised, their representation being 
 combined with that of the counties in which they are situated ; and a new 
 class of parliamentary burghs was then instituted embracing urban com- 
 munities which became entitled to parliamentary representation under the 
 conditions of franchise applicable to Royal Burghs. Under the Reform Act 
 of 1868 a still further change was effected. Nine Royal Burghs had their 
 representation combined with the counties in which they were situated and 
 two new parliamentary burghs were instituted. 
 
 The exclusive privilege of trading sanctioned by immemorial usage and 
 by numerous charters and Acts of Parliament which many Scottish Royal 
 and other burghs possessed, and that, not only within their own limits, but, 
 nominally, at least, in some cases over wide areas, did not cease in law till 
 14th May, 1846. It had long been an anomaly, and what may at one 
 time have been a necessity of trade had become a hindrance and a nuisance; 
 and the enforcement of the rights of the corporations had slackened or 
 altogether ceased. The corporations themselves had lost their control over 
 the burghs, their power had in every direction waned, and little desire existed 
 to perpetuate a system altogether at variance with modern ideas of commerce 
 and trade. Without agitation or strenuous resistance trading privileges were 
 swept away. Thenceforward the corporations became semi-private associ- 
 ations, holding and administering their properties and revenues for charitable 
 and educational purposes, and now they are comparatively wealthy and
 
 SCOTTISH BURGH A L CONSTITUTION 
 
 17 
 
 altogether beneficent institutions, well administered and performing with zeal 
 and discretion their charitable functions. Some amount of municipal recog- 
 nition they yet have in a few towns where Dean of Guild and Convener of 
 Trades are, ex officiis, members of Council, but in the main they are only 
 interesting relics of a state of society long passed away.
 
 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 i6th century: Modified in 
 1606: Procedure and constitution from 1636 to 1833: Burgh Reform Act: Enlarge- 
 ments of Council : Extensions of Royalty : Parliamentary representation. 
 
 It has been the fortune of Glasgow in its progress to pass through every 
 variety of burghal life and experience which is open to a Scottish community. 
 Early in the twelfth century, while doubtless a mere hamlet, it became entitled 
 to be called a City by being made the seat of a Bishopric, although it thereby 
 gained no rights beyond the barren title. Under ecclesiastical domination 
 it was constituted a Bishop's Burgh; trading privileges made it a Free 
 Burgh; later, it became a Regality, and, notwithstanding that it developed into 
 the most energetic Protestant and Presbyterian town of Scotland, the heavy 
 hand of the bishops and their successors was not entirely lifted off the 
 municipality till, in 1690, an Act of William and Mary gave the City and its 
 Council full and final power to elect their own magistrates. And lastly, in 
 1893, Glasgow was erected into a separate County, with the Lord Provost as 
 Her Majesty's representative and Lord-Lieutenant. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the site upon which Glasgow grew up was 
 originally included within the bounds over which an exclusive right of trading 
 belonged in David First's time to the Burgh of Rutherglen. Hence it comes 
 that the early experience of the City was that of a vassal and subject 
 community. More than fifty years elapsed after the founding of the See 
 before Glasgow obtained any burghal constitution whatever. In or about 
 1 176, the powerful ecclesiastic, Bishop Joceline, obtained for himself and his 
 successors, for ever, from William the Lion the grant of a burgh with a weekly
 
 THE BURGH AL HISTORY OF GLASGOW ig 
 
 market on Thursdays. A further charter, supplementary to this, was in 
 1 190 issued to Joceline, granting to him and his successors a Fair at Glasgow, 
 to be held every year full eight days from the octave of the Apostles Peter 
 and Paul, with all the liberties, provisions, and rights granted to Fairs 
 throughout the king's dominions. 
 
 The grant of weekly markets and a Fair to the bishops gave the citizens 
 of Glasgow a certain limited right of trading, which, however, was strictly 
 confined to the bounds of the burgh. This limited concession did not even 
 override the rights of the Burgh of Rutherglen to demand and collect tolls 
 and petty customs within the boundary of the City itself. To free Glasgow 
 from such oppressive exaction, a royal charter was granted by Alexander II. 
 to Bishop Walter, prohibiting the bailies of Rutherglen and their Serjeants 
 from demanding toll and custom within the town ; and instructing the 
 Rutherglen authorities to collect such ad cnicevi de Schedmsiun (the Cross 
 of Shettleston) as had been the habit in old times. Next, the liberties of 
 Glasgow were assailed from the side of Dumbarton, which had been erected 
 into a Royal Burgh in 1222, whereby the access of Glasgow to Argyle 
 and the Lennox country was cut off, and again a royal charter was obtained 
 in 1243, under which the burgesses and men of the City of Glasgow were 
 confirmed in their rights of traffic throughout the whole kingdom, without 
 the interference of the bailies of Dumbarton or of any other of the king's 
 bailies. Notwithstanding these and other efforts to secure the unfettered 
 rights of trade to the bishop and his vassals, Glasgow continued to be 
 harassed by the privileges and pretensions of the neighbouring burghs 
 which held superior burghal position. The cry of the oppressed again 
 came up to the Royal ear in 1449, when James II. addressed under 
 the Privy Seal a letter to the Burghs of Rutherglen and Renfrew, strictly 
 prohibiting them from in any way interfering with merchants and merchan- 
 dise going to and coming from Glasgow, and from exacting any toll or 
 custom within the Barony of Glasgow, and the lands pertaining to St. 
 Mungo's freedom, notwithstanding any letters granted by the king's pre- 
 decessors to the burghs addressed. The clashing interests of these burghs, 
 however, continued to be a source of frequent contention and ill-blood, and 
 again and again strife arose with Dumbarton over its claims to exact customs 
 from merchandise in the river, and it was not till 1600 that a final decision 
 was given against Dumbarton, limiting its rights to the mouth of the Leven 
 and excluding it from any control over the Clyde. 
 
 In the year 1450 a Charter of Regality was issued by James II. over 
 the City, the Barony, and the Bishop's Forest, in favour of the Bishop, 
 William Turnbull, and his successors. The extensive powers in this charter, 
 powers of dubious advantage to the people, were confirmed by James III., 
 in 1476, in a charter conveying the fullest rights and privileges enjoyed by 
 any City, or Burgh of Bishop within the kingdom, with power to appoint and
 
 20 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 dismiss provosts, bailies, Serjeants and other officers, as may seem to the 
 bishops expedient for the government of their City. 
 
 The conditions of the charters making Glasgow a free trading burgh 
 were such as to carry in their train a right to its representation in the estates 
 of Parliament, when that privilege was extended to the third estate ; but the 
 right does not appear to have been exercised till the year 1546. That the 
 City was at that time still small and comparatively poor is sufficiently shown 
 by the proportion, which in 1587, Glasgow was expected to pay in every 
 i^ioo of taxation laid on the Royal and Free Burghs of Scotland. While 
 the proportion to be paid by Edinburgh was rated at ^^38 2s. 8d., 
 the rate claimed against Glasgow amounted only to £2 13s. 8d. 
 
 The Reformation, which swept away the Roman Catholic hierarchy in 
 Scotland, introduced great confusion in the government of Glasgow. In 
 1559 Archbishop James Beaton withdrew from the See, and from that 
 time on till the final revolution settlement, the superiority of Glasgow 
 was in an anomalous and highly unsatisfactory condition. For considerable 
 periods there was not even a titular or tulchan Archbishop, and taking 
 advantage of the confusion and disorganization of the old authority, the 
 Council attempted to appoint their own magistrates according to the 
 practice of the Royal Burghs. But previous to his abdication Archbishop 
 Beaton had assigned his temporalities, with their powers and privileges, 
 to the Earl of Arran, and the efforts of the magistrates to shake off their 
 superiors did not succeed. 
 
 By a charter of James VI., granted in 1600, the Duke of Lennox 
 was infeft in the bailiary and justiciary of the barony and regality of 
 Glasgow with all the heritable rights and privileges w^hich had previously 
 belonged to the Archbishop. The alienation of the temporalities of the 
 Church appears to have again stirred the citizens in the direction of 
 attaining freedom of election of their magistrates, and in the Council 
 Minutes of 4th July, 1605, it is stated that there were " deliuerit be the 
 baillies and counsale to Mathew Trumble, deane of gild, his Majestie's 
 lettre direct to this burgh for erecting of the samin in ane free burgh 
 regall." 
 
 Acting on the supposed powers in that document, the Council, on 2nd 
 October, elected Sir George Elphinstoune of Blythswood provost for the 
 coming year. Sir George, however, was the provost elected in 1600, and 
 presumably in the intermediate years, on the nomination of the Duke of 
 Lennox, who in the meantime had gone abroad as ambassador to France, 
 leaving instructions in the hands of the Council as to the continuance of 
 the magistrates. The annual election of bailies was made at the 
 same time, a leet of nine names being prepared, but instead of submitting 
 them to the superior according to use and wont, and asking him to 
 appoint therefrom three, the Council itself voted on and elected from the
 
 THE BURGH AL HISTORY OF GLASGOW 21 
 
 leet. Great public excitement, dispute, and even rioting arose out of this 
 election, and for its high-handed action, as well as for the riotous behaviour 
 of the citizens, the Council was promptly punished in the succeeding 
 year, when at the time of the election, a letter was received from the King 
 intimating that no provost would be appointed in the meantime, and that 
 it was his will that three bailies named by him should be chosen and 
 elected for the year, unto whose election also the Archbishop of Glasgow 
 had given his consent. 
 
 In i6i I a royal charter was granted on the application of the Archbishop, 
 not this time to the Archbishop and his successors only, but to the Magis- 
 trates, Council, and Community, erecting the city into a free Royal Burgh 
 unmn liberiini biirgmn regalem^ but reserving the rights of the Duke of 
 Lennox and his heirs in the office of bailiary and justiciary of the barony 
 and regality and without prejudice to the Archbishop's right of nomination 
 and appointment of magistrates. The charter was confirmed by Parliament in 
 1612, and in 1633 there was renewed an enactment in similar terms. In 
 1636 the great charter of Charles I. in favour of Glasgow was issued, in which 
 document the unhappy monarch declares that, to his knowledge and satisfac- 
 tion, the City had been erected by his noble and worthy predecessors into " ane 
 entire Royal Burgh." He therefore confirmed and ratified all former gifts to 
 the Magistrates, Council, and Community of the Burgh, giving this time to 
 them alone and to their successors — no archbishop, duke, or other superior 
 mentioned — the Burgh and City of Glasgow with all the privileges of trade 
 and traffic of merchandise, under the burden of 20 Marks Burgh mail, 
 payable to the Exchequer, and 16 Marks payable to the Archbishop and 
 his successors. But there were still reserved to the Duke of Lennox his 
 special liberties and privileges during the Fair of Glasgow, and his heritable 
 jurisdiction and bailiary over the City. 
 
 As a result of the great General Assembly of 1638, held in Glasgow, 
 at which Episcopacy was abolished, the Archbishop fled the country, and 
 when the period for electing magistrates came round, the Town Council 
 found themselves in the situation they had to face, when in 15 59 Arch- 
 bishop Beaton deserted his Episcopal office. The Council Minutes of ist 
 October, 1639, state that his Majesty and his most noble progenitors had 
 long before erected and incorporated the burgh into a free Royal Burgh, 
 and in virtue thereof they themselves proceeded to elect their own provost 
 and three bailies. But even yet the wish was father to the thought, 
 Glasgow was chartered as a Royal Burgh ; but that one function — free 
 election of magistrates — had been specifically withheld. A further instal- 
 ment of municipal enfranchisement was effected under an Act passed in 
 1 64 1, by which the King, "considering that Glasgow is now one of the best 
 peopled and pryme burghcs within the Kingdom," with the advice of the 
 estates and the special consent of James, Duke of Lennox and Richmond,
 
 22 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 " who hes the lyke heritable right of the said Archbeshoprike of Glasgow 
 and priviledges therof granted to him as the said vmquhill Lodowike Duke 
 of Lennox and Richmond his vncle had, statutes and ordeanes that the burghe 
 of Glasgow in all tyme comeing, shall have alse free libertie in the electione 
 and choosing of there magistrates yeirly, at the accustomed tymes, as any 
 other burghe within this kingdome of Scotland, with this speciall provisione 
 and conditione, that the proveist, baillies, and counsell of the burghe, and 
 ther successoures shall present yeirlie in all tyme comeing ane leit of three 
 persones to be proveist of the said burght to the said James Duke of Lennox 
 and Richmond and his successoures foirsaid, off the whilke nomber the 
 said James Duke of Lennox, and his successoures foirsaid, shall nominat 
 one to be proveist for the yeir falloweing whom they shall be obleist to 
 receave and admit to be ther proveist the same yeir, and authoreize him with 
 all commissioun necessar to that effect, provyding the said Duke of Lennox 
 and his foirsaidis be themselves or ther commissioner be present yeerlie 
 within the said burghe, at the castle which belonges to the Duke and 
 his successoures, the tyme of the electione of ther Magistrates, and in 
 case of ther absence, in that caise it shall be laughfull to them to goe 
 one in the electione of their proveist for that yeir of ther absence 
 allenerly." 
 
 Under these Charters and Acts there is no doubt that Glasgow was 
 entitled to rank as a Royal Burgh, but still the City had not, in full possession, 
 one of the prescriptive prerogatives of a burgh held from the Crown, It 
 was not indeed till the Revolution settlement that Glasgow was fully eman- 
 cipated from the thrall under which it had so long chafed. In 1690 an 
 Act of Parliament was passed confirming and ratifying a charter of William 
 and Mary, to the effect that the City of Glasgow and Town Council thereof 
 shall have power and privilege to choose their own " magistrats, etc., als 
 fully and als freely, in all respects as the City of Edinburgh, or any other 
 Royal Burgh within the Kingdom enjoys the same." 
 
 In Glasgow, as in other Scottish trading towns, power and position 
 were, from the earliest time, monopolized by those who were strong enough 
 to seize and hold it. What of power and patronage the bishops and their 
 successors delegated, was carefully restricted, at first exclusively to citizens 
 of the merchant rank — a body which cannot have been either exalted or 
 numerous in the sixteenth century. The crafts associated under the powers 
 conveyed by the Scottish Parliament and incorporated by Charters or Seals 
 of Cause from the Town Council, did not willingly allow all power to remain 
 in the merchants' hands. No sooner were they incorporated than they 
 began to put forward their claims to a full share in municipal dignity and 
 office with at first little success only; but by persistent agitation they succeeded 
 in the end in wresting to themselves a fair proportion of governing privileges. 
 The slender standing they had attained in the later part of the sixteenth
 
 THE BURG HAL HISTORY OF GLASGOW 23 
 
 century is shown by the following extract from the Council Minutes of date 
 5th October, 1574 : 
 
 " The quhilk daye, my lord prouest requeistit the auld baillies and counsale 
 to suffer certane dekynnis of craftis to be admittit to cum in the counsal- 
 hous to stand and heir lytis of the baillies chosin and nominat this yeir, 
 but preiudice of the priuilegis, liberteis, or vse in votying, owther of craftis 
 or merchandis, in ony yeir thereftir, at quhais requeist the said baillies and 
 auld counsale hes permettit thre dekynnis of craftis to be present in the 
 counsalhous, to stand by, heir, and see the saidis lytis nominat this yeir 
 onelie, sua that induce na practik in tymes thereftir." 
 
 It is not marvellous that this meagre privilege of looking on failed to 
 satisfy the bold craftsmen, and their assertion of rights only grew louder and 
 more violent, till in the end the question was submitted to arbitration. The 
 result of the arbitration was the issue of an elaborate award termed 'The 
 Letter of Guildry,' dated i6th February, 1605, which award was approved 
 and sanctioned by the Town Council, and long afterwards, in 1672, was 
 ratified by Act of Parliament. Under this letter a Guildry was for the first 
 time instituted in Glasgow. It was presided over by a Dean of Guild, elected 
 yearly by the Town Council from a leet of three names — the retiring Dean and 
 two others — prepared and sent up by equal numbers of merchants and craftsmen 
 assembled for such nomination. The Dean of Guild's Council consisted of four 
 merchants and four craftsmen and the duties and privileges of the Dean and 
 his Court are elaborately set forth. The letter further provided for the 
 election of a Deacon Convener or head of all the crafts-rank, who, in virtue 
 of his office, was ordained to be an ordinary member of the Town Council, 
 and for a Visitor of the Maltmen. The method of nomination and election 
 by the Town Council of these functionaries with their respective duties and 
 rights are also laid down in detail in the 'Letter of Guildry.' Although 
 that document does not prescribe any further change in the constitution 
 of the Council, yet its outcome was a complete revolution in the member- 
 ship. Following on it, in 1606, there were admitted to the Council twelve 
 of the merchant rank and eleven craftsmen, " conform," so says the Minute, 
 " to his Hienes' will." But, notwithstanding the royal sanction, the mer- 
 chants' representatives protested against the admittance of such a large 
 proportion of craftsmen, as being against the laws of the realm and the 
 custom of Burghs, whilst the victorious craftsmen on their part protested 
 that the choosing of the present number of bailies and Council shall not 
 be prejudicial to their claim of equal representation. In the following 
 year the Council was elected in the same proportions, and like protests 
 from both sides were again lodged. The " set " of the Burgh on this basis 
 received the sanction of the Convention of Royal Burghs in 161 i. 
 
 During all the time that this long struggle for municipal emancipation 
 was in progress, it is obvious that great power over the citizens of Glasgow
 
 24 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 rested in the autocratic hands of the bishops, archbishops, and their successors. 
 They had, until 1636 at least, absolute control over the election of the 
 provost and magistrates, a control which was only limited by a certain 
 regard to use and wont, and towards the end a good deal impaired by the 
 disorganization of the See, the weakness of the Episcopacy, and the ecclesi- 
 astical and civil strifes and storms of the times. The provost and bailies, 
 on their part, had like unfettered control over the municipality ; and of 
 popular election there was not a vestige. The Council was weak and circum- 
 scribed in its functions, and entirely the creature of the magistrates by 
 whom it was, from year to year, appointed. 
 
 The use and wont of the constitution of a magistrature and Council 
 in the sixteenth century may be illustrated by the following extract from 
 the Council Minutes of 15th October, 1574, being the earliest extant 
 Glasgow record of that proceeding : 
 
 " The court of the burght and citie of Glasgw, for the creatloun and 
 presenting of lytis for the baillies and prouest, be ane nobill lord Robert 
 lord Boyd, George Elphinstoun, Archibald Lioun, and James Flemyng, auld 
 baillies, haldin in the tolbuytht thairof, the fyft daye of October the yeir of 
 God j"" v"^ Ix fourtene yeiris." 
 
 " The quhilk daye, the auld baillies and counsale ordanit ane commissioun 
 to be made and selit to ane noble lord Robert lord Boyd, of the office of 
 provestrie of the said burght and citie for this yeir to cum quhill Michael- 
 mes nixtocum, conforme to vse and wont, and that accordind to my lord 
 archibischop of Glasgwis nominatione of him, contenit in ane writting 
 subscriuit be his hand, quhilk the said lord Boyd producit and desyrit to 
 be registrat in their buikis, of the quhilk letter the tenour followis. — We, 
 James, be the mercie of God, archibischop of Glasgw, vnderstandyng the 
 habilite and qualificatioun of ane noble lord Robert lord Boyd, baillie of 
 oure barone of Glasgu in ministratioun of justice wrychtlie to all persounes, 
 and that the office of prouestre of the burcht and cietie of Glasgw has newir 
 or seyndill ben separatit in sindry persounes handis fra the baillierie of 
 our baronie foirsaid, thairfore, and for sindry considerationes moving ws, 
 we have nominat and presentit, as be the tenoure heirof nominatis and 
 presentis the said noble lorde Robert lorde Boyd prouest of our said burght 
 and cietie of Glasgw for this instant yeir tocum, and siclyk yeirlie in all 
 tymes cumyng heireftir following, incaise it plese him to accept the samyn 
 on him, during all the dayis of oure lyftime, wissing and desyring the baillies 
 counsale and communite of oure said cietie present and to cum, to geve, 
 seill, and deliuer to him thair commissione of the said office of provestrie, 
 conforme to vse and wont, for this instant yeir, and siclik yeirlie at Michael- 
 mes in tymes cumyng duryng oure livetyme gif he will accept the samyn 
 as said is, and this our present nominatioun, irreuocablie to be obseruit 
 be ws, to all and sindry quhome effeiris we mak knawin be thir presentis
 
 THE BURG HAL HISTORY OF GLASGOW 25 
 
 subscrywit with oure hand, at Glasgw, the fyft daye of October, the 
 yeir of God j"' v"^ threscoir fourtene yeiris, befoir thir witnes, maister 
 Andro Haye, persoune of Renfrew, maister Wilhame Scott, and maister 
 Henry Gibsoun, etc. The prouest has resauit the originale heirof in presens 
 of the baillies and haill counsale." 
 
 " Lytis lytit be the prouest, baillies, and auld counsale, to be presentit 
 to my lord archibischop of Glasgw for nemmyng of twa or thre of thame 
 in baillies for this instant yeir to cum, requeisting alhvayis my lord to 
 nominat thre in respect of the multitude of the peple and trubles in office. — 
 George Elphinstoun, Archibald Lyoun, James Flemyng, auld baillies, maister 
 Adame Wallace, William Conynghame, Johne Flemyng, merchand, Johne 
 Wilsoun, pewderar, James Braidwood, cordiner. Ouhilkis lytis being presentit 
 that samyn instant daye to my lord archibischop of Glasgw, and the requeist 
 foirsaid maid to him, he nominat baillies for this instant yeir, George 
 Elphinstoun, Archibald Lyoun, maister Adam Wallace." 
 
 On the following day, the 6th of October, the newly-appointed provost 
 and bailies took the oath for leal and true administration, and with the old 
 bailies proceeded to choose the Council, which, that year, consisted of 
 fourteen members. At the same meeting there were appointed five lyners, 
 a water-bailie and other officers of the Council. 
 
 On the 19th of August, 1637, following on the charters of the preceding 
 years, a new series of statutes for the appointment of a Council was framed. 
 In the preamble it is observed that " considering and understanding that 
 thir maney and divers yeiris bygane thair hes been no constant cours observit 
 anent the qualitie and number of the persones who electit the counsall of 
 this brughe"; therefore, to obviate the evils and inconveniences arising from 
 such irregularities, it was concluded and ordained that in all future times 
 there should be twelve persons to elect the Council. The twelve were to 
 be the newly-appointed provost and three bailies, the out-going provost 
 and his three bailies, and the provost and three bailies of the immediately 
 preceding year. It was provided that should any of these be absent from 
 sickness or out of town, or in cases where the same person had more than 
 one year occupied office, then the available remnant were to elect as many 
 persons " as shall happen to be wanting of the full number, of the same 
 qualitie of the absentis, whither they be merchandis or craftsmen," but 
 for a lawful election the full number of twelve electors must always be made 
 up. Under this arrangement the Council was constituted of a provost, nom- 
 inated by the Archbishop, two merchandis and one craftsman bailie selected 
 by the Archbishop from a leet of six merchants and three craftsmen submitted 
 by the Council, and of thirteen merchants and twelve craftsmen councillors, 
 elected by the electoral college of twelve as above specified. At a subsequent 
 meeting the Dean of Guild, Deacon-Convener, City Treasurer, and Water- 
 Bailie were elected. The set of the burgh was modified in 1801 by an
 
 26 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Act of the Convention of Royal Burghs, under which the number of bailies 
 was increased to five, three being of the merchant rank and two from the 
 trades ; but the total membership of the Council was unaltered, the new bailies 
 being withdrawn from members, the merchant councillors, and trades' 
 councillors respectively. The municipality continued to be so constituted till 
 the Reform Act of 1833 opened up the Council to popular election. Under 
 the provisions of that Act the City was divided into five districts, each 
 returning six members, which, with the Dean of Guild and the Deacon-Con- 
 vener ex-officiis, made up a Council of thirty-two members. From this number 
 the Council elected a Lord Provost, five bailies, a water-bailie, and his depute 
 and a bailie of Provan, besides other officials. 
 
 The ancient royalty within which these Charters and Acts of Parliament 
 were operative only was a comparatively restricted area, measuring 1768 acres, 
 situated entirely on the north side of the river, and it is only within the 
 present century that that area has been gradually enlarged by local enact- 
 ments. The royalty was in 1800 extended over a portion of the Barony 
 Parish, equal to 96 acres, and in 1830 the jurisdiction of the burgh was 
 extended over the lands of Blythswood, thereby adding 296 acres to the 
 municipality. In 1832 the parliamentary boundary of the City was 
 extended so as to include the regality of Gorbals on the south side of 
 the river and the burghs of Calton to the east, and Anderston to the 
 west. The Gorbals was a very ancient Barony and Regality, the superiority 
 of which was, in 1601, conveyed by the Archbishop of Glasgow to Sir 
 George Elphinstone, who was provost of the City in 1605. The successors 
 of Sir George, in 1647, disposed of the superiority to the Magistrates and 
 Town Council of Glasgow, who thereby came to occupy the peculiar position 
 of imposing a magistracy on the Gorbals, a yoke which they themselves had 
 so long struggled against, and from which they had not yet altogether escaped. 
 For 200 years the Gorbals, a burgh without burgesses, corporate rights, or 
 exclusive privileges was administered, and its magistrates were appointed, 
 by its superiors, the Town Council of Glasgow. In November, 1846, this 
 anomalous condition came to an end under an Act of Parliament, whereby 
 the royalty of Glasgow was made conterminous with its parliamentary bounds. 
 Under that Act the Gorbals and other lands south of the river, the burgh 
 of Anderston erected into a Barony in 1824, the burgh of Calton chartered 
 in 18 17, Bridgeton and other contiguous territories were included within the 
 municipality. By that extension the area of the Burgh was considerably 
 more than doubled. An addition of 213 acres had been made under the 
 Police Act of 1843, which brought the total area up to 2373 acres, to which 
 the 1846 Act added no fewer than 3299 acres, bringing municipal control 
 over 5672 acres. By the provisions of the same Act the Glasgow Police 
 Board, which had been in existence separate from the Town Council since 
 1 800, was abolished, its functions being merged in the Town Council qua
 
 THE BURGH AL HISTORY OF GLASGOW 
 
 27 
 
 Police Board. The City was divided into sixteen wards, each returning three 
 members to the Town Council, and these, with the Dean of Guild and 
 the Deacon-Convener, made up a Town Council of fifty members, out of 
 which number eight bailies were elected. Excepting an increase in the 
 number of bailies to ten under the Glasgow Municipal Act of 1872, no 
 other change in the constitution of the Council was made till the passing of 
 the great annexation Act (City of Glasgow Act, 1891), which raised the 
 number of councillors and magistrates to the present limit. 
 
 In the Scottish estates of Parliament, Glasgow had the privilege of repre- 
 sentation from 1546 onwards; but in terms of the Act of Union in 1707 
 the City was combined with its old enemies, Rutherglen, Renfrew, and 
 Dumbarton, for the return of one member to the Imperial Parliament. 
 Each of these Royal Burghs had a vote for their parliamentary representative, 
 the respective councils appointing a delegate, and each burgh was in rotation 
 the returning burgh — the representative of which had a casting vote in case 
 of an equality of votes. It is easy to understand that the appointment of 
 a delegate, entrusted with such extensive powers, was in every instance the 
 occasion of much wire pulling and manoeuvring on the part of those interested 
 in securing the seat. Under the Reform Act of 1832 the City itself became 
 entitled to two representatives. By the Act of 1868 an additional member 
 was given to Glasgow, which thereby became a three-cornered constituency. 
 And so matters continued till the passing of the Redistribution of Seats 
 Act of 1885, when the City was formed into seven parliamentary divisions — 
 Bridgeton, Camlachie, St. RoUox, Central, College, Trad^ston, and Black- 
 friars and Hutchesontown, each returning a member to Parliament. The 
 same enactment also formed the suburban parliamentary constituencies of 
 Govan, East Renfrewshire, and Partick. By the City of Glasgow (1891) 
 Act, the municipal bounds were extended beyond the parliamentary limits, 
 and parts of the municipality are now embraced in the constituencies of 
 Partick and East Renfrewshire, instituted under the Redistribution Act. By 
 small additions in 1872 and in 1878 the municipal area had been increased 
 to 61 1 1 acres, and by the Act of 1S91 that area was again nearly doubled — 
 the total (with 1 1 9 acres for the bed of the Clyde not reckoned in previous 
 measurements) now being 11,861 acres.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Municipal rule about 1620 : Contrast with present day : Appearance of the town : Primi- 
 tive 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. 
 
 To reconstruct the municipal activities of a day in Glasgow about the 
 early part of the seventeenth century would be a task both interesting 
 and instructive were the materials for such a picture available. It is much 
 to be regretted that we have no West of Scotland Pepys, no recorder of 
 the trifles of daily occurrence and recurrence apparently insignificant yet 
 so full of significance for the delineation of the life, habits, and thoughts 
 of people. An immortal portrait we possess of a Glasgow Magistrate of 
 a century later, but the Bailie Nicol Jarvie of Sir Walter Scott is rather 
 a man than a magistrate ; and his exploits and adventures have little 
 relation to the duties which pertained to the office and dignity of which 
 he was the proud possessor. For the details of our picture we have only 
 the dry official Minutes of the Town Council on which to found, accurate 
 and reliable doubtless, but rarely lifting up even a corner of the curtain 
 which shrouds the social life of the people over whom the Council ruled. 
 
 "Ruled" we say advisedly, for it was rule more than service that was 
 the function of the seventeenth century Council, and herein is the fund- 
 amental distinction of the municipal government of the seventeenth and 
 nineteenth centuries. The Town Council of the seventeenth century was 
 not in any sense the servant of the community, and although they rendered 
 services good and indispensable, these were performed in the spirit of lord 
 and ruler rather than as duties confided by fellow-citizens to their fellows
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 29 
 
 for the common weal. The Magistrates and Council of the present day 
 are their lawful successors in direct and uninterrupted line, they have in 
 many wa}-s the same duties to discharge, the same rights and privileges 
 to enjoy, but the times have indeed changed and the men have changed 
 with them. The traditions of the old days have been lost, the methods 
 of rule have been changed, and the spirit and aims of the present day are 
 utterly and entirely dissimilar from those which animated the municipal 
 magnates of the seventeenth century. 
 
 At any time the government and management of a town containing 
 only eight or ten thousand persons is a very different and a much more 
 simple task than is the control of a community of three-quarters of a 
 million, and still more striking and dissimilar must be the work when the 
 great City has the complex organization and needs which belong to the 
 end of the nineteenth century, while the small population had been ruled 
 according to the ideas and methods of the seventeenth century. Our 
 modern experience and methods therefore give us little help towards recon- 
 structing the conditions of the period we would fain picture. A town 
 pleasant to behold, from without at least, Glasgow must have been, in the 
 days when James VI. was king. Under the sun of a summer day, looked 
 at from the south side of the river, it was seen to straggle in gentle ascent 
 from the ancient bridge up to the great metropolitan kirk and the Bishop's 
 Castle. The air was pure and clear, the Molendinar stream, limpid and 
 bright, hurried down its romantic gorge, lending its flow to move the 
 primitive machinery of the city mills, and rushing on added its tribute to 
 the equally sweet waters of the Clyde from which many lordly salmon 
 and lusty trout were drawn. 
 
 At this time the City consisted in effect of four streets. The Salt- 
 market and High Street formed a continuous line from near the bridge 
 upwards, in a north-easterly direction, to the Cathedral and the Bishop's 
 Castle. This line was intersected at the Cross by the Trongate running 
 westward, and the Gallowgate going towards the east. From the line of 
 these four main streets there ran backward certain minor lanes, vennels and 
 closes, and near the Cathedral the subsidiary streets, the Rottenrow and the 
 Drygate, intersected the High Street. The City was unwalled and unfortified, 
 but by its several " ports " and gates its approaches were easily controlled, 
 and the coming and going of burgesses, of traders, and of strangers could 
 be checked by the magistrates. There were to the City four principal gates 
 or ports, to the north beyond the Cathedral was Stable Green Port, the 
 south port towards the Bridge was called Nether Barrasgett, the Gallowgate 
 port gave access to the east, and to the west was the Trongate port. Besides 
 these there were minor exits at the Rottenrow, the Drygate, and Greyfriars, 
 and further there were certain private doors at garden ends and back-yctts 
 of citizens. At the corner of the High Street and Trongate stood the
 
 30 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 ancient Tolbooth, both prison and Council Hall, and there also was the 
 Market Cross and the official and commercial centre of the City. In this 
 neighbourhood were the various public markets, the crames of woollen 
 goods merchants being to one side of the Cross, those selling linen on the 
 other. At the Cross stood the stocks in which the limbs of minor offenders 
 were locked, while they endured the scoffs, jeers, and insults of the populace ; 
 the gallows was a permanent erection in the Loan leading to the Ramshorn, 
 jougs were provided for blasphemous women, these being "sett up upon 
 the Goves — the base of the stocks — gangand up three or four fut-stepis," 
 and erected, we are told, at the sight of the master of works " sure and 
 substantious so that they be nocht riven doun and carryit away be evil 
 doaris." Branks also were provided for the jaws of pestilent and scolding 
 females. The common hangman, who was a pardoned thief and robber, had 
 the frequent and congenial task of whipping offenders through the streets, 
 and thereafter bringing them, lashed in body and of repentant mind, to the 
 Cross to make public confession of their evil deeds, and afterwards his duty 
 may have been to cast them without the City bounds. 
 
 The town is said by visitors who came to it at a somewhat later period 
 to have been clean of aspect, neatly and handsomely built ; but these must 
 be taken as relative terms, for the statutes from time to time issued by the 
 Council regarding middens and heaps of " fulzie " on the public streets do 
 not indicate conditions which accord with modern ideas of cleanliness, and 
 the handsome and spacious buildings spoken of were certainly mean and 
 poor compared with the erections of then thriving continental towns. That 
 the ideas of cleanliness entertained in Scottish burghs generally in 1608 
 were primitive is indicated by the proceedings of the Convention of Burghs 
 held that year at Selkirk. The King had addressed a letter to the Convention 
 dealing with the laying down of middens or " fulzie " upon the streets of 
 towns, which, it said, " is nocht only uncumlie and incivill, bot lykvvayis verie 
 dangerous in tyme of plaig and pestilence, and verie infective of itself." The 
 royal letter further dealt with the permitting of swine to roam freely 
 within burghs, and on these subjects the Convention passed certain enact- 
 ments, which were duly forwarded to and considered by the Glasgow Council. 
 In their turn they enacted and ordained " that na maner of fuilze be laid 
 vpone the foirgait nor pairt of this bruche in tyme cuming, vnder the pain 
 and penaltie of fvve lib., to be tain of ilk persoune quha contemnis and 
 contravenis his Hienes will and pleasour, act of burrowis, and this present 
 act and statute sett doun heiranent, and escheitting of thair fuilzie, and 
 that all the fuilze, bieing and lying presentlie vpone the said gait and clossis 
 be removit within the space of xv dayis, vnder pain foirsaid and escheitting 
 of thair fuilze to ane commoun vse, and lykwayis statutis and ordanis that 
 na maner of swyne be hadin lows within this bruche or burrow ruidis, or 
 fund in ony nychtbouris skathe in tyme cuming, vnder the pain of ten lib.
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 31 
 
 to be tain of the avvner and escheitting of thame to ane commoun vse, and 
 that na watterit lint be dryit or handlit on the gait onder the pain foirsaid." 
 
 The ordinary statutory functions of the Council throw some light on 
 the simple food and drink of the people. The statutes, yearly renewed, em- 
 braced the fixing for the year of the price at which the common food and 
 drink of the populace shall be sold, the price of tallow, and the conditions 
 under which that substance was to be trafficked in, the persons entitled to 
 make and traffic in candles, and the price at which they should be sold. 
 Ale, the staple drink of the people, was to be no dearer than a certain 
 sum per pint, and the same was to be " kingis aill and werraye guid," and 
 to secure its " guidness " tasters were appointed for each district, whose duty 
 was to pass round weekly, taste its quality, and see that it was made and 
 sold by free persons only. The fourpenny loaf was ordained to weigh so 
 many ounces, " guid and sufficient stuff weill bakin," and the duty of 
 maintaining its quality and guaranteeing its weight was laid on the Deacon 
 of the Baxteris. Tallow was not to pass out of the town in great quantity 
 till after Faustrenes evein — Shrove Tuesday — a provision for the dark 
 evenings of the winter ; it was to be sold at a specified price per stone, and 
 candles at a stated price per lb. were to be "small wickeit and weill tallownit"; 
 all flesh and fish were to be presented in the market, and fleshers were 
 prohibited from buying " deid flesche " to sell again. Malt and bere were to 
 be sold under specified conditions, visitors were appointed to see that these 
 conditions were observed ; a member of the Council with an officer was deputed 
 to visit the meal market, and it was a duty of the Council officers to pass 
 through the town daily to take trial of and punish all persons blaspheming 
 the name of God. 
 
 That the relationship of the magistracy and citizens was not that of 
 mutual confidence, respect, and esteem we have many evidences. The year 
 1608 was one of great difficulties and trouble to the magistrates; they had 
 to wrestle with a great accumulation of debt and with importunate creditors, 
 and they were compelled in order to raise a revenue to resort to methods and 
 imposts which were obviously unpopular. A spirit of disaffection was abroad, 
 and in September the Council had to take the restive humour of the people 
 into serious consideration. After weighing and considering " the manifald 
 contemptis done to the magistratis, and breking of ward be sindry personis 
 of this toun, and that the fauour schawin to siklyk personis in suffering thame 
 to keip table in the laiche Tolbuithe is occasioun of the foirsaid contempt, 
 thairfoir hes statuit and ordanit that na sik contempteous personis in tyme 
 cuming be permittit to kcip table in the laiche Tolbuithe." 
 
 An overt act of rebellion came up for judgment within little more than 
 two weeks after the passing of this statute, when Robert M'Gill, obviously 
 a Master of Arts, for he was called Maistcr Robert, was convened before 
 the " Provost, Baillies, and Counsell," charged with resisting James Inglis,
 
 32 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Bailie, in the execution of his office, drawing on him a dagger and calling 
 him " a deboschit svvingour " and threatening to put " ane quhinger through 
 his cheikis." This was " murmuring a judge " with a vengeance. It appears 
 by the record that while the bailie was passing up the gait he most peaceably 
 commanded Thomas Patirsoun, who had broken his ward, to pass again 
 into ward. To that Thomas readily answered, " Sir, I will willinglie obey 
 the same." But Robert, who was in his company, interposed, " He sail 
 nocht pas to ward," and then, notwithstanding the repeated offer of Thomas 
 to willinglie obey, Robert broke out, drew his dagger, swore the bailie was 
 a " deboschit skybell," and, with many other blasphemous words, resisted 
 authority. All this was duly testified to by the witness of James Young, 
 Mr. Alexander Rowat, Minister ; Mr. Alexander Hamiltoun, and Alexander 
 Logan, Trumpmaker, who, working in his own booth, saw the fracas, and 
 by three others. In the mouths of so many witnesses the heinous offence 
 was proved to the hilt, and Robert M'Gill was put in the custody of four 
 responsible citizens, to be brought up for judgment " the morne at nyne houris." 
 At that hour the next day, " the provest, bailleis, and counsall, being convenit 
 to consult and advyse vpone the heiche contempt and injurie done be Robert 
 Makgill to James Inglis, Baillie, . . . efter matur advys and deliberatioun 
 had of the foirsaid contempt and injurie done be the said Robert as saidis, 
 and quhow the sam is nocht only done against the saidis magistratis bot 
 to the contempt and ignominie of the provest, remanent bailleis, and counsall 
 of the toun, and will give evil exemple to vtheris the lyk insolent personis 
 to commit the lyk gif the same be nocht condignlie punischit, thairfoir fynis, 
 vnlawis, and decernis, and ordanis the said Robert M'Gill to pay to the 
 thesaurer of this toun, to be imployit to the commoun werkis and effairis 
 thairof, the soume of ane hundrythe pundis mony, and to be banischit this 
 burghe and citie for the space of sevin yeir efter the dait heirof, and to be 
 pwt in the yrnis to remain in the sam during the said James Inglis will ; 
 and last to cum fra the place quhair he contempnit the said baillie to the 
 croce, bair fittit and bair heiddit, and vpone his kneyis to delyver the dager 
 be the point to the said baillie and to ask God mercie and the said baillie 
 forgifnes for his great offence ; and to remain in ward quhill he find sufficient 
 catioune for fulfilling of this thair decreit, and to find catioun that he sail 
 nocht truble nor molest na maner of inhabitant and burges of this toun 
 in tym cuming, directlie nor indirectlie, vtherwayis nor be ordour of law, 
 vnder the pain of the soum of fyve hundrythe merkis money." 
 
 These and other like incidents about the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century make it manifest that the relations of the magistrates and citizens were 
 in a state of considerable tension. The temper of the populace may be gathered 
 also from the proclamation made by sound of drum on the order of the 
 *' Provest, baillies, and Counsele," but at the instigation of the ministry against 
 " Cokalandis." A " Cokaland," it appears, was a species of squib or satire.
 
 h. 
 rc
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 33 
 
 which, about this period — 1608 — must have been in extensive use and 
 circulation in Scottish burghs, for, in the next year, there was passed an 
 Act of Parliament directed to the suppression and punishment of such Coka- 
 lands. Any person having or finding any Cokaland was ordained immediately 
 to present the same to the " Provist, or ony of the bailleis, or at leist to 
 sum of the ministrie " under pain of being held the maker, or at least the 
 publisher of the pestilent, profane, and insolent document. 
 
 The reformed clergy were by no means disinclined to interfere in the 
 government of the City, although they had not the point of vantage and 
 the powers which belonged to their episcopal predecessors. At an earlier 
 period they had obtained magisterial sanction to a statute prohibiting the 
 practice of " ryotus bancatyng at bridals, at the baptizing of children, or at 
 upsitting " — the waking the dead. The three great crises of human existence, 
 birth, marriage, and death, were at that remote period, and clerical and 
 magisterial denunciation notwithstanding, they continued long to be occasions 
 for much unseemly excess and "ryotus" banquetting. 
 
 The City, as we have said, was burdened with an intolerable load of 
 debt, notwithstanding that more than once large slices of the common 
 lands had been disposed of by the magistrates for the relieving of their 
 necessities, contrary to law and in face of the protests of craftsmen burgesses. 
 The expedients to which the authorities were obliged to resort, in order 
 to increase their revenue and to stave off the evil day, no doubt account 
 to some extent for their unpopularity, and for the factious attitude of the 
 populace. In view of a contemplated attempt to be made to produce 
 present relief by increased future obligations, the Provost, Bailies, and Council 
 in January, 1608, for their own security concluded and ordained that all 
 bonds granted by them for borrowed "siluir" "befoir or heirefter, sail 
 only astrict thame during their offices, and sik as succeidis to thame in 
 office, to warrand and releif thame of all charges may be usit aganst thame." 
 This official security does not appear to have been sufficient to induce 
 lenders to add to the already intolerable burden of municipal obligations, 
 and a month afterwards the Council had again to confer and reason on 
 the debt awin be the toune, and they next tried to pledge their entire 
 revenues for a certain number of years, to raise 9000 merks towards the 
 discharging of their most pressing obligations. 
 
 The revenues of the City at this period were derived from certain 
 ground annuals, some small rentals or maills for booths in the Tolbooth, and 
 other town property, from petty imposts on provisions and raw materials 
 entering the town, called the Customs of the Ladles, from the toll of custom 
 of the bridge, from the multures or profits of the mills which were city 
 property, from the fines or fees on entry of burgess freemen, and from 
 the "unlaws" or penalties of the Courts. Of these sources of revenue the 
 most important were the ladles and the mills. The custom of the ladle 
 
 c
 
 34 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 was, under a local name, an ancient exaction which Glasgow in common 
 with other Scottish Burghs had under its charters and under Parliamentary- 
 sanction. The term ladle given to this impost is due to the fact that in its 
 original form the magistrates were entitled to get from every sack of grain 
 brought into the City the fill of a certain measure or ladle. The tax was 
 so arranged at a period when, with many persons, payment in kind was an 
 easier if rougher proceeding than payment in coin ; but at an early date the 
 right was commuted for a money payment according to a definite tariff, 
 Glasgow had two ladle imposts which were separately farmed out each year, 
 the " Victual " ladle and the Salt and " Linget " (flax) ladle. The duties 
 exigible were collected on all manner of farm produce, fish, flesh, lint, and 
 salt, and ordinary local raw products coming to market into the town. The 
 Casualties of the Bridge, spoken of at the end of the sixteenth century as 
 the " new gift given to the brig," was apparently a special impost on victual, 
 timber, hides, fish, etc., arriving by water, for the maintenance of that structure. 
 In the year 1608 Ninian Anderson, Deacon Convener, who had been tacks- 
 man of the impost for the preceding year, had £a^o out of a total of 515 
 merks rent remitted to him, because of the " vehement frost quhairby the 
 river of Clyd wes closit be the space of xvj vulkis," during which long period 
 no herring could be brought to the bridge, and herring it was that formed 
 the principal item of revenue under the gift of the brig. 
 
 By the farming of these casualties a definite annual revenue was secured 
 to the town, and doubtless also a very comfortable income was in general 
 obtained by the tacksmen, who appear to have been by preference members 
 of the Council, for in those good old days self-denying ordinances were not 
 among the statutory obligations of Councillors, Doubtless the various tacks- 
 men would look sharply enough after their individual interests, and the 
 imposts must have been vexatious and tyrannical in the highest degree, a 
 very unfair and unequal burden, collected in a wasteful and, for the public, 
 expensive manner. To secure the customs' duty on all traffic, to prevent 
 dodging and smuggling, the Council were perpetually .engaged in framing 
 regulations and in issuing statutes, the effect of each being to increase the 
 impediments to the current of trade, and to create new causes of irritation 
 and annoyance. Everything dutiable had to be presented on the special 
 market or stance appropriated to the particular class of goods on days 
 appointed, and at and between fixed hours under severe penalties for " ilk 
 fait"; and it was the duty of the bailies to "visie" the markets, attended by 
 a town officer, and to see that the multifarious regulations enacted were duly 
 regarded. 
 
 Next to the ladles the most important source of public revenue was the 
 mills for grinding malt, grain, and other victual for the use of the inhabitants. 
 Previous to 1608 it appears there had been competing mills, and the people 
 were at liberty to have their meal ground where they pleased. In their ex-
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 35 
 
 tremity the Council fell on the device of sukening or thirling the citizens to the 
 mills in their own hands, in order that they might thereby have something 
 to sell for the relief of their debt. To accomplish this thirlage it was 
 necessary for the Council to provide sufficient milling power, and to buy up 
 or suppress the rights of other mill-owners who could compete with them. 
 The mills of the town at this period were two — the Auld Toune Mill and 
 the New Mill, both on the Molendinar Water. From the Archbishop of 
 Glasgow the Council acquired the mill at Partick, and from the laird of 
 Mynto the mills on the Molendinar known as the Subdean's Mills, which 
 consisted of "twa wattir milvis and ane man milve." So provided the Council 
 were of opinion that they had "sufficient gangand mylins upon wattir and 
 wattir gang to serve the haill inhabitants for grinding of all manir of stuf 
 to thair usis, als well, als thankfullie, and als guid chaipe as they ar servit 
 presentlie," which conditions were essential to the sukening. Therefore on 9th 
 April, 1608, the Provost, Bailies, and Council, with the advice and consent of 
 the Dean of Guild and Guildry and the Deacons and Crafts, " condiscendit, 
 concludut, and aggreit, all in ane voce, that the haill inhabitantis browsteris 
 within this towne, but exceptioune, and all vther handleris and trififiqueris with 
 wictuell be suknit and thirlit to thair awin towne mylnis in all tyme cuminge, 
 withe this provisioune that the inhabitantis and friemen of this towne be als 
 guid, chaipe, and als thankfullie servit as thei war of befoir be sufficient 
 mylnis and servandis thairintill." 
 
 Having so far put their house in order the Council felt themselves in a 
 position to go into the market as a seller. In several ways they had already 
 tried ineffectually to raise the wind, and now, in the hope of getting quit of 
 9000 merks of pressing debt, they agreed to offer three alternative schemes 
 to the speculative public. They were prepared to set the entire Common 
 Good of the City — all the ordinary municipal revenue for a fixed number of 
 years — for the relief of the debt, receiving so much yearly out of the proceeds 
 for carrying on the common affairs of the town, or they would set the mills 
 and the ladles for certain years, seeking no payment to the town beyond 
 the discharge of the debt ; and failing either plan, then the mills and the 
 sukin thereof were to be set for a yearly duty. In the end the mills and 
 the ladles were set for a period of five years for a yearly payment of 4400 
 merks, and the Custom and Casualty of the Bridge was set for 500 merks. 
 That the magistrates still remained in money difficulties, notwithstanding the 
 increased income they came into receipt of, is evident from the fact that, in 
 February next, they had to borrow from a private citizen ;i^ioo to pay their 
 share of the printing of the book Regiavi Jllajestatefn, for which debt they 
 were under danger of horning. 
 
 But these do not exhaust the troubles of the unfortunate and impecunious 
 magistrates of Glasgow. On three separate occasions within a year the 
 inhabitants were stented or assessed for the raising of money for national
 
 36 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 and special services. Stenting, or the imposition of direct taxation, although 
 a lawful and available means for raising revenues either for local purposes 
 or for payment to the Crown, was not, it is obvious, in favour with magistrat-es 
 nor with the citizens ; and it was not resorted to, nor even suggested, for 
 the relief of local difficulties of this period. According to the law the 
 direct taxation of citizens by stenting was permissible only when the 
 Common Good of the burgh was insufficient to meet local necessities. For 
 the imposition of the tax it was prescribed that public intimation should 
 be made to the whole inhabitants by tuck of drum, and they being assembled 
 at time and place prescribed, the cause and amount of the stent should be 
 intimated ; and that stent masters should be appointed whose duty it was 
 to make up the stent-roll of the inhabitants, showing the amount for which 
 each person was, in accordance with his ability, stented. It is easy to see 
 that these arrangements give ample scope for inquisitorial proceedings, for 
 much irritation and a good deal of petty tyranny and unequal exaction. 
 The office of stenter was not a pleasant one to a sensitive mind, and the 
 Council found it necessary, in view of the imposition of a stent about the 
 close of 1607, to enact "for eschewing of all sclandring of the saidis 
 stenteris be evill disposit and sclandrus personis within this towne quha 
 vsis to speik sclandurslie aganst the stenteris, it is statut and ordanit be 
 the provist, balleis, and counsele that gif ony persoun traduce or sklandir 
 ony of the saidis stenteris or ony of thame for setting downe the said stent 
 roll, thej sail pay ten pund to the commowne vse of the calsay." 
 
 Thirty stenters thus protected against slanderous tongues were elected to 
 prepare a stent-roll to raise 700 merks (^^510) — being for the second of three 
 annual payments to the Crown — the City's proportion of 400,000 merks, 
 granted to the King by a Parliament held at Perth, and £\2^ os. 6d., 
 Glasgow's share of a grant made by the Convention of Burghs to Dumbarton 
 " for help of thair towne fra danger of the wattir." Half a year thereafter 
 an outbreak appears to have occurred in what is indefinitely termed the 
 " Isles," and the City was called upon to provide both commissariat and 
 men towards reducing the Isles to order. Thirty " hagbutters " were mustered 
 by the town, and these warriors were supplied with such warlike weapons and 
 armour as could be borrowed from fellow-citizens; each private received ^^^15 
 of pay, and the two superior officers i^i8 and ;i^20 respectively. Towards 
 the out-reiking of this small company the town was stented for ;^5oo. 
 ^100 OS. 5d. fell to be raised for provisions for the expedition, and ;^I20 los. 
 had to be provided for Glasgow's share of the debts being discharged by 
 the Convention of Burghs, in all the City had now to raise £'J2\ los. 5d. 
 Scots. The men of war returned from the Isles in October following, 
 and their commander, James Stirling, had the gratification of producing 
 before the Council a testimonial from Andrew, Lord Ochiltree, testifying to 
 the diligence and care of the said James in the King's service. But, alas^
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY t,? 
 
 there came at the same time also the necessity for providing a further sum 
 for the expenses of sending out and bringing home the Glasgow contingent, 
 and for the third time within the year a stent — this time for £600 — had 
 to be imposed. The third payment was made slowly and unwillingly, and 
 on the 26th November the Council had to send the drum through the 
 town warning all persons to pay within a week, " under pain of double 
 stent." 
 
 And yet there were graver troubles than debts and money difficulties to 
 afflict the magistrates of Glasgow in 1608. Ever and anon there came 
 from the outer world the news that the dreaded plague or pest had appeared, 
 and as the dark cloud approached the city gates a great fear fell upon 
 the people. Their sanitary precautions were few and ineffective, preventive 
 medicine did not exist, and curative skill was powerless in presence of the 
 deadly infection. Isolation of the City was first attempted, and when that 
 first line of defence has failed, then isolation of the cases was ordained. Early 
 in September the fateful news was received that the towns of Perth, Dundee, 
 Kinghorn, and Burntisland were visited by the plague, and immediately the 
 order was issued that no person be received into the town from those places 
 without the knowledge of the magistrates, and no one was to go to any 
 suspected place without magisterial license. The four ports of the City were 
 to be kept night and day. The statutes issued at an earlier date (1574), 
 when a visitation of the plague, then raging in Leith and outbroken also 
 in Edinburgh, show the deadly terror inspired by it. All intercourse and 
 traffic with suspected places was prohibited under pain of death. The four 
 ports of the town were to be continually watched, they were to be locked 
 at evening, and the keys delivered to the bailies ; the minor ports at 
 Rottenrow, Drygate, and Greyfriars were to " stand lockit." At the peril 
 of his life every indweller was to see that no stranger entered the City 
 by his yard-end. Strangers and travellers could be received into the City 
 only under the authority of the provost and bailies, and on showing a 
 satisfactory certificate of whence they came. Pipers, fiddlers, minstrels, and 
 other vagabonds were allowed to remain within the gates only on obtaining 
 special magisterial permission ; of beggars, only natives of the City were to 
 remain under any condition, all others being ordered to clear out within 
 twenty-four hours, under pain of burning on the cheek. All cases of sickness 
 were to be reported instantly to ap^Dointed searchers, who were instructed 
 to search the districts twice a-day, and every dead body was to be immediately 
 reported, and sighted by special visitors before being " wyndit." 
 
 Under a dread which can be paralleled only by a cholera scare in a 
 continental city at the present time the autumn days of 1608 shortened 
 towards winter in Glasgow. When night fell there was little light in the houses, 
 and in the streets there were no illuminant other than the friendly moon. 
 All labour and trafficking ceased with sundown ; the cattle had been brought 
 
 5 q -^ t) 4
 
 38 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 in from the common lands, which yet remained under care of the town's herds. 
 All peace-loving citizens sought their own dwellings, and a profound silence 
 reigned in the deserted streets of the carefully warded City. But even then 
 the silence was now and again broken by reckless roysterers, and by the 
 flitting abroad of the prowlers, who love the darkness rather than the light. 
 To control these the magistrates were impelled to issue an edict, which 
 goes on to state that " certen insolent and prophain personis walkis in the 
 nycht tyme vpone the calsie, abusing thame selfis and the nychtbouris of 
 the toun, and gif the samen be nocht stayit great inconvenient may follow 
 thairvpone heirefter, thairfoir it is defendit and forbiddin that na maner 
 of persoun be fund walking vpone the calsie efter ten houris and efter the 
 ringing of the ten hour bellis, vnder the pain of ten lib. and prissoning of 
 thair personis at the discretioun of the magistratis, and this act be proclamit ; 
 attour gif ony the said nychtwalkeris beis callengit be the magistratis or 
 be the wache and makis recistance, to be moir rigorouslie punischit be 
 the sycht and discretioun of the saidis magistratis."
 
 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 aboHshed 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 Trades' House : How constituted : Its funds : Its charities : The Incorporatiojts : 
 Their precedence, revenues, charities, membership, administration. 
 
 The Gildry, or Guildry of Glasgow — under which term we include both the 
 Merchants and the Crafts Incorporations, the entire body of freemen burgesses 
 which, previous to the passing of the Burgh Reform Act, were the masters 
 of the Council — consists of two separate " houses " or bodies — the Merchants' 
 House and the Trades' House. The former is presided over by the Dean 
 of Guild, and the Trades' House has for its chief the Deacon Convener. 
 The Merchants' House is the Merchants' Guild, and in the days of its 
 power consisted of burgess merchants or traders within the City, " foreign or 
 domestic, wholesale or retail, of a fair character," who engaged to pay a 
 certain entry-money and annual subscription to the House. The Trades' 
 House is a representative body composed of delegates sent in certain fixed 
 proportions from the Incorporated Trades of the City. The fourteen incor- 
 porations, in their turn, are possessed of separate and independent powers, 
 and administer their own property under statutory provisions without the 
 interference or supervision of any superior authority. They were, at various 
 dates, incorporated by " Seal of Cause," or Charter granted by the magis- 
 trates of the City, and they take precedence according to the date of the 
 charter under which they exist. 
 
 For admission to the membership of the Merchants' House and all its 
 privileges, it is not in recent times necessary to become a burgess of the
 
 40 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 City ; nor indeed is it now essential for membership that the applicant 
 belong to the merchant class; professional men and all others being eligible 
 for membership. It has been questioned whether the Dean of Guild is 
 legally entitled to his seat in the Town Council, since the body by whom 
 he is elected does not consist exclusively of burgesses entered and enrolled 
 as by ancient usuage. On the other hand, it is a condition precedent to 
 the admission of members of the fourteen Incorporations that the candidates 
 shall be enrolled burgesses of the City. Consequently the Incorporations 
 are now the only pure and exclusive bodies of ancient burghers existing, 
 as membership of the very Town Council itself no longer requires the 
 preliminary condition of entry into the burgess roll of the City. 
 
 Previous to the passing of the Burgh Reform Act in 1833, the re- 
 lationship of these bodies to the Town Council was, as we have already 
 seen, very close and intimate. The Council was exclusively elected from 
 them, and the Merchants and Corporations thus held in their hands the 
 fortunes of both the Council and the community. From this comparatively 
 limited body of eligible freemen, the Council, from time immemorial, had 
 been annually elected by a small electoral court of present and past j^rovosts 
 and bailies, a slight numerical predominance in the Council being always 
 given to the merchant rank. A severe blow was dealt to the prestige of 
 these merchants and crafts by the provisions of the Burgh Reform Act. 
 Under that statute the privilege and duty of electing a Town Council was 
 transferred to qualified ratepayers, and the choice of the electors was 
 restricted only to such of their own number as were burgesses of the burgh. 
 The bill, indeed, as it passed the House of Commons was framed to effect 
 a much more drastic change than was accomplished by its provisions as 
 finally passed into law. As it left the Commons it would have entirely 
 reversed the relationship of the Town Council to the Corporations. The 
 bill, as presented to the Lords, entirely deprived the Merchants' House 
 and the Trades' House of representation in the Town Council, while it put 
 the control of these bodies so far under the Council that it would have 
 been impossible for them to effect any change in their rules and constitution, 
 or even to elect the Dean of Guild and the Deacon Convener, without the 
 sanction and authority of the Council. As it passed into law, the Act 
 freed the Merchants' House and the Trades' House equally from any 
 domination of the Town Council, and it conceded the Dean of Guild and 
 Deacon Convener seats at the Council Board. 
 
 Another blow, and one more directly aimed at the primary objects for 
 which guilds and incorporations were formed, was dealt at these bodies by 
 the passing, in 1846, of the Act abolishing the exclusive privilege of trading 
 within Royal Burghs which, till then, they possessed. It seems scarcely 
 credible that within the memory and experience of living tradesmen they 
 were prohibited by law from opening, within the Royalty of Glasgow, a
 
 THE FORMER MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 41 
 
 shop for selling boots if they did not belong to the Cordiners' Incorporation, 
 or from making and selling bread were they not by birth or purchased 
 right members of the Bakers' Incorporation. And while they were on one 
 side of a street subject to prosecution, fine, and imprisonment for such statutory 
 offences, on the other side, should it happen to be outside the Royalty 
 bounds, there was perfect freedom of trade, the Corporations being there 
 powerless and unknown. So anomalous, obstructive, and useless had this 
 ancient regulation become, that there was no serious attempt on the part of 
 the privileged bodies themselves to defend their obsolete privilege. As a 
 rule, persons beginning to trade in the various departments over which the 
 Corporations had exclusive rights, were in the habit of first becoming bur- 
 gesses and freemen of the Incorporations concerned in their business. In 
 later times the rights of the merchants and crafts were reluctantly admitted 
 by recalcitrants, under threat of legal proceedings, and a few cases were 
 carried into Courts of Law, where judgment was obtained upholding the 
 rights of the Incorporations. Several of these bodies had already ceased to 
 insist on the maintenance of their exclusive rights when the proposal to sweep 
 them away came before Parliament, and their opposition was feeble and half- 
 hearted. By none was it alleged that these exclusive privileges were beneficial 
 to the commerce and trade of the country, nor even useful for the individual 
 trades to which they gave a limited monopoly. The only argument advanced 
 against the legislation was that the charitable and educational functions of 
 the bodies would be crippled, that there would be no inducement for traders 
 or craftsmen to become members of the several Incorporations, and that these 
 bodies would consequently fall into a condition of decay. The Merchants' 
 House expressed these self-protective sentiments in a memorial they pre- 
 sented to the Lord Advocate against the bill. In December, 1845, the 
 House had resolved to postpone for a year the prosecution of persons who 
 had, from or after ist January, 1845, commenced or carried on business in 
 Glasgow without entering burgesses, so that the result of the proposed change 
 might be ascertained. But at the same time they agreed, in the interests of 
 legal traders, to prosecute those who for a series of years had been trading 
 contrary to the law, and thereby reaping " an undue advantage at the 
 expense of those persons who have entered burgesses, either voluntarily or 
 when judicially required." But the Merchants' House did not get the oppor- 
 tunity of making the experiment of giving a year's grace to new offenders 
 while rigorously prosecuting the older and more hardened trading sinners. 
 The bill for abolishing the exclusive privilege of trading in burghs in Scotland 
 was introduced in 1 846. The Merchants' House petitioned against the 
 measure, pointing out that its pecuniary interests would be materially injured 
 by its provisions, that its effect in the course of years would be " the 
 complete extinction of a civic distinction of ancient standing, intimately 
 interwoven with the public and charitable establishments of the City." The
 
 42 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 measure, however, received the support of the Town Council, and on the 
 14th of May, 1846, it was passed into law and became immediately 
 operative. 
 
 Shorn of their municipal rights and of their exclusive privileges, what 
 then remained to the Merchants' House and the fourteen Incorporations of 
 Glasgow? These bodies in earlier times, with the differences due to the 
 mediaeval conceptions of trade and industry, represented the Trades' Unions 
 of the present day, and they also claimed to be the Friendly and Charitable 
 Societies of their times. Their charity, it is true, began — and very strictly 
 ended — at home ; and they were really more mediaeval mutual insurance 
 bodies than charitable organizations. The Act of Parliament continued to 
 the Incorporations their corporate character, and all the rights and privileges 
 they then possessed other than the trading privilege ; and it empowered them 
 to apply to the Court of Session for such modifications of their Regulations 
 and Bye-laws as the altered circumstances might seem to demand. From 
 the date of the Act, 1846, onwards, therefore, the Incorporations have con- 
 tinued to be, in respect of the property they own, semi-private Corporations, 
 administering the property they individually possess, primarily for the benefit 
 of their poor and decayed members and their families, to a small extent 
 fostering education, and also exercising the right to give contributions 
 towards charitable, benevolent, and other schemes for the public welfare, 
 beyond the limits of their own membership. 
 
 The Merchants' House and the Trades' House, however, in the constitu- 
 tion of the Dean of Guild Court, possess and exercise important municipal 
 functions of a judicial character which have belonged to them from early 
 times. In Glasgow the Guild Court was definitely established under the 
 Letter of Guildry, already alluded to, which was issued in 1605 ; but the 
 jurisdiction and functions of Guild Courts in Scotland are of much more 
 ancient date. As constituted in 1605 the Guild Court of Glasgow consists 
 of the Dean of Guild with eight members of his Council or " lyners " : four 
 elected from the Merchants' House and four from the Trades' House, with 
 the Town Clerk as assessor of the Court. Originally the judicial functions 
 of the Guild Court were very extensive. They embraced the power to judge 
 and decern in all mercantile causes as between merchant and merchant, 
 merchant and mariner, and any other Guild brother. At an early period 
 that power fell into disuse, and mercantile causes came to be dealt with 
 in the Burgh and other Courts. Till the passing of the Act abolishing 
 exclusive trading in 1 846, it was also the function of the Guild Court to 
 prevent and punish the intrusion of unfree traders and craftsmen within the 
 Royalty. And another important duty confided to the Guild Court also has 
 long passed into other courts, the supervision of weights and measures, the 
 power " to oversee and reform the wetts and measures, great and small, pint 
 and quart, peck and firlot, and all sorts within the elwand, and weights
 
 THE FORMER MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 43 
 
 of pound and stone of all sorts, and to punish and unlaw the transgressors 
 as they shall think expedient." 
 
 Although the powers of the Guild Court, by desuetude and change of 
 law, are now greatly circumscribed, the functions it still continues to dis- 
 charge are of vital importance to the City. Under the Letter of Guildry 
 it was provided that the Dean of Guild and his Council, with the Master 
 of Works, " shall bear the burden in decerning all questions of neighbourhood 
 and lining within the burgh." The existing jurisdiction of the Dean of Guild 
 Court is limited to this branch of its ancient functions, as confirmed, con- 
 tinued, and extended under the Police Acts which now regulate the streets 
 and buildings of Glasgow. Under that legislation the authority of the 
 Dean of Guild Court has to be sought for the laying out of new streets, 
 whether public or private. The Court has the power to order the transfer 
 of the ownership of streets from private holders to the Statute Labour 
 Department of the Glasgow Police, and to impose the conditions under 
 which such streets shall be handed over to the public authorities. It 
 possesses extensive powers connected not only with the laying out of streets, 
 but also with their alteration and improvement. The ancient powers of the 
 Court, in connection with the process of lining and questions of title and 
 servitude, are, by the Police Act, confirmed to it. The sanction of the 
 Court has to be obtained for the erection of all buildings within the 
 municipality ; it has the right to order the building line to be kept back 
 from the line of the street ; obstructions or projections on the street can be 
 compulsory removed by order of the Court ; no owner of property can 
 make structural alterations without Guild Court authority, and dangerous 
 and ruinous buildings can be pulled down under its warrant. Thus to a large 
 extent the character of the City, its ground plan, the spaciousness of its 
 streets, squares, and places, its general amenity and healthfulness, are in 
 the keeping of the Dean of Guild and his Council. 
 
 The Dean of Guild and his Council are a judicial body entirely distinct 
 from the Dean of Guild and Directors of the Merchants' House, who direct 
 the affairs of the House, and administer its funds, mortifications, and educa- 
 tional undertakings. The Directorate of the Merchants' House consists of 
 the Dean of Guild and thirty-six Directors, elected annually by the whole 
 matriculated members of the House, at a meeting held on the fourth 
 Tuesday before the day statutorily appointed for the election of the Town 
 Council — the first Tuesday in November. The Dean of Guild is eligible 
 for a second year of office, but he cannot hold place for more than two 
 years consecutively, though it is the invariable practice to reappoint him for 
 the second year. The Dean of Guild, in addition to the functions pertaining 
 to his office and to his position in the Town Council, is ex-officio a Justice 
 of Peace of the County of Lanark, and of the County of the City of 
 Glasgow, and a patron, trustee, or director of numerous educational, charitable.
 
 44 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 and social institutions in Glasgow, to which the Merchants' House elects 
 other representatives in addition to the Dean. 
 
 At the time when the Merchants' House was the sole representative of 
 the mercantile interests of Glasgow, and when its powers and prerogatives 
 were great, its voice in the councils of the land, on commercial questions, 
 on mercantile law, and in connection with public movements generally, was 
 weighty and influential. Naturally and properly the House intervened in 
 questions relating not only to the prosperity of Glasgow, but also when the 
 larger and more general interests of the country were concerned. Although 
 deprived of its representative character, and shorn of much of its power, the 
 Merchants' House yet maintains much of its ancient prestige, nor has it ceased 
 to make its influence felt and its councils respected in mercantile and 
 public affairs. It still receives into its ranks all the principal merchants 
 and manufacturers of the City ; besides many of the leading lawyers and 
 other professional and well-educated gentlemen are proud to be enrolled 
 members of the House. It continues to watch and criticize all movements 
 bearing on fiscal affairs, manufacturing industries, trade and commerce, and 
 on schemes affecting the welfare of the district and the entire community. 
 The Merchants' House has no politics, although the opinions of its individual 
 members may be pronounced enough ; but at the period of the Reform Bill, 
 notwithstanding that its sympathies were naturally for the maintaining of 
 its own place and power, it petitioned strongly on the popular side. On 
 the Burgh Reform Question the House was naturally more conservative, 
 and the desire to maintain the power and privileges possessed by the House, 
 in civic affairs, impelled the members to try to preserve as much of their 
 ancient status as they could. The House ardently supported the Free 
 Trade policy of Sir Robert Peel, and in questions affecting trade it has 
 in the main been generous and liberal in its sympathies. As a public body 
 the Merchants' House also takes its fair share in such social duties as 
 presentation of addresses to the Crown on special occasions, such as 
 coronations, marriages, births, deaths, royal visits, etc. 
 
 The Merchants' House is a wealthy body, and it holds its property 
 almost entirely as a sacred trust for the relief of poverty, and for aid to the 
 struggling and unfortunate among its members and their families. The 
 Letter of Guildry, however, empowers the House to apply its funds to any 
 other " good and godly " work, which may tend to the advancing of the 
 commonweal of the Town. Its funds and property have been accumulated 
 from the matriculation or entry fees of the new members, from its share of 
 the " fines " or fees on the entry of merchant burgesses, including in former 
 times apprentice fees and " bucket money," subscriptions to the " Gold 
 Book," fines levied on members who refused to accept office as Town 
 Councillor or Dean of Guild when appointed, and fees for the use of the 
 mort-cloth at funerals. Under the original Letter of Guildry all merchant
 
 THE FORMER MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL 45 
 
 burgesses were ipso facto members of the House without further payment ; 
 but in 1749, to augment the funds, a regulation was passed that the only 
 members of the Merchants' House should be traders who paid an entry 
 money of five shillings and an annual subscription of four shillings. In 
 1773 these payments were commuted into an entrance fee of £^, and in 
 1 79 1 the entry money was raised to ;^io los. in full of all payments, at 
 which sum it now stands. Over the income derived from these sources 
 the House has absolute control, but it also administers numerous mortifica- 
 tions and bequests, the free proceeds of which, in some cases, are at the 
 unfettered disposal of the House ; but many of these funds have been destined 
 b}- the testators for special objects, or otherwise they are restricted so that 
 the House is really only in the position of a public trustee. 
 
 In 1624 the revenue of the Merchants' House from all sources did not 
 exceed £260 stg.; in 1661 the income was ^^^524, of which £iSZ ^^'^s from 
 "bucket money," i^i02 from burgess fines, and £26 from mort-cloths, 
 interests on bonds and land rents yielding together £2^,%', and the free stock 
 was ;^2000. In 1755 the revenue had increased to £g6y, and the 
 accumulated free stock was ;^i 1,549. ^t the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century the revenue did not exceed iJ^iooo yearly, and the free stock was 
 stated at about £i?>,ooo. In 1850 the income of the House had reached 
 ;^2 5oo, and the capital stock was equal to i^3 8,684. I^^ the financial year 
 ended 31st August i 895, the nett free stock amounted to ;^2i4,8i3,in addition 
 to which there was in the hands of the House, of mortifications and special 
 bequests, and of surplus revenues from the same, the sum of iJ^ 112,386. 
 The revenue for the year, exclusive of the returns from special mortifications, 
 reached ^8675, made up of rents, feu-duties, and ground annuals, ^^2503; 
 interest on loans and deposit receipts ;^I445; dividends on Corporation and 
 Railway Stock ^^26 19; burgess fines, etc., ^^^46; the free yield of the Morgan 
 Mortification was ^0934, one-third of which went to Glasgow Presbytery 
 for Morgan bursaries ; and from Glasgow Necropolis was derived i^7 7 8. As 
 extraordinary receipts there were added to the stock account from matriculation 
 fees of new members ;^640, and from the sale of the book " View of the 
 Merchants' House of Glasgow" £1"^) i8s. The fine pile of buildings at the 
 N.W. corner of George Square, containing the hall of the House, stands in 
 the books at a cost of ^^75,576, of which i^3 1,998 was the price of the 
 site. The other property requiring any comment is the Necropolis of Glasgow, 
 the estimated value of unalienated ground and vaults in it being ;^42,ooo. 
 The Necropolis occupies a magnificent situation on the rising ground on the 
 east side of the Molendinar valley, opposite the ancient Cathedral of the 
 City. The site forms a portion of the lands of Easter and Wester Craigs, 
 acquired by the Merchants' House from Sir Ludovic Stewart of Mynto in 
 1650, at a price of 23,350 merks, equal to ^1291 13s. 4d. sterling. The 
 western portion of these grounds retained by the Merchants' House was
 
 46 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 beautifully laid out, in 1833, as a cemetery, a handsome viaduct — the Bridge 
 of Sighs — spanning the Molendinar ravine was constructed, and the Necropolis 
 has since received the ashes of many of the most prominent of the citizens 
 of Glasgow. While a profitable investment for the Merchants' House, the 
 planting of the Necropolis has secured, for all time, an ample open space 
 beyond the sombre and stately Cathedral of Glasgow, and thus provided it with 
 a striking and appropriate background, while it has given to Glasgow one of 
 the most impressive cities of the dead attached to any community. 
 
 The gifts and bequests to the House from the period of its foundation 
 till the present day have been very numerous, and have ranged in value 
 from £\ Scots up to the munificent benefaction of Mr. John Morgan, 
 Bishopbriggs, the latest and largest legacy received by the House. The sum 
 paid and transferred by Mr. Morgan's executors in the course of the year 
 1894-95 is no less than ;6^7 3,000, which is subject to a life-rent charge of 
 ;^500 yearly and to a postponed legacy of iJ^iooo. Of the free revenue of 
 Mr. Morgan's estate one-third is destined to the Presbytery of Glasgow for 
 Morgan bursaries, and the remaining two-thirds is at the disposal of the 
 directors for the ordinary charitable and public purposes encouraged by the 
 House. Next to the Morgan Bequest the greatest windfall that came into 
 the exchequer of the House was the legacies devised by James Ewing of 
 Strathleven, under his will made in 1844 and proved in 1853. Mr. Ewing 
 bequeathed ;!^iooo to the general funds of the House, ;^ 10,000 he left for 
 pensions and allowances for decayed Glasgow Merchants, ^10,000 for 
 educating, training, and settling in business the sons of decayed Glasgow 
 merchants, and iJ^ 10,000 for pensions and allowances to the widows and 
 daughters of decayed Glasgow merchants. Under Mr. Ewing's will the 
 legacies and annuities payable to relations were declared to be preferable to 
 the bequest to strangers and charities, and in consequence the sum derived 
 from his estate up to this time for decayed merchants and their families 
 amounts only to ^18,900. A bequest of i^ 10,000 subject to legacy duty 
 was in 1857 made to the House under the will of James Buchanan, 
 merchant, payable twelve months after the death of Mrs. Buchanan. The 
 annual proceeds it was declared should be exclusively expended on the 
 education of the sons of decayed members, and on providing university 
 bursaries to such of them as gave promise of future eminence. The proceeds 
 of the £>CiOOO capital stock is now expended in pensions, and there is in the 
 hands of the directors a balance of surplus revenue equal to ^^^3840. The 
 remaining mortifications and bequests are for smaller sums and of minor 
 importance, and several of them under the provisions of the Educational 
 Endowments Act have been diverted from their primary purposes. 
 
 In all the House expended, during the year ended 31st August, 1895, 
 £4.igg in ordinary pensions, precepts, and funeral charges; for university 
 bursaries there was given ^116; there was placed to the credit of the revenues
 
 THE FORMER MASTERS OF THE COUNCH 47 
 
 of special mortifications ^^1383, out of which ^934 was paid in pensions, 
 £\'^6 in bursaries and scholarships, and the balance was added to the 
 surplus or unexhausted revenues of the several mortifications. And in the 
 end a sum of ;^i8ii was free to add to the stock account or capital of 
 the Merchants' House. 
 
 Like the Merchants' House the Trades' House arose out of the Letter of 
 Guildry of 1605. Under that document it is provided that there shall be a 
 Deacon Convener, who shall ever be of the rank of Craftsman ; the method 
 of his election is therein prescribed, one of his privileges specified is that he 
 " shall always be a counsillor of the town's great council," and among his 
 duties enumerated are to convene all the deacons of the crafts and their 
 assistants at such times as occasion shall require and to judge betwixt them. 
 The Trades' House is composed of delegates from the fourteen incorporated 
 trades of Glasgow, bodies which at various dates previous to 1605 h^cl been 
 called into existence by charters or seals of cause granted by the Town 
 Council, with the concurrence of the Archbishop of Glasgow. Four of the 
 Incorporations, the Hammermen, Tailors, Cordiners, and Maltmen, have each 
 the right to be represented in the House by six members, the Weavers send 
 four, the remaining Incorporations can elect only three, excepting the Dyers 
 and the Bonnetmakers who are entitled to elect only two representatives. The 
 House thus consists of fifty-four delegates from the several Incorporations. 
 
 The funds of the House have, from small beginnings, accumulated by 
 savings, gifts, and mortifications till now they amount to an annual income of 
 more than ^^5000, with a stock which exceeds ;Ci2 5,ooo. The official 
 income of the House is derived only from the share allocated to it of the 
 burgess and guildry fines levied on the entry of burgesses and freemen 
 of the craft rank. These sums, by the constitution of the House, were to 
 be applied to their hospital and decayed brethren of the craftsmen, or to 
 any other good and pious use which may tend to the advancement of the 
 commonweal of the burgh. In the early days each new deacon of the 
 different crafts also paid a certain sum on his appointment to the House, 
 and considerable amounts were accumulated by gifts, bequests, and 
 mortifications for specific purposes. As is the case with the Merchants' 
 House, a certain proportion of the revenues are held by the House, in trust 
 only, for the specific objects under which the money was mortified by the 
 testators. The increase of revenue of the House and the accumulation of 
 stock which has been marked in recent times is due really to fortunate 
 investments which have been made, especially to the acquirement of an 
 interest in the Gorbals lands already referred to, and to an investment in 
 the lands of Kelvinbank and Sandyford made in 1846-47, which cost 
 about ;^32,5oo. 
 
 For their fourth part of the Gorbals lands the Trades' House and the 
 Incorporations jointly paid 31,000 merks {£iy22 sterling), 8000 merks
 
 48 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 (;^444) being the contribution of the House. Its share therefore amounts 
 to 8/31 of the revenue, and from this investment alone the House receives 
 yearly upwards of ;^I200. From the Kelvinbank and Sandyford property 
 feu-duties amounting to ;£^2 520 are received, the Town Council and Parks 
 Trustees paying alone ;^437 yearly for a portion of Kelvingrove Park feued 
 off these lands. From other investments in Corporation and Clyde Trust 
 Stocks, Bonds and Heritable properties, an income of ^792 is obtained. 
 The Trades' Hall buildings, the joint property of the House and the Incor- 
 porations, was erected in 1791, and with alterations and additions since 
 made they now stand in the books at ;^ 17,880 in the proportions of ;^i 1,700 
 to the House and ^^6130 to the crafts. 
 
 The House takes a generous view of its duty as a public institution in 
 relation to the assistance, not only of decayed craftsmen, their widows, and 
 their unmarried daughters, but also in supporting the benevolent institutions 
 of the City, and in promoting public and patriotic objects. Large subscriptions 
 have occasionally been made from their funds for public objects. Thus in 
 1777 ^500 was contributed, during the American War, to assist in raising 
 a battalion of men. In 1803 the warlike spirit of the country induced the 
 House to vote other ^^^500 to raise a battalion of volunteers. In 1799 i^500 
 was voted, in time of public distress, for the purchase of meal for the starving 
 poor. To Infirmaries, Hospitals, and to the University large sums at 
 various dates were contributed for building and maintenance, and altogether 
 within a century not less than p{^ 10,000 has been voted by the House 
 for laudable public purposes outside the narrow interests of the craftsmen. 
 In earlier times the Trades' School was supported by the House, but on 
 the passing of the Education Act, 1872, the School was abolished, and 
 instead, a number of scholarships were established to be competed for by 
 the children of craftsmen. The subsequent re-arrangement of the educa- 
 tional endowments of Glasgow, under the Educational Endowments 
 Act of 1882, with the abolition of fees and other educational reforms, 
 impelled the House to restrict its operations to the purely charitable 
 side of its activities ; and now it administers, in the interests of education, 
 only a very limited sum for university bursaries, in accordance with the 
 terms of the Deeds of Mortifications under which the House is bound to act. 
 
 Of the several Incorporations, the constitutent bodies of the Trades' 
 House, it is not needful here to say much. Their order of precedence 
 and the earliest date to which they can be traced are : 
 
 Hammermen, 
 
 - 
 
 1536 
 
 Wrights, 
 
 1600 
 
 Tailors, 
 
 - 
 
 1556 
 
 Coopers, 
 
 1569 
 
 Cordiners, - 
 
 - 
 
 1558 
 
 Fleshers, - 
 
 1580 
 
 Maltmen, 
 
 - 
 
 1605 
 
 Masons, 
 
 1551 
 
 Weavers, 
 
 - 
 
 1528 
 
 Gardeners, 
 
 1690 
 
 Bakers, 
 
 - 
 
 1556 
 
 Barbers, 
 
 1559 
 
 Skinners, 
 
 - 
 
 1516 
 
 Dyers, 
 
 1557
 
 THE FORMER MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL 49 
 
 The dates given do not in everj^ case indicate the original period of the 
 formation of the bodies, but represent only the years from which they 
 possess charters or are known to have had authoritative recognition; and the 
 order of precedence is that established by a decree of declarator issued in 
 1777 by the Court of Session. The masons, indeed, claim to possess a 
 charter issued by King Malcolm III. in 1057 ; but no one seriously be- 
 lieves in the antiquity or authenticity of that remarkable document. Never- 
 theless the existence of co-fraternities of several of the trades at a date 
 much anterior to that given, is attested by reference to them in contemporary 
 minutes of the Town Council. 
 
 The Incorporations are in the enjoyment of large and increasing 
 revenues from gifts and bequests, and from surplus income arising from 
 entrance fees of freemen during the centuries they have existed. Eleven 
 of the Incorporations possess shares in the fourth part of the Gorbals lands 
 which was assigned to the crafts on its purchase. The crafts' share was 
 divided into 3 1 parts, eight of which, as we have already seen, belong to 
 the Trades' House itself. The tailors and maltmen each hold six shares, 
 the hammermen, cordiners, and skinners have each two ; the weavers, 
 Wrights, coopers, and fleshers one, and the remaining share is divided be- 
 tween the bakers and the masons. Their revenues they administer with 
 scrupulous care for the benefit of decayed members and their widows and 
 fatherless children ; they subscribe also, with liberality, to the infirmaries 
 and other public charities, and occasionally they give special subscriptions 
 for other good and pious purposes. But they do not take any part in 
 public affairs, and they have no pretence, in their modern constitution, to 
 be other than partly friendly, partly charitable, and partly mutual assurance 
 associations. It is needless to say that the tailors do not pursue the clothing 
 industry, and concern themselves not in the remotest degree with the doings 
 and welfare of that useful class of operatives, nor are the hammermen in 
 any way necessarily connected with the metal industries ; and although 
 individuals connected with many of the trades naturally gravitate to the 
 Incorporations bearing the name of their industry, no advantage or benefit 
 arises from the nominal relationship. 
 
 Admission to the Incorporations is obtained by enrolled burgesses only, 
 and the sons and sons-in-law of freemen have a right to enrolment for modified 
 entry fines or fees. " Strangers " or entrants at what is termed the " far-hand," 
 pay entry money generally fixed with a due regard to the wealth and 
 numerical strength of the Incorporation, and, therefore, having a relation to 
 the possible benefit which may be derived from the connection. The entry 
 money is based on admission at 25 years of age, and for each additional year 
 in the age of the applicant compound interest at the rate of 5 per cent, is 
 added, so that in the case of the wealthier and more select Incorporations 
 the entry money of a middle-aged man amounts to a considerable sum. 
 
 D
 
 50 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 The following is a table of the revenue and expenditure, with a statement 
 of the Capital Stocks of the Trades' House and the several Incorporations 
 for the year ended September, 1895. 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE REVENUE, EXPENDITURE, AND STOCK ACCOUNTS 
 OF THE TRADES' HOUSE AND INCORPORATIONS OF GLASGOW AS 
 AT SEPTEMBER, 1895. 
 
 
 Revenue. 
 
 Expenditure. 
 
 Stock. 
 
 The 
 
 Trades' House, 
 
 - 
 
 £6,38 1 17 
 
 5^ 
 
 .^4,474 17 
 
 3* 
 
 i:i25,987 19 10 
 
 The 
 
 Incorporation of 
 
 Hammermen, 
 
 2,512 10 
 
 II 
 
 1,003 18 
 
 5 
 
 26,716 10 5 
 
 
 » » 
 
 Tailors, 
 
 2,662 5 
 
 4 
 
 2,651 10 
 
 3 
 
 68,757 12 
 
 
 5> » 
 
 CORDINERS, 
 
 798 9 
 
 
 
 688 8 
 
 3 
 
 21,560 19 II 
 
 
 >5 » 
 
 Maltmen, - 
 
 2,566 10 
 
 5 
 
 2,395 14 
 
 6 
 
 67,286 13 7 
 
 
 J5 11 
 
 Weavers, - 
 
 964 6 
 
 
 
 946 
 
 5 
 
 23,139 2 II 
 
 
 » 11 
 
 Bakers, 
 
 1,919 18 
 
 I 
 
 1,237 16 
 
 II 
 
 71,113 3 10 
 
 
 n 11 
 
 Skinners, - 
 
 1,398 3 
 
 4 
 
 1,000 18 
 
 5 
 
 41,994 18 2 
 
 
 11 J) 
 
 Wrights, - 
 
 1,190 10 
 
 5 
 
 1,053 7 
 
 8 
 
 33,009 12 8 
 
 
 » 11 
 
 Coopers, - 
 
 818 4 
 
 2 
 
 662 9 
 
 9 
 
 20,746 12 10 
 
 
 5> )) 
 
 Fleshers, - 
 
 1,241 14 
 
 7 
 
 1,177 9 
 
 8 
 
 33,851 18 7 
 
 
 M 11 
 
 Masons, 
 
 513 3 
 
 5 
 
 464 
 
 2 
 
 18,979 18 8 
 
 
 » 11 
 
 Gardeners, 
 
 314 5 
 
 10 
 
 265 4 
 
 10 
 
 8,841 17 5 
 
 
 11 11 
 
 Barbers, - 
 
 462 16 
 
 I 
 
 375 12 
 
 8i 
 
 10,979 12 6^ 
 
 
 J) )) 
 
 Dyers, 
 
 183 18 
 
 9 
 
 175 
 
 
 
 7,205 6 II 
 
 ^23,928 13 
 
 9i 
 
 ^18,572 9 
 
 3 
 
 i:58o,i72 3 J 
 
 The affairs of the Incorporations are administered by Master Courts, 
 consisting of a deacon (in the case of the maltmen he is officially a 
 " visitor "), the late or last deacon or visitor, a collector and late collector, 
 and a certain number of masters, the latter ordinarily serving for a period 
 of three years. The deacon holds office for one year only, and he must 
 previously have been in the Master Court, and have served faithfully as
 
 THE FORMER MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL 51 
 
 collector, out of which office he must have been for at least one year. The 
 creneral rule is that the late collector of one year becomes the deacon of the 
 next. The annual election to the Master Courts takes place on the first 
 Friday after the 15 th of September in each year, and the occasion is 
 celebrated by a dinner held on the evening of that da}' ; but the expense 
 of that entertainment is, in almost every case, privately defrayed to the 
 uttermost farthing.
 
 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. 
 
 In the immediate neighbourhood of the harbour of Glasgow and of the ship- 
 yards whence are floated those marvels of modern engineering — the great 
 Atlantic steamships — there have not infrequently been dug out of the soil rude 
 boats, hollowed out from trunks of oak, which formed the shipping of our primi- 
 tive ancestors. The Glasgow of the present day differs from the modest little 
 City of the seventeenth century, at some of the aspects of which we have 
 glanced, as much as the marvels of modern shipbuilding differ from the frail 
 oaken barks of the ancient dwellers on the banks of the Clyde. The modern 
 City, viewed as a compacted and co-ordinated entity is, like all modern cities, 
 a marvel of ingenious and bold engineering, a highly-finished and complex 
 machine, having an endless range of contrivances and adjustments, entirely 
 wanting in the assemblage of humble dwellings with their modest kail-yairds, 
 which formed the City of the seventeenth century. Our ancestors were with- 
 out paved streets, drains, sewers and sewage purification. Each man had to 
 look after his own lighting, domestic and public, and cleansing, if any, was 
 also the task of the individual. The water supply came from public pumps 
 and private wells, or from the yet limpid and healthful Molendinar, brought 
 not in pipes but in buckets and stoups. Our modern City has its systems 
 of water and gas pipes, its overhead and underground wires for telegraphy, 
 telephony and electric lighting, it has its tramways, subways and railways, 
 its baths, wash-houses and sanitary establishments, its museums and art 
 galleries, its music, public parks and botanic gardens, and further, a host 
 of other adaptations of modern invention and development, all forming
 
 THE MODERN MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL 53 
 
 part of the municipal organization and corporate structure, which have no 
 counterpart in the earlier City. And as the primitive City was simple in its 
 organization, so were the functions of its governing Council limited in amount, 
 and of little complexity in detail. Increase in size alone, of course, entails 
 commensurate increase in supervision. The regulation and government of 
 a little community of 12,000 is, at any time, a much more simple and easy 
 task than the ruling of a great city of 700,000 inhabitants. But the growth 
 of the City alone is by no means the chief factor in adding to the duties 
 and responsibilities of the Town Council of modern times. In these days 
 the councillor is much more the servant than the master of the people, 
 and without any sense of communism he is called on to discharge many 
 duties, which the individual in days of yore performed for himself, or lived 
 altogether without. The wonderful machine — the modern City — with its 
 delicate adjustments and its innumerable hidden perils, has to be kept in 
 smooth working order and in proper repair ; the health, the cleanliness, 
 the food, the recreation, the comfort, the very employment of the people, 
 all have to be looked after ; new devices have to be tried ; new appliances 
 have to be experimented with, and every tested improvement has to be 
 adopted. The masters of the Council are exigent ; they demand in their 
 service increasing labour, constant watchfulness and untiring zeal ; and it 
 is but fair to say that, from their unpaid servants, the councillors, they 
 get a marvellously large share of such self-sacrificing service. 
 
 The modest concessions made in 1832-3 to the spirit of" modern demo- 
 cracy, have brought in their train consequences immensely more far reaching, 
 and changes more fundamental, than were dreamt of by the most penetrating 
 of the advocates of reform. The immediate change simply amounted to 
 giving some proportion of the people a share in saying by whom they 
 should be governed in affairs imperial and municipal ; and that concession 
 granted and thankfully accepted, it appeared to many good Whigs that 
 public concerns would continue to wag on as of yore. But it is not in 
 human nature to be conscious of power and not seek to exercise it ; although, 
 except in times of intense strain and excitement, the people are curiously 
 slow to discover the powers they do possess. The intimacy of social or- 
 ganization in large communities naturally led sooner to the discovery 
 and exercise of their new powers; and almost from the very first the relations 
 of the Council and the community were changed, if not reversed. Within 
 limits — limits of riot and rebellion — the old Council could impose their will 
 on the people ; now the people found they could dictate to, and master the 
 Council. While the mutual relationship was to that extent immediately 
 reversed, the change has worked for good only : the Council and the people 
 have been kept in sympathetic touch with each other ; the ever present 
 consciousness of their master, the public, has proved a healthy restraint 
 to the impetuous, and a goad to the languid councillor ; while faithful
 
 54 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 and disinterested municipal service has been amply appreciated and re- 
 warded. 
 
 The area of authority, and the amount of duty expected from Town 
 Councillors, increased with great rapidity from the time of the Reform 
 Act downwards. Although the municipal bounds of Glasgow were altered 
 and extended no fewer than six times between the years 1800 and 1878, 
 yet so rapid was the growth of the population that, scarcely at any interval 
 during this period, did the City feel any other than unduly constricted and 
 hide-bound. Even when, in 1 846, by the absorption of Gorbals, Calton, 
 and Anderston, the municipal area was considerably more than doubled, the 
 rule of the Town Council was extended only over a well-built region, which 
 had been parliamentary Glasgow since the passing of the 1832 Reform Act. 
 In the second half of the century especially the feeling of tightness and 
 discomfort became aggravated and acute. Not only had the population over- 
 flowed the municipal bounds in various directions, but the overflow population 
 began to crystalize into burghal committees on their own account, and since 
 the middle of the century Glasgow saw forming around it a ring of suburban 
 burghs, the existence of which almost barred the possibility of expansion on the 
 part of the parent City. The extension and perpetuation of a system of in- 
 dependent and rival police burghs meant, of course, the throttling of the central 
 authority. Glasgow, already closely built up within her bounds, could not possibly 
 increase largely and indefinitely in population. The additions would be, of 
 necessity, to the outside communities where there was room for expansion, 
 and when Glasgow became perforce stationary these would absorb the entire 
 natural increase of the population. The central authority would decrease 
 in influence, and the vigorous young communities with increasing power 
 would be increasingly self-assertive. Community of government, of purpose, 
 of action, would be at an end, and friction, rivalry, and jealousy would inevit- 
 ably spring up. Into the history of the prolonged and fiercely-contested 
 struggle between Glasgow and the suburban burghs it is not necessary here 
 to enter. It is sufficient to say that the parent City had ample reason and 
 warrant for all the efforts she exerted towards securing and maintaining the 
 homogeneity of the community, and fortunately in the end the contentions 
 of the Corporation secured such a large measure of success as to warrant the 
 expectation of ultimate unity of government. The ring fence which threatened 
 to cramp and confine the City with a " thus far and no further" decree has been 
 completely broken down, and there is no remote probability of such a barrier 
 being again formed. 
 
 The present outcome of the long struggle for natural growth and develop- 
 ment on the part of Glasgow is embraced in the City of Glasgow Act, 1891 — 54 
 and 5 5 Victoria, Cap. CXXX. Under that statute the affairs of the City and 
 Royal Burgh are at present regulated, and by its provisions the municipal 
 area was enlarged, as we have seen, to nearly double its former extent, from
 
 THE MODERN MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 55 
 
 6iii to I 1, 86 1 acres. The added area includes the Police Burghs of 
 Govanhill, Crosshill, Pollokshields East, and Pollokshields, with the populous 
 districts of Polmadie, Mount Florida, Langside, Crossmyloof, Shawlands, 
 Strathbungo, and Bellahouston on the south side of the Clyde, and on the 
 north side the Police Burghs of Hillhead and Maryhill, with the district of 
 Kelvinside, a portion of Springburn not previously absorbed, and Barnhill. The 
 population added, according to the Census of 1891, numbered 91,217 persons, 
 which, with the 564,968 within the old bounds, raised the total inhabitants 
 of Glasgow to 656,185 persons; and to an annual value of heritages which, 
 within the old municipality was ^3,427,286, there was added ;£^6o6,268, 
 bringing the total annual value of the extended City up to ^4,033,554. 
 
 Under the Act of 1891 the number of wards or municipal electoral divisions 
 in the City was increased from sixteen to twenty-five, and the ordinary members 
 of the Town Council — three for each ward — were raised from forty-eight to 
 seventy-five, or adding the two ex-officio members, the Dean of Guild and Deacon- 
 Convener, from fifty to seventy-seven. With the exception of a small addition to 
 the first and second wards, the whole of the nine new wards were formed out of 
 the newly added areas, five being allotted to the districts south of the river, and 
 four to the region on the northern boundaries. This arrangement was, however, 
 expressly declared by the Act to be temporary and provisional, the statute 
 enacting that, as early as convenient in 1896, a Commission consisting of the 
 Lord Provost, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire, and a third member nominated by 
 the Secretary of State for Scotland, should be appointed again to divide the 
 City into twenty-five wards. At the beginning of November in that year the 
 whole of the Town Council demits ofifice, and a full complement of seventy-five 
 councillors falls to be elected, hi the five years which shall then have elapsed, 
 it was expected that a sufficient experience of the extended municipality would 
 have been acquired to enable the authorities to decide in what respect and to 
 what extent modifications and amendments of government are required. On 
 the Police Commissioners, which is the Town Council under another name, 
 the Act lays the duty of devising and settling " such a system of divisional 
 administration for Police, Statute Labour, and Sanitary purposes as they may 
 deem best fitted for the requirements of the City." That system is not to 
 come into operation till the ist of December, 1896. Thus, before the close of 
 1896, we are to have an entirely new Council elected within a new system of 
 wards to administer the Police, Streets, and Sanitation of the City under a new 
 scheme of divisional or sectional government, should the Police Commissioners 
 decide that a change is necessary in the interests of the community. 
 
 Under the Act the added districts are entitled, during the five years 
 probationary period, to an abatement of 20 per cent, off the ordinary rates 
 and assessments of the City, except the water rate and the charge for such 
 personal services as cleaning and lighting of private streets, courts, and stairs. 
 From 31st May, 1896, onwards the whole City will be treated in the imposi-
 
 56 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 tion of rates as one body, and each section will be called on to bear its 
 equal share of the burden of public taxes. 
 
 Nor can we, from the temporary and provisional condition of affairs, 
 exclude the present municipal boundary, Kinning Park, Govan, and Partick, 
 with their population of nearly 1 20,000 are, all arguments to the contrary 
 notwithstanding, integral portions of Glasgow, and there cannot be a doubt 
 that sooner or later these Police Burghs will be absorbed in the greater muni- 
 cipality, sharing the burdens and enjoying the advantages which undoubtedly 
 should fall to their lot as constituent factors of a powerful community. That 
 these and other suburban populations will throw in their lot with the common 
 parent is only a question of time. 
 
 While these several conditions of municipal organization and government 
 are but temporary, it is not at all probable that the changes which must be 
 effected before the close of 1896, and others which may occur sooner or later 
 will work any fundamental alteration in the constitution and functions of the 
 Town Council. So long as the present bounds of the City continue twenty- 
 five wards will exist, though the inequalities of population and other anomalies 
 of growth and accretion must disappear. Whatever delegation of local super- 
 vision there may be to district committees, it is quite obvious that the strings 
 of the purse and the last word on all proposals must abide with the central 
 power. The functions which can be delegated are merely administrative, 
 dealing with the condition of the roads and pavements, the drains and sewers 
 of the district, efficiency of the local cleaning and police, the position of fire- 
 plugs, the illumination of the streets, and such useful duties as demand a 
 certain local knowledge and sympathy. Local committees with duties so 
 circumscribed, but at the same time in a vast city so indispensable, may in an 
 official and statutory manner effect the purposes which at present devolve on 
 the irresponsible newspaper correspondents, " Scrutator," " Indignant Rate- 
 payer," and others with equally terrifying pseudonyms, or on the hap-hazard 
 zeal of the more active and enthusiastic of the Ward Committees. 
 
 The first step in the statutory revision of the municipal affairs has mean- 
 time been taken : the wards of the City have been redivided and to each has 
 been allotted an official local name, surely a respectful and appropriate change 
 from the bald numbers by which they were formerly distinguished. These 
 designations, moreover, preserve and perpetuate local names which themselves 
 have a history, and which in a great growing town too readily are lost 
 and forgotten. The Commissioners to whom was assigned the duty of 
 recasting the municipal wards had to deal with numerous inequalities 
 and anomalies, which inevitably grow up in an expanding and shifting popula- 
 tion ; and they had also to face the fact that the representation temporarily 
 allocated to the burghs and districts annexed in 1891 was enormously in 
 excess of their arithmetical rights. To prune down and reduce the electoral 
 power of any district is a task neither pleasant nor popular, but such was the
 
 THE MODERN MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL 57 
 
 obvious duty of the Commissioners. The tables given hereafter in which the 
 municipal constituency, as under the old and the new divisions, is exhibited, will 
 indicate the manner in which the Commissioners have dealt with the question 
 of equal distribution and representation which, of course, was not the sole and 
 only consideration that affected their determination. In general terms it 
 may be said that the scheme of the Commissioners involves the transference of 
 six members of the Town Council from the south to the north side of the 
 Clyde. Previous to 1891 the south side had nine representatives; during five 
 years, 1891-96, with eight wards it returned no fewer than twenty-four coun- 
 cillors, but from November 1896 it must be content with eighteen members, 
 out of a representative body of seventy-five. 
 
 While the character of the several wards may be modified to some extent 
 by the reshuffling of the whole, and in this way something done to make the 
 elected body more distinctly and equally representative than it now is, no one 
 can assert that the Town Council, for many years, has been other than a 
 strikingly representative body, animated by a spirit of pronounced local 
 patriotism and full of disinterested zeal for the public welfare. The indivi- 
 duality and variety of character of the old wards were indeed most marked, 
 and, as a rule, the representatives they sent to the Council exhibited in their 
 attitude and opinions, a faithful reflex of their constituents. The sturdy and 
 aggressive Liberalism of the east, where old Glasgow tradition is found in its 
 purest form, is in marked contrast to the lukewarm sentiments and the com- 
 parative indifference to things municipal which characterizes the centre and 
 business wards. Where Irish labourers do most assemble and vote it is but to 
 be expected that the meetings of ratepayers will be conducted in a spirited 
 manner, and that the chosen representatives will be men of advanced senti- 
 ments : facts do not much belie the anticipation. In the serene atmosphere of 
 the west end again there is no crowd of competing candidates for municipal 
 honours, and the unacknowledged difficulty is that of getting the best men to 
 devote their talents and attention to public business. 
 
 Since the floodgates of democracy were opened by the Burgh Reform 
 Act of 1833, the method of electing Town Councils in Scotland has been 
 regulated by Act of Parliament. During the years which have elapsed since 
 popular election was introduced the law has undergone many modifications, 
 and especially since 1868, when the Municipal Election Amendment Act 
 was passed, election law has been in a condition of chronic flux. Generally 
 municipal reforms in the form of extensions of franchise, and in the machinery 
 and methods of voting, etc., succeeded similar enactments for parliamentary 
 elections ; but in one direction, at least, the municipal electorate has been 
 enlarged along a line not yet accomplished, in relation to parliamentary 
 representation. Under the provisions of what is known as the Municipal 
 Election Amendment (Scotland) Act, 1881, a statute fathered by Sir Charles 
 Cameron, Bart., one of the representatives of Glasgow — unmarried women.
 
 58 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 having the necessary qualification became entitled to the municipal franchise; 
 they were empowered to nominate candidates for the Town Council, 
 to vote for them, and generally to exercise all the privileges of male 
 electors, excepting the right to become candidates and councillors them- 
 selves. The Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1894 further extended the 
 privileges of the ladies in enacting that all women possessing the qualification 
 for being registered on any Parish, County Council, or Municipal register of 
 voters, are not to be disqualified by reason of marriage from being so registered, 
 provided that husband and wife shall not both be registered in respect of the 
 same qualification. 
 
 The qualification of a municipal voter is in the main based on the 
 circumstance that he is a ratepayer. Rates in their turn are levied on the 
 annual value of the properties occupied or owned by the ratepayer, and thus 
 it is that, while the Register of Voters is the source and origin of all municipal 
 life and action, the fundamental document in the entire structure is the Valu- 
 ation Roll. From the data recorded in that document are obtained the details 
 necessary for inserting in the Roll of Voters nearly all the names it contains, 
 and on it also is reared the bulk of the financial fabric of the City. The duty 
 of annually preparing these lists, the Valuation Roll and the Register of Voters, 
 is laid on the City Assessor, and as they are documents of vital and funda- 
 mental importance, it is needful to offer a brief outline of the careful and 
 painstaking manner in which the onerous task is discharged. 
 
 The Valuation Roll has to contain, in a tabulated form, the following 
 particulars: (i) the description and situation of the subject, (2) the name and 
 address of the proprietor, (3) the name of the tenant, (4) the name of the 
 occupier, (5) the name of the inhabitant occupier, (6) the feu-duty or ground 
 annual, and (7) the yearly rent or value. Under the Lands Valuation Act, 
 1854, the assessor for the burgh prepares a new roll every year on or before 
 15th August, and by 25 th August every person has received a copy of the 
 entry relating to himself. If the assessor merely repeats an entry which 
 appeared in the Valuation Roll of the immediately preceding year, it is not 
 necessary that he should transmit a copy of the entry in such case, but the 
 practice in Glasgow has been to transmit a copy of the entry to all persons 
 appearing in the Valuation Roll. If anyone whose name appears on that roll 
 has complaint to make against the entry, he may apply to the assessor, who 
 may correct the entry before 8th September, on which day the roll is transmitted 
 to the Town Clerk. An appeal against the valuation lies to the magistrates. 
 Appeals require to be lodged by loth September, but notice must be given to 
 the assessor six days before the appeal is to be heard. All appeals must be 
 disposed of at latest by 30th September in each year. 
 
 The 28th day of May is now by statute the recognized "flitting term" 
 in Scotland, the date on which household removals take place, and from which 
 leases and the tenancy of houses, shops, and buildings generally run. On that
 
 THE MODERN MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL cq 
 
 day, and for weeks before, numerous changes in occupancy are in progress, 
 and the varied flittings afford not a few social revelations. The worldly goods 
 of many a family are neither bulky nor valuable, and the greater proportion of 
 that class, with little impedimenta, form a floating population which flit easily 
 and flit often. For many reasons the heads of such families do not desire to 
 have a fixed address, they find it convenient to steal silently away — like the 
 tented Arab — without attracting the attention of either landlord, the police, or 
 the keepers of local shoppies. Among decent working people, also, there is 
 much enforced flitting, according to the exigencies of employment, and gener- 
 ally it may be said that the lower the rent and value the greater is the 
 proportion of annual, or of more frequent, removals in the population. It is 
 this migratory population which gives the greatest amount of trouble to the 
 assessor and his staff Immediately the great annual exodus is over and the 
 population has shaken down into their new occupancies, the yearly survey of 
 the assessor begins. A staff of about thirty surveyors is set to the work of 
 revising, correcting and bringing up to date the roll of owners and occupiers 
 within the City. These surveyors take for the basis of their task a copy 
 of the Valuation Roll of the previous year. To each a certain portion of the 
 City and the corresponding slice of last year's roll is allotted. They work 
 under an elaborate code of instructions drawn up so as to secure faultless 
 accuracy and uniformity of information required under the heads of («) valu- 
 ation and {b) registration of voters. The surveyors go from house to house 
 over the entire City, and in their respective districts they visit and note every 
 separate occupancy or property let or unlet, verifying the entries in the list 
 they possess, changing names where new tenants have entered, and adding 
 such new properties and tenancies as may have been created during the year. 
 Simultaneously a form is supplied to every factor and owner of let property 
 in the City, in which he is required to supply the information necessary for 
 completing the Valuation Roll for the property in his charge or owned by him. 
 In about a month's time the survey is complete, the returns have been received 
 from factors and owners, and these returns are compared with the information 
 obtained by the surveyor in the course of his visitation. In cases where 
 property has remained in the same occupancy and without change of rent or 
 value no question arises. Where owner's and factor's returns agree with the 
 information gathered by the surveyor, and where there is no marked dis- 
 crepancy between the rent given and that entered in former years, the entries 
 are accepted as accurate, and passed accordingly. Difficulties arise when the 
 owner's and factor's returns do not agree with the statements of the occupiers, 
 and when there is an unaccountable increase or decrease in the rent or value. 
 These cases demand re-survey, inquiry, and explanation, which are promptly 
 applied and demanded. Independent survey and valuation on the part of the 
 assessor are also required in the case of all new properties occupied by their 
 owners, as well as in the case of additions, and where changed conditions
 
 6o MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 demand a reconsideration of existing valuations of properties occupied by 
 their owners. Special conditions attach to the valuation of railways and 
 canals, and gas and water undertakings, returns of which are made by a 
 separate assessor, but into these it is not necessary to enter. 
 
 To every owner and occupier of property within the City a copy of the 
 entry under his or her name in the Valuation Roll is sent not later than the 
 25 th of August yearly. These notices are delivered by a staff of sworn 
 messengers, and embrace about 170,000 forms sent to occupiers, and 18,500 
 to owners of property. Appeals are received by the assessor till the 8th of 
 September, and the bulk of them are from persons occupying their own 
 property, who complain that the valuation of the assessor is excessive. A few 
 appeals also are caused by mistakes in the returns of the landlords or factors, but 
 in nearly every case the assessor himself is able to come to an agreement with the 
 appellants, so that the cases carried to the magistrates and Council in the 
 Valuation Appeal Court are very few indeed. The Court must finish its work 
 before the end of September in each year, and afterwards there still remains, 
 to dissatisfied appellants, the right of making an application to the Court of 
 Session, the Sheriff Court having no jurisdiction in valuation appeals. The 
 following figures show the increase in the assessable value of property in 
 Glasgow during the forty years in which the Valuation Act has been operative: 
 
 RENTAL AT INTERVALS OF FIVE YEARS. 
 
 1855, 
 i860, 
 
 1S65, 
 
 1870, 
 
 1875, 
 
 ^1,362,168 
 
 1880, 
 
 1,625,148 
 
 1885, 
 
 1,808,430 
 
 1890, 
 
 2,126,324 
 
 1895, 
 
 2,902,635 
 
 
 ^3,426,730 
 
 3>395>8o4 
 
 3,455,510 
 4,283,982 
 
 According to this table the Rental of the City has increased 3'i4S times 
 within forty years, and great as is that increase it would have been still more 
 considerable had all the area which is Glasgow, in everything except govern- 
 ment and rating, been included in the Valuation Roll. 
 
 With the compilation of the Valuation Roll the collection of the special 
 information required for the Register of Voters goes on simultaneously. What 
 that information is, and the law and constitution of the municipal register 
 generally, are indicated by the following useful abstract taken from the 
 annotated edition of the City of Glasgow Act, 1891: 
 
 " The City Assessor is required by the Burgh Voters Act, 19 and 20 Vict., 
 cap. 58, to make up annually a list or roll of voters, and to sign and publish 
 the same. Persons omitted can claim to be enrolled by the sheriff, and persons 
 enrolled or claiming to be enrolled can be objected to by persons on the 
 register. These claims and objections are lodged with the assessor, and the 
 objector to claims for enrolment must give notice in writing to the sheriff of his 
 intention to oppose the claims. The sheriff adjudicates upon the claims and
 
 THE MODERN MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL gl 
 
 objections, and, after the Registration Courts are over, the register is completed 
 in accordance with the decisions of the sheriff. If claimants or objectors are 
 dissatisfied with the sheriffs judgment, they can appeal to the Court of Session, 
 under the provisions of the Reform Act of 1868, and if the judgment be 
 reversed, the sheriff must correct the register in accordance with the decision 
 given on appeal. The qualifications necessary for enrolment as a voter are as 
 follows : 
 
 " I. Owners of property within the parliamentary and municipal boundary of 
 the City of the annual value of ;!{J^io or upwards, who have been for 
 twelve calendar months prior to 31st July in the ownership, and who 
 have resided within such boundary, or within seven statute miles 
 thereof, for six months prior to 31st July. 
 
 " 2. Occupiers of premises, whether dwelling-houses, shops, warehouses, or 
 works, within the City, of the annual value of ;^io or upwards, and 
 who have, for twelve calendar months prior to 31st July, occupied 
 the same or similar premises within it, and in case of premises other 
 than dwelling-houses, have resided for six calendar months within 
 the burgh boundary, or within seven statute miles thereof, also, joint- 
 occupiers or partners of firms whose residential qualifications are the 
 same as those of sole occupants, and whose respective interests in 
 the occupancy of the premises are of the annual v-alue of ;^io or 
 upwards. 
 
 " 3. Occupiers of dwelling-houses under ;^io of value, who, for twelve 
 calendar months prior to 31st July, have inhabited or resided in the 
 same or similar dwelling-houses within the City, and who have paid, 
 on or before 20th June, all poor rates due by them, and who have 
 not been exempted from the payment of poor rates, and who have 
 not received parochial relief during the year prior to 31st July. 
 
 " 4. Such men as occupy dwelling-houses by virtue of any office, service, or 
 employment, and who have occupied the same or similar dwelling- 
 houses within the City for twelve months prior to 31st July. 
 
 " 5. Lodgers who have, for twelve calendar months prior to 31st July, 
 occupied lodgings — either singly or jointly with other lodgers — 
 within the same parliamentary division of the City, of a clear annual 
 value, if let unfurnished and without attendance, of ;^io or upwards 
 for each lodger. Where lodgings are occupied jointly, not more 
 than two lodgers can be registered for the same lodgings." 
 
 In the great majority of cases the particulars entered in the Valuation 
 Roll from year to year are in themselves sufficient for registration purposes; 
 but the floating population, new proprietors, tenants, and occupiers become the 
 subject of special inquiry and investigation. In the case of new tenancy the
 
 62 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 surveyors are required to ascertain as to previous occupancy within the City 
 whether it is sufficient to make up the residential quahfication of twelve 
 months' occupancy previous to 31st of July. Next the residences of the 
 occupiers of business premises have to be ascertained, and their registration 
 depends on whether they have dwelt the stated period of six months within 
 seven miles of the City. Further, individual members of any commercial firm 
 require to be noted, and if the rent paid is sufficient to give each a ^10 quali- 
 fication all the members of the firm are registered, provided they possess the 
 residential qualification above mentioned. Persons who do not appear on the 
 Valuation Roll, and who yet are entitled to be registered as voters, are service 
 men such as janitors, caretakers, church officers, and all persons occupying 
 houses rent free in virtue of office. Next come lodgers, but whilst the assessor 
 registers the ordinary ratepayer elector and the service man without trouble 
 to, or consultation with, the voter, lodgers require to present their claims and 
 establish to the satisfaction of the assessor their right to be placed on the 
 register. So far for constituent entrants on the register of voters; but next 
 comes the process of weeding out names which may appear on the Valuation 
 Roll, but which entry does not carry with it, in all cases, a voting right. In the 
 first place, one individual may, in virtue of ownership or occupancy, possess 
 several qualifications in one ward, or a qualification in two or more, 
 possibly in every separate municipal ward, but the right of voting is 
 confined to a single vote in a single ward only. A right of selecting 
 the ward in which the voter shall exercise the franchise is given, and 
 in the register all the other entries in the Valuation Roll are omitted. 
 The seven miles' residential radius has to be taken into consideration also, 
 and all ratepayers whose residence is outside that limit are struck out. 
 Minors and aliens, although ratepayers, are also not qualified for entry in the 
 Roll of Voters. Whilst a not inconsiderable reduction in the list of voters is 
 produced by these causes, the great source of deletion of names is the non- 
 payment of poor rates, either by the express exemption of the individual from 
 poverty or other causes, or by the failure of persons occupying houses of less 
 than ^10 to pay the rates demanded from them within the statutory period, or 
 by the fact that the person has within the year been in receipt of parochial 
 aid. Lists of the persons disqualified from any of these several causes are 
 yearly supplied by the collectors of poor rates and the inspectors of poor of the 
 several parishes within the City. The Register of Voters thus contains a good 
 number of names which do not appear in the Valuation Roll, but many entries 
 in that document fail to carry a corresponding entry in the Roll of Voters, and 
 the net result is that whereas the Valuation Roll contains about 170,000 
 separate entries under the name of occupiers and nearly 18,500 as owners, the 
 total number of qualified municipal voters do not exceed 123,000. 
 
 The assessor, having secured his information, proceeds to make up the list 
 of voters, arranged for municipal purposes in wards, as far as possible in
 
 THE MODERN MASTERS OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 63 
 
 alphabetical order of streets, etc., and in alphabetical order of the surnames 
 of the voters resident in or otherwise qualiiied in connection with such street. 
 That list has to be prominently exhibited at the Cross Steeple, High Street, 
 or other public place, and advertised as so shown from the 15th to the 22nd of 
 September, and the assessor is bound to supply signed copies of it at a fixed 
 price to all applicants. For the convenience of the public, copies of the 
 list are also displayed at numerous police stations and at other public places 
 throughout the City. Notice of claims to be placed on the register, and of 
 objections to names appearing on it, require to be given on or before the 21st 
 of September ; and during the months of September and October Registration 
 Courts are held by the sheriff, at which such claims and objections are disposed 
 of At latest on the 15th of October the Register of Voters, as revised and 
 settled in the Registration Court, has to be delivered to the Town Clerk, and 
 when signed by him it becomes the official Register of Voters for the year from 
 1st November till 31st October in the succeeding year. 
 
 WARDS AS REDIVIDED IN 1896. 
 
 
 
 OLE 
 
 ). 
 
 
 
 
 NEW. 
 
 
 No. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^J m A r\\ W n yt\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Estimated 
 Rental. 
 
 Male. 
 
 Female. 
 
 Total. 
 
 i>itiiiic ui vv «±ru. 
 
 Rental. 
 
 Male. 
 
 Female. 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 L 
 
 
 
 
 
 L 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 1 88, coo 
 
 6,931 
 
 1,437 
 
 8,368 
 
 Dalmarnock, . 
 
 138,285 
 
 5.458 
 
 1,106 
 
 6,564 
 
 2 
 
 206,000 
 
 8,892 
 
 1,654 
 
 10,546 
 
 Calton, . . . 
 
 155.218 
 
 5.201 
 
 1,287 
 
 6,488 
 
 3 
 
 250,000 
 
 8,223 
 
 1,296 
 
 9,519 
 
 Mile-End, . . 
 
 125.530 
 
 5,318 
 
 985 
 
 6.303 
 
 4 
 
 112,000 
 
 3>724 
 
 960 
 
 4,684 
 
 Whitevale, . 
 
 155,710 
 
 4,873 
 
 973 
 
 5.846 
 
 5 
 
 230,000 
 
 8,020 
 
 1,268 
 
 9,288 
 
 Dennistoiin,. . 
 
 130,525 
 
 4,005 
 
 637 
 
 4,642 
 
 6 
 
 172,000 
 
 2,441 
 
 550 
 
 2,991 
 
 Springburn, . . 
 
 114,008 
 
 4,314 
 
 428 
 
 4,742 
 
 7 
 
 348,000 
 
 1.465 
 
 133 
 
 1,598 
 
 Cowlairs, 
 
 103,100 
 
 3,572 
 
 383 
 
 3.955 
 
 8 
 
 352,000 
 
 1,917 
 
 148 
 
 2,065 
 
 Townhead, . 
 
 157,455 
 
 5.709 
 
 970 
 
 6,679 
 
 9 
 
 253,000 
 
 3.009 
 
 532 
 
 3.541 
 
 Blackfriars, . 
 
 202,313 
 
 3.480 
 
 817 
 
 4,297 
 
 10 
 
 148,000 
 
 4,893 
 
 1,029 
 
 5.922 
 
 Exchange, . . 
 
 450,190 
 
 1,917 
 
 170 
 
 2,087 
 
 11 
 
 356,000 
 
 10,244 
 
 2,869 
 
 13,113 
 
 Blythswood, 
 
 242,760 
 
 2,055 
 
 299 
 
 2,354 
 
 12 
 
 160,000 
 
 4,188 
 
 1,037 
 
 5.225 
 
 Broomielaw, 
 
 261,547 
 
 2,419 
 
 344 
 
 2,763 
 
 13 
 
 220,000 
 
 4,411 
 
 750 
 
 5,161 
 
 Anderston, . . 
 
 220,280 
 
 4,411 
 
 750 
 
 5,161 
 
 14 
 
 178,000 
 
 7,780 
 
 1,308 
 
 9,088 
 
 Sandyford, . . 
 
 159,789 
 
 4,188 
 
 1,037 
 
 5,225 
 
 15 
 
 162,000 
 
 5.023 
 
 1,230 
 
 6,253 
 
 Park, .... 
 
 199.895 
 
 3,687 
 
 1,601 
 
 5,288 
 
 16 
 
 219,000 
 
 5. 105 
 
 883 
 
 5,988 
 
 Cowcaddens, . 
 
 155.282 
 
 5,573 
 
 1,192 
 
 6,765 
 
 17 
 
 78,000 
 
 3,021 
 
 487 
 
 3.508 
 
 Woodside, . 
 
 149,871 
 
 5,826 
 
 1,156 
 
 6,982 
 
 18 
 
 48,000 
 
 759 
 
 273 
 
 1,032 
 
 Hutchesontown, 
 
 121,000 
 
 5.761 
 
 909 
 
 6,670 
 
 19 
 
 82,000 
 
 1,714 
 
 371 
 
 2,085 
 
 Gorbals, . . . 
 
 167,500 
 
 4.995 
 
 1,225 
 
 6,220 
 
 20 
 
 92,000 
 
 1.756 
 
 584 
 
 2,340 
 
 Kingston, 
 
 198,450 
 
 5.133 
 
 888 
 
 6,021 
 
 21 
 
 62,000 
 
 594 
 
 101 
 
 695 
 
 Govanhill, . . 
 
 100,959 
 
 4,002 
 
 619 
 
 4,621 
 
 22 
 
 102,000 
 
 1,226 
 
 657 
 
 1,883 
 
 Langside, . . 
 
 129,612 
 
 2,742 
 
 6S9 
 
 3,431 
 
 23 
 
 96,000 
 
 817 
 
 196 
 
 I.OI3 
 
 Pollokshields, . 
 
 137,287 
 
 2,081 
 
 640 
 
 2,721 
 
 24 
 
 111,982 
 
 3.479 
 
 479 
 
 3,958 
 
 Kelvinside, . . 
 
 195.285 
 
 2,043 
 
 853 
 
 2,896 
 
 25 
 
 58,000 
 4,283,982 
 
 2,609 
 102,241 
 
 205 
 
 2,814 
 
 Maryhill, . . 
 
 112,131 
 
 3,478 
 
 479 
 
 3.957 
 122,678 
 
 20,437 
 
 122,678 
 
 4,283,982 
 
 102,241 
 
 20,437
 
 64 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 In the above table the effect of the redistribution of wards, carried 
 out in 1896, is shown. It will be seen that while much greater uniformity 
 has been secured under the new scheme, the question of rating value has 
 also not been overlooked, and while the central business wards have the 
 smallest proportion of voters they represent a corresponding excess of rate- 
 able value. 
 
 On this army of 123,000 devolves the duty of electing the body which, 
 without fee or reward, governs and administers the affairs of a population 
 probably greater than was contained in Scotland during the middle ages, 
 and which deals with a revenue vastly in excess of the total income of the 
 country at any time during its existence as a separate kingdom.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 Annual elections : Triennial retirement of Councillors : Circumstances alTecting tenure of 
 office : Contested elections : Ward committees : Meetings of electors : Nomination 
 of candidates : Official procedure : Acceptance of office : Qualifications of councillors : 
 First meeting of Council : Roll of Council : Dean of Guild and Deacon-Convener : 
 Their anomalous position: Election of Lord Provost: His powers and duties: Magis- 
 trates: City Treasurer : River Bailie: Police judges : Master of Works : Representatives 
 to public boards : Bailie of Provan : Officials : Committees and their conveners. 
 
 The Acts of Parliament under which municipal elections in Scotland 
 are regulated prescribe that, as nearly as possible, one-third of the mem- 
 bers of the Town Council shall retire every year. In Glasgow, which 
 is divided into twenty-five wards, each having three representatives, one 
 Town Councillor falls to be elected in each separate ward yearly. It 
 does not follow that every member elected to the Town Council 
 thereby secures his seat for three years, because, while an election must 
 be made in each ward yearly, there are certain events which interfere 
 with the ordinary sequence of retirement. Thus, elevation to the office of 
 Lord Provost or of City Treasurer, carries the right to continue in the 
 Council three municipal years from the date of that preferment. These 
 functionaries therefore do not retire according to the rotation of their 
 election to the Council, and the next in seniority demits office in their 
 place. Should it occur that both Lord Provost and City Treasurer represent 
 the same ward, and are elected to their high offices at the end of their 
 first and second years' councillorship respectively, then the unfortunate 
 third representative will enjoy unmolested possession of his seat for one 
 year only. The death or the resignation of a councillor further involves 
 the obligation of making by the Council an interim appointment, which 
 endures only to the next ensuing election. Should the councillor, whose 
 place is thus temporarily filled up, have been in any other than his third 
 year of office, then, at the statutory period two elections fall to be made 
 
 E
 
 66 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 for the ward, one to fill the place of the representative who retires by 
 rotation, and one to replace the interim appointment. Of the two so 
 selected, the candidate who obtains the fewest votes retires at the end of 
 two years' service, or should there be no poll the Council decides which 
 representative shall retire. The third representative of the ward, who may 
 have been in office for one year, is bound to demit office at the end of 
 the succeeding year. In the somewhat unprecedented circumstances under 
 which the entire Council will fall to be re-elected in November, 1896, for 
 the three years both before and after that date, of necessity one represent- 
 ative alone of each ward will enjoy the three years' period, another will 
 serve only two years, while the third will be required to retire at the end 
 of his first year. On the other hand, a Lord Provost or a City Treasurer 
 may hold his position without appeal to the electors for a maximum 
 period of five years, two years as Bailie or Councillor, and then, on election 
 to either of these offices, three years further, in virtue of that appointment. 
 The object of these legislative enactments is to secure that no common 
 councillor or bailie shall occupy office for more than three years, without 
 submitting himself to his constituents, and also to give every year to the 
 electors the opportunity of appointing at least one new representative 
 should they so desire. Thus, happen what may, no ward is deprived of 
 its right to have an annual election, and should the electors desire it, the 
 luxury of an annual contest. That turmoil and expense may indeed be 
 forced on an unwilling constituency by the ambition or obstinacy of a 
 single person, who may barely be able to get a sufficient number of 
 electors to subscribe their name to his nomination paper. 
 
 It must be confessed that, in ordinary circumstances, the average elector 
 values his rights but lightly, and takes only a feeble interest in municipal 
 elections. Under such circumstances it is fortunate, indeed, that in each ward 
 there is found sufficient spirit to organize a voluntary body known as the 
 Ward Committee, the special functions of which are to deal with candidates 
 for office, and in a minor degree, with the elected and sitting representatives 
 of the wards. Ward Committees are of necessity, in the main, self-elected 
 bodies, although they are nominated and recruited at public meetings 
 called for their appointment. Happily, in the interests of local government, 
 these committees are, in general, associated with no political organization. 
 Their bond of union is strictly municipal, and therefore the spirit of party 
 politics is scarcely ever imported into municipal contests sufficiently to 
 give the elections any degree of political significance. Social questions 
 are, indeed, the touchstone in the election of Town Councillors in Glasgow. 
 The several wards have no doubt typical representatives, fully tinctured with 
 their own political preferences, and a candidate who may find ready accep- 
 tance in the Exchange Ward might not be looked on with favour, either 
 by committee or electors, in the Calton or the Gorbals.
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 ^7 
 
 The Ward Committees, consisting of men who take a lively interest in 
 their own district, discharge also, for the present, the useful function of drawing 
 the attention of the Council to the wants and aspirations of their locality, 
 to the slights and neglects under which it suffers patientl}', and to its demands 
 for a fair share of such good things as it is in the power of the Council to 
 distribute. It now and again happens that the ambition of the Ward Com- 
 mittee soars higher, and they aspire to become a power superior to the Council, 
 to guide their deliberations, and to direct members how they should act and 
 vote. With this high purpose in view a kind of official recognition has now 
 and again been demanded. The right of the Ward Committees to be supplied 
 with Council Minutes and official documents has been asserted ; but although 
 semi-official and social recognition of their value and services have been freely 
 accorded, the Council has wisely and steadily declined to recognize the claim 
 of such committees to officially discuss their undertakings and to direct their 
 policy. Council work is too responsible for such interference ; its details 
 require daily and close attention, and the duties demand the sacrifice of the 
 best part of the time of those engaged in them. 
 
 As the period of the annual election approaches, the Ward Committees 
 arouse into a state of bustling activity. In each ward a meeting is held at 
 which the membership of the committee is reconstituted, and on that occasion, 
 or at an adjourned meeting, the representatives of the ward are invited to 
 attend to give " an account of their stewardship." The representative whose 
 period of office is about to expire becomes the subject of special attention 
 should he be a candidate for re-election. While the bulk of the electors 
 recognize with perfunctor}' thanks the value of the services rendered to them 
 by their representatives, wanting neither to trouble nor be troubled with election 
 contests, there are strenuous judges both in and outside of the Ward Com- 
 mittees, who look with jealous eyes and inquisitive minds on the doings of 
 their representatives. At these electoral meetings, therefore, the whole of the 
 representatives are expected to give some account of their year's activity in 
 the public service. In the more lively wards the occasion is one during 
 which some electoral steam may be blown off in the form of playful but 
 disconcerting interruptions ; and the speakers must be prepared to meet the 
 interrogations of hecklers whose questions are not invariably either soothing 
 or pertinent. 
 
 In its main features, procedure in connection with the election of coun- 
 cillors in Royal Burghs is uniform throughout Scotland, being regulated by 
 the general legislation of the country, although in Glasgow and several of 
 the other large burghs certain minor modifications of the law have been 
 secured by special or private legislation. The elections, which as regards 
 method of voting, bribery, corruption, treating, etc., are under the same regu- 
 lations as Parliamentary elections, take place on the first Tuesday in November 
 of each year. In Glasgow, the candidate or candidates for election must be
 
 68 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 nominated before four o'clock on the immediately preceding Tuesday. The 
 nomination paper has to be signed by the candidate, by a proposer and 
 a seconder, and assented to by five other registered electors. Up till four 
 o'clock on the Thursday before the election the nomination may be withdrawn 
 by the candidate himself and his proposer or seconder, or by the proposer, 
 seconder, and one assenter. If only one, or in the case of more vacancies 
 only a sufficient number of candidates for the vacant seats are nominated, then 
 no further proceedings are required, and the candidate or candidates duly pro- 
 posed are declared to be elected when the proper time arrives. But in the case 
 of contested elections, the usual fighting panoply has to be donned, agents 
 appointed, committees formed, canvassing carried on, speeches delivered, pro- 
 mises inconveniently made, electioneering literature issued, and all the usual 
 devices resorted to for stimulating the inert voter. The zeal and enthusiasm 
 of the candidates and their committees are, at every step, curbed and controlled 
 by the thrifty limitations of the Ballot Act. Cautious action and the guidance 
 of a prudent agent are therefore necessities of an electoral contest. The purely 
 official steps connected with an election are registered by statute, and for their 
 many details it becomes necessary to consult a treatise on municipal law such 
 as the elaborate work of Sir James D. Marwick. 
 
 The battle being fought out on the fateful first Tuesday of November the 
 votes are forthwith counted, and the results, in Glasgow, are generally known 
 before midnight on the day of election. Next day at noon, within the Council 
 Chambers, the Lord Provost, as returning officer, makes an official declaration 
 of the poll ; a certificate by the Town Clerk having been first read to the 
 effect that all the procedure prescribed by the statute has been duly observed. 
 As this certificate in compendious form summarises all the statutory procedure 
 of the public authorities in connection with municipal election, a copy of one 
 may be here given : 
 
 "I, Sir James David Marwick, Knt., LL.D., Town-Clerk of Glasgow, acting 
 
 in execution of the Acts after specified, viz. — 'The Royal Burghs (Scotland) 
 
 Act, 1833,' 'The Municipal Elections Amendment (Scotland) Act, 1868,' 
 
 'The Municipal Elections Amendment (Scotland) Act, 1870,' 'The Ballot 
 
 Act, 1872,' 'The Glasgow Municipal Act, 1872,' 'The General Police 
 
 and Improvement (Scotland) Act, 1862, Order Confirmation, (Glasgow Act) 
 
 1877,' 'The Glasgow Municipal Act, 1878,' 'The Municipal Elections 
 
 Amendment (Scotland) Act, 1881,' 'The Elections (Hours of Poll) Act, 
 
 1885,' 'The City of Glasgow Act, 1891,' 'The Glasgow Corporation Act, 
 
 1893,' and other statutes thereanent. Do HEREBY CERTIFY that, under and 
 
 in terms of 'The Royal Burghs (Scotland) Act, 1833,' Section 8, and 'The 
 
 General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act, 1862, Order Confirmation 
 
 (Glasgow) Act, 1877,' I GAVE NOTICE, on the 25th ultimo, that the annual 
 
 election of Councillors to supply the vacant places in the Town Council 
 
 would, so far as might be necessary, take place on Tuesday, the 7th day of
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 69 
 
 November, then next, betwixt the hours of Eight o'clock a.m. and Eight o'clock 
 p.m., at the places specified in the said Notice, Which notice was affixed 
 to or near the door of the Cathedral Church of St. Mungo, within the Royal 
 Burgh of Glasgow, and also inserted at least once in one of the newspapers 
 published in Glasgow, ten days at least previous to the first Tuesday of 
 November, current, being the day appointed by 'The Royal Burghs (Scotland) 
 Act, 1833,' and subsequent xA.cts of Parliament, for the Municipal Election 
 in the Royal Burgh of Glasgow. And I DO HEREBY CERTIFY that on or 
 before Four o'clock, afternoon, on Tuesday the 31st ultimo, being the Tues- 
 day immediately preceding the day appointed for the said Municipal 
 Election, I received intimation that the persons named and designed in the 
 Schedule hereto appended, and subscribed by me with reference hereto, were 
 proposed for election as Councillors in this Burgh for the respective Wards 
 therein specified, and that none of these nominations were withdrawn, as 
 authorised by Section 60 of the Glasgow Corporation Act, 1893. I 
 FURTHER CERTIFY that on or before Friday the 3rd day of November 
 current, being the Friday immediately preceding the Election, I caused 
 Public Notice to be given, as provided by 'The Municipal Elections Amend- 
 ment (Scotland) Act, 1868,' and 'The General Police and Improvement 
 (Scotland) Act, 1862, Order Confirmation (Glasgow) Act, 1877,' of the 
 names of all persons so intimated to me, that such Notice was affixed to or 
 near the door of the Cathedral Church of St. Mungo, within the said 
 Burgh, and also inserted at least once in one of the newspapers published 
 in Glasgow. And I FURTHER CERTIFY that, in terms of 'The Municipal 
 Elections Amendment (Scotland) Act, 1870,' I gave Public Notice, as directed 
 b\' that Act, that in respect the number of persons proposed for election as 
 Councillors in the First, Third, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, 
 Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty- 
 first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth Wards, did not exceed 
 the number of vacancies to be supplied in the said Wards, there would 
 be no Poll in the said Wards, and that the persons so proposed would, on 
 the day appointed for declaring the election, be declared to be elected 
 Councillors of the Burgh. 
 
 " J. D. Marwick, Town-Clerk. 
 "Glasgow, 8th November, 1893." 
 After the names of the newly-elected councillors have been declared, the 
 Lord Provost issues an order to summon them to meet in the Council 
 Chamber on the next day, Thursday, at twelve o'clock, severally to declare 
 their acceptance or otherwise of office. They then are called on to produce 
 evidences of being burgesses of the 'City, and these requirements being 
 satisfied, they subscribe a declaration de fideli aduiinistratione officii, and that 
 done they are invested with all the powers and privileges of Town 
 Councillors.
 
 70 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 A Town Councillor must not only be a registered elector of the burgh he 
 represents, but he must also be a burgess, if within his burgh a separate 
 Burgess Roll is kept. In England burgess and registered elector are equivalent 
 terms, but it is not so in Scotland, although recent legislation has brought 
 them near to that level. Under the Burgh Reform Act of 1833 a person 
 elected to the office of councillor became entitled to demand admission to 
 the Burgess Roll on payment of the ordinary fee to the Common Good of 
 the burgh. By an Act passed in i860 it was prescribed that every regis- 
 tered municipal elector was entitled to the status of a burgess on payment 
 to the Common Good of a fee not exceeding in any case £\\ but such 
 status does not entitle a person to participate in the properties and revenues 
 of any Guild, Craft or Incorporation within the burgh. The portals of the 
 Burgess Roll, so far as required for a Town Councillor's qualification, were 
 still further widened by an Act of 1876, under which it is provided that 
 all persons liable to be rated for the relief of the Poor, and who have for a 
 period of three years occupied premises and paid Poor and Burgh rates 
 shall be a burgess of the burgh, and continue so to be as long as his 
 qualification endures. 
 
 The annual election of councillors being now completed, the Lord 
 Provost directs the whole Council to be summoned to meet the next day, 
 Friday, to fill up the vacancies in the Magistracy, to appoint officials and to 
 elect representatives to the numerous bodies upon the Boards of which the 
 Town Council have members. 
 
 On this occasion, the first monthly meeting of the Council for the 
 municipal year, the proceedings arc opened with prayer by one of the City 
 clergymen. To this solitary prayer is the direct connection of ministers and 
 presbyteries with the Town Council proceedings now reduced ; although at 
 one time prelates ruled the whole Council, and their successors, Presbyterian 
 ministers, dictated to both Council and citizens for many days. Thereafter the 
 Roll of Councillors in the order of wards is submitted, the representatives of each 
 ward being arranged according to seniority, and this list three times twenty-five, 
 together with the Dean of Guild and the Deacon-Convener, seventy-seven all told, 
 is declared to be the Roll of the Council for the year. The Dean of Guild and 
 the Deacon-Convener are, in the Town Council, the one link which connects the 
 modern democratic institution with the good old times. Only seven such ex officio 
 councillors remain in broad Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow having each 
 two, while in Aberdeen, Dundee, and Perth the Dean of Guild alone remains 
 as the representative of the ancient paternal government. That they are sur- 
 vivals of the fittest need scarcely be admitted, and were they more numerous 
 there cannot be a doubt that more 'would be heard about these picturesque 
 relics of the past. We shall see that the Dean of Guild has important duties 
 to discharge, and although both the official and his court may be regarded as 
 anomalies by the uncompromising Radical, our constitution is full of such
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL 71 
 
 interesting anomalies, and after all it is a small sacrifice to make to historic 
 continuity. The Dean of Guild is invariably a gentleman of high social 
 position and influence, and the Deacon -Convener is only behind him in the 
 measure that the crafts have always been, lower in municipal dignity than the 
 merchant rank. For centuries merchants have held precedence over the 
 crafts, and at this late day we must not seek to disturb the ancient order. 
 We may quote, but we cannot be held as sympathizing with, the sentiments 
 expressed in the " Report on Municipal Corporations " by the learned Thomas 
 Thomson and his fellow commissioners. " We have been unable," say they, " to 
 discover any reason why these particular corporations should be endowed with 
 that extraordinary privilege. In the towns where that anomaly exists even more 
 generally than in those of inferior class, the members of these corporations are 
 also, with perhaps a few exceptions, qualified electors under the Statute, and 
 the practical result must be to bestow on them a double share of representatives 
 in the Town Council of the Burgh. These we cannot but regard as an evident 
 departure from the general principle and spirit of the Act, and we therefore beg 
 leave to recommend that those seats ex officio should be taken away, and these 
 councillors should be replaced by election." 
 
 Once in every three years it becomes the first duty of the Town Council to 
 appoint a Lord Provost. While it is open to any member of the Council to 
 propose for that office any councillor he may name, in general an understand- 
 ing is arrived at some time before the period of election as to the gentleman 
 on whom the honour shall be bestowed, and any public contest or division is 
 thereby avoided. The Lord Provost, immediately he is elected, takes the 
 declaration de fideli administratione ^ is forthwith invested with the insignia of 
 office, and takes the chair, which up to this point has been occupied by the 
 Senior Magistrate. As already pointed out, a member of the Town Council on 
 his election to the office of Lord Provost thereby secures his seat for three years 
 from the date of such advancement, regardless of the time at which, as an 
 ordinary councillor, he would have been called on to retire, or to submit to 
 re-election. It goes without saying that if the dignity of the office is great, the 
 duties both officially and socially are many and onerous. The Lord Provost 
 of Glasgow is the First Magistrate of the City, and for the first appointment at 
 least, he has been made Lord Lieutenant of the County of the City. As 
 President or Chairman of the Council he has a deliberative and, in case of 
 need, a casting vote in all deliberations and decisions. He is ex officio a 
 member of all the Committees of the Council, and he is by courtesy entitled to a 
 seat on all the principal boards at which the Town Council is represented. He 
 is a member of the Glasgow University Court, and there is scarcely a society 
 or institution in Glasgow, from a boys' football club upwards, which docs not 
 consider it has a claim on his services, patronage and assistance. He is called 
 on to preside at, or to take other part in, the meetings of innumerable 
 charitable and religious societies, and at public lectures and entertainments.
 
 72 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 He is expected to open, and perhaps more than open, bazaars and fancy fairs. 
 Artistic, Scientific, and Industrial Associations have a claim on his patronage 
 and services. The official duties and engagements of the Chief Magistrate, 
 it will be well understood, make such demands on the thought and time 
 of the occupant of the office as leave him scant leisure for other business 
 of any kind, and trench severely even on the opportunities for the enjoyments 
 of home-life and the intercourse of private friends. 
 
 Next in order of election at the Council meeting, from which we have been 
 digressing, comes the filling up of the vacancies in the Magistracy to the com- 
 plete number of fourteen bailies of the City and Royal Burgh. A bailie when 
 elected continues to hold office only so long as his term as a councillor has to 
 run, which may be from one to three years, but in general those who hold 
 the magisterial office for a period less than the full three years' term are re- 
 elected, and thus they may enjoy five years of magisterial office. It has become 
 a recognized practice to hold a private meeting of councillors the day previous 
 to the election, at which, after due informal deliberation, an understanding is 
 arrived at as to the names to be put forward for the vacancies in the Magistracy 
 and the other offices which fall to be filled up. Of course such an understanding 
 does not affect the right of any councillor to nominate any member of the 
 Council ; but such a thing rarely occurs, and has naturally small chance of 
 success. 
 
 The Council thereafter proceeds to the appointment of a Treasurer of 
 the Burgh, should that office be vacant, and that appointment, when made, 
 carries with it, as in the case of the Lord Provostship, a seat in the Council 
 for the full period of three years, so that the official elected, although he may 
 be in the second or third year of his councillorship, does not fall to be re- 
 elected till three years more have expired. The Treasurer is ex officio convener 
 of the Finance Committee of the Town Council, but the active duties of the 
 Treasurership, in modern times, are discharged by the City Chamberlain. 
 
 In precedence and dignity the River Bailie and his depute come next. 
 The office of River Bailie is, in Glasgow, one of immemorial antiquity. 
 The position was recognized, continued, and confirmed by the charter of 
 Charles First in 1636, and ratified by Statute in November, 1641, as well 
 as by subsequent Acts in the reigns of Charles Second, and William and 
 Mary. The jurisdiction of the River Bailie is similar to that conferred by 
 local Admiralty grants to several of the east coast burghs. He and his 
 depute take cognizance of crimes and offences committed within the Harbour 
 of Glasgow and in the River and Firth of Clyde from the City to the Cloch 
 Lighthouse. In the early part of the seventeenth century the office of River 
 Bailie appears to have fallen into a low state through the appointment thereto 
 of "divers decayed and depauperat personnes," and with a view to the rehabili- 
 tation of the office to the laudable and worthy estate wherein it once was, 
 the Council, in 1635, resolved that one of the best sort and rank in their
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL 73 
 
 body should be elected hereafter to the Water Bailieship. Thereupon the 
 conditions of election to the office, the period of tenure, and the nature of 
 the duties were settled, and Colin Campbell younger was elected Water 
 Bailie, and it was ordained that the office should carry with it a fee of i^io 
 yearly in all time coming. That munificent sum, i5"io Scots, it need scarcely 
 be said, does not in modern times attach to the office. 
 
 The newly-elected Bailies, Treasurer, River Bailie and his depute now 
 come forward and declare their acceptance of office, and, making the statu- 
 tor}- declaration dc fideli adiimiistratione, are invested with the insignia of 
 office. Thereupon the Magistracy and Town Council of Glasgow for the 
 following year are complete. 
 
 Under the City of Glasgow (1891) Act the Town Council acquired 
 special powers to appoint members of Council who had previously held the 
 office of bailie to be judges in the Police Court along with the staff of 
 magistrates. Nominations for these judicial functions are next made, and, as 
 a rule, all the ex-bailies are appointed to discharge such duties. 
 
 Then follows the filling up of minor offices and of vacancies in numerous 
 Boards on which the Council is represented. Among these are the position 
 of Master of Works, an office which at one time implied important public 
 duties, which are now discharged by salaried officials, the City Engineer and 
 the Master of Works. On the Clyde Navigation Trust the Town Council 
 has nine' representatives, with the Lord Provost as Chairman of the Board. 
 Managers, Governors, and Directors are appointed to the several public 
 infirmaries, hospitals, and asylums, to educational trusts. House of Refuge, 
 Juvenile Delinquency Board, Court House Commission, public libraries, etc. 
 
 As a purely honorary office, the Bailie of Provan falls to be elected, and 
 this office also is a memorial of times long gone past. At one time, as we 
 shall see, the Town Council were owners and superiors of the Barony of 
 Provan, but of that fine property all that now remains to the Corporation is 
 a mill and certain water rights in Hogganfield and Frankfield Lochs, from 
 which a small revenue is obtained. About the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century the Council parted with substantially the whole property, but they 
 retained the shadow in the form of the nominal superiority and the right to 
 appoint a Baron Bailie. That right they bethought themselves in 1734 to 
 exercise, and ever since they have kept up the practice, conferring the empty 
 dignity on some venerable ex-member of the Council. The office confers no 
 rights, it is absolutely without duties or responsibilities, and it only serves as 
 a memorial of one of the most gigantic examples of maladministration 
 which we find in the records of the good old times of close corporations 
 and reckless expenditure. 
 
 The numerous salaried officials who hold office during the pleasure of the 
 Town Council are then appointed. In this category the present Town Clerk 
 does not come, he holding his appointment ad vitam aut ailpavi, although,
 
 74 - MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 under the provisions of the Glasgow Corporation and Police Act of 1895, that 
 office will, in future appointments, also be subject to the will of the Council. 
 The appointments made embrace the offices of City Chamberlain, City- 
 Engineer and Surveyor, six Assessors in Police Court, Assessor and Clerk to 
 River Bailie Court, Procurator-Fiscal to Burgh Court and Dean of Guild 
 Court ; Procurator-Fiscal of Police, Procurator-Fiscal to River Bailie Court ; 
 Assessor under Lands Valuation and Registration of Voters Acts ; and the 
 business appropriately winds up with the appointment of a Warden of the 
 burying-grounds of the High Church and St. David's Church. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting the various committees of the Town Council, with 
 their conveners and sub-conveners, are appointed. These embrace the Finance 
 Committee, a committee in charge of the Bazaar, halls, public clocks and bells 
 of the City, a committee to deal with churches and churchyards, the property of 
 the City; and a committee on Parliamentary Bills promoted by the Corporation, 
 and which affect the Community. Committees are also appointed to manage 
 {a) the Tramways, {b) the Mitchell Library, {c) the Municipal Buildings, [d) 
 the Gas and Electric Lighting undertakings, {/) parks, gardens, galleries, 
 and museums, and (/) an Executive Committee of the Local Authority under 
 the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act. These committees in their turn 
 appoint, when necessary, their own sub-committees, and so the wide and compre- 
 hensive duties of the Town Council are divided up and allocated. 
 
 Such are all the officials and committees which the Town Council, till the 
 year 1895, appointed qua Corporation. Previous to the passing of the Glasgow 
 Corporation and Police Act in that year, the Council was a protean body, and 
 while one in personnel^ under various Acts of Parliament they were statutory 
 Commissioners or Trustees for special objects. In these capacities their powers 
 and duties were separate and distinct from those they had as an ancient 
 Municipal Corporation. Thus, as Water Commissioners, as Markets and 
 Slaughter House Commissioners, and as Improvement Trustees, they were 
 three separate and distinct bodies acting independently of each other and of 
 the Town Council. The Police Commissioners also were the Town Council 
 under another name, carrying on their multifarious duties at meetings of their 
 own, with their own committees, and a staff of officials separate and distinct 
 from that which serves the Town Council proper. As Parks and Galleries 
 Trustees, and also as Gas Commissioners, the Town Council acted under the 
 powers conferred by the Acts regulating these Trusts in their corporate 
 capacity. They never met as Parks Trustees nor as Gas Commissioners, the 
 Council appointed committees, as we have seen, for supervising these Trusts, 
 and the general acts and resolutions of the Council applied to them so far as 
 relevant. Under the powers conferred by the Glasgow Corporation and Police 
 Act (1895), the various separate Trusts, the Police Commissioners, the Water 
 Commissioners, the Markets and Slaughter House Commissioners, and the 
 Improvement Trustees will hereafter be in the same position as the Parks
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 75 
 
 Trustees and the Gas Commissioners. All are now consolidated into one 
 body, the Corporation of Glasgow, and while for the facilitating of business, 
 for organization, for control of expenditure, and for the statement of accounts, 
 all these departments must be managed by separate committees, these com- 
 mittees will be committees of the Corporation, and it will be competent for 
 the Town Council as a corporation to deal with the affairs of any or all of 
 them at an}' ordinary meeting regularly convened.
 
 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: Accommoda- 
 tion, cost, etc. 
 
 A ROMANTIC if somewhat melancholy interest attaches to the vast and 
 stately Town Halls of certain Continental cities, where grass-grown squares 
 and deserted apartments attest that the bustle and activity of growing life 
 have passed away from them. The great piles are monuments of a glory 
 which has been, they are an expression of the civic patriotism of men of 
 other days, and in their long experience they may have been the scene of 
 momentous occurrences. They are monuments of the periods of growth and 
 prosperity of the cities which they appear to dominate ; they remain an 
 object of pride and veneration to the citizens ; but they also serve to 
 accentuate the sense of the decline and decay of civic activity and power. 
 
 No such charm of hoar antiquity attaches to the Town Hall — to what 
 we modestly name the City Chambers — of Glasgow. The City has not yet 
 reached the period of equilibrium which precedes decay, nor is there any 
 appearance of the approach of such an era. Its institutions and its erections, 
 with the notable exception of the Cathedral, are modern and even of the 
 present day. Nor is it a matter for wonder, in a community which has 
 increased seven-fold within a century, that the public buildings should in the 
 main have sprung up within that time. The Municipal Buildings of Glasgow, 
 indeed, offer a remarkable illustration of the growth of the population, and 
 the increase of the public work of Glasgow. No fewer than four times within 
 about eighty years have the municipal offices been removed to larger premises ; 
 and already the huge building, within which the hammer of the builder has
 
 THE HOMES OF THE COUNCIL ny 
 
 barely ceased to resound, is taxed to find accommodation for the various 
 departments housed within or seeking admission to it. 
 
 The earliest home of the Corporation of Glasgow of which we have 
 definite knowledge was the Tolbooth, the site of which is still indicated 
 b}^ the crown-capped tower — "the Cross Steeple" and the adjacent building 
 at the Cross of Glasgow. That this building took the place of an older 
 Tolbooth we learn from meagre records and allusions. Among our ecclesias- 
 tical superiors that more ancient erection was known as the Pretorium ; but 
 the Council and the community gave it that more familiar and expressive 
 name of the Tolbooth, a term spelt by our ancestors in many fantastic 
 ways, but the plain meaning of which clearly indicated the original and 
 principal use of municipal buildings in early times. We know also that it 
 was possessed of a clock, and as to the fate of the building we have definite 
 information, while, from the fact that the magistrates haggled over the pay- 
 ment of three hundred merks (about £i6 8s. sterling) for its demolition, we 
 may infer something as to its extent. The Council minutes of iith Feb- 
 ruary, 1625-6, contain the following paragraph: "It is concludit that the 
 proveist and bailleis deill with John Boyid and Patrik Colquhoun anent the 
 downtaking of the Tolbuithe, and to sie quhat can be gotten doun af 
 thrie hundretht markis as thai have alreddie offerit to tak doun the same 
 for the said sowme, and als to deill with Johne Neill, knok maker, to mak 
 ane new knok, and to try the pryce, and als to deill with the tennentis of 
 the buithes under the Tolbuithe that thai may remove." That the provost 
 and bailies were successful in obtaining a reduction on this estimate is 
 evident from the fact that, on iSth March, an order was given to pay 
 " wrichts and masonnes twa hundrethe and fiftie markis for the dountaking 
 of the Tolbuithe as thai aggreit thairfoir." So disappeared the first Tol- 
 booth or Council-house of Glasgow. The next, which served for well-nigh 
 two hundred years, comes almost within the recollection of living men ; its 
 steeple still adorns the Cross, and a good deal of its form and appearance 
 are reproduced at this day in the buildings erected over the original site of 
 that second Tolbooth. 
 
 That the removal of the old Tolbooth did not occupy long time is 
 evident from the fact that, on the 15th March, 1625-6, a brief month after 
 the provost and bailies were chaffering as to the cost of taking down the 
 old erection, the foundation stone of the new building was laid on the site 
 of that demolished. The Council records have this entry : " The grund stane 
 of the Tolbuithe of Glasgow was laid. The workmen ar thais : Johne Boyid, 
 maister of the work (and eleven others), maisteris of the maisones ; servandis, 
 James Johnsoun (and five others) ; printeisses, John Stutt (and six others)." 
 
 There were no architectural competitions, no measuring of plans, and no 
 estimates from rival tradesmen, at the building of the Tolbooth in 1626-7. 
 Who the architect was is e\en a matter of conjecture, although it is more
 
 7^ 
 
 MUNICIPAL CLASGOIV 
 
 than probable that the above-mentioned Mr. John Boyd, Maister of the Work, 
 had the principal responsibility for the architectural features of the structure. 
 On 27th September, 1627, when the building was completed, the Council 
 " ordanes John Boyd, Maister of the Work, to haue fra the thesaurer, for his 
 bountethe and deligens in building the Tolbuithe, the sowme of ane hun- 
 drethe pundis money to be payet by the thesaurer to him." Under the 
 
 THE TOLBOOTH OF GLASGOW. 
 
 supervision and direct orders of the Council, materials for the structure were 
 purchased, the men employed were paid day's wages by the Council, and 
 the only contracts made were for sharpening mason's irons, and for providing 
 the new clock ; both of which contracts were departed from, because, according 
 to the simple-minded views of the times, the contractors would otherwise 
 have been losers by their bargains. 
 
 The Tolbooth was really a very handsome and picturesque building in 
 the Scoto-French manner of the period, four storeys in height over a base- 
 ment storey, the top level of which was reached by an external double 
 staircase. On the east side of the building, facing High Street, was the 
 tower or steeple terminating in an open crown surmounted by a lantern. 
 Writing in 1634, seven years only after the building was opened, Sir
 
 THE HOMES OF THE COUNCIL 70 
 
 William Brereton says : " The Tolebooth, which is placed in the middle 
 of the Town, and near unto the Cross and Market Place, is a very fair 
 and high built house, from the top whereof, being leaded, you may take 
 a full view and prospect of the whole City. In one of these rooms or 
 chambers sits the Council of this City ; in other of the rooms or chambers 
 preparation is made for the Lords of the Council to meet in these stately 
 rooms. Herein is a closet lined with iron walls, top, bottom, floor, and 
 door, iron — wherein are kept the Evidences and Records of the City, this 
 made to prevent the danger of fire. This Toleboothe is said to be the 
 fairest in this kingdom." 
 
 And one hundred years later M'Ure, the original historian of the City, 
 thus describes the building and its internal arrangements : " The Town- 
 house or Tolbooth is a magnificent structure, being of length from east 
 to west 66 foot, and from the south to the north 24 foot 8 inches ; it hath 
 a stately staircase ascending to the Justice Court Hall, within which is the 
 entry of a large turnpike or staircase ascending to the Town Council 
 Hall, above which there was the Dean of Guild's Old Hall ; but now is 
 turned into two prison houses for prisoners of note and distinction. The 
 Council House is adorned with the effigies of King James VI., King Charles 
 the I. and II., King James VII., King William and Queen Mary, Queen 
 Anne, King George the I. and II., all in full length, and a fine large oval 
 table, where the Magistrates and Town Council and their Clerk sits. The 
 first story of this great building consists of six rooms, two whereof are for 
 the Magistrates' use, one for the Dean of Guild's Court, and another for 
 the collector of the Town's Excise. These apartments are all vaulted from 
 the one end to the other, and there is a new addition built, appointed for 
 a quorum of the Council to sit, in order to determine and despatch all such 
 affairs as may be expede without the consent of the whole ; but above all, 
 the King's Hall is the finest, the length whereof is 43 foot 1 1 inches from 
 east to west, and from south to north 24 foot, and the Turnpike upon the east 
 end. In this great building are five large rooms appointed for common 
 prisoners ; the steeple on the east end thereof being 1 1 3 foot high, adorned 
 with a curious clock all of brass, with four dial plates ; it has a large bell 
 for the use of the clock, and a curious set of chimes and tuneable bells which 
 plays every two hours, and has four large touretts on the corners thereof, with 
 vanes finely guilded, and the whole roof is covered with lead. Upon the 
 frontispiece of this building is His Majesty's Arms, finely cut out, with a fine 
 dial, and below the same is this Latin inscription : 
 
 ' Haec Domus 
 odit amat punit conservat honorat 
 Nequitiam Pacem Crimina Jura Probos.'" 
 
 In 1737 an important adjunct — a Town Hall — was erected by the 
 Council on the west side of and communicating internally with the Tolbooth.
 
 8o MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 The basement consisted of a rusticated arcade, with caricature heads on the 
 keystones of the arches, the arcade forming the beginning of the celebrated 
 piazza, which continued to be a feature of the east end of the Trongate till 
 past the middle of this century. With alterations which have obliterated the 
 arcade, the erection stiir remains the property of the Corporation, and is used 
 as a drapery warehouse. The Town Hall itself had, we are told, a coved 
 ceiling, and was " done up in an elegant manner." The walls latterly were 
 decorated with trophies and the full length portraits mentioned by M'Ure, 
 with the addition of those of George III., Archibald, Duke of Argyll, and of 
 Flaxman's Statue of Pitt, which are now to be seen in the Corporation 
 Galleries of Art; and there was also a bronze bust of George III., which has 
 disappeared. The Town Hall was used for all important public and muni- 
 cipal functions and festivities, and its public career was closed on 6th 
 September, 1854, with a banquet, on the occasion of the inauguration of the 
 equestrian statue of Queen Victoria, by Baron Marochetti. 
 
 The Tolbooth itself had in the meantime long disappeared, and on its 
 site was erected the building which now covers that historical corner, and 
 which is a happy imitation of the old structure. By Cleland, we are told, 
 it was sold in 1 8 1 3 to himself for ;^8ooo, being at the rate of more than 
 ;^45 per square yard; "under the express stipulation that he should take 
 down the old building, and erect a new one comformable to a design of Mr. 
 David Hamilton, Architect, ornamented with turrets and embrazures, so 
 as to keep up a similarity to the old tower of the jail, which is still 
 preserved." 
 
 It was in 1807 that the inadequacy of the Tolbooth buildings was first 
 officially recognized by the Council. On 1 3th February in that year Mr. 
 James Black, Dean of Guild, moved the appointment of a committee " to 
 examine into the state of the jail, and to satisfy themselves whether it would 
 be expedient to have a new one in some more eligible situation, and if so 
 satisfied, to select a site and architect or architects, with instructions for making 
 out a plan of a new Jail, Court Hall, Council Chambers, Clerks' Chambers, and 
 other conveniences, to procure estimates of cost, and the probable sum that 
 may be realized from the sale of the buildings to be vacated, and to report." 
 On 1st November in the following year Mr. Black, now elevated to the office 
 of Lord Provost, was appointed chairman of a new committee, to deal with 
 the question of a new building and its site, and shortly thereafter, on 6th 
 January, 1809, their recommendation, that the new structure should be erected 
 on the Laigh Green, in line with the intended continuation of Saltmarket 
 Street, was unanimously adopted by the Council. Immediate action was 
 taken to carry out the resolution of the Town Council : the Government was 
 applied to for a grant in aid on the double plea that the City had recently 
 made a present to the Government of a large piece of ground for barracks, and 
 that the jail instead of serving the City only had become a general king's jail
 
 THE HOMES OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 8i 
 
 for the whole of the West of Scotland. These pleas had no effect on the 
 imperial exchequer, and Glasgow had, unaided, to face the cost. 
 
 THE COURT HOUSE AND JAIL, 1810-14. 
 
 Three architects of acknowledged ability, Mr. Robert Reid, Mr. William 
 Stark, of Edinburgh, and Mr. David Hamilton, were invited to send in plans ; 
 and those submitted by Mr. Stark were selected. Unaltered in its external 
 features the very graceful and finely-proportioned Doric erection of Stark 
 still forms a beautiful screen to the western extremity of the Green. The 
 foundation stone was laid, with municipal pomp, on loth September, 1810, 
 by Lord Provost Black, and in 18 14 the buildings were completed and 
 taken possession of, the entire cost having amounted to almost ;i{^3 5,000. 
 Writing at the time Cleland observes : " These buildings contain halls for 
 the several courts, and ample accommodation for the civil and criminal 
 establishments. The entry to the gaol is by the west front. This depart- 
 ment consists of two spacious courts, 74 fire-rooms, 58 cells, and 2 apart- 
 ments for prisoners under sentence of death, so completely cased with iron 
 that it is not necessary to subject the criminals to personal irons, as is 
 done in almost every other gaol in the Kingdom. There is also a chapel, a 
 military guard-house, and apartments for the keeper of the gaol's family. 
 Four cast-iron cisterns, calculated to contain 14,776 gallons of water, are 
 placed on the top of the prisons, from which the several apartments and 
 water-closets are supplied. Prisoners are received from the counties of 
 Lanark, Renfrew, and Dumbarton. They amounted, in 181 5, to 1172 
 persons, viz., 367 debtors, 525 male criminals, and 239 female criminals, 
 and 41 deserters." 
 
 The growing City was not long in outstripping the accommodation of 
 the building at the Green, which, moreover, planted on the very boundary 
 
 F
 
 82 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 of the municipality, while the tide of population was running towards the 
 opposite extremity, was found very inconvenient for public business. The 
 indefatigable Cleland, in 1829, proposed that the municipal offices should be 
 removed to the position then and still occupied by St. George's Church in 
 Buchanan Street, where might be provided " a spacious Town or Guild 
 Hall, a Council Chamber, a Burgh Court Hall, Committee Rooms, and 
 Offices for the judicial and civil offices of the Corporation," This proposal, 
 which at the time amounted to planting the public offices on the western 
 limits of the City, was not entertained, and it was not till 1835 that any 
 practical resolution for providing new buildings was arrived at. After much 
 negotiation an understanding was arrived at between the City and County 
 authorities for the promotion of a measure to erect, at joint expense, a build- 
 ing adequate for the municipal business of the City, and for the judicial 
 
 ^^^^^ 
 
 CITY AND COUNTY BUILDINGS, 1844. 
 
 work of both City and County. The result of this agreement was the 
 passing of an Act constituting a new body, the Glasgow Court-house Com- 
 missioners, composed of 13 representatives of the Town Council and 1 2 
 County representatives, authorized to erect buildings sufficient for the wants 
 of the municipality and for the accommodation of the Sheriff and Justice 
 of Peace Courts and offices of the County. After considerable delay a 
 public competition for a building on the site in Wilson Street, between 
 Hutcheson Street and Brunswick Street, was announced, and the selected
 
 THE HOMES OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 83 
 
 plans were the work of Messrs. Clarke and Bell. The foundation stone 
 was, with due solemnity, laid by Lord Provost Campbell on i8th November, 
 1842, and in 1844 the structure, at a cost of «;^54,ooo was ready for 
 occupation. 
 
 The building provided by Messrs. Clarke and Bell is a classical work of 
 fine proportion and much solid dignity. The principal elevation towards 
 Wilson Street is of imposing character, with its graceful Ionic portico, frieze 
 and pediment rising over an elevated podium, or basement, happily orna- 
 mented with a belt of relief figures. Originally the interior was bilaterally 
 divided, the eastern section being appropriated for the Sheriff Courts and 
 Chambers and County offices, while the western division was set apart for 
 municipal offices and Council Hall. 
 
 On the removal of the municipal offices from the foot of the Saltmarket 
 the building there was entirely devoted to jail and Court-house business. 
 
 CITY CHAMBERS, INGRAM STREET. 1874. 
 
 The vacated municipal offices were altered and fitted for jury and witness 
 rooms ; and from time to time considerable improvements were effected within 
 the building ; including the provision of a Second Justiciary Court Hall, 
 whereby two Circuit Courts can conduct business simultaneously in the 
 Glasgow Circuit. 
 
 Only for a very brief space was the building in Wilson Street found 
 sufficient for the work of both the municipal and judicial authorities ; and 
 again in 1868 an Act was obtained sanctioning the acquisition of the 
 remainder of the block between Wilson Street and Ingram Street, including 
 the Merchants' House and Guild Hall, and the removal of the municipal 
 offices to the Ingram Street end of the block. After the passing of the
 
 84 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Act strong differences of opinion arose within the Council as to the 
 sufficiency of the site appropriated for the work of the City. A party, led 
 by Lord Provost Rae-Arthur, favoured the promotion of a Bill to acquire 
 the whole of the east side of George Square for Town buildings ; but on 
 lOth November, 1870, the Council, by a majority, resolved to go on with 
 the Ingram Street scheme as already sanctioned by Parliament. Messrs. 
 Clarke and Bell were entrusted with the duty of finishing the block which, 
 thirty years earlier, they had begun ; and the elevation they provided towards 
 Ingram Street, with its colonnade of six Corinthian pillars and its corre- 
 sponding six statuary figures over the entablature, was a less happy design 
 than its Wilson Street counterpart. The additions and alterations cost 
 upwards of iJ^5 0,000 ; and in 1874 the Council, with the Town Clerk, the 
 City Chamberlain, and the City Engineer and Architect, and their respective 
 staffs, took possession of the Ingram Street City Chambers. 
 
 The walls of the new building were not yet dry ere it was perceived that a 
 grievous error had been committed. Not only had the City continued to 
 expand with unexampled rapidity, adding thereby to the responsibilities of 
 the Council, but within the previous quarter of a century the functions 
 of the Council and the departments under their control had multiplied 
 amazingly. Within that time the Police of the City had been handed 
 over to the Council : and they had also assumed the care of the public 
 parks, galleries, and museums. They had taken over the rights of the 
 Water Companies and the sole control of the water supply ; they had 
 become Gas Commissioners and Markets Commissioners ; a huge Health 
 Department had been organized, a City Improvement scheme had been 
 initiated, and they also had begun the construction of the Glasgow Tramways, 
 Offices and departments were scattered all over the City, and it was perceived 
 that, for unity of aim, supervision, and control, it was absolutely necessary to 
 concentrate under one roof, the staffs dealing with these varied interests, or at 
 least to provide offices for their representative officials. The Ingram Street offices 
 were therefore, almost from the first day, looked on as a temporary makeshift. 
 
 In 1877, for the fourth time within seventy years, the Town Council, 
 on the motion of Lord Provost Bain, resolved in favour of removal to larger 
 premises. The scheme propounded by Lord Provost Rae-Arthur for acquiring 
 the east side of George Square this time found favour ; and without opposi- 
 tion an Act was, in 1878, obtained, with powers of compulsory purchase over 
 the two blocks from the east side of George Square, between George Street and 
 Cochrane Street, crossing John Street, and terminating in the east with 
 Montrose Street. The powers for acquiring the block between John Street 
 and Montrose Street were, however, allowed to lapse, and the rights of the 
 Council became restricted to the section extending from George Square to 
 John Street, covering altogether a square space of 242 feet side or about i y^ 
 acres. That valuable ground was obtained at a cost of ;^ 17 3,000.
 
 THE HOMES OF THE COUNCIL 
 
 85 
 
 In March, 1880, conditions of competition and a set of sketch plans, 
 prepared by Mr. John Carrick, City Architect, were issued, and designs 
 in accordance were publicly invited. It was specified that the building 
 should not exceed ;^ 150,000 in cost, and three premiums of 750, 500 
 and 250 guineas respectively were offered to the architects who should secure 
 the foremost three places in the competition. Sir Charles Barry was appointed 
 arbiter, and from the 96 sets of designs submitted to him on 30th August, 
 1880, he selected three, placing in order of merit the work of Mr. Corson of 
 Leeds, Messrs. Coe & Robinson of London, and Mr. Edward Clark also of 
 London. Principally on account of the insufficiency of the estimated cost 
 this competition was deemed unsatisfactory, and it was resolved to issue new 
 conditions and revised sketch plans, and again to invite the competition of 
 architects. In the second competition Sir E. Barry and Mr, Carrick were 
 joint arbiters; and out of 125 sets of designs submitted they had to select 
 ten, and in terms of the conditions of competition the authors of these, 
 indicated by their mottoes, were invited by public advertisement to take 
 part in a final limited competition. On the 26th of June, 1882, the arbiters 
 issued their reports on the designs received from the ten selected architects, 
 placing four in order of merit, and the Town Council approving of their 
 choice, it was found that the author of the design placed first was Mr, 
 William Young, a native of Paisley, practising in London. 
 
 The foundation stone of Mr, Young's building was laid with masonic 
 honours, and amid a vast concourse of citizens, by Lord Provost Ure on 
 6th October, 1883; and the work being vigorously carried on by Messrs. 
 Morrison & Mason, the principal contractors, the structure was in condition for 
 inspection by Her Majesty during her visit to Glasgow in August, 1888, 
 in connection with the International Exhibition of that year. The total 
 cost of the structure, including site, furniture, and fittings, has been i^5 40,000, 
 or adding interest on payments made while the building was in progress the 
 cost is raised to ^590,000. 
 
 Mr. Young's work shows a carefully composed, but somewhat formal 
 series of elevations, Venetian in character. It has four external elevations, 
 one to each street or place — George Square to the west, George Street to the 
 north, and John Street to the east, and Cochrane Street to the south. The 
 principal elevation and main entrance is in George Square; there are carriage 
 entrances to the quadrangles from both George Street and Cochrane Street, 
 and there are numerous subsidiary entrances around the building, all parts 
 of which connect internally with staircases and corridors. It is quite un- 
 necessary to give any verbal description of the skilfully varied features, but 
 harmonious ensejnble of the four elevations. Suffice to say that all around the 
 ground-floor and entresol built of rusticated masonry, are knit together as 
 a lofty basement over which the more varied and rich features of the principal 
 and upper floors rise in stately form. In the lower stories are located the
 
 86 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 principal business offices, while the third or principal floor gives accommoda- 
 tion for the Council Hall, the grand banqueting room with its attached 
 reception room and salon, and various Committee rooms of the Council, the 
 Library, the apartments of the Lord Provost, the Burgh and Guild Hall, 
 and certain of the public offices. Judicial business has, from the new City- 
 Chambers, as the building is modestly designated, been entirely excluded, 
 except in so far as the Guild Court and the Burgh Court, may be said, in these 
 days, to be judicial. Extensive as is the accommodation, it is already fully 
 occupied ; while for the administrative offices of the Health Department, a large 
 separate building is being provided in Montrose Street; and the Tramway's 
 staff has been obliged to occupy extensive premises in Renfield Street. Indeed 
 it is already manifest that the Council was ill-advised in allowing the grasp 
 they had, by their Act of i 878, of the block between John Street and Montrose 
 Street to slip out of their hands. A portion of the ground they have been 
 obliged to acquire for the Sanitary Offices, other parts of it already they could 
 have profitably used ; the City continues to grow, the duties and functions of 
 the Council go on increasing ; new spheres of municipal enterprise are opening 
 up ; and in the best interest of the City it is to be hoped that the demand for 
 increased municipal house-room may long continue. 
 
 A photogravure of the principal elevation of the City Chambers, the 
 George Square front, forms the frontispiece of this volume.
 
 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. 
 
 The tendency of modern legislation has been to bring municipal government 
 more and more strictly under the authority of Parliament, and to give direct 
 statutory recognition and sanction to many functions and undertakings which, 
 in early times, depended for their validity on use and wont, or on the 
 vaguely recognized laws and customs of burghs. Hence it happens that 
 many of the duties which the Glasgow Town Council formerly discharged 
 generally as a Corporation are now defined and specified in local enactments; 
 and, as we have seen, these are entrusted to the Council acting as trustees, 
 or commissioners under special statutes. In this way the ancient preroga- 
 tives of the Corporation have to some extent been limited and abridged ; 
 and certainly, at this day, the greatest and the most laborious functions of 
 the municipal rulers are discharged, not as by the ancient Corporation, but 
 as by trustees and commissioners constituted and acting under modern Acts 
 of Parliament. The powers and duties of the Council acting under such 
 statutes are strictly limited and defined : as a Corporation there are no 
 such restrictions on that body. The Corporation of Glasgow is the owner 
 of large and valuable properties. It has been the recipient of many legacies 
 which it is bound to administer in accordance with the terms of the bequests. 
 It has to shape the policy of the City in regard to new and general legis- 
 lation ; it has the large general duty of defending the rights of the citizens 
 and the interests of the City in their relation to the enterprises of railway 
 and other public companies, and to all operations which interfere with the 
 right of property, public or private ; and it has to maintain the honour,
 
 88 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 dignity, and position of the City among the cities and burghs of the Kingdom. 
 To several of the greater enterprises of the Corporation, such as the work- 
 ing of the tramways, the management of the public halls and the bazaar, 
 and its relation to the City Churches and to education, special chapters will 
 be hereafter devoted. Here we concern ourselves with the Corporation as 
 the manager and owner of a large estate. We regard it as we would an 
 enlightened overlord, defending the rights and seeking the good of his vassals; 
 as a prudent, broad-minded administrator, looking well to the future while 
 not neglecting the duties of the present ; as an enlightened pioneer of pro- 
 gress, ever willing to give the benefit of acquired experience to others ; and 
 as a generous and hospitable host, ready to entertain guests from afar with 
 dignity and grace. 
 
 The property and revenues of the Corporation which are not held under 
 special Acts of Parliament, nor raised by taxation, constitute the " Common 
 Good " of the City. Some portion of it is held and administered for specific 
 purposes, and is subject to onerous payments for objects and services, the 
 maintenance of which was among the original conditions of the grant of the 
 property. In some cases the expenditure, notably in relation to the City 
 Churches, far exceeds the income derivable from the properties. Other 
 revenues of the Common Good are collected merely in trust and must be 
 devoted to the special objects for which the mortifications in the hands of 
 the Town Council were made. Certain ancient sources of revenue have 
 disappeared altogether, and with them have also disappeared some of the 
 obligations of the mediaeval Corporation. Outstanding as a valuable asset 
 are various wrecks of the ancient property of the Corporation, and after the 
 many chances and changes of the centuries there remains to the City a 
 substantial credit balance which may be looked on as the private wealth of 
 the Corporation, private, that is, in the sense that the Council are under no 
 statutory obligation to administer the free revenue for one public purpose 
 more than another, that they can hold and accumulate the surplus if they 
 so will, or devote it to any public object which a resolution of the Council 
 sanctions and the official auditor passes ; only, like every other Corporation 
 property, a statutory account — charge and discharge — must be made up and 
 published each financial year. 
 
 The official valuation brings out the total assets of the Common Good 
 of the City at 31st May, 1895, a-t ^i,330,ooo, of which ^650,000 is repre- 
 sented by heritable property, and iS^6 80,000 consists of movable assets. 
 Against that there are to be reckoned ^970,000 of liabilities, leaving a clear 
 surplus — the wealth of the Corporation — of ;^3 60,000. The valuation, it is 
 fair to say, is on the modest and safe side — it does not take into account 
 certain public properties, notably the City Churches, which, although built 
 and maintained out of Corporation revenues, are not, under present circum- 
 stances at least, a realizable asset, nor has the value of the annual payment
 
 THE CORPORATION: ITS WEALTH AND ACTIVITIES 89 
 
 of iJ^900O which, by arrangement, the Tramways Committee now make to 
 the Common Good been capitalized and inchided in the Corporation assets. 
 The habihties of the Common Good are principally in the form of mortgage 
 debts to the extent of ^317,000 and of temporary loans held from banks, 
 from private lenders, and from several public and official bodies more or less 
 intimately related to the Corporation and its undertakings, such loans 
 amounting to a little more than half a million sterling. In the liabilities 
 are also included numerous mortifications mostly of small amount, held and 
 administered by the Corporation as a public trustee, the whole capital value 
 of which, however, little exceeds ^10,000. The Common Good is further 
 burdened with a yearly payment of £^10 to Glasgow School Board on 
 account of the High School, which represents a capital sum of ;^i4,2 5o. 
 It holds on open account of charitable and other public funds over iJ^6 3,000. 
 Of feu duties payable and bonds over heritable property the Common Good 
 is liable for nearly ;^ 16,000, and numerous other minor sums in the account 
 bring the total liabilities up to ^970,000. 
 
 The heritable assets embrace a number of properties to which more 
 detailed reference will hereafter be made, such as the Bazaar and the several 
 Corporation Markets, valued at over ^150,000; the lands of Coplawhill 
 i^ 1 2 5,000; building ground skirting Alexandra Park; Provanmill and water 
 rights on the ancient Provan estate ; certain houses purchased with the view 
 of controlling rights of servitude over open spaces ; the lands of Dalmuir, 
 valued about iS^ 12 3,000; Blackhill estate ;^20,ooo ; St. Andrew's Halls and 
 neighbouring grounds, on which a sum of ^^^^63,000 has been expended ; feu 
 duties and casualties .^110,000; and heritable bonds, etc., for iJ^3,6oo ; the 
 whole heritable property as above stated being valued at almost ^^650,000. 
 
 The principal movable asset consists of advances made for the construc- 
 tion and equipment of the Glasgow Tramways, the amount of which at 
 31st May, 1895, was ^^^528,000. The capitalized value of the annual 
 payment of .^1500 from police rates, made under statute on account of 
 the abolition of petty customs ("the ladles"), is ^^37,500. A historical 
 wreck of ^20 yearly comes from Port-Glasgow shore dues, which is capital- 
 ized at iJ^5oo. The Corporation owns ^12,200 of Caledonian Railway four 
 per cent, debentures, and it holds four and a half per cent, annuities on 
 ;^I400 from the Corporation Water Works, also a historical investment 
 representing the original share of the City in the undertaking of the first 
 Water Company. On account of advances to various Corporation depart- 
 ments and public bodies, the Common Good has at its credit ;^96,ooo. 
 Outstanding feu duties, rents, interest, and accounts represent the balance 
 of the movable assets, bringing the total heritable and movable estate and 
 property of the Corporation up to the respectable sum already mentioned, 
 i^ 1, 3 30,000. 
 
 The ordinary revenue of the Common Good for the year ended 3 1 st
 
 90 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 May, 1895, was ;^50,850, while the ordinary expenditure did not quite 
 reach ^40,000. The extraordinary expenditure amounted to ^2742, of 
 which nearly ;^900 was incurred in festivities connected with the visit of 
 the Channel Fleet; but against that an extraordinary payment of ^^2250 
 was received from the surplus of the Town Clerk's Fee Fund, so that when 
 all accounts were squared there remained a balance of more than ;^ 10,000 
 on the credit side of the year's intromissions, which went to swell the 
 capital wealth of the Common Good of the City. The various items of 
 ordinary revenue and expenditure for the year are thus summarized in the 
 City Chamberlain's accounts : 
 
 ORDINARY ACCOUNT. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Department — 
 City Church Seat Rents, 
 Ministers' Stipends, - 
 Salaries and Allowances, 
 Tradesmen's Accounts, 
 Miscellaneous Expenses, 
 
 Civil Department — 
 
 Glasgow Green, 
 
 Old Clothes Market, 
 
 Bird and Dog Market, 
 
 Bazaar, ... 
 
 City Hall, 
 
 Candleriggs Property, 
 
 Ingram Street Property, 
 
 Albion Street Property, 
 
 Bell Street Property, 
 
 City Hall Organ, 
 
 St. Andrew's Halls, - 
 
 Lanark Street Property, 
 
 Terrace Houses, 
 
 Sundry Subjects, 
 
 Alexandra Parade, - 
 
 Provanmill and Water Rights, 
 
 Coplawhill Lands, - 
 
 Osborne Street Ground, - 
 
 Dalmuir Lands, 
 
 Blackhill Lands, 
 
 Dumbarton Road Ground, 
 
 Burying-Grounds, 
 
 Bells, Clocks, and Steeples, 
 
 Feu Duties and Ground 
 Annuals, - - - 
 
 Feudal Casualties, - 
 Books of Patents and In- 
 ventions, - - - 177 19 6 
 
 EXPENDITURE. 
 
 
 REVENUE. 
 
 
 
 
 
 i:i,684 
 
 18 
 
 II 
 
 
 i^3,8oo 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 416 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 197 8 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 102 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i^4,5iS 10 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 — .^1,684 I 
 
 8 II 
 
 
 
 ^^46 9 
 
 9 
 
 
 i^239 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 444 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 2,295 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 57 18 
 
 3 
 
 
 222 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,820 19 
 
 5 
 
 
 4,3 T 8 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 
 1,468 13 
 
 I 
 
 
 1,832 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 
 80 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 665 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 45 5 
 
 2 
 
 
 390 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 131 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 20 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 175 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 207 6 
 
 8 
 
 
 65 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 
 1,447 19 
 
 I 
 
 
 2,900 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 
 108 13 
 
 I 
 
 
 144 
 
 18 
 
 II 
 
 
 n 15 
 
 I 
 
 
 295 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 16 
 
 10 
 
 
 36 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 20 14 
 
 10 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5, 48 13 
 
 4 
 
 
 132 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 60 II 
 
 3 
 
 
 224 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 28 
 
 8 
 
 
 76 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 
 107 16 
 
 
 
 
 650 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 82 16 
 
 7 
 
 
 253 
 
 2 
 
 II 
 
 
 3 18 
 
 2 
 
 
 47 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 168 7 
 
 2 
 
 
 52 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 331 
 
 2 
 
 
 4,2x6 
 
 • • • 
 
 I 
 
 9 
 
 
 • • • 
 
 
 
 680 
 
 12 
 
 8 

 
 91 
 
 THE CORPORATION: ITS WEALTH AND ACTIVITIES 
 
 ORDINARY ACCOUNT. EXPENDITURE. RF.VENUE. 
 
 Feu Duties and Ground 
 
 Teinds, . - . ^77 16 2 
 
 Petty Customs, - - ... .^^ 1,500 o o 
 
 Burgess and Freedom Fines, ... 554 12 o 
 
 Law Expenses, - - 35 o 4 
 
 Port-Glasgow Shore Dues, ... 20 o o 
 
 Dividends,- - . . ... 453 12 o 
 
 Tramways, - - - ... 8,647 6 o 
 
 Salaries and Allowances, - 4,771 10 8 35O58 13 o 
 
 Musical Recitals, - - 763 18 o 766 16 6 
 
 Miscellaneous, - - - 1,248 18 i 228 6 6 
 
 Commission on Insurances, ... 19 16 6 
 
 ^13,783 13 7 i^35>3i4 4 II 
 
 Educational Department, - . - . . 571 i o 
 
 Criminal Department, 79 9 9 
 
 Interest, 24,208 5 ok I7,i34 12 ']\ 
 
 ^43,158 o o* 
 
 Balance— Excess of Ordinary Revenue, - - 10,975 16 5 
 
 . ^54,133 16 s\ ^^54,133 16 l\ 
 
 The ancient sources of revenue of the City were dealt with in a previous 
 chapter. Of these the most productive were the petty customs levied on 
 produce and provisions entering the City, and the multures derived from 
 the thirlage of the citizens to the Corporation Mills. These revenues have 
 in modern times entirely disappeared, petty customs, " the ladles," having 
 been abandoned by the Council in 1834, but in lieu thereof the Magistrates 
 and Council (Police) became bound to pay annually out of the police 
 rates to the Magistrates and Council (Corporation) a compensation of 
 ;^I500, which amount goes to swell the Common Good. The "Issues of the 
 Court " which at one time were a Corporation receipt have, during the present 
 century, disappeared from the Corporation accounts ; and in their place there 
 are now what is vulgarly known as Police Fines and Forfeitures, which go 
 to the reduction of the expenditure on the Police of the City. There still 
 remains an ancient source of revenue from which a driblet of two or three 
 hundred pounds continues yearly to pour into the exchequer of the City — 
 that is, the proportion effeiring to the Municipality of Burgess and Freedom 
 Fines, or the fees paid on the entry of a burgess. We have already seen 
 that to become a burgess of Glasgow, in a sense sufficient to qualify for 
 the office of town councillor, it is now only necessary to have been an 
 occupier of premises and a ratepayer for a period of not less than three 
 years; but such qualification does not entitle its holder to entrance to any 
 of the Incorporated Trades, nor to enjoy any of the privileges flowing from 
 attachment to the Trades' House and the Incorporations. Every candidate for
 
 92 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 admission to any of the Trade Incorporations must first be entered as a 
 burgess of the City, and it is therefore through the Incorporations that the 
 meagre amount collected yearly as Burgess Fines is obtained. Candidates 
 for admission to the Merchants' House do not require to qualify as bur- 
 gesses in order to become members of that ancient body. 
 
 In mediaeval times the City of Glasgow was possessed of real property 
 which, properly farmed and held to the present day, would have made the 
 Corporation rich beyond the dreams of avarice. But at frequent intervals 
 the City was in the very severest straits for ready money, and bit by bit 
 its valuable and ancient heritage was disposed of to satisfy present wants. 
 In consequence, very little of the ancient heritable possession of the com- 
 munity has continued in the hands of the Council to the present day ; and 
 now it is not possible to say with any certainty even what were the bounds 
 of the common lands of the burgh, what other heritable properties the City 
 possessed, nor the character and amount of the teinds, etc., acquired by the 
 City at or after the time of the Reformation. 
 
 In the Report on the Common Lands of the City presented to the 
 Council by Sir James D. Marwick in 1891, the conclusions of that learned 
 authority are thus stated : 
 
 " The common lands of the burgh which, to distinguish them from the 
 existing Glasgow Green, may be termed the ' ancient common lands,' consisted 
 of (i) the Easter Common, including Garngad Hill, extending northward in 
 an irregular shape from the Cathedral to the locality now known as Spring- 
 burn, bounded on the east by the Garngad Burn, and extending westward 
 to the Wester Common ; (2) the Wester Common, extending in an irregular 
 shape from the Easter Common westward to a boundary intersecting the 
 lines of New City Road, North Woodside Road, and Garscube Road, and 
 bounded on the north by a line roughly continuous with the northern march 
 of the Easter Common. The lands of Cowcaddens and Provanside, situated 
 on the south-east of the Wester Common, probably at one time formed 
 part of that Common, and adjoined the built-on area of the burgh ; (3) the 
 Gallowmuir, extending from the eastern boundary of the burgh, as above 
 described, eastwards as far as what is now known as Camlachie ; (4) the Green, 
 known as the Old Green, extending along the north side of the Clyde from 
 the buildings in Bridgegate and Stockwell Street on the east to St. Enoch's 
 Burn at St. Enoch Square on the west ; and (5) a croft, known as Broomielaw 
 Croft, situated along the north side of the river, and bounded by St. Enoch's 
 Burn, dividing it from the Old Green, on the east, and the site of the 
 present Anderston Quay on the west, and the old Anderston Road, now 
 Argyle Street, on the north." 
 
 From the teinds of the Archbishopric which had been granted to the 
 Commendator of Paisley certain portions were in 1646 acquired by the City 
 for the sum of i^20,ooo Scots, with 2000 merks more to be paid on the
 
 THE CORPORATION: ITS WEALTH AND ACTIVITIES go 
 
 seller attaining his majority. To raise this amount the Council granted 
 bonds to several wealthy citizens as recorded in the Council Minutes of date 
 20th May, 1648. 
 
 " It is statute and ordanit, forsameikle as the towne hes endit the 
 bargane with the Lord Blantyre and his curatouris for his teynds of the 
 personadge of Glasgow, and for the pryce thairof sould pay twentie thousand 
 poundis money with twa thousand merkis farder at Blantyres majoritie and 
 ratificatioun of thair richt, and becaus for the present they have no money 
 to pay the said sowme of twentie thousand pundis money, thairfor it is 
 condiscendit and aggreit to borrow the samyne fra the persones efter speci- 
 feit, and that the provest, baillies, and counsell subscryve bandis to them for 
 repa}^ment thairof, with assignatiounes to ane proportionall pairt of the 
 teyndis effeirand to thair sowmes for thair farder securitie, viz., fra James 
 Stewart of Crystwall and his spous, elleivine thousand merkis, frae James 
 Stewart, tutor of Castelmilk, sax thousand merkis, frae Margaret Inglis, relict 
 of vmquhill Patrik Bell and James Bell, hir sone, fyve thousand merkis, frae 
 James Bell, late proveist, four thousand, and fra the collector of the Merchant 
 Hospitall, four thousand merkis. And als ordaineit to geive band for pay- 
 ment of the said twa thousand merkis provyding the Lord Blantyre ratifie 
 thair richt of the saids te}'nds at his perfect age, conforme to the tennor of 
 the said band." 
 
 In 1656 a rental book was prepared for the Town Council, from the 
 mention of which in the minutes dated 13th September of that year some 
 idea may be gained of the heritable possessions of the City at that period. 
 The minute states : 
 
 " Thair was publictlie red be Williame Yair ane rentall book drawin vpe 
 be him, containing thairin the tackis of the landis of Eister and Waster 
 Commouns sett be the toune, the coill heughe, the manufactorie, the smiddie 
 in Briggait, the hospitall in Gorballis and rentall thairof, the natoure of the 
 tounis right of the tyndis of the speiritwalitie of the Archbischoprick of 
 Glasgow, containing ane particular rentall of the tynd tack dewteis of the 
 landis of Garingade, Hartisfeild, Skillingsmyre, Gallowmuiris, Borrowfeild, and 
 quhat is not sett and sett thairof, with the rentall of the tyndis of Flyming- 
 toune, with the tynd of the persoune land and few dewteis thairof, with 
 thais landis in the Barrownie parosch allocat to the ministers, with the 
 rentall of the tyndis of Drymen, quhairof the maist pairt are sett in tackis, 
 and how long, and the numer of the landis not sett in tackis, with the 
 present conditioune of the tyndis of the parosch of Drysdaill, as also ane 
 doubill of the haill tackis sett be the Lord Blantyre and his predicessouris 
 of a pairt of the tyndis of the personadge of Glasgow befoir he made 
 bargane with the toune, as also the number, natoure and qualitie of the 
 haill bursareis of theologie and philosofie in the collcdge at the tounis gift 
 and presentatioune." When and how the bulk of these properties fell out
 
 94 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 of Corporation control and ownership it would now require much research 
 to discover. 
 
 In the year 1650 the Town concluded a bargain with Sir Robert Douglas 
 and his wife, Dame Susanna Douglas, for the " Six pound lands of Brig-End 
 and Gorbals," a purchase about which the Council had been nibbling for 
 nearly twenty years. The terms agreed on and to which the Council came up 
 by degrees was a payment of 120,000 merks, i^8o,ooo Scots, with additional 
 2000 merks for Dame Susanna. The purchase made by the Town was 
 divided into four equal shares, two of which went to Hutcheson's Hospital, 
 one to the Incorporations, and to the City itself the remaining share. Within 
 a few months thereafter Sir Robert Douglas was paid 50,000 merks towards 
 the price, to which sum the Crafts contributed iJ^i 5,302, the Hospital 
 .^14,031 6s. 8d., and the Town ^^4000 Scots. About four years later Sir 
 Robert appears to have been pressing the Council for the unpaid balance, 
 when the clerk was instructed curtly to point out to him that the Town was 
 in straits to pay its other creditors, that the bargain had not turned out so 
 profitable to the Town " as he should mak so muche din for that whilk is 
 restand," and withal that the Town would attend to him at its best con- 
 venience. At first, indeed, the bargain turned out a serious burden both to 
 the Hospital and to the Crafts. Owing to the unprofitable return the former 
 body had been obliged to break up the Hospital School, to send the few 
 children they supported back to their parents and relatives, and to dismiss 
 the schoolmaster. The Crafts similarly found themselves in great straits, 
 deprived of all revenues, while " decayed brethren did greatly multiply." 
 They therefore obtained the sanction of the Town Council to increase the 
 fees payable by strangers on their entry as Freemen to the various Incorpora- 
 tions. But with the progress of time the investment in the Gorbals land 
 turned out, to all parties to the purchase, a remarkably satisfactory and 
 remunerative transaction. A short time after the lands were acquired some 
 effort was made to divide them up according to the proportions acquired by 
 the Hospital, the Crafts, and the Town. No agreement, however, was 
 arrived at, and the whole lands continued to be joint property till 1790. 
 For a considerable portion of this time, not only were rents derived from 
 the surface of the ground, but lordships also were obtained for the working 
 of the coal in the lands ; and the annual revenues were divided in proportion 
 to the holdings of the three bodies. In 1788 the parties interested agreed 
 to submit the question of the division of the surface, retaining the coal as 
 joint property ; and the arbiters divided and laid off the same into four 
 parts as equal in quantity, quality, and value as they could. By direction 
 of the arbiters lots were drawn for these parts, when the patrons of 
 Hutcheson's Hospital obtained the first and second choice, the third selection 
 fell to the Trades' House, leaving Hobson's choice to the City, Under a 
 subsequent arbitration it was decided that, for the superiority of the whole
 
 THE CORPORATION: ITS WEALTH AND ACTIVITIES 
 
 95 
 
 Barony with the rights of bailHary and justiciary, the Town Council should 
 assign the sum of .€^1200, whereof ^^500 should be paid to Hutcheson's 
 Hospital, and ;^2 50 to the Trades' House. The remaining ;^450, it was 
 arranged, should be paid over in similar proportions to these two bodies unless 
 the Town Council should, before Whitsunday, 1796, sell by public auction as 
 much of the superiority as was required to make two freehold qualifications 
 to vote for the representative of Lanarkshire in Parliament. In that event 
 the Council were to retain the ;^45o, pajnng in lieu thereof to the Hospital 
 and the Trades' House three-fourths of the price obtained for the superiority 
 so disposed of. It may be noted that the magistrates did not then enter 
 into this arrangement, but in 1829 they sold as much as constituted two 
 county votes, receiving therefore ^3204 from Lord Douglas on 5th March, 
 1830, a purchase which the passing of the Reform Act soon thereafter 
 rendered entirely valueless. 
 
 The profitable nature of the investment made in 1650 may be estimated 
 from the experience of the Trades' House and Crafts in connection with 
 the portion of the property, Tradeston, assigned to them in 1790. The whole 
 of their land has been now either feued or sold. For the sold portions they 
 obtained £12,42^, and for the portions feued there is derived an annual 
 revenue of iJ^497 5 with a duplication each nineteenth year. Such a return for a 
 property which 250 years ago was acquired for a sum of ;^I743 13s. sterling 
 is a marked testimony to the marvellous increase in the value of land in and 
 around the City. The investment in the case of the Hutcheson's Hospital has 
 been even more profitable, for that Corporation now derives from its double 
 portion an annual revenue of about ^17,500, and as a heritable asset its 
 Gorbals lands, yet to dispose of, are very moderately valued at ;^37 5,ooo. The 
 return to the City does not, at present, appear so favourable ; a large portion 
 of the ground alloted to it is yet unfeued, but from feu duties nearly ^^^2500 
 is annually drawn, from rent of unfeued ground ^300 is yearly received ; to 
 the Tramways Committee, about iJ^ 10,000 worth of land has been sold, and as 
 a feuing subject the land which there yet remains unappropriated is moderately 
 valued at about ;^ 12 5,000. 
 
 In 1668 the Lordship and Barony of Provan were acquired by the Town 
 Council from Sir Robert Hamilton of Silverton Hall. The manner in which 
 the common lands and other heritages of the City were frittered away and 
 lost to the community by the malversations of a corrupt and incompetent 
 ruling body is illustrated by the treatment of this fine property. On loth 
 July, 1 69 1, within 25 years of its acquisition, a supplication was made to the 
 Convention of Royal Burghs by the Provost of Glasgow, stating " that of late 
 the said burgh is become altogether incapable of subsistance, in regaird of these 
 heavie burdens that lie thereupon, occasioned by the vast soumes that have 
 bein borrowed by the late magistrats, and the misapplying and dilapidation of 
 the toun's patirmony in suffering their debts to swell, and imploying the
 
 96 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 comon stock for ther oune sinistruous ends and uses, wherein if the petitioner 
 should be express in the particular, it wold exceedingly tend to the dishonour 
 and disparadgement of those whose dewty it wes to have been the patriots and 
 supporters of the place." Therefore he represented " that there wes ane 
 absolut and indispensable necessity for the prasent magistrats to sell and 
 dispose of a great pairt of ther patirmonie, especially the lands and barronie of 
 Provan, towards the defraying of ther most urgent and pressing debts, and 
 without doeing thereof they cannot propose any personall security from the 
 toune creditors, nor will ther be any persons found to represent the toune in 
 the office of magistracie till they be secured from legall diligence, which can 
 only be done by disposing of ther patirmonie to a present sale, and therefor 
 desyring the convention to interpose ther authority and grant warrant to 
 the present magistrats and councill of Glasgow to sell and dispose ther 
 saids lands of Provan, and such other lands or few duties, as belong to them, 
 to be employed for payment of the foresaids debts, as the supplication bears ; 
 Which being considered be the convention they hereby interpose ther authority 
 and grant warrand to the present magistrats and councill of Glasgow to sell 
 and dispon ther saids lands of Provan to be employed for payment of the 
 debts owing be the said burgh of Glasgow." 
 
 Again, on 2nd July, 1729, the Convention remitted to a committee 
 a petition from the Burgh of Glasgow " setting forth the low state of the 
 said burgh, and craving the authority of the Convention for feuing out 
 certain lands for the purposes therein mentioned, and praying that the 
 Convention would be pleased to give them such furder relief as they should 
 think proper." On the following day the committee reported that it would 
 tend to the benefit of the burgh to grant the petition, whereupon the Con- 
 vention authorized the Town Council to feu the lands and barony of Provan, 
 or any part of their commonty to the best advantage. 
 
 From the case of M'Dowal, of Castlesemple, against the magistrates of 
 Glasgow, 1 8th November, 1768, it appears that the lands of Provan were feued 
 out by the magistrates from time to time; and at last the Town, being oppressed 
 with debt, sold the whole of the feu duties to M'Dowal at a price above 
 forty years' purchase. But the purchaser, being doubtful of his title, instituted 
 proceedings in the Court of Session to have it found that a Town Council 
 had no power to alienate the Common Good, and that, in particular, the 
 Council of Glasgow were prohibited from alienating the estate of Provan by 
 the terms of their charter, which contained a clause annexing and incor- 
 porating the lands with the burgh, to remain inseparably therewith in all 
 time coming. The court, however, held that the lands, purchased by the 
 Council in 1668, were alienable by their successors in office; and they 
 remitted to the Lord Ordinary to see the price applied for payment of 
 debts. 
 
 The value of the Provan property in 1692 is stated as more than five
 
 THE CORPORATION: ITS WEALTH AND ACTIVITIES 
 
 97 
 
 times greater than that of the Gorbals, and although these relative proportions 
 would not hold good at the present day, yet it is evident that an estate 
 of enormous value to the City was frittered away and lost by the proceedings 
 above indicated. And there cannot be a doubt that the case of Provan is 
 only an instance and example of the manner in which other properties of 
 great value were lost to Glasgow. 
 
 Among the heritable property of the City which properly belongs to 
 the Common Good is to be included the Glasgow Green. No part of the 
 Green, it appears from the report of Sir James Marwick, was included in 
 the ancient common lands of the Burgh, and the whole area, as it now 
 exists, was acquired by purchase between 1662 and 1792. The Green, as 
 it now exists, was purchased, not as an investment, but from the first it 
 was the purpose of the Council to form the lands they acquired at that 
 place into " ane commoune greine for the utilitie and profeit of the inhabitants." 
 The way in which the property was acquired and added to, and the various 
 fortunes of the Green, will be noticed when we come to deal with the 
 public parks of Glasgow, of which it is the first and chief. 
 
 From these facts it will be seen that the ancient common lands of 
 the City and the heritable property it at various times acquired were very 
 extensive, and there is no doubt that had the property been rigorously 
 administered in the interests of the public the Corporation might now have 
 been in the enjoyment of a princely revenue, and Glasgow would have 
 been one of the wealthiest cities in the kingdom. The Common Good 
 as it stands cannot, therefore, be held to be a legacy bequeathed by the 
 care and prudent forethought of our forefathers, but rather it is the insignificant 
 wreck of one of the noblest ancestral properties in Scotland. 
 
 Two recent purchases of land have been made from the funds of the 
 Common Good, but neither of these was of the nature of a heritable 
 investment. In December, 1875, the lands of Blackhill, 70 acres in extent, 
 lying to the north-east of the City, beyond Alexandra Park , were acquired 
 for the price of ^24,760. At that time an increase of prison accommodation 
 was one of the melancholy necessities of Glasgow and the district associated 
 with the City in the North Lanarkshire Prison Board. The estate was acquired 
 by the Corporation in the expectation that it would prove an eligible site 
 for the new structure which had become indispensable. But before pre- 
 liminaries were arranged and building faced, there occurred the revolution 
 in prison management initiated by the Home Secretary (R. A. Cross) in 
 1877, whereby the Prisons of the country were placed entirely under the 
 control of the Imperial Government. The prison of Glasgow was found 
 and declared to be inadequate, and the local authorities were called on 
 to compensate the Government for the ascertained deficiency at the rate 
 of ^120 for each cell under the required number, an impost which has 
 cost the City nearly ;^40,ooo. Not only that, but Glasgow found herself 
 
 G
 
 98 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 left with the undesired Blackhill investment on her hands, for the Govern- 
 ment planted their new buildings at Barlinnie, and what Glasgow Town 
 Council intended should be a prison has in the meantime been converted 
 into a golf course. 
 
 In May, 1877, the lands of Dalmuir and Mountblow, extending to 237 
 acres, on the north bank of the Clyde, near New Kilpatrick, were pur- 
 chased from the Common Good for iJ^ 106,000. At that time it was thought 
 the great undertaking of purifying the Clyde was imminent, and a good 
 site for sewage purification works was recognized in the property. For 
 several years thereafter the sewage question was dormant ; but the success 
 of the experiment on a large practical scale at Dalmarnock brought the 
 great question within the range of practical undertaking, and now the 
 treatment of all the sewage on the north bank of the river is being 
 arranged for, and Dalmuir will, with the sanction of Parliament, be trans- 
 ferred to the Police Department and used for the purpose which those 
 who bought it had in view. The property divides itself naturally into 
 shore ground lying between the Forth and Clyde Canal and the river, 
 embracing 126 acres, and high level land, iii acres, stretching up to 
 Mountblow House. It is the low level shore ground which will be used 
 for the Sewage Purification works. 
 
 Acting under special statutes, the powers of the Town Council are 
 limited by the special terms of the Act they administer, but as a Corporation, 
 as we have said, the Magistrates and Council are free to undertake what 
 they consider necessary for the welfare of the community. As a Corporation, 
 it is in the power of the Council to initiate special legislation for the 
 ever-increasing requirements of the City, and the great Trusts now admin- 
 istered by the Council were formulated, promoted, and fostered by corporate 
 enterprise. The necessities of a city such as Glasgow in many matters of 
 civic government and police are in advance of, and different from, the 
 demands of the country as a whole. It thus happens in many instances 
 that powers have been conferred on the Magistrates and Council of Glasgow 
 more comprehensive and stringent than those granted under the general 
 police legislation of the country. In this way Glasgow, as well as other 
 great cities, has been a pioneer in legislation since, frequently, the powers 
 first demanded by, and conceded to, the City have in course of time been 
 extended to the country at large. 
 
 But it is not only their own legislative undertakings which demand 
 the attention of the Corporation of Glasgow in their Parliamentary relations. 
 The property, rights, and privileges of the citizens are subject to perpetual 
 assault by the schemes of Bill-promoting companies, by private associations, 
 and by individuals who seek to obtain to themselves Parliamentary sanction 
 and monopoly for objects affecting the public service and welfare. In 
 this connection, it is the dealings of the great Railway Companies which
 
 THE CORPORATION: ITS WEALTH AND ACTIVITIES gg 
 
 require to be most closely and jealously scrutinized. Great centres of 
 population are at once the chief trouble and chief source of revenue 
 of the Railway Companies ; and to obtain facilities for their traffic they 
 would unhesitatingly disregard public convenience and private right, were 
 their operations not carefully observed by local authorities. And at all 
 times associations and companies are springing up, thirsting to serve the 
 human race and to pocket lo per cent, by their philanthropic zeal. The 
 operations of such associations begin sometimes in a manner humble and 
 innocent enough ; and before either magistrates or the public are well aware 
 of their existence, they may have so rooted a monopoly and the right of 
 public recognition that they form a v^ery troublesome obstacle in the 
 attainment of some general public benefit. While these adventures and 
 adventurers require to be watched with a jealous eye, it is fair to say that 
 such speculative associations and companies are frequently the pioneers 
 of schemes of great public usefulness and social benefit. Untrammelled 
 as they are by the fear of the ratepayer, and free to risk the loss of their 
 money, while all the time hoping for substantial gain, they can investigate 
 and experiment in ways from which a Town Council is precluded. For 
 many reasons it is forbidden for a Council to be a pioneer, and it is only 
 when the public benefit of an invention or of an undertaking has been 
 fully demonstrated and established that councillors are warranted in taking 
 up such device or scheme. 
 
 The telephone may be cited as a case in point. When that invention 
 was merely in its experimental stage, no community would have dreamt 
 of demanding municipal control for its development. Even when it passed 
 that stage, and a few tentative wires were stretched in Glasgow by private 
 enterprise, it appeared a simple and entirely harmless undertaking calling 
 for no municipal interference. But when the heavens began to be darkened by 
 countless wires, when the lives of street passengers, in stormy weather, were 
 placed in jeopardy, when the roofs of vast stretches of property were 
 being trampled over without leave obtained, and when a gigantic monopoly 
 was firmly established by a private company, then came the necessity for 
 municipal inquiry and supervision. And when the genuine and enduring 
 public usefulness of the invention was demonstrated, then arose the question 
 whether it should not be placed, by license, under municipal control. Had 
 it been demonstrated that the range of the invention was confined to the 
 limits of a city alone, and that connections, linking together the empire, 
 were impracticable, then a good case might be made out for the muni- 
 cipalization of the telephones ; but immediately it was demonstrated that 
 Glasgow can be telephonically linked with Edinburgh, London, and Dublin, 
 the absolute right of the State as final authority became unquestionable. 
 
 In its corporate capacity the City of Glasgow has a high and well- 
 merited reputation as a hospitable and generous host. We live in an
 
 100 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 age of conferences, conventions, and associations, and there is not a con- 
 ceivable charitable, educational or scientific object which has not now its 
 protective and fostering association, seeking year by year the patronage 
 and protection of some great municipality. To all such associations, showing 
 any substantial claim to perform useful public work, the City is ready to 
 extend cordial welcome, though it must be said that the multiplicity of 
 conferences renders the task of entertainment somewhat tiresome. A city, 
 as well as a private host, has a right to choose its guests, and that right 
 has hitherto been exercised in Glasgow with generous discrimination. The 
 entertainment of individuals eminent in the service of the State, of bene- 
 factors to the City, or of leaders in thought and action, is also a recognized 
 duty of the Corporation, which it discharges with adequate hospitality and 
 grace. The highest tribute of respect it is in the power of the municipality to 
 offer to any person is to confer on him the freedom of the City. This dis- 
 tinction, of course, is purely honorary, but therefore much more highly 
 prized, and more sparingly conferred than, when in early times, it was 
 accompanied with substantial rights and privileges. That in the conferring 
 of such honours the Corporation is not animated by any political motive 
 is evident from the list of honorary burgesses enrolled since 1880. It 
 embraces men of all shades of politics, and men eminent in very different 
 walks of life. The succession of names is sometimes remarkable. Sir 
 Stafford Northcote, the Duke of Albany, and Mr. W. E. Forster entered 
 in 1882 ; John Bright and the Marquis of Lome were enrolled in 1883; 
 H. M. Stanley and Lord Rosebery were made burgesses in 1890; the 
 Marquis of Salisbury and the Marquis of Bute in 1891 ; Lord Roberts 
 in 1893; Sir George Trevelyan early in 1894; and Mr. Arthur James 
 Balfour, received in 1896, is the youngest honorary burgess. 
 
 The entertainment of distinguished personages, the Monarch, members 
 of the Royal Family, and foreign princes and potentates belong to a different 
 category. In these cases it is the City which is honoured, and the con- 
 descension is duly appreciated and esteemed. 
 
 The charities of a Corporation cannot be dispensed in the manner and 
 for the purely personal purposes of the benefactions of wealthy individuals, 
 and when a city makes a gift it must be as impersonal as the donor, and 
 in aid ■ of some adequate public object. It was not always so with the 
 gifts of the Corporation, for in the ancient minutes such entries as the 
 following are of frequent occurrence : " to ane puir man," " to puir Inglis 
 men," " sustentation of ane puir woman in the tolbuith," " to ane gentleman 
 called Frisson," " to ten Dutchmen quha was robit be pirotis," " to five 
 puir Frenschmen," and so on. Such entries as these would scarcely satisfy 
 the exacting eye of the modern auditor. 
 
 The Common Good charities of the Town Council take the form of 
 subscriptions to local associations and societies for the promotion of purely
 
 THE CORPORATION: ITS WEALTH AND ACTIVITIES loi 
 
 public purposes such as Agricultural and Horticultural Societies, the Humane 
 Society, Hospitals, etc. Occasionally, in exceptional circumstances, large 
 subscriptions have been made from the Common Good for public purposes, 
 e.g. as when in 1867 ^5000 was subscribed towards the building fund 
 of Glasgow University. But even for the relieving of pressing and ex- 
 tensive public distress the Common Good is never now drawn on, and as 
 we shall have occasion to show the Lord Provost and Magistrates in semi- 
 official character find a much more productive and perennial source of 
 help in the general body of the citizens, when an appeal is made under 
 the too-frequently recurring conditions of widespread distress and destitution. 
 
 The Lord Provost and Magistrates have been constituted the trustees 
 and administrators of numerous mortifications, bequests, and gifts, the 
 capital sums of which are in the City Treasury or invested by the Corporation. 
 These, of course, are administered for the special and diverse educational, 
 religious, and charitable purposes for which the funds were originally bestowed, 
 and the position of the Town Council towards such endowments is little 
 more than that of a public trustee. Under this head the most important 
 Trust is the Mitchell Library Funds benefactions, which will be dealt with 
 in a separate chapter. Several educational mortifications of considerable 
 amount, formerly administered by the Town Council, have now, by order 
 of the Educational Endowments Commission, been handed over to the 
 charge of a special body, the City Educational Endowments Board, and 
 these also will be subsequently dealt with. The others scarcely call for any 
 special comment. Their capital value is for the most part limited in 
 amount, one fund being no more than twenty guineas, and the total is 
 only about ;^70,ooo. These Trusts are no source of profit to the 
 Corporation ; on the contrary the interest allowed on the capital sums 
 is much in excess of the amount realized from ordinary investments. The 
 list embraces the Hospital of St. Nicholas, the most ancient charitable 
 organization in Glasgow, dating from the middle of the fifteenth century ; but 
 the institution is now represented by the meagre capital sum of £yi2, from 
 the proceeds of which a few doles of £'^ yearly are paid to certain aged 
 citizens. The Magistrates and Council also hold in trust an entire island 
 in the west of Argyllshire, the Island of Shuna, bequeathed by Mr. James 
 Yates in 1829 under the condition that one-fifth of the free annual rents 
 be retained by the magistrates, to be applied " either in public buildings 
 or the melioration of those already built, or in any other charitable or 
 useful purpose " within the City ; two-fifths to the University for the 
 Chairs of Natural Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Botany, and Mathematics ; 
 one-fifth to the Anderson's College, and one-fifth to the Public Infirmary 
 of Glasgow. 
 
 But while some of the Trusts are of hoary antiquity and may have an 
 interest in the history of the community, and some possess other features
 
 I02 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 of interest, in no case is the Trust of large public importance, nor does 
 any one require comment in relation to its administration by the Corporation. 
 In relation to these funds the hands of the Council are tied ; and what 
 might be suggested to pious donors, who contemplate making the Council 
 their Trustee, is that they might fitly and safely leave much greater latitude 
 in the destination of their benefactions than has been done by testators 
 who have passed away. What is at this moment a good cause and a 
 pressing necessity may in a i&^N years have lost both validity and urgency, 
 and charitable funds inflexibly ear-marked may become a perplexity and 
 a nuisance. The Town Council, popularly elected and acting under the 
 fierce blaze of public criticism, is not likely to mal-administer Trust funds, 
 and were the Council tied by the spirit only and not by the letter of a 
 Trust the stream of charity might be directed along a more beneficient and 
 fertilizing course than is now possible in administering many small Trusts.
 
 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 Magis- 
 trates' 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. 
 
 Between the Town Council of Glasgow and the police of the City the 
 magistrates form the connecting link. As is shown in another chapter 
 the Police Establishment of Glasgow, when instituted, was placed under 
 a Board entirely distinct from the Town Council. It is only within quite 
 recent years that the Town Council became, through identity of personnel, 
 virtually the Police Commissioners, and indeed it was not till November, 
 1895, that the Commission was merged in the Council, and became the 
 Police Department of the Corporation of Glasgow. But through all the 
 ninety-five years that the Police Board or Commission thus existed as a 
 separate body the bailies of the City were constitutent members of the Board, 
 and the Lord Provost was ex officio its chairman. It was indeed in connection 
 with the conduct of the police business of the City that their magisterial 
 activity, specially in latter days, was principally exercised. 
 
 The supreme magisterial control of the City we have already seen was, 
 in early times, in the hands of the bishops and archbishops. After the 
 Reformation it was only by slow degrees that entire and undisputed right 
 to appoint the magistrates passed into the hands of the Town Council. 
 It is curious to find that the reformed clergy no sooner felt their power 
 securely established than they began to assert and to exercise co-ordinate 
 judicial authority with the Civic Magistrates. The General Session of 
 Glasgow assumed jurisdiction over the manners and morals of the people,
 
 104 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 with the right to inflict corporal punishment, to levy fines, and to imprison 
 for breaches of the moral law. The better to consolidate their power the 
 session in 1599 enacted that, in future, all chosen provost and bailies 
 should be enrolled as elders for their year of office. Under the Presbyterial 
 enactments all breaches of the seventh commandment were punished with 
 varying degrees of severity, from carting through the town up to ducking 
 in the river, imprisonment, etc. For scolding women — flyters — the session 
 appointed the punishment of the branks and jougs, all games were strictly 
 prohibited on Sundays, failure to attend church met condign punishment, as 
 did also the habit of profane swearing and " banning." 
 
 With such ecclesiastical assistance a provost and three bailies managed 
 the ordinary judicial business of Glasgow, civil and criminal, in mediaeval 
 times. With the growth of the City the number of magistrates from time 
 to time increased, and the power of the Kirk Session as a co-ordinate civil 
 magistrature declined till all appearance of authority over person or estate on 
 the part of the ecclesiastical authorities was extinguished. Local jurisdictions 
 are now confined to the Justices of the County of the City, to the Dean of 
 Guild Court, to the magistrates, and to the sheriff and his substitutes. It 
 is with the strictly municipal body, the magistrates, that we have now to deal. 
 
 Under the City of Glasgow Act, 1891, by which the boundaries of the 
 Municipality were extended over a number of previously constituted Police 
 Burghs, etc., it is ordained that " the number of magistrates of the City and 
 Royal Burgh shall be fifteen, of which one shall be Lord Provost and fourteen 
 bailies." These magistrates are elected by the Town Council from their own 
 number, they continue in office for three years, or for such shorter period as 
 they remain members of the Town Council without re-election. They have, 
 of course, all the privileges and duties of Town Councillors, and in that 
 capacity they possess no exceptional rights beyond the courtesy of precedence 
 on the Council roll. But as magistrates they are invested with special 
 •powers and functions, which are above and apart from the office of Town 
 Councillor, and in their magisterial capacity their actions are not subject 
 to the review of the Council. The magistrates, invested in chains and robes 
 of office, are answerable for their judicial and other official acts only to the 
 supreme courts of the country, or to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for 
 Scotland. 
 
 In the progress of time the rights and duties of the bailies have under- 
 gone fundamental changes with changing conditions, but from first to last 
 their central function of maintaining the King's peace has never varied. 
 More by desuetude than by actual abolition or change of law, many judicial 
 functions formerly appertaining to the magistrates have now ceased to be 
 exercised. And, moreover, a good deal of the magisterial interference that 
 was brooked during the seventeenth century would not, at the end of the 
 nineteenth, be dreamt of by the most conservative and paternal of bailies.
 
 MAGISTRATES AND JURISDICTIONS 105 
 
 On the other hand, modern progress and the complexities of modern Hfe 
 have called into existence an almost boundless range of duties and obligations 
 for a magisterial bench, which had no existence nor counterpart in the slower 
 days, and under the more primitive ways of our forefathers. 
 
 Till quite recent times the Burgh Court of Glasgow, presided over by 
 the magistrates, and guided by the Town Clerk as assessor, exercised civil 
 jurisdiction in personal actions involving sums not less than 30s., and ranging 
 up to unlimited amounts. In the early years of the century as many as 
 2000 such cases were dealt with in the course of a year, but by 1830 the 
 number had fallen to about 700 yearly. The bailies also held a weekly 
 small debt court, under the assessorship of the Town Clerk, dealing with 
 civil claims of from 5s. to 40s. In the year 18 12 1125 such claims w^ere 
 adjudicated upon, but in 1830 the number had fallen as low as 400. These 
 figures must not be taken to indicate a decrease in the litigiousness of the 
 Glasgow public in that interval, for it was only the growing power of the 
 Sheriff Courts which induced complainers to seek in them the legal redress 
 and assistance which in the earlier days they obtained through the Burgh 
 Courts alone. In these later days the activity of the Burgh Civil Court, 
 which meets twice weekly, is confined to the issue of warrants of ejectment 
 against troublesome tenants. 
 
 In criminal jurisdiction likewise no less radical have been the changes. 
 In former times there existed in Glasgow a Burgh Criminal Court, the whole 
 work of which now has been absorbed — on one side by the Sheriff Court and on 
 the other by the Police Courts. In the early part of the century the Burgh 
 Criminal Court dealt with about 500 cases yearly; in 1820, a year of much 
 excitement and unrest in Glasgow, there were more than a thousand criminal 
 causes heard before the court. By the year 1832 the number had decreased 
 to a little more than one hundred. 
 
 In virtue of their office the town clerks of Glasgow were clerks and 
 assessors in the Burgh Criminal Court, and they also claimed and exercised 
 the same rights in the Central Police Court, which was the original Police 
 Court of the City. That right was recognized by the Burgh Extension Act 
 of 1846, under which powers to appoint assessors to the district courts then 
 established was granted, and the rights of the town clerks to sit as assessors 
 in the Central Court were reserved. These rights they continued to exercise 
 till finder the Police Act of 1862 they were abolished, and compensation 
 was granted to them for loss of office. This criminal jurisdiction on the 
 part of the magistrates of Glasgow is now no longer exercised, and, beyond 
 the interesting ejectment proceedings in the Burgh Court, the judicial duties 
 of the magistrates are restricted to and regulated under the Police Acts of 
 the City, which form a series of statutes extending from 1866 to 1895. 
 
 The statutory duties of the magistrates are discharged by them partly 
 in their corporate capacity, and partly as individuals. Under the Police Act
 
 io6 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 the magistrates are constituted a distinct committee under the chairmanship 
 of the Lord Provost for the discharge of certain statutory duties which 
 devolve on them as a body. In their individual capacity they act as judges 
 in the Police Courts, or in any other judicial function competent to Burgh 
 Magistrates. In the discharge of their important and laborious duties of 
 dealing with police crimes and offences, the magistrates have the assistance of 
 certain Town Councillors, to whom magisterial functions of a restricted nature 
 may be specifically committed. Under Section 22 of the City of Glasgow 
 Act, I 89 1, the Town Council are empowered to appoint any of their number 
 who have already held the office of Lord Provost or bailie to act as Judges 
 of Police, and such appointments, when made, continue valid as long as the 
 judges so appointed continue to be members of the Town Council without 
 re-election. In this way a large supplementary body of councillors are 
 endowed with limited magisterial authority, enabling them to occupy the 
 bench in any Police Court in the City, and to exercise all the functions com- 
 petent to the River Bailie. In a city where courts are numerous, and the 
 calendar of police offences is extensive, this relief to the magisterial staff 
 is of great value. Under the Sheriffs Substitute (Scotland) Act of 1875, 
 powers were obtained also to appoint Stipendiary Police Magistrates for 
 Glasgow, and in that year an appointment was made to the office, the 
 Stipendiary taking the work of the Central and St. Rollox Courts. But 
 on the death of the first incumbent of the office no application was made 
 to the Scottish Secretary for a new appointment, and it was only under 
 the Corporation and Police Act of 1895 that modified provision was made 
 for regulating the office and duties of the Stipendiary Magistrate. Should 
 the Corporation now desire that office to be re-established, they are empowered 
 to make application to the Secretary for Scotland for the appointment of 
 one or more such officials, and for each new appointment a separate applica- 
 tion has to be made. These Stipendiary Magistrates when appointed hold 
 office during Her Majesty's pleasure, and they have all the jurisdiction and 
 powers competent to the bailies as magistrates. It is also ordained that 
 they shall be ex officio justices of peace of the county of the City, and they 
 may be called upon to perform the duties of such justices. 
 
 The statutory duties of the Magistrates Committee are varied and im- 
 portant. They are the source and centre of all police power and activity in 
 the City. To them in conjunction with the Sheriff of Lanarkshire is assigned 
 the duty of appointing the Chief Constable of the City, and they have also 
 the right to inquire into his conduct, and if they see cause to dismiss him ; 
 but under certain conditions there is an appeal to the Lord Advocate. 
 They appoint the Registrar of Police and the Inspectors of Weights and 
 Measures, and they retain the power of dealing with these inspectors and 
 with the Superior Officers of Police whom the Chief Constable has power 
 to suspend only. The Magistrates Committee has also the sole power of
 
 MAGISTRATES AND JURISDICTIONS lo; 
 
 appointing special constables, who may be called out on occasions of 
 emergency to aid the police in suppressing rioting and in dispersing tumultu- 
 ous crowds. To the Magistrates Committee is also entrusted the right 
 to send, on the requisition of competent authorities, detachments of con- 
 stables to districts or counties beyond Glasgow, in cases of emergency or 
 serious disturbance of the peace. The Chief Constable has also the same 
 power of sending assistance to authorities outside the municipal limits 
 when he deems the circumstances demand prompt and immediate help. 
 
 The issuing of certificates and licenses forms an important feature in the 
 duties of the Magistrates Committee. Apart from their functions in connec- 
 tion with the public-house licenses, regulated by the general legislation of 
 the country, the Committee have under the local Acts the duty of licensing 
 persons for the carrying on of various pursuits, trades, and occupations 
 affecting the public. They have the supervision of the persons holding such 
 licenses or certificates, and power is granted them to suspend and to revoke 
 or cancel any license during the period of its currency on cause shown. 
 The Glasgow Police Acts require that all owners and drivers of hackney 
 carriages, cabs, stage coaches, and tram-cars shall be licensed by the Magistrates 
 Committee. Every person who desires to retail gunpowder and fireworks 
 must first have a license for his premises and for himself personally, and 
 every individual carrying on the trade of broker, pawnbroker, street porter, 
 public carter or carrier, and chimney sweep must do so under the sanction 
 of a license issued by authority of the Committee. Under the Police Act 
 of 1892 they are made the licensing authority for theatres, public shows, 
 and public billiard rooms, their license is required for the erection of sky 
 signs ; and they also, under various statutes, make bye-laws for lodging-houses, 
 for the regulation of Glasgow Green and for the ordering of trace boys and 
 men in connection with the tramway service in the City. For the conditions 
 under which such certificates and licenses are granted and held there are 
 numerous and detailed provisions, and penalties are exigible for trading in 
 any such capacity without license, and the infraction of any of the conditions 
 is punishable with varying severity up to forfeiture of license. The licenses 
 continue as a rule good for one year from date of issue, and once every 
 two weeks or thereby courts for the consideration of applications are held 
 by the magistrates. 
 
 Under the City of Glasgow Act, i 891, it is provided that the magistrates 
 of the City and they only shall have the right to grant, transfer, and renew 
 public-house certificates under the various Public-houses and Publicans 
 Certificates Acts, subject to the confirmation of new certificates by the Joint 
 Confirmation Committee and to the right of appeal to the justices in the 
 case of any license, whether granted, renewed, or refused. The Confirmation 
 Committee is a statutory body established under the Publicans Certificates 
 Acts of 1876 and 1877, and it consists of three burgh magistrates and
 
 I08 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 three justices of peace of the county of the City. The principal Hcensing 
 court of the year is that held in April at the time when the whole of the 
 licenses fall to be renewed, and before the term at which the changes in 
 tenancy and occupancy principally occur. At stated periods throughout the 
 year, generally six times, licensing courts are held, at which licensed premises 
 which for any reason change hands during the currency of the year are 
 dealt with, and the licenses, if transferred, hold good till the following spring 
 licensing court. 
 
 The Magistrates Committee are also invested with power to take special 
 measures for the prevention and mitigation of infectious disease, to order 
 proprietors to carry out any work reported as essential by the Medical 
 Officer of the City, and to impose penalties for neglect to carry out their 
 orders. They are also empowered to frame bye-laws for the regulation of 
 public lodging-houses, to secure their periodical white-washing and cleaning, 
 for promoting proper ventilation therein, and for securing the separation of 
 sexes, and enforcing of order and good conduct on the part of those occupy- 
 ing them. 
 
 But the principal scene of magisterial duty at the present day is in the 
 Police Courts of the City. Excluding the Marine Police Court, which is 
 presided over by the River Bailie and his depute, there are distributed 
 throughout the City eight separate Police Courts corresponding with the different 
 divisions and stations of the police. These are the Central District Court, 
 corresponding with the Central Police Office and A Division of the Force, 
 the Western Court with B Division, the Eastern Court with C Division, 
 the Southern Court with D Division, the Northern Court with E Division, 
 St. Rollox Court with F Division, Queen's Park Court with G Division, 
 and Maryhill Court assigned to H Division. While the bailies had the 
 assistance of a Stipendiary Magistrate for Police Court duties, the work of 
 the Central and St. Rollox Courts was performed by that official, and as a 
 temporary arrangement the duties of these two courts may be said to be in 
 commission for the present and are generally confided to the Police Judges, 
 ex-bailies appointed to that office under the City of Glasgow Act, 1891, 
 as already mentioned. The business of the other courts is so arranged 
 that daily duty falls upon four bailies only, and in the discharge of his 
 judicial duties each magistrate has the assistance of an assessor who sits 
 with him and also acts as Clerk of the Court. The staff of assessors at 
 present numbers six, who, with one exception, are qualified solicitors in 
 practice in Glasgow, although the provisions of the Act under which they 
 are appointed do not demand any specific qualification. 
 
 The public prosecutor in these Police Courts is the Procurator Fiscal of 
 Police, an officer appointed under the Order Confirmation Act, 1877. Under 
 the provisions of that Act the Chief Constable, the District Superintendents, 
 and the Police Lieutenants are, in the absence of the Fiscal, entitled to
 
 MAGISTRATES AND JURISDICTIONS lOg 
 
 prosecute in his stead, and the practical consequence is that in all district 
 courts the local official, generally the superintendent, is the prosecuting 
 aeent. The Procurator- Fiscal conducts the business of the Central Court 
 and when cases of an exceptional nature arise in any of the districts, he 
 attends to their prosecution in the court in which they are dealt with. 
 The jurisdiction of the magistrate sitting in a Police Court is restricted to 
 a class of crimes and offences which are termed " police offences " in contra- 
 distinction to " penal offences," which fall to be dealt with by the Sheriff 
 and the Justiciary Courts. " Police offences " are myriad in their number, 
 and the catalogue gives some colour to the allegation that Glasgow is a 
 police-ridden city. What is more, scarcely a year passes without some local 
 enactment coming into force by which the formidable catalogue is increased ; 
 and yet the stranger may be assured that decent citizens are to be met with 
 who have every day of their life passed through the streets of Glasgow, shared 
 in its business and pleasures, and taken an active part in public duties, who 
 have never had the slightest unpleasantness with the police and who have 
 not had occasion to see the interior of a police office. The crimes and 
 offences of which the police take cognizance are not much less varied than 
 they are numerous, and many of the charges investigated by the bailies 
 do not imply any personal disgrace on the part of the person called on to 
 answer the charge. Stepping over a grassy border in a public park is not 
 a criminal action, yet it may involve a summons to appear before a magistrate 
 and the imposition of a fine or even a sentence of imprisonment. By some 
 misadventure the chimney of the most careful and prudent housewife may take 
 fire, but however innocent she may feel of wilful and culpable neglect, she is 
 bound to answer for her misfortune before the magistrate, and she is even liable 
 to a pecuniary penalty or to seven days' imprisonment. Much more culpable 
 would she be were it proved that she wilfully set her chimney on fire, and 
 for such an offence she would probably be subject to a maximum penalty 
 of thirty days' imprisonment. But even that offence falls within an entirely 
 different category from stealing, resetting, harbouring bad characters, dealing 
 in obscenities, using filthy language, and practising filthy habits, with the 
 hundred other charges which are taken cognizance of by the Police Magistrates. 
 The maximum penalties, either by the way of fine or imprisonment which 
 the magistrate may impose, are specified under the various Acts, Whilst 
 there are offences for which there are special statutory powers to impose 
 heavier penalties, in general the maximum imprisonment which can be 
 inflicted by the Police Magistrates is sixty days or a fine of ^lo. 
 
 The number of persons apprehended in Glasgow and dealt with by the 
 magistrates during 1894 was 58,173, of these 39,075 were males and 19,098 
 were females. This large total would give alarming results if dealt with in a 
 superficial way by statistical comparison. It might be thought to show, for 
 example, that almost one person in ever)' ten of the population appeared
 
 no MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 yearly in the police court to answer for crimes and offences, and that in the 
 course of about ten years the whole population underwent that degradation. 
 The fact, of course, is that the police have their regular customers who 
 come with melancholy steadiness before the magistrates charged with the 
 same class of offences. 
 
 With the serious cases which are embraced under the technical category of 
 " penal offences," the magistrate is entitled to deal only to the extent of 
 granting warrant for search and for other necessary purposes of justice ; the 
 accused is brought before him at the first court, and warrant may be granted 
 for detention in custody usually for not more that two days, and thereafter 
 the person is either discharged or remitted to a higher authority, the sheriff, 
 and the case reported to the County Fiscal or other proper officer. If, in 
 the course of any trial of a police offence, it appears to the magistrate that 
 the charge comes properly under the heading of a penal offence, or if the 
 gravity of the case appear to warrant or demand a heavier punishment than 
 it is in the power of the bailie to inflict, he may stop the proceedings and 
 report the case for trial to the County Fiscal or other authority with the 
 view of having it determined in a higher court. 
 
 The most fertile sources of Police Court work are charges of assault and 
 disorderly conduct, under which headings no fewer than 22,555 persons were 
 dealt with during 1894. "Drunk and incapable," it is grievous to confess, 
 form about one-third of the whole of the cases dealt with by the magistrates, 
 and it is safe to say that were the drink element eliminated from the City 
 at least three-fourths of the duty of the magistrates would disappear. For 
 it cannot be doubted that the bellicose and outrageous behaviour of a large 
 portion of the fighting and rioting offenders is directly due to the excite- 
 ment and recklessness caused by undue indulgence in alcoholic stimulants. 
 Eliminating the drinking and fighting elements, and putting aside the hopeless 
 habituals whom the police have always with them, the criminals and offenders 
 of Glasgow are reduced to a fractional proportion of the inhabitants. When 
 we bear in mind that Glasgow grows principally by accretion, that it draws 
 into its borders many discordant nationalities and elements, that the new 
 population have little community of aim, that their social bonds are loose, 
 and that they have no local patriotism, the fact that Glasgow is so free 
 from criminal infection speaks eloquently for the good government of the 
 City and for the restraining moral influence of its population.
 
 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 : En- 
 largement of board : Extension Act of 1830 : Act of 1843 Statute Labour transferred 
 to police : Extension Act 1846 : Abolition of police board : Institution of police com- 
 mittee : 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 181 5: 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. 
 
 To many good citizens the term Glasgow police means little more than 
 that embodiment of law and order, the constable, as he walks the streets 
 clothed in the official blue symbol of authority. To these citizens there 
 comes once a year a disagreeable reminder of the Glasgow police in the 
 form of a demand for the due payment of police rates, and that claim 
 being satisfied that ratepayer imagines that there his relations with the 
 police of Glasgow begin and end. Viewed from these two points alone 
 the police of Glasgow cannot be expected to evoke much popular enthusiasm 
 or to be the object of ungrudging support. And the lower we descend in 
 the social scale the greater will be found the popular antagonism to the 
 police, till in the shady circles verging towards the regions of filth, vice, 
 and crime the very name " police " is hated as much as it is feared. 
 
 Here we have a striking instance of imperfect knowledge and perverted 
 sympathies : of the oft demonstrated fact that the people do not know their 
 best friends, and that they are not prepared to accept, with good grace, 
 what is for their real welfare. For of all the departments of municipal
 
 112 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 activity the police is that which is throughout the most considerate towards 
 the humble, helpful of the helpless, kind to the sick and afflicted, and watchful 
 over the heedless who rush towards danger and temptation. The police of 
 Glasgow, needless to say, does not begin and end with the patrolling of 
 the streets by a regiment of constables. The department takes cognizance 
 of the health and well-being of the citizens from the cradle to the grave. 
 It concerns itself with the purity and wholesomeness of the food and drink 
 supplied to the people, with the healthy condition of the houses in which 
 they dwell, and of the factories and workshops in which they labour ; it 
 provides, at a cheap rate, houses and decent lodgings for a large number 
 of the very poor ; in many ways it encourages personal cleanliness and 
 comfort ; it protects the poor from the ravages of infectious disease, and 
 cares for them when overtaken by such afflictions ; it prohibits employment 
 unduly dangerous to life ; it prevents oppressively prolonged labour ; it 
 provides open spaces and playgrounds in congested localities ; and in many 
 cases it provides decent Christian burial for the dead of the wretched and 
 unfortunate. To the police also the public owe the lighting of the streets, 
 lanes, courts, and staircases of the City, the paving of the streets, the pro- 
 viding of drains and sewers, the cleansing of the City, and many other services 
 equally to rich and poor ; but the greatest and most beneficent of the 
 activities of the police are in the interests and on account of the poor, and 
 of those who cannot help and defend themselves. 
 
 The police department of the Corporation of Glasgow has vast and 
 varied ramifications, and to it are confided many duties of vital importance 
 for the security of life and property in the largest sense, and for the smooth 
 and harmonious course of daily action in an arena so densely packed and full 
 of activity as is the City of Glasgow. The detail in such a department 
 is very great, and to bring it all under even condensed notice will demand 
 much space. 
 
 Throughout the nineteenth century, from 1800 till 1895, the Corporation 
 was relieved of its primal duty, as a burghal authority, of watching and 
 warding. The duty indeed had been performed in a perfunctory spirit in 
 the previous centuries by the Council, and with the dawn of the nineteenth 
 century, the growth of the population, and the consequent increase of the 
 turbulent lawless element in the City, the ancient patriarchal system of govern- 
 ment was no longer tolerable. Towards the end of the eighteenth century 
 a spirit of lawlessness had developed in the population, and being without 
 police organization the magistrates were powerless in the presence of any 
 unruly mob. The aid of the military authorities had to be called in, and 
 order was only restored after an excessive display of force, the destruction 
 of much property, and sometimes after fatal bloodshed. In 1778 the Town 
 Council made an attempt to organize a civil force by the appointment of 
 an inspector of police who had a few men under him, but there were no
 
 THE POLICE OF GLASGOW 1 13 
 
 revenues out of which to support this meagre and rather insufficient force ; 
 and so it came that, after two or three years' experiment, the force was 
 dissolved, and the duty of guarding the City again devolved entirely on 
 the burgesses. In 1790 the Council enacted the establishment of "a night 
 guard and patrol to watch and guard the streets," a necessity of " the great 
 extent and populousness of the City." The town for this purpose was 
 divided into four districts, and every male citizen between the ages of sixteen 
 and sixty years, pa}nng £^ of rent and upwards, was, in rotation, bound to 
 take patrol duty or to pay half-a-crown for a substitute. The services of 
 nine men for each district — thirty-six in all — were nightly requisitioned for this 
 police duty. A Bill was also promoted in Parliament for regulating the 
 police of the Cit}', but its rating powers evoked so lively an opposition on 
 the part of the citizens that it failed to pass into law% and it was not till 
 1 800 that an Act of Parliament instituting a Police Board for Glasgow 
 was obtained. 
 
 The Police Act of 1800 was an epoch-making statute in Glasgow. For 
 the first time it imposed a rate on the assessed rental of property in the City, 
 and that much-burdened, long-suffering being, the ratepayer, was by its 
 operation called into existence. In the next place it was our first real 
 Reform Act — it gave the citizens some control over and voice in the election 
 of their representatives. Thirdly, it conceded the principle that rating and 
 representation go hand in hand ; the Town Council itself was a close body, 
 and to it the power of imposing rates was not confided ; the Police Board 
 was a representative body with rating power. Further, it took the first step 
 towards the formation of the great Public Health and Sanitary Department 
 of Glasgow by recognizing as a public duty the cleaning of the streets of 
 the City. And lastly, it may be pointed out that under this Act the govern- 
 ment of the City was first differentiated and specialized, other branches 
 at a later date grew out from the parent stem, the Town Council ; and all 
 again, Board, Commissioners, and Trustees, were in 1895 reunited into a 
 homogeneous whole — " The Corporation of Glasgow." 
 
 The Board of Police, as constituted by the Act of 1800, consisted of the 
 Lord Provost, Magistrates, Dean of Guild, Deacon Convener, and twenty-four 
 Commissioners chosen by ballot by ratepayers within the twenty-four wards 
 into which the City was divided. The Board was empowered to assess tenants 
 for the purposes of the Act, the rates being graduated according to rents, and 
 rising from 4d. per £ on rents betwixt ;^4 and £6 to is. on rents of ;fi5 
 and upwards. Towards the revenue of the Board the Town Council was 
 also bound to contribute not less that ^800 yearly from the ordinary funds 
 of the town, a modest compensation for the relief of the Common Good of all 
 police charges, which in earlier times fell to be defrayed from that source. 
 The Act also extended the royalty of the City over the lands of Ramshorn 
 and Meadowflat, etc., lying north-west of the ancient City, and over the 
 
 B
 
 114 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Provosthaugh and other lands on the south-east, most of which form parts 
 of the Glasgow Green of the present day. 
 
 Certain of the powers in the 1800 Act expired in 1807, ^i^d in that 
 year a new Act was passed which was practically a continuation for fourteen 
 years of the previous measure, with certain modifications of the qualification of 
 Commissioners, and with an increase in the graduated rating powers, which 
 raised the maximum rate of assessment to is. 3d. on rents of ^15 and 
 upwards. Again in 1821 the Act was renewed with certain amendments, the 
 most important of which was the appointment of two resident Commissioners 
 in each ward, who were to exercise constabulary powers, and to have a general 
 superintendence of their respective districts ; but these were not members of 
 the Board, nor had they otherwise any share in the management of the police 
 affairs. Their qualification and the method of their election were the same 
 as in the case of the Commissioners elected for the Board of Police. This 
 Act also was, in certain of its provisions, terminable in fourteen years. 
 But before its period expired the growth of the City demanded another 
 Extension Act, and in 1830 the magisterial and police authority of the City 
 was by statute extended over the lands of Blythswood, and over Easter 
 and Wester Craigs, the property of the Merchants' House. Out of these 
 annexed territories nine additional wards were formed, and to the Police 
 Board an additional Commissioner for each was appointed, besides two resident 
 Commissioners as in the case of the original wards. These two latter Acts, 
 expiring in 1837, were in that year altered, amended, and renewed for the 
 limited period of five years. Under the statute the qualification of electors 
 was modified, and it was provided that every qualified elector should also be 
 eligible to the office of Commissioner. The management of the statute labour 
 service was by the 1843 Act transferred from the special Statute Labour 
 Trustees and vested in the Police Board ; and for that service a power of 
 levying a rate not exceeding 3d. per £ on rental was granted. The Town 
 Council further was relieved of the annual payment of ^800 to the police 
 funds, on account of the lapse of a source of municipal revenue in abolishing 
 an impost of one-sixth of a penny on every pint of ale or beer sold within 
 the royalty and the Gorbals. The statutory power of levying that ale tax 
 expired in 1839, and there was no attempt to renew it. 
 
 The Police Act of 1843 assumed something of the formidable dimen- 
 sions of the police legislation of the present day. It contained 287 clauses, 
 many of which had numerous sub-sections. Under its provisions the boundaries 
 of the burgh were again extended ; the City was now divided into thirty- 
 six wards with, as previously, one general Commissioner and two resident 
 Commissioners for each. The Act of 1846, which extended the municipal 
 boundaries and absorbed the Burghs of Anderston, Calton, and the Gorbals, 
 finally extinguished the Board of Police Commissioners. The Town Council 
 was now a popularly elected body, and there remained no longer any reason
 
 THE POLICE OF GLASGOW 1 15 
 
 for the election of two representative boards. In the place of the Police 
 Commissioners, a Police and Statute Labour Committee of the Council was 
 instituted, composed of Magistrates, Dean of Guild, Deacon Conv-ener, and 
 eighteen other councillors of the City. But it was provided that everything 
 in relation to police and statute labour in the City should be kept separate 
 and distinct from the affairs of the Corporation, and that neither Town Clerk 
 nor Chamberlain should be eligible to hold office under the Committee. The 
 statute further required the establishment and maintenance of police offices 
 and police courts in the Calton, Anderston, and Gorbals districts ; the courts 
 to be presided over by magistrates of the City, and the appointment of 
 assessors of the courts was also sanctioned. The police and statute labour 
 provisions of the Act of 1843 were incorporated with it, and, as regards 
 these sections, the Act was made terminable in eighteen years. Police legis- 
 lation was renewed and amended in 1862, when a Board of Police was 
 again constituted, but it was nothing more than the Police Committee of the 
 previous Act incorporated under a new name. The Act which now extended 
 to 426 clauses was made terminable after five years. In 1866 what is in 
 effect the present Police Act of Glasgow was passed, and under its provisions 
 the Police Board was continued as previously constituted, but by an Act 
 obtained in 1877 the so-called board was abolished, and the entire Town 
 Council became Commissioners of Police. But although the personnel of 
 the Town Council and the police authority was thus made one, they still 
 remained, in their spheres and functions, entirely distinct, with separate organi- 
 zation, staff, revenues, and accounts. It was not till the Glasgow Corporation 
 and Police Act of 1895 was passed that the police, as well as the several 
 other trusts and commissions, nominally distinct though personally the same, 
 were all fused into the Town Council and united under the official designation 
 of the Corporation of the City of Glasgow. But the accounts of the police 
 are still required by statute to be kept distinct and separate, although other- 
 wise police business may now be managed and disposed of at an ordinary 
 meeting of the Town Council, and the Town Clerk and his assistant 
 are eligible to undertake the management of the police department 
 work. 
 
 The whole of the police affairs of the City are now regulated and directed 
 by a long series of Acts of Parliament, which date from 1866 onwards. So 
 far as concerns general and permanent organization and police powers and 
 jurisdiction the most important of these is the statute of 1866. Next in 
 importance for police purposes is the "Order Confirmation Act" of 1877, under 
 which the municipal and police government and jurisdiction of the City are 
 united in the Magistrates and Council. Enlarged police powers were obtained 
 under several subsequent Acts which dealt with sanitary matters — 1890 — 
 Extension of the Boundaries — 1891 — and Sewage — 1891. A Glasgow Police 
 (Further Powers) Act was passed in 1892, under which important powers were
 
 Il6 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 obtained for licensing theatres, public shows, and billiard rooms ; and improved 
 powers for dealing with gambling, street betting, lotteries, and many mis- 
 cellaneous matters were obtained under that statute. Under the Buildings 
 Regulation Act, 1892, enlarged powers were conferred on the police, and 
 finally the Corporation and Police Act of 1895, in addition to abolishing the 
 distinction between the Town Council qua Corporation and the same body qua 
 Police authority, gave additional powers to the constabulary in several direc- 
 tions. 
 
 The police force of Glasgow was originally organized on a quite modest 
 scale. Under the Master of Police there was a staff of three sergeants, 
 nine officers, and 68 watchmen, and the first police office of the City was 
 the session house of the Laigh or Tron Kirk. Why a session house should 
 have been selected for the active emissaries of the Civil Magistrate it is 
 difficult to guess, but so it was ; the old civic guard of the burgesses had 
 also their rendezvous in the session house of the same Tron Kirk, a circum- 
 stance which led to the destruction by fire of that venerable pile. No doubt 
 the session houses being at that time the distinctly recognized property of 
 the municipality were at least cheap if not quite suitable and appropriate 
 offices for the police, and let it not be forgotten that a century ago the 
 functions of the elder and the constable were much more intimately related 
 than they are in the present day. The power of the police officer was a 
 mere amplification of the rule over the life and conversation, the manners 
 and morals of the citizens claimed, and sometimes exercised by the elder. 
 The sixty-eight watchmen were employed on night duty alone, and the 
 continuity of police authority was maintained by the nine officers, one division 
 of which a sergeant and three men was on duty in the office throughout 
 the four and twenty hours — the second similar division was having rest of 
 equal duration — and the third, four men all told, took all the outside duty of 
 the day. The sixty-eight night watchmen have a more adequate look, but they 
 were mostly elderly men of the Dogberry type sent out under heavy great-coats 
 with hand lanterns and heavy wooden batons, who passed the greater part 
 of their time in the wooden sentry boxes which the paternal Commissioners 
 thoughtfully provided for their protection, and probably also for their repose. 
 In these they doubtless passed much of their time, fondly hoping that 
 the citizens were all as quiet and peacefully disposed as they were them- 
 selves. 
 
 At the time of the institution of the force the salary of the Master of 
 Police was ^200 yearly, the three sergeants were paid at the rate of ^^40, 
 the day officers received ^^30 yearly, and the wages of the night watchmen 
 were los. weekly. Taking the average of the first four years the expenditure 
 on the force reached ^2554 yearly, an annual charge per inhabitant of 8^d. 
 The revenue of the Commissioners in the first year amounted to £^2(^6, 
 out of which the charge for cleaning, lighting, and other duties laid on the
 
 THE POLICE OF GLASGOW 
 
 117 
 
 Commissioners had to be defrayed. The official statement of revenue for the 
 year ended 29th August, 1801, is a model of brevity : 
 
 ^800 
 
 
 
 
 
 3770 
 
 19 
 
 6 
 
 576 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 126 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 -1 
 
 ^^5296 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 Sum contributed by the City of Glasgow, 
 
 Amount of Assessments, 
 
 Dung of the Streets Sold, - - . - - 
 
 Amount of Fines, 
 
 Interest on Money lodged with Bank of Scotland, 
 
 By the year 1 8 1 5 the police establishment of Glasgow had considerably 
 expanded and differentiated. The whole expenditure of the year amounted 
 to nearly ;^ 10,000; but in that was included the cost of cleansing, lighting, 
 and of protection from fire. The constabulary establishment comprised a 
 Master of Police at a salary of ^^280, a clerk, a collector and treasurer, and 
 a surveyor ; the day officers numbered nineteen men ; there were seventy-eight 
 watchmen with twenty men additional as patrols ; the entire cost of the 
 department for salaries, wages, and allowances being ;^4854. From assess- 
 ments the Police Board collected about £%QOO, an allowance of i^Soo was 
 received from the Town Council and police fines exceeded ^269. When 
 we come to the year ending June, 1833, we find the police establishment 
 very materially developed. To the superior officers there are then added 
 two surveyors and a surgeon, there were three lieutenants, three constables, 
 one sergeant-major, and forty-five officers ; of special criminal officers there 
 were six, and the number of watchmen had risen to 129. The whole income 
 of the establishment amounted to ;^I4,747, of which ;^i 3,010 was from 
 assessments, ;^8oo from the Town Council, and ^455 from fines levied in 
 the Police Court. The expenditure on the constabulary equalled ^^7430, 
 and the remainder of the revenue went for cleansing, lighting, and the fire 
 department. 
 
 The modest accommodation of the Tron Kirk Session House did not 
 long prove sufficient for the growing organization and necessities of the 
 Glasgow police establishment. Very soon a move was made to the Herald 
 close in Bell Street, and there, one stair up, police business was carried on 
 till its increase again gave occasion for another change, this time into Candle- 
 riggs Street. That change of premises was also only a makeshift, and in 1822 
 the Commissioners acquired the site in South Albion Street on which the 
 Central Police Office now stands. The building erected thereon was com- 
 pleted and opened for business in 1831, and since that time, with frequent 
 and great extensions, it has continued to be the central and principal police 
 office of the City. 
 
 Till I 846 the South Albion Street Police Office was the only constabulary 
 station and police court in the City ; but, in the meantime, parliamentary
 
 Il8 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Glasgow had extended on every side far beyond the area of municipal and 
 police authority. The communities of Gorbals, south of the river ; Calton, 
 lying to the east of the City, and Anderston, on the west boundary, had 
 grown up, they had severally obtained Police Acts and distinct organization ; 
 and while in 1832 they were incorporated in the City for parliamentary 
 purposes, in respect of local government they were separate and independent. 
 The Barony of Gorbals was first constituted a Police Burgh by Act of 
 Parliament in 1808, and during the short term of its existence it enjoyed 
 the luxury of no fewer than four Acts, the last having received Royal assent 
 in 1843. The Calton burgh and police authority was constituted under an 
 Act passed in 18 19, and at the time of its absorption the force in that 
 burgh was regulated by the provisions of an Act obtained in 1 840. The 
 Police Act for the Burgh of Anderston was passed in 1827. These various 
 Acts contained provisions for the establishment of boards for the maintenance 
 of police and Police Courts, with powers of assessing, and provision for cleaning 
 and lighting, etc., in effect the same as in Glasgow; and police offices and 
 courts were, under them, instituted in each of these communities. By what 
 was known as the co-operating clause in the Glasgow Police Act, the officers 
 of all these police establishments were authorized to act in any place within 
 the whole Parliamentary boundaries, and in case of riot, tumult, or other 
 emergency, all four forces could be called on to act together. And further, 
 a register of the crimes and offences within the entire parliamentary limits 
 was kept in the Glasgow Police Office, to which the several police and 
 criminal officials had at all times access. Under the 1846 Annexation Act 
 the whole of these distinct jurisdictions and establishments were abolished ; 
 but it was enacted that police offices and courts should be provided and 
 maintained in each of the three districts, Gorbals, Calton, and Anderston, 
 and the magistrates of the City were ordained to officiate in each of the 
 courts as might be necessary in addition to sitting in the daily courts of the 
 City. To meet these increased duties the number of magistrates was increased 
 to nine, the Lord Provost and eight bailies. 
 
 The absorption of the three suburban burghs by the parent City in i 846 
 led to a large nominal increase in the police force of Glasgow. At the 
 time the Act became operative there was in Glasgow a police staff numbering 
 291 persons, of whom 178 were night constables and 68 were day officers, 
 and 1 2 men were in the criminal or detective department. The Anderston 
 staff numbered 28, in Calton there were 21, and for the Gorbals a staff 
 of 48 was in existence. These, with 34 belonging to the Marine or Clyde 
 Police, brought up the whole police force of the City to 422 men, and 
 at that figure it stood when the establishments were re-organized and con- 
 solidated under one chief constable with district superintendents. 
 
 When in 1848 the accounts of police expenditure for the first complete 
 year of the combined force were made up, the total cost of the service was
 
 THE POLICE OF GLASGOW Uq 
 
 found to amount to ^23,220, the largest item being the wages — from 14s. 
 to 23s. weekly — of night constables i, 11,309, and of day officers — 15s. to 
 23s. — ;!^5900. For clothing there was paid ^1276, the salaries of superior 
 officers absorbed ;i^ 1 8 1 o, and for the maintenance of the detective depart- 
 ment the expenditure was ^954. 
 
 The abstract statement of the revenue and expenditure and balance 
 accounts of the Glasgow Police Commissioners for the financial year 1894-95 
 forms a very marked contrast to the modest first financial statement issued 
 in 1 80 1. In their first statement the Commissioners in a few lines dealt 
 with a revenue and expenditure of about ^5000; the revenue of 1894-95 
 amounted to almost ;^6oo,ooo, and the expenditure exceeded that large total. 
 The statements for the year embraced eleven closely printed folio pages of 
 the report by the Finance Committee, forty-one folio sheets of abstracts of 
 income and expenditure, and balance sheets of the various departments, and 
 an appendix of fifteen pages of minor accounts, and of statistical tables and 
 information relative to the work of various departments, the collection of 
 rates, etc. The expenditure for the year on the police establishment proper 
 amounted to £\22,^2'j ^ of which ^90,652 was paid for wages of constables, 
 and i^4542 was the expense of the detective department. The salaries of 
 superior officers, in which are included the Procurator-Fiscal and the seven 
 assessors of the Police Courts, amounted to i^ 11,721 ; for clothing there was 
 expended ^^^5507 ; the contribution to the Police Pension Fund was £\6^6\ 
 and for sundries ^^8447 was paid. In reduction of this large expenditure 
 there was received from the Government as the Imperial contribution towards 
 the pay and clothes of the force ^^45,374 ; fines levied in the courts yielded 
 ;^ii,i9i ; and for services of constables and sundries there was produced 
 £^\Zo. These items, in all amounting to ^^^60,746, reduces the actual local 
 cost of the police force and establishments for the year to about i^6 1,780, 
 equivalent to a charge of about is. 9^d. for each inhabitant for police order, 
 protection, and security. Were we to take into account the grants in aid of 
 local rates under the Education and Local Taxation (Scotland) Act, 1892, and 
 the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890, which together yielded 
 ^19,251, the charge per individual would be reduced to about is. 2d ; but 
 these grants are paid to the general funds of the police department. 
 
 The entire constabulary at the end of 1894 consisted of 1355 persons, 
 of whom 7 were women — female turnkeys. In that number there were 
 comprised a chief constable at a salary of ^^^900, 9 superintendents with 
 salaries ranging from ;^2 32 to i!^3 5 2, and 27 lieutenants of police with 
 salaries from ;^I22 to ;i^202. In the detective department there were 2 
 inspectors with salaries of i^i8o and i^202, 7 sub-inspectors and 33 officers 
 with wages rising from 36s. 6d. to 47s. 6d. weekly. In the street force there 
 were 50 inspectors, 74 sergeants, and i 105 constables with weekly wages 
 rising in the case of the constables from 23s. lod. to 29s. 8d., sergeants 32s. 6d.
 
 120 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 to 34s. 6d., and inspectors from 36s. 6d. to 42s. 6d. In addition to these 
 the establishment carries a physician to the force, 9 district surgeons, clerks, 
 waiters, storekeepers, lamp trimmers, and other indoor functionaries. Of the 
 grand total of 1355 on the police roll, 11 39 were natives of Scotland, 187 
 were Irishmen, 26 were Englishmen, and 3 were of foreign extraction. 
 Beyond these there were on the establishment 25 constables privately 
 employed at banks, post office, theatres, and other public establishments, 
 26 female house cleaners and searchers, a window cleaner, 2 stokers, and a 
 coal porter, so that the entire establishment under the Glasgow Police as 
 at 1st January, 1895, numbered 14 10 persons. 
 
 That the constables are men of stature is evidenced by the fact that they 
 averaged 5 ft. 11^ in. in height, their average age was 34 years, and while 
 the largest proportion have served from i to 10 years, one officer enjoyed 
 the distinction of having been in the force more than 40 years, while the 
 average length of service was 10 years over all. In a service which demands 
 prudence and self-control in an eminent degree it is only to be expected 
 that some proportion of the men appointed will be found wanting in the 
 qualities which should distinguish a constable, and, therefore, it is not 
 surprising that in the early years of service a certain number of resignations 
 are sent in, and that it is found necessary to dismiss some recruits altogether 
 from the force. In 1894 there were 35 resignations of constables, and 25 
 were in that year dismissed, all with service of less than 5 years. As against 
 that 173 men were during the year rewarded for meritorious conduct, such 
 as bravery and special intelligence and activity, for the saving of life, and 
 for the recovery of valuable property, etc. Nearly every member of the 
 force has undergone a course of ambulance instruction, and received certi- 
 ficates of competence from the principal Casualty Surgeon of the City. When 
 it is considered that about 2000 serious accidents are reported to and dealt 
 with by the police yearly, and that in 1894 these involved 394 deaths 
 from accident, suicide, or from sudden dying in public places, the importance 
 of this instruction becomes evident. In dealing with that grave amount 
 of suffering and distress, the skill and knowledge acquired in ambulance 
 classes is of incalculable value in alleviating pain, and there cannot be a 
 doubt that the prompt and skilful handling and treatment of grave cases 
 not infrequently results in the saving of life itself 
 
 Police officers are required to live within the division to which they 
 are appointed, and a most important feature of their duty is to acquire 
 information regarding every household and person within their " beat." 
 Each constable is furnished with a " range book " containing the names and 
 addresses of occupants within his district ; and it also gives the house 
 address of occupants of shops, warehouses, and works on the " beat " in 
 which no person sleeps or resides. He also is bound to keep a list of 
 empty houses, and of houses from which occupants are temporarily absent,
 
 THE POLICE OF GLASGOW I2i 
 
 and to note where keys are to be found in cases of fire or other emergency. 
 In proximity to the various stations the poHce department provides dwelHng- 
 houses for io8 married men and their families at moderate rents, and lodging- 
 house or barrack accommodation is provided for 134 unmarried constables 
 in East Clyde Street, in the Southern Police Buildings, and in Hillhead 
 Police Buildings. In these bachelor establishments, for the modest charge 
 of IS. 9d. weekly, the single constable gets a comfortably furnished dormitory, 
 he has his food well cooked, and punctually and neatly served, in a common 
 mess-room, and he has the use of a general reading and recreation room. 
 The men of each mess appoint two of their number monthly to purchase 
 the required food, and the whole expense is divided and paid each pay 
 day. The men on day duty occupying these lodging-houses must not 
 be out later than 11. 15 without the special permission of the chief constable, 
 the district superintendent, or the officer in charge of the establishments ; 
 and no beer, wine, or spirits can be taken inside the door without an 
 order from the surgeon. Sufficient bath room, lavatory, and other cleaning 
 accommodation is provided, and the regulations, without being oppressively 
 minute, are sufficient to secure decent personal cleanliness, comfort, and 
 social order. 
 
 The Glasgow police service offers in point of pay, promotion, and pension 
 fair attractions to young men of intelligence and steady habits. Every office 
 up to that of chief constable itself is within the limits of their ambition, and 
 a man of discretion and zeal is bound to rise in the service. A constable 
 on joining must not be more than twenty-five years of age ; but men trans- 
 ferred from another force, or who have served in the army or navy, may 
 be appointed up to thirty years of age. In addition to his uniform clothing, 
 the recruit receives on appointment 23s. lod. per week ; and, barring mis- 
 conduct, his pay is increased by is. 2d. weekly during his second and third 
 years of service. Then after two years further he receives another is. 2d. 
 weekly, and three years later is. 2d. again is added, and in three years 
 more he receives a further is. 2d., making 29s. 8d. per week as the highest 
 wage of an ordinary constable after eleven years' service. But should an 
 officer show peculiar aptitude, he may be elevated to a higher rank and 
 pay without regard to the time he has served ; and in the interval of eleven 
 years in which the commonplace man is occupied in creeping from third 
 to first class, many who began with him will have attained the rank of 
 sergeant or inspector, and some even will be in a higher grade. When 
 hurt on duty the constable is entitled to full pay while he is disabled, and 
 all, whether hurt or sick, receive medical attendance and medicine free of 
 charge. All constables are required to become members of the Sick and 
 Funeral Society, from which sick allowance and funeral expenses are paid. 
 Seven days' leave of absence is granted yearly to every constable after one 
 year's service, and after three years the holiday allowance is increased to ten
 
 122 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 days. A great attraction of the service, and a powerful stimulus to steadi- 
 ness, is the liberal scale of pensions provided under the provisions of the 
 Police (Scotland) Act of 1890. An ordinary constable or sergeant is en- 
 titled after twenty years approved service to a pension equal to one-third 
 of his ordinary pay, with one-sixtieth in addition for each year's service 
 up to twenty-eight years, after which two-sixtieths are added for each 
 additional year's service, but no pension may exceed two-thirds of the 
 pay on which he retires. All officers above the rank of sergeant must be 
 sixty years of age before they can claim their pension, unless physical failure 
 compel their earlier retirement. To a constable who is incapacitated for the 
 performance of duty before becoming entitled to a pension, a gratuity or 
 allowance may be given, not exceeding one month's pay for each completed 
 year of service. Pensions, calculated under special scales and conditions, are 
 provided for men so injured in the discharge of their duty as to be incapaci- 
 tated for further service. To a constable accidentally injured and partially 
 disabled a pension is given of one-sixth of his pay if his service is not more 
 than five years, for a service of from five to ten years he receives a fifth, 
 service of between ten and twenty years entitles him to a third, and for more 
 than twenty years he is paid one-sixtieth for each completed year of service. 
 The total disablement of a constable by accident entitles him to a more liberal 
 scale of pension. For a service of less than ten years he obtains a pension of 
 one-fourth pay, service of between ten and twenty years entitles him to one- 
 third, and above that period he is paid one-sixtieth for each year's service with 
 five-sixtieths added, but no pension can exceed two-thirds the annual pay. 
 Partial disablement of a constable by wilful injury entitles him to a still higher 
 scale of pension. In such circumstances with under ten years' service he 
 receives a pension equal to one- third of his pay, with from ten to twenty 
 years' service he receives half-pay, and for more than twenty years the scale 
 is one-sixtieth for each year with ten-sixtieths added, but the pension must not 
 exceed two-thirds of the annual pay. Total disablement by wilful injury 
 entitles the constable to a pension not less than provided for under the 
 partial wilful disablement scale, and not more than full pay according to the 
 decision of the police authority. Should a constable lose his life in the 
 discharge of his duty his widow becomes entitled to a pension, and his children 
 till they attain the age of fifteen, receive allowances which may be increased 
 on a graduated scale according to the rank of the officer. The widow, so 
 long as she remains such, receives £\^, and each child £2 los. ; and if 
 there is no widow the child's allowance may be increased to ^^5. The 
 widow of an inspector may receive £2^^ and of any of the officers of a 
 higher grade the widow may be paid ^^30 yearly, and for the children of 
 such officers £^ may be paid till they attain fifteen years of age. 
 
 The liberal scale of pension and the comparatively early period of life 
 at which the ordinary constable becomes entitled to retire are testimonies
 
 THE POLICE OF GLASGOW 1 23 
 
 to the fact that a constable, like a soldier, must be strong, active, and intrepid. 
 The duties are, in general, commonplace, monotonous, and unexciting enough; 
 but suddenly there may arise circumstances in which he must face, without 
 flinching, the most deadly peril, and bring into operation all the capabilities 
 of a sound physique. When desperadoes have to be dealt with, when sudden 
 commotion or riot occurs, when any great accident or catastrophe clouds the 
 community, the constable's post is the post of danger, his every faculty 
 must be alert and supple, his judgment cool, and his courage unflinching.
 
 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 : Pave- 
 ments first formed in 1777: Cross plainstones : Police Act of 1800: Provision anent 
 pavements: Statute labour service: Road Trustees created in 1820: Functions transferred 
 to Pohce 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. 
 
 It may be assumed that in early times the streets of Glasgow, excepting at 
 the places appointed for the various markets, were still and silent. Public 
 conveyances and private carriages were unknown within its borders, and 
 wheeled traffic was confined to barrows, and lumbering, ungainly carts, of 
 which the number was probably very limited. The streets were in no con- 
 dition to bear a perpetual rush and roar of traffic, nor were they required 
 to do so. The business world moved slowly in mediaeval times, and so did 
 the business vehicles. The tear and wear of the public roadways would 
 therefore be slight, notwithstanding which it is more than probable, that the 
 highways were badly kept, for the art of road-making was then ill understood, 
 and the municipal authority spent but little on the maintenance of roads. 
 It is unlikely that any causewayed streets existed in Glasgow early in the 
 sixteenth century, certainly causeways were far from common in the last 
 quarter of it ; but from that period onward we find frequent reference to 
 the formation and extension of street causeways. The operations are referred 
 to in the year 1576, and a year later, 15th November, 1577, the Common 
 Good not bearing the strain, the Council resolved to stent the inhabitants 
 to the extent of two hundred pounds, " to big the calsayis." Following up 
 this resolution, the Council in July following borrowed from the Burgh of 
 Dundee a " Calsay-maker " named Walter Brown, and the provost and bailies
 
 STREETS AND BRIDGES 125 
 
 came under solemn obligation to deliver " fra thame and thair service the 
 said Walter to the prouest Baillies and Counsall of Dundey within the brucht 
 thairof but fraude or cullour of ony sort." A skilled causeway layer must, 
 at that period, have been a rare and highly-prized tradesman, when Walter 
 Brown became the subject of such a solemn bond between the municipal 
 potentates of two important communities. The glory has indeed departed 
 from the office of paviour, and the Lord Provost and magistrates are not 
 now asked or expected to return to the Green Island the causeway makers, 
 who offer in abundance to exercise their skill on our streets. 
 
 Subsequent minutes show that in 1597 the causewaying of the Trongate 
 was ordered to be finished at the expense of the occupiers " both back and 
 front" there. In 1605 the Council expressed dissatisfaction with all the 
 causeways in the town, and a resolution was passed to employ two " calsay 
 bigers," with a man to help them, and to equip them with a sufficient 
 supply of stones. To meet this expense it was resolved to impose a tax 
 of ten shillings on every inhabitant "for the space of ane yeir and ay and 
 quhill the calsayis be compleitit." Occasional references to the subject of 
 the "calsays" throughout the century show that the work was being continued. 
 Thus, in 1662 the Council resolved to build over St. Tenow's (Enoch's) burn 
 " a handsome little brig with ane pen," and to have the causeway carried 
 westward to it — that is to the foot of the modern Buchanan Street — from 
 the West Port. With this object it was resolved to employ the " calsay 
 layer " in Rutherglen, who was to work westward till he met the others laying 
 the causeway from the little brig towards the West Port. It may be assumed 
 that the causeways of the main thoroughfares were completed by 1728, in 
 which year two individuals contracted to keep up, maintain, and uphold 
 the whole causeways of the public streets, wynds, vennels, lanes, highways, 
 and roads, within and about the City and territories thereof for a term of 
 fifteen years for a sum equal to £66 sterling yearly. 
 
 The causeway work of the eighteenth century was, as compared with 
 what we are now accustomed to, of a very primitive and inefficient character. 
 But it is not to be forgotten that Macadam had not yet lived, that the art 
 of road making was in a most rudimentary condition, and that such roads 
 as existed were, by bad weather and moderate traffic, rendered almost 
 impassable quagmires. Causewayed roads such as they were, therefore, 
 were not only a vast improvement on the piles of ill-assorted rubbish which 
 did duty as ordinary roads, but they were an absolute necessity of a City 
 growing both in size and traffic. The causeway stones were not dressed 
 and squared as we now see them, nor was there any elaborately prepared 
 foundation on which they were set. The street surface was simply prepared 
 in the section of a high-pitched convex curve, and the art of the causeway 
 layer was displayed in fitting together over that surface the irregular blocks 
 of stone he used, so as to present a comparatively uniform smooth surface
 
 126 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 with closely-fitting and well-compacted joints. As compared with modern 
 causewaying it was like rubble building, or rather like dry-stone dike building, 
 as against dressed masonry. At each side of the causeway there was formed 
 a channel or " syver," in which the surface water was supposed to find its 
 way to the nearest open ditch or stream, for there were neither drains nor 
 sewers in the City at that time. The water channels were generally choked 
 with filth, deposited sometimes of set purpose to make dung, and there 
 being no foot pavements the only safe and dry path for passengers was on 
 the " croon of the causeway." 
 
 Side pavements for foot passengers were a luxury unknown in Glasgow 
 till towards the end of the eighteenth century. The first foot pavement 
 seen in the City is said to have been laid in 1777 by Mr. John Brown, 
 Master of Works, on the east side of Candleriggs, between Trongate and 
 Bell Street. Next year Mr. John Wilson paved the front of his shop in 
 Hutcheson's Hospital building on the north side of the Trongate. Other 
 occupiers must soon have followed the example set by Mr. Wilson, for in 
 an early view of the Trongate from the Tolbooth westward, issued prob- 
 ably about that time, a foot pavement is shown extending continuously 
 from the old Hutcheson's Hospital, now Hutcheson Street, along the north 
 of the Trongate to the Tolbooth. From the further end of the Tontine 
 Coffee House, and along the front of the Tolbooth the pavement, bounded 
 with stone posts, is widened out beyond the line of the King William statue 
 and this broad place constituted the famous " plainstones," a space which, 
 about the third quarter of the eighteenth century, was monopolized by the 
 Tobacco Lords, and within which no common burgher dare set foot. In 
 1780 the owners of the south side of the Trongate, between the Tron Kirk 
 and Stockwell Street, paved the front of their properties, and as a reward 
 for their public-spirited action, the Town Council instructed the Master of 
 Works to erect nine street lamps along the line of street so paved. 
 
 The Police Act of 1800 made provision for the complete foot-paving of 
 the sides of all the streets of the City at the expense of the owners of the 
 facing property. The regulations, which then received parliamentary sanction, 
 are in effect the same as those now in force. The clause imposing on 
 owners the burden of providing and maintaining foot pavements runs thus : 
 " And whereas the said City of Glasgow has become very populous, and 
 in consequence of the number of persons and carriages passing and re-passing 
 on the streets thereof, great inconveniences have arisen from the want of 
 proper foot pavements, and many of the inhabitants, sensible of these incon- 
 veniences, have been at the expense of making foot pavements opposite to 
 their respective houses and grounds. And whereas it would be greatly for 
 the benefit and convenience of the inhabitants of the said City, and of all 
 persons resorting thereto, that foot pavements were made on the sides of the 
 streets, both within the ancient royalty and within the lands hereby annexed,
 
 STREETS AND BRIDGES 
 
 127 
 
 that the foot pavements and streets were properly cleaned, and that all 
 obstructions and nuisances were removed, and the same prevented in future. 
 Be it therefore enacted, that the owners or proprietors of all houses and 
 other buildings, or of gardens or grounds on which buildings are not erected, 
 which are adjoining to and fronting any street, square, or other public or 
 principal place within the said City, shall at his, her, or their expense, cause 
 the grounds before their property respectively, on the sides of the said 
 streets, squares, and other public or principal places, to be well and sufficiently 
 paved with flat, hewn, or other stones, in such manner and in such form as 
 the Dean of Guild Court — after visiting and inspecting the grounds, and 
 hearing parties concerned — shall by decrees to be pronounced by the said 
 court from time to time, direct and appoint : the breadth of the said foot 
 pavements not to exceed twelve feet in streets of sixty feet wide, eight 
 feet in streets from forty to fifty feet wide, and six feet in all streets below 
 forty feet wide ; and that the whole foot pavements in the same streets 
 shall be of the same breadth ; and that it shall be in the option of the owners 
 or proprietors of gardens or grounds, within the said City and liberties 
 thereof, on which buildings shall not be erected, either to pave opposite 
 their property respectively in manner aforesaid, or to causeway the foot 
 pavements before them with whinstones until their said gardens or grounds 
 shall be built upon, but no longer. Provided always that such parts of the 
 said foot-paths as are opposite to wynds, lanes, or closes, which are cart or 
 carriage entries, may also, in the option of the proprietors, be paved with 
 whinstones." 
 
 Power was given to the Dean of Guild Court to have pavements laid 
 in accordance with these provisions at the expense of recalcitrant owners. 
 
 By a rather anomalous arrangement, foot pavements thus came under 
 the care of the new Police Board, while the causeways and roads remained 
 a charge of the Town Council. Under a Statute Labour Act, passed in 
 1772, the Magistrates and Council were empowered to ascertain what persons 
 were chargeable for repairing roads, etc., and to call on them to perform 
 statute labour service. The Police Act of 1 800 recognized and continued 
 the obligation of the Town Council to pave and keep in repair the public 
 causeways, and to defray the expense of such work from the Common Good, 
 and from funds raised by the conversion of the statute labour, as was the 
 practice previous to the passing of the Act. An Act passed in 1807 fixed 
 the rates of the conversion of statute labour service at 2s. yearly for house 
 rents under ;^5, for rents between £^ and i^io the conversion money was 
 3s., and on all higher rents it was 5s. yearly. Heritors and possessors of 
 land further were assessed at a rate not exceeding is. per acre, and owners 
 of horses not used in husbandry were required to pay £\ is. for each animal 
 kept, or in lieu thereof, to furnish yearly three days' labour of a man, a horse, 
 and a cart. In 18 16 the gross collection of road money in Glasgow was
 
 128 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 only ;^i832, non-agricultural horses being then charged at 15s. each, and 
 land at the rate of ^^3 for each ploughgate of sixty acres. 
 
 In 1820 the Town Council ceased to be the responsible Road Trustees of 
 the City, and did not again become qua Corporation the controlling body till 
 November, 1895. Under an Act passed in 1820, a special Board of Road 
 Trustees, consisting of fifteen members, was established. It comprised the 
 Lord Provost, or, in his absence, the Senior Bailie, the Dean of Guild, and 
 the Deacon Convener, with four representatives chosen by the Town Council, 
 four from the Merchants' House, and four from the Trades' House. At the 
 same time certain re-arrangements were made in the rating power, with 
 the view of increasing the revenue, while giving relief to the poorer 
 classes of the citizens. The rates, it was enacted, were to be levied from 
 householders, from male lodgers, including sons over eighteen years of age 
 living with their parents, from heritors and possessors of lands within the 
 royalty, and from keepers of horses therein for purposes other than those 
 of husbandry. A graduated scale of payments was fixed for house rents 
 ranging from £/\ to ;^ioo and upwards, the occupiers at the lower end of 
 the scale paying 2s. 6d., and those occupying the highest rented houses 
 paying £\ lis. 6d. yearly. Lodgers also, according to the class of house 
 in which they lived, were charged at from 2s. 6d. to los. yearly, heritors 
 and owners of land were rated at is. per acre, and for every non-agricultural 
 horse its owner had to pay £\ is. yearly. 
 
 By the Police Act of 1837 the special Statute Labour Trust, created 
 in 1820, was abolished, and the entire charge of streets and roads was 
 confided to the Police Board. In place of the conversion of statute labour 
 charges till that time levied, the Police Commissioners were authorized to 
 impose a statute labour rate, not exceeding threepence per pound on the 
 rental of all premises subject to public rates, an obviously more equitable 
 and profitable method of raising revenues than the cumbrous plan it super- 
 seded. At the same time the charge on owners of land and of non-agri- 
 cultural horses continued to be leviable as provided for in the earlier enactments, 
 and so the power continued till in 1863 the separate charge against owners 
 of land was abolished. The charge on the keepers of horses disappeared 
 under the Act of 1866, and by that statute the maximum amount of the 
 statute labour rate was raised to fourpence per pound, at which it now stands. 
 
 In 1884 the provisions of the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act were 
 adopted by the Police Board, under which there is unlimited power of rating ; 
 and the proceeds of the local Statute Labour rate are now only applied to 
 the payment of interest and sinking fund on the debts incurred previous to 
 that year, and towards the making and maintenance of sewers in the City. 
 
 The Statute Labour obligations of the Police Commissioners under these 
 Acts applied only to the maintenance of public streets of the extended 
 royalty. Within the limits of the City there were certain turnpike roads
 
 STREETS AND BRIDGES 
 
 129 
 
 kept up by the levying of tolls on wheeled traffic, and all others called 
 private streets still remain a charge against the owners of the property 
 along their sides. The Act of 1843 empowered the police commissioners 
 to compel the proprietors in such streets to pave, causeway, and maintain 
 in proper repair the portions of the street opposite their tenements and 
 property to the middle of the roadway from each side. 
 
 Any private street may be taken over by the police department, registered 
 as a public street, and maintained in all time coming by the Statute Labour 
 Committee, provided it is first causewayed and otherwise constructed to the entire 
 satisfaction of the Master of Works. Under somewhat similar conditions 
 also the Statute Labour Committee have power to take over and thereafter 
 maintain pavements which have been put into a condition satisfactory to 
 the Master of Works. The cleaning of pavements not later than nine o'clock 
 in the morning daily, Sundays excepted, is still a statutory duty of occupiers, 
 under a penalty of five shillings. 
 
 A great proportion of the paving and causewaying work of the City 
 is done by the contractors who work under the supervision of the Master 
 of Works and his officers. The City is for statute labour purposes divided 
 into seven districts, the contracts running one, three, five, or seven years 
 according to agreement. Owners in private streets may get their work 
 done under certain of these contracts in their various districts. The manner 
 in which streets and pavements or side-walks are treated varies with the 
 varj'ing conditions of traffic, etc. Thus wood pavement, which is very 
 expensive to lay, and in the climate of Glasgow also exceedingly short- 
 lived, has been tried in one section of Buchanan Street, and there with 
 but indifferent success, for the very heavy traffic it has to carry quickly 
 produces marked inequality of surface, and in wet weather the roadway 
 is covered with little pools of water. Steep streets, on the other hand, 
 where through traffic is an impossibility, are paved with rubble causeway, 
 or they are simply macadamized. In the suburbs unpaved side-walks are 
 kept in condition with gravel, granite chips or furnace ash. In secondary 
 streets freestone pavements, small in section and somewhat lumpy are 
 tolerated; but all streets of any importance must be paved with large flags 
 of Arbroath or Caithness pavement, level and closely fitted, or in certain 
 cases granolithic and other cement pavements are laid. 
 
 Paving stones of granite are used for the streets having the heaviest 
 and most destructive traffic, for streets in which the tear and wear is less 
 severe whinstone, porphyrite, or other igneous rock is employed. The 
 granite for Glasgow streets comes almost exclusively from, the Crarae 
 quarries on the shore of Loch Fyne, Argyllshire. Whinstone is principally 
 brought from Croy and the Airdric district. For the stores of paving 
 stones used in Glasgow the Statute Labour Committee generally enters 
 into direct contracts, offerers being bound to deliver the material at various 
 
 I
 
 130 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 points in the City in such monthly quantities as may be agreed on. Dressed 
 sets must be all of definite specified dimensions, squared, level, parallel on the 
 sides, and properly gauged. Of such dimensions there is a considerable range. 
 The smallest size specified is a 4-inch cube, the next is four inches square 
 on the head and five and six inches deep. The ordinary oblong dressed 
 paving sets are required to be 3 and 3I inches broad, and they range 
 from 6 to 9 inches long, and from 5 to 8 inches deep. Along with these 
 contracts are also taken for the supply of granite and whin channel stones 
 or wheelers, curbstones, etc., all larger and heavier stones squared and dressed 
 according to the necessities of the position they are to occupy. In con- 
 tracting for rubble causeway stones it is specified that the stone supplied 
 shall be 8 inches deep, not less than 4 to 7 inches nor more than 9 inches 
 on the head, and that the bed of the stone shall have at least two-thirds 
 the area of the top. 
 
 The simplest and least expensive — needless to say also the least efficient — 
 causeway work contracted for by the Statute Labour Committee is the rubble 
 work which exercised the ingenuity of our ancestors. Such causeways are 
 required to be laid with due attention to level and street curvature over 
 a bed of at least 3 inches of sharp clean river or pit sand. However 
 well laid, such a causeway is of necessity easily injured, it is freely percolated 
 by rain, which disturbs the subsoil, the individual stones become loose and 
 rock about, and they sink unequally, producing a bumpy, uneven roadway. 
 Of square dressed work the simplest treatment contracted for consists of 
 laying sets of 7 to 9 inches long, 3I inches broad on the head, and 5, 
 6, or 7 inches deep, on a bed of 2 inches of clean sharp sand, the 
 work being subsequently grouted with either lime, cement, or pitch. A 
 causeway properly pitch grouted becomes practically waterproof, the subsoil 
 is thus cut off from the influence of surface water, and the stability of the 
 surface is increased in a remarkable manner. For the most elaborate and 
 durable stone causeways the street is first excavated to a depth of from 
 9 1 to 151 inches, according to the bottoming and the depth of the paving- 
 sets to be laid. Over a properly levelled surface is spread a bottom of 4 
 to 6 inches of the best whin road metal, grouted with hot pitch, and beaten 
 with a rammer into a uniform mass with a smooth properly curved surface. 
 Or instead of pitch a grouting of cement may be used, in which case the 
 mixture is one part of sand, one of Portland cement, and three parts of 
 whin metal. The surface, prepared either with pitch or concrete, is paved 
 with square dressed sets, assorted according to size both as to width and 
 depth, and set on a bed of clean sharp sand, in no place less than i \ inches 
 thick. The work is grouted with a cement, consisting of one part of Portland 
 cement to two of sand, or with pitch or pitch and chips as may be required. 
 Thereafter it is beaten down with a 35 lb. beater, again grouted and blinded 
 with a thin layer of gravel. A street so treated becomes a compact united
 
 STREETS AND BRIDGES 
 
 131 
 
 mass, impermeable to water, and fitted to wear uniformly under heavy 
 traffic. 
 
 The foot pavements of the City are formed of flag-stones from Caithness, 
 Arbroath, or Kilsyth, and of hard freestone from several local quarries. 
 Granite concrete is also coming into extensive use, and to a limited extent 
 onh', asphalt is employed. For the most important streets with heavy traffic 
 Caithness flags are generally specified, and those contracted for, on account 
 of the City, range from not less than 4 inches down to not less than i h 
 inches in thickness. Such stones must be all dressed to accurately rectangular 
 form, they are laid on a bed of three inches of clean sharp sand and jointed 
 with lime. Freestone used for pavements of secondary importance must be 
 not less than 4 inches in thickness. It has the advantage of wearing with 
 a rough surface, which gives a good grip to the foot of the passenger, affording 
 both comfort and safety in any street with a steep gradient. When a granite 
 concrete pavement is laid the surface is first excavated to a depth of 
 9 inches. A bottoming of broken stones or bricks from f of an inch to 
 2 inches in size is laid to a depth of 5 inches, over this is spread a uniform 
 layer 3 inches thick of a concrete, consisting of three parts of stones or 
 brick, broken as above, two of sand and one of Portland cement. The sur- 
 face is finished with one inch of granite concrete, formed of equal parts of 
 clean granite chips and Portland cement. The concrete work is done in 
 short sections, each of which is kept free from its neighbour at its edges 
 by the insertion of a slip of pasteboard between them, and each section 
 must be sufficiently hardened before the next beyond it is proceeded with. 
 Concrete pavements are exceedingly durable, but though originally roughened 
 they wear to an uncomfortably smooth and slippery surface, and the difficulty 
 of breaking and repairing the concrete so as to get at pipes which may 
 be under the surface is a distinct disadvantage in its general use. 
 
 Within the City and on its confines there are numerous bridges which 
 naturally come within the authority of the Statute Labour Committee. 
 Some of the less important bridges have been built by private or semi- 
 private effort ; some on the boundary line between City and county have 
 been built and are maintained at a cost mutually shared in certain pro- 
 portions, but the principal bridges within the City are public property, 
 now kept up in the same way as the streets, of which they really form 
 an integral part. 
 
 The Clyde in, or on the borders of Glasgow, is spanned by seven public 
 bridges, and, besides, three railway bridges cross it at different points. In 
 their order coming down the stream the public bridges are Dalmarnock 
 Road Bridge, Rutherglen Bridge, M'Neil Street Suspension Bridge, Albert 
 Bridge, Victoria Bridge, Portland Street Suspension Bridge, and Glasgow 
 Bridge. It is remarkable that not one of these bridges spanning the Clyde 
 at present in use is quite fifty >'cars old. Dalmarnock Bridge, reconstructed
 
 132 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 at the expense of the County of Lanark and the City in equal proportions, 
 and opened for traffic in May, 1891, at a cost of ;^30,500, is the main 
 throat connecting the Middle Ward with the City. Rutherglen Bridge, 
 which forms the link between the ancient burgh and Glasgow, originally 
 thrown over the river in 1776, is now in course of reconstruction, the City 
 being liable for fully three-fourths of the expenditure, which, it is estimated, 
 will amount to ^^70,000, M'Neil Street Suspension Bridge, erected in 
 1855, connects Glasgow Green with the south-east quarter of the City, 
 and forms a convenient access for foot passengers between the eastern 
 districts on both sides of the river. The Albert Bridge forms the first 
 great public line of communication between the north and south sides of 
 the river. It connects the end of the ancient Saltmarket Street by the 
 roadway between Glasgow Green and the Court House with the district 
 of Hutchesontown, which was laid out and feued towards the end of the 
 eighteenth century. To serve that district a bridge at this point was begun 
 in 1794, and when nearly completed in November, 1795, a great flood 
 carried away the entire structure. In 1808 a service bridge of timber was 
 thrown over the Clyde a little higher up, which did duty till, in 1829, a 
 new stone bridge was erected from designs of Mr. Robert Stevenson. This 
 structure, called Hutcheson's Bridge, opened in 1830, had but a short life 
 of thirty-eight years, and ceased to be used in 1868. The foundation stone 
 of the Albert Bridge was laid in 1870, and in June of the following year 
 it was ready for traffic, having cost about ;^65,ooo. The Victoria Bridge 
 forms the next great artery between the north and south of Glasgow, passing 
 from the end of Stockwell Street to Main Street, Gorbals. It occupies 
 the position of the most ancient, and for centuries the only Clyde bridge 
 in Glasgow. In the early part of the fourteenth century a timber bridge 
 is said to have crossed the river at this point, which in 1345 ^^'^s replaced 
 by a stone structure of eight arches by Bishop Rae, then Lord of the City. 
 For five centuries that venerable pile continued to do service. In 1777 
 it was widened by 10 feet, giving then a roadway of 22 feet in all, and 
 again in 1821 it was further widened by Telford to 34 feet, but in 1847 
 the ancient and picturesque bridge was cleared away. The present hand- 
 some and spacious structure substituted for it, begun in 185 1, was at a 
 cost of more than ^^40,000 opened in 1855. The Portland Street Suspen- 
 sion Bridge is a convenient footway for passengers, about equi-distant 
 from the Victoria and Glasgow Bridges. It was erected in the position 
 occupied by a temporary footbridge, used while the Glasgow Bridge was 
 being reconstructed in 1833, and for which it was substituted in 1846. 
 The most important and busiest of all the bridges of the City, however, 
 is the Glasgow or Jamaica Street Bridge. Excepting the Caledonian 
 Railway Bridge, which runs parallel with, and immediately below it, the 
 Glasgow Bridge is the last erection which crosses the Clyde stream. Further
 
 STREETS AND BRIDGES 1 3, 
 
 down in the Harbour of Glasgow the river is burrowed under by a subway 
 reached with hydraulic lifts, and there are numerous ferries for passengers 
 besides an elevating platform steam-ferry for vehicular traffic. The original 
 Jamaica Street Bridge was begun in 1767, and opened early in 1772, 
 but the pressure of traffic became such that within sixty years there arose 
 a necessity for its reconstruction. A new bridge from the designs of Thomas 
 Telford was therefore begun in 1833, and although that structure at the 
 time of its opening in 1836 was the widest and most spacious bridge in 
 the United Kingdom, it has again within sixty years been condemned as 
 insufficient to carry the traffic which presents itself Partly on that account, 
 and partly from insecurity of the piers owing to the scour created by the 
 deepening of the river, the Glasgow Bridge is once more undergoing a 
 process of reconstruction, and although a core of Telford's work will remain, 
 the bridge, when completed, will be to all intents and purposes a new 
 structure at a cost of little less than ;^ 100,000 ; the estimate for reconstruction 
 alone, exclusive of the service bridge, being ^81,170. Further, it may be 
 mentioned that the Clyde is crossed within the City by the railway bridges 
 of the Glasgow and South-Western and the Caledonian systems, and it is 
 at two points burrowed under by the Glasgow Subway line. 
 
 At St. Rollox the Monkland Canal is crossed by a bridge, which, now 
 entirely within the City, was formerly on the boundary line, and fell to be 
 upheld by the Joint Committee of the County Road Trust of Lanark and 
 the Statute Labour Committee. 
 
 Over the Kelvin the ancient Partick Bridge on the Old Dumbarton 
 Road was removed in 1895, ^^^ ^ ^^^^^ structure substituted for it at the 
 expense of the Caledonian Railway in connection with its Dumbartonshire 
 lines. The principal Bridge connecting Glasgow with the Burgh of Partick 
 — the Dumbarton Road Bridge — was, after re-construction, opened in 1877, 
 and the structure then abandoned by a deviation of the road is now within 
 the Kelvingrove Park. In the park the Kelvin is crossed by two other 
 bridges, the property of the Parks Department of the Corporation, one of 
 which, a stone bridge, was opened in 1895. On the northern extremity 
 of the Kelvingrove Park the Hillhead district is connected with the City 
 by Woodlands Road Bridge, originally built in 1853, which has been re- 
 constructed within the last two or three years by the Caledonian Railway 
 Company in connection with the Central Railway Works, towards which work 
 the Corporation contributed ;i^7 50. The most important of the Kelvin Bridges 
 is that over the Great Western Road, a handsome and spacious structure, rebuilt 
 at a cost of ;^5 2,000, opened for traffic in 1891. Higher up the Kelvin 
 there are the Belmont Street Bridge, Queen Margaret Bridge, a footbridge 
 near Kelvinside Station, Kelvindale, and, on the bounds of the City, Garscube 
 Bridge. 
 
 On the south border one bridge only touches the extended boundaries of
 
 134 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 the City, Millbrae Bridge on the White Cart, where that stream, for a short 
 distance, forms one of the southern boundaries of the City. 
 
 In the balance sheet of the Statute Labour Department the bridges are 
 entered as an asset valued at ^184,857. Glasgow Bridge, in its present 
 condition, figures for only £6ooQ ; the Portland Street Suspension Bridge 
 is entered for £^qoo ; the Victoria and Albert Bridges are each put down 
 at i^40,ooo ; M'Neil Street Bridge is represented by ^2500; and the City's 
 proportion of the Rutherglen Bridge, so far as constructed, comes to ;^3 2,000. 
 The City's proportion of the cost of the Dalmarnock Bridge is stated at 
 i^ 1 5, 1 60; and the expenditure on the Kelvin Bridge, Great Western Road, 
 was ;£^5 1,878. Repayments to a sinking fund have reduced the amounts 
 standing against the three latter bridges by about ^7800. The other 
 bridges of the City, as they have not formed charges against the Capital 
 Account of the Police Department, do not appear in the column of assets 
 in the balance sheet. 
 
 Unfortunately the roads and streets of the City do not exhaust the 
 responsibilities of the Statute Labour authorities of Glasgow. Under the 
 old system of toll collection the County Roads Trusts were generally in a 
 bankrupt condition, and when, by the passing of the Roads and Bridges 
 (1878) Act, the toll system was abolished, a portion of the liabilities of 
 turnpike roads around Glasgow amounting to ;^67,ooo was laid on the broad 
 back of the City. Nor was this all ; the City was also burdened with an 
 annual payment for the maintenance of such roads, under the '^lea that the 
 vast traffic it creates imposes an intolerable burden on the rural districts, 
 through which these roads pass and which they serve. Therefore, in terms 
 of the above Act, an annual payment is made to the County Councils : 
 Lower Ward of Lanarkshire ^^5336, to the Middle Ward ;^I334, and to 
 the upper district of the County of Renfrew of ^^4447. 
 
 While the great part of the heavy work of making and repairing the 
 roads, streets, and footpaths of Glasgow is executed by contractors, the 
 Statute Labour Department still gives direct employment to a large staff of 
 men for jobbing on the streets. The number necessarily varies, but it may 
 be assumed that from 200 to 250 are steadily employed, consisting chiefly 
 of labourers, causewayers, surfacemen, and steam-roller men for macadamizing 
 roads, stonebreakers, foremen, and inspectors. Two steam road-rollers are 
 kept in constant work on the macadamized roads, and cartage work done 
 by contract gives employment to about thirty horses daily. 
 
 The total ordinary expenditure of the Statute Labour Department for 
 streets and bridges in 1894-95 amounted to £y6,2y\. On the maintenance 
 and repair of streets during the financial year ended 31st May, 1895, there was 
 expended ^^^47,464. In this total the larger items were: Cost of granite, road 
 metal, etc., ;^I5,I73 ; wages, ^11,389 ; payments to contractors for repaving, 
 ^8969; cost of management, £4164.; carting, ^^2740; and asphalt, £\']'j6.
 
 STREETS AND BRIDGES I^c 
 
 For new paving work there was charged to capital expenditure ^5879, 
 being ^2821 for contractors, ^^^2142 for materials — granite and whinstone 
 — and iS^ioo for cartage. The difference between the sum spent on streets, 
 ;^47,464, and the total expenditure of the department was made up in 
 payments to County Roads Trustees for the maintenance of roads converging 
 on the City, payable under the Roads and Bridges (1878) Act, which 
 amounted to i^ii,ii8, to interest on debts ^6891, contributions to Sinking 
 Fund ^10,277, and small payments for the maintenance of minor bridges, 
 etc. From the 15th of May, 1856, till the 31st of May, 1895, there was 
 expended from capital on the permanent way of streets, after deducting all 
 contributions received from road trusts or other public bodies, and from 
 proprietors for the transfer of private streets to the police authority, no less 
 than -^599,313- That expenditure, let it be understood, is on new work, 
 and is exclusive of the cost of the upkeep, repair, and improvement on existing 
 streets, all charged to ordinary current expenditure. 
 
 To meet the expenditure on the maintenance and repair of streets the 
 assessment at the rate of 4d. per £ yielded in 1894-95 ^ sum of ^62,418. 
 For work done on behalf of private proprietors, of the water, gas, and 
 other municipal departments, and for railway companies, and receipts from 
 miscellaneous sources, there was received ^12,031, and from rents, interest, 
 and other small items there were receipts which brought up the total 
 revenue to i^7 3,470.
 
 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 con- 
 dition 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. 
 
 There were no public sewers in Glasgow previous to 1790. Happy City! 
 Little did our ancestors know when they proceeded to supply themselves 
 and us with these great malign conveniences of modern city existence what 
 perplexing problems they were preparing for their successors. When they 
 began to pour their innocent trickles of household and street drainage into 
 the wimpling Molendinar, they did not foresee the time when that romantic 
 burn would become a stream of noisome and pestilential liquid which we 
 are glad to have covered over and hidden from our sight. They did not 
 foresee that each local tributary of the Clyde, and every main sewer would 
 pour into its basin such floods of fermenting and loathsome mixtures as 
 would make the main stream for miles nothing better than a huge open 
 sewer, and its banks an almost intolerable nuisance. They did not know 
 that the drains and sewers they proceeded to make were to be arteries 
 for carrying away the most essential ingredients of fertility from the soil, 
 that thereby most surely would the land be impoverished, and that streams 
 were to be poisoned and the air polluted with that which, in its proper 
 place, would make the harvest reaper sing with joy. They did not perceive
 
 SEWERS AND SEWAGE I ,7 
 
 that in forming their house drains they were opening up a channel into 
 the heart of every dwelling, whereby new and formidable diseases, with 
 stealthy step, would fasten on their unsuspecting victims, working incalculable 
 havoc and death in the population. A sewer is the most recklessly selfish 
 contrivance sanctioned b}^ civilization, and civilized society has to pay 
 a heavy price for its use. 
 
 But drains and sewers are a necessary feature — if also a necessary evil — 
 in the economy of a modern city. The convenience of having filth carried 
 away by solution or suspension in water is enormous, and there is scarcely 
 any risk people will not expose themselves to rather than deprive themselves 
 of so essential a convenience. For indeed a system of drains and sewers 
 into which all liquid detritus is poured is in a modern city nothing less 
 than indispensable. Our population is too great and too closely packed 
 together to permit of the working of any other at present known method of 
 dealing with and carrying away the liquid waste and cleansings of a house- 
 hold. The soil pipe is the most convenient and the most reckless structural 
 appliance in the economy of a household. The householder gets rid of 
 his or her troublesome and offensive matter, it is outside his walls immediately 
 it is produced, and therewith he thinks the matter is at an end. It is not 
 so, for his sins assuredly find him out. The sin of the individual is punished 
 on the community, and the gigantic evils which are the inevitable outcome 
 of this immense indispensable selfish convenience are among the most per- 
 plexing problems of modern city life. 
 
 In 1790, then, there were no sewers in Glasgow; there was, of course, 
 no gravitation water, and the surface drainage with the meagre waste from 
 households and from works found its way, by ditches and open water-courses, 
 into the burns and river. " In 1798," says Cleland in his Annals of Glasgozv, 
 " common sewers began to be formed in the City." It is improbable that 
 the work of formation was carried to any great extent in the eighteenth 
 century, for the Council had no more than the spare or surplus funds of 
 the common good with which to build these comparatively costly structures. 
 Nor, indeed, was it till the year i 807 that any other resources became available 
 for sewer formation. The Police Act of 1 800 gave the Town Council 
 formal powers to construct, should they so determine, common sewers, drains, 
 and water-courses within the City and liberties thereof; but it was provided 
 that the whole expense of making and maintaining such sewers, etc., and 
 all compensation to private proprietors from damage resulting from the 
 necessary operations should be paid " from the common and ordinary funds of 
 the community." Under the Statute Labour Act of 1 807 the making and 
 maintenance of sewers, etc., and the forming of roads and streets within the 
 royalty, were duties transferred to and imposed on the Town Council, and 
 they were empowered to apply the Statute Labour Conversion funds collected 
 by them for these purposes. From that time onwards the making and main-
 
 138 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 tenance of public sewers has remained a charge of the Statute Labour 
 Department. Writing in 18 16, Cleland mentions with pride that "common 
 sewers, large enough to admit adult persons to clean them, extending 
 4 miles 7 furlongs and 10 poles, are formed in the streets," and of these 
 he gives a detailed list. Under the Police Act of 1843 the Commissioners 
 were empowered to compel proprietors to construct private drains and 
 sewers from their properties, leading into the common sewer at the point 
 and in the manner they may direct, and no person was allowed to lead 
 any drain into a common sewer without the previous consent of the police 
 authorities under a penalty of five pounds. The same Act gave them 
 power to compel the owners of premises without the royalty but otherwise 
 within the jurisdiction of the Police Commissioners, at their own expense, 
 to construct and maintain drains and sewers to the satisfaction of their 
 officials. 
 
 By the police legislation now in force the sewers of the City are dis- 
 tinguished into three classes: (i) Public sewers which serve for the drainage 
 of a public street or road ; (2) common sewers which conduct the drainage 
 of a private street or court into a public sewer ; and (3) private sewers which 
 include house drains and sewers for the drainage of lands and heritages 
 into a common or a public sewer. Public sewers are made and maintained 
 by the police authorities ; but the proprietors of lands and heritages on which 
 buildings are erected ex adverso the street or road are bound to relieve the 
 police of the expense of the construction, provided the sectional area of such 
 sewer is not greater than 7^/^ square feet. The extra expense entailed by 
 building a sewer of greater capacity is borne out of the Statute Labour 
 Assessment. The making, maintenance, and cleaning of common sewers 
 is a charge against the proprietors in private streets and courts, who are 
 bound to make, alter, and keep them up to the satisfaction of the Master 
 of Works, and by agreement with the proprietors holding more than half 
 the frontage and representing more than half the value in any private street, 
 the Magistrates and Council may contract for the making and maintenance 
 of the sewer of such street. In the case of private sewers the Master of 
 Works is empowered to ordain proprietors to make suitable drains and 
 sewers, and to connect them with rhones and conductors for roof water, 
 carrying the whole under his direction into a common or public sewer. The 
 Buildings Regulation Act of 1892 gives powers to the Police Commissioners 
 to declare common sewers and private sewers, which drain the lands and 
 heritages of more than one proprietor to be public sewers, and thereupon 
 the burden of maintaining and renewing such devolves on the Commissioners 
 to the relief of the proprietors. This provision does not affect ordinary 
 house drains, connecting direct with a common or public sewer. 
 
 The drains issuing from any house have to satisfy the Sanitary Inspector 
 as well as the Master of Works, and from time to time he may require
 
 SERVERS AND SEWAGE I 3^ 
 
 them and their connections to be investigated by means of the smoke test. 
 Outbreaks of enteric fever or of diphtheria give special occasion for such 
 sanitary tests, and the great percentage of leaking and imperfect connections, 
 which are rev-ealed by smoke testing, give ample warrant for official interference. 
 
 So far for household sewage. But in a great manufacturing community 
 there are vast quantities of effluent refuse — the spent liquors of chemical 
 works, tanneries, and dye works, and the refuse from distilleries, breweries, etc., 
 which have to be dealt with. It is convenient that such liquors should be 
 run into the ordinary sewers of the City, but the refuse of many works, if 
 so disposed of, would create an intolerable nuisance. For dealing with such 
 cases the police are armed with special powers. In the first place, they have 
 power to prohibit any person from pouring refuse either directly or by means 
 of a private sewer into the Clyde, the Kelvin, or any of their tributaries, 
 should such, in their opinion, injuriously pollute the water. Next, should 
 the refuse of any trade or manufacture, in their opinion, be of a nature, 
 which by mixing with ordinary sewage would cause noxious or offensive 
 effluvia, they may cause a special public sewer to be built for carrying away 
 such refuse, and they are empowered to order all producers of such noxious 
 refuse to connect with such sewer, and rateably to bear the expense of its 
 construction. And manufacturers draining either into ordinary or special 
 public sewers are compelled to use all practicable means for preventing the 
 generation of noxious gases from or by means of the refuse from their works. 
 
 When the sewers were first made the entire water supply of Glasgow 
 was derived from street wells, and what found its way through the sewers 
 into the streams was almost entirely surface drainage. Water-closets at 
 that time were practically unknown within the City, the " sanitary fittings " 
 of the modern plumber, happily, were unheard of, and even the humble 
 kitchen sink was comparatively little used. Till the Loch Katrine supply 
 was introduced Glasgow had indeed little water to spare for other than 
 primary requirements, and consequently it was not till after the middle of 
 the nineteenth century that domestic water fittings became abundant, and 
 water began to be used on a lavish scale. Since that time water-closets 
 have come to be more generally used in Glasgow than in any other large 
 town, and the latest development of the system is found in the Police 
 Amendment Act of 1890, which gives power to the authorities to compel 
 owners of houses, however small, to fit up in connection with their properties 
 " adequate and suitable water-closet accommodation, properly supplied with 
 water, trapped and ventilated, to prevent leakage or effluvia therefrom." 
 Further, the drainage from numerous public works — dye works, tanneries, 
 paper works, breweries, and distilleries — adds no inconsiderable cjuota to 
 the total fermenting and putrid volume which is poured through the sewers 
 of Glasgow, 
 
 Till the middle of 1884 practically all the noxious filth of the City
 
 140 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 found its way into the river Clyde through the drains and sewers, and that 
 at the point where the river, ceasing to be a rapid inland stream, becomes 
 a sluggish tidal basin with resurgent waters which find their way slowly 
 onwards to the great sea. The volume of filth then and yet thrown into 
 it renders the river little better than a huge open sewer, the contents of 
 which exhale an evil odour perceived a long way from its banks, and which, 
 churned up by propellers and paddles of steam-vessels, yield, in summer, 
 an almost intolerable stench. Truly the price we pay for our highly- 
 organized condition of city life is very heavy ! The never-lifted pall of 
 smoke which darkens the sky is bad enough, but the streams in which not 
 only all aqueous life is poisoned, but which also exhale poison from their 
 festering contents, are much graver evils. 
 
 The condition of the Clyde has for many years been a matter of grave 
 concern to both the local and imperial governments. The investigations 
 and suggestions by local committees, by deputations, and by experts have 
 been numberless. So long ago as 1853 Mr. J. F. Bateman and Professor 
 T. Anderson were instructed to report on the disposal of the sewage of the 
 City, and after five years of deliberation they presented a report of an 
 inconclusive character. Again, in 1866 the same gentlemen, associated with 
 Mr. J. W. Bazalgette, were instructed anew to deal with the subject ; and 
 the report thereon presented recommended the carrying of the sewage in a 
 gigantic conduit to the sandy coast of Ayrshire. The cost of this scheme 
 was too great to be faced by the Council of the period, and once more the 
 question slumbered till in 1874 a Royal Commission was issued to Sir 
 John Hawkshaw to investigate the subject. In 1876 his report was issued, 
 recommending the carrying of the sewage of the whole Clyde basin by a 
 series of intercepting sewers and a large outfall sewer to Farland Head, 
 there to be poured into the sea. The estimated expense of the comprehensive 
 scheme was ^2,500,000, with an annual upkeep of ;^8ooo. Based chiefly 
 on that report a Bill was formulated by the Town Council in 1877 for the 
 establishment of a Clyde Conservancy Board, with the view of dealing 
 effectively with the pollution of the river, but it was found impossible to 
 get such an agreement among the numerous authorities concerned as would 
 warrant proceeding with the measure. Glasgow, without question, is the 
 greatest sinner, and, after long delay, she has set herself seriously to the 
 great duty of cleansing her hands and sewage. A favourable opportunity 
 for beginning the work and of experimentally demonstrating the practicability 
 of such an undertaking occurred in connection with the construction of the 
 Glasgow Central Line of the Caledonian Railway Company. That line 
 running underground from east to west, roughly parallel with the river, 
 cut across the line of main sewers running into the river, and it became 
 necessary, at great expense, to intercept these and carry the sewage in 
 sections to special points of discharge. One of these great mains conducting
 
 SFAVERS AND SEWAGE I4I 
 
 the sewage of about a fifth part of the City was carried to the Clyde at 
 Dahnarnock, and on a tongue of land there, embracing about 28 acres, it was 
 resolved to construct works for dealing with and purifying 10,000,000 
 gallons of sewage per day. Parliamentary powers to this effect were 
 obtained in 1891, and in May, 1894, the works were in operation. 
 
 The tongue of land on which the Dalmarnock sewage purification works 
 are planted is formed by a sharp bend in the river. On the east side the 
 ground is bounded by the Caledonian Railway Rutherglen branch, and 
 Svvanston Street passes to the river side in a straight line through the centre 
 of the works. The main sewer, carrying the drainage of a population of 
 215,000 persons and of an area equal at present to 2154 acres, but which 
 may ultimately include 3465 acres, passes into the works, and is led into an 
 entrance chamber 17 feet by 9 feet, with a depth of 16 feet i inch. In this 
 chamber all bulky floating matter in the raw sewage is caught on a wrought- 
 iron grid before it passes eastward into the machinery building by three 
 invert channels, which are carried under the precipitating tanks and aerating 
 beds. At its entry into the five-feet channel which leads into the catch-pits, 
 the sewage flows through rotary screens of cast-steel with bars five-eighths 
 of an inch apart. One such screen is placed at the mouth of each of the 
 three inlets, and the floating matter caught on these revolving screens is 
 raised by lifting-plates and deposited in a wrought-iron trough, whence it is 
 passed into a self-tipping bucket and carried on to the destructor furnace. 
 So sifted the sewage flows on into the two catch-pits, each 47 feet 10 inches 
 long by 20 feet broad and 10 feet deep. Here the heavy suspended matter 
 falls to the bottom, which is in each catch-pit formed of three V-shaped 
 ridges and channels, and along these channels there continuously work an 
 endless compressed steel-chain scraper, which pushes forward the deposited 
 matter to the sunk elevator troughs, from which it is raised by elevating 
 buckets and tipped into a railway waggon on the floor level. The sewage 
 is now free from floating detritus and heavy suspended matter, and there- 
 with the first stage in the purification is completed. 
 
 From these catch-pits or settling tanks the sewage now flows through 
 a 10 feet channel into the pump wells, where by means of four powerful 
 centrifugal pumps, capable of raising a million and a quarter gallons per 
 hour, it is raised into the mixing pit in which the chemical precipitants are 
 introduced. These consist of a solution of sulphate of alumina and lime in 
 the proportion of two parts of alumina to one of lime. The amount of these 
 ingredients required for the thorough purification of the sewage varies widely 
 with the varying condition of the liquid dealt with. For ordinary domestic 
 sewage which has a light grey colour, 5 grains of sulphate of alumina and 
 2\ grains of lime per gallon treated may be sufficient to produce a colourless 
 and innocuous effluent. But when the sewage treated has a dark-brown or 
 blue colour, owing to the admixture of colouring matter and tannin from
 
 142 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 dye-works and tanneries, of which there are several in the district, the pro- 
 portion of chemicals necessary may increase four- fold, rising to 20 grains 
 of alumina and 10 of lime, and thereby, of course, adding enormously to 
 the expense of treatment. The milk of lime and the solution of sulphate 
 of alumina are prepared with sewage water pumped into the mixing boxes 
 in the lime room and the alumina room respectively. 
 
 The mixing pit measures 10 feet square by 8 feet deep, and is pro- 
 vided with a centre tongue going down to within 3 feet 6 inches of the 
 bottom. Under this tongue the sewage, mixed with the chemicals, has to 
 pass, and thereby the ingredients are thoroughly mingled. From the mixing 
 tank it passes by the outlet channel to the precipitation tanks, of which 
 there are two sets of twelve, each tank having a capacity of 8 1 ,000 gallons. 
 The precipitation tanks are worked on the intermittent system, one set at a 
 time being charged ; and each tank occupies about seven minutes in filling. 
 The operation of precipitation occupies about three-quarters of an hour, and, 
 when completed, the floating arms are lowered, and the clear water flows 
 off over the aerating beds, leaving in the bottom the sludge, to which we 
 shall hereafter return. Over the stepped bottom of the aerating beds the 
 water flows in thin sheets, so as to expose a great and constantly changing 
 surface to the atmosphere, and then, by three syphon pipes, it passes under 
 Swanston Street to the filter beds on the west side. From a 20-feet main 
 channel the water is distributed by four 5 -feet channels into the coke filters, 
 of which there are twenty, each 40 feet by 10 feet, and 3 feet 6 inches 
 deep. Through these it passes, and thence it goes to be distributed over 
 forty sand filters, each 40 feet by 38 feet, and 2 feet 3 inches deep. 
 From the sand filter the water is taken to a 20-feet effluent channel, 
 whence, through five flap valves, it passes into the outlet chamber, and so 
 into the Clyde. 
 
 The sand of the filters, as it becomes dirty and clogged, is washed with 
 precipitated sewage water in the sand-washing machine, and used over and 
 over again. The coke, when too dirty for further use, is used as fuel for 
 raising the steam in the boilers connected with the machinery department, to 
 which we must now return in connection with the further treatment of the 
 sludge left in the precipitating tanks. 
 
 The precipitated sludge is carried from the tanks back into the machinery 
 room through a channel having a fall of 3 inches in 100 feet, and it is 
 received into a vast tank under the floor of the alumina mixing room. From 
 this it is raised by a centrifugal sludge pump into a range of three sludge 
 settling tanks, in which a further separation of solid and liquid takes place 
 to the extent of about 50 per cent. The supernatant fluid is run off into 
 the pump well containing the untreated sewage, and the sludgy mass left 
 is drawn into a tank under the lime room. The sludge is no longer in a 
 condition to be lifted b)^ pumping, and, to get it from the tank into the two
 
 SEWERS AND SEWAGE 1 43 
 
 sludge mixers on the floor of the lime room, a sludge ram worked by com- 
 pressed air has to be employed. A charge of the low-pressure ram which 
 conveys the sludge to the mixers consists of 1 800 gallons. In the mixers 
 there is added to the sludge a proportion of hot lime to facilitate the 
 subsequent pressing. From these mixers the sludge runs by gravitation 
 into a range of four high-pressure rams, by which it is shot to the upper 
 floor, on which there is a series of seven filter presses, each capable of 
 delivering 25 cwts. of pressed sludge cake. The filter presses are of the 
 ordinary form — a range of quadrangular corrugated plates, 3 ft. 6 ins. square, 
 canvas covered on each side. Between these the sludge is pressed with a 
 power equal to 90 lbs. per square inch, and the water which exudes is 
 caught in a trough and carried into the mixing pit. The pressed cake is 
 dropped through shoots into railway waggons placed below, .and, mixed with 
 ashes and street sweepings, it is disposed of as farm manure. On the upper 
 floor there is also placed a large cast-iron tank, into which crude sludge 
 may also be raised and mixed with dry ashes to make a manurial compound 
 without the necessity of filter pressing. 
 
 The general results of the sewage treatment ma}- be gathered from the 
 following statement, reduced by Mr. R. R. Tatlock from a series of daily 
 analysis extending over a month from loth August, 1894. It was found 
 there was removed : 
 
 Suspended matter, 19.84 grains per gallon. 
 
 Organic matter, 71 per cent. 
 
 Albuminoid ammonia, - - - - - 25 per cent. 
 
 Colour, 69 per cent. 
 
 These figures vary within narrow limits from month to month, but as already 
 mentioned a satisfactory effluent can be obtained only by the use of varying 
 and sometimes excessive quantities of precipitating chemicals. On this point 
 Mr. Tatlock remarks : " On Sundays and during Fair holidays where the 
 sewage that runs into the works is practically entirely of a domestic character, 
 the cost of chemicals per million gallons does not exceed from los. to 12s., 
 which is little more than half the cost originally anticipated, viz., i 8.s. 6d. per 
 million gallons. On the other hand, there are now many working days upon 
 which the cost to produce a good effluent cannot be less than 54s. per million 
 gallons. I do not know whether it is my duty to offer any suggestion, but 
 I consider it desirable that even in the meantime it should be ascertained from 
 which works these colouring matters and tannin are discharged." Perhaps 
 no better testimony to the generally innocuous character of the effluent can 
 be cited than the fact that the works' manager had kept live gold-fish in it 
 apparently in perfect health for several months. 
 
 In the annual riswnd of new work issued by the Lord Provost in December, 
 1895, his lordship makes the following observations on the year's workings
 
 144 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 at the sewage works : " It may be of interest were I to throw into paragraph 
 form a brief statement of the statistics of the year's work to 31st October 
 last, and to set alongside of the figures showing the quantities dealt with 
 during the last three months of the period and the cost of treatment, the 
 relative figures for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The total 
 quantity of sewage which passed through the works was over 2942 million 
 gallons, or 13,134,094 tons, being an average of over eight million gallons, 
 or 35,984 tons per day. From that liquid sewage there was extracted, by 
 precipitation, 156,864 tons of crude sludge, which was reduced by filter 
 pressing to 12,921 tons. In addition to that quantity, 1749 tons of sludge 
 were raised from the catch-pits by the elevators. These two quantities made 
 a total of 14,670 tons of solid sludge, which was handed over to the Cleansing 
 Department for disposal. By that department there was sold as manure 
 6074 tons, and despatched by rail as unsaleable refuse 8596 tons. The 
 quantity of sewage dealt with, and the working expenses per million gallons, 
 during each three months, August to October, 1894 and 1895, were as 
 follows : 
 
 
 Aug. to Oct., 1894. 
 
 Aug. to Oct., 1895. 
 
 Total sewage dealt with, 
 
 551,785,000 gallons. 
 
 828,942,000 gallons 
 
 Average daily quantity, - 
 
 5,997,663 gallons. 
 
 9,010,239 gallons 
 
 Average daily weight, - - - 
 
 26,775 tons. 
 
 40,224 tons. 
 
 Pumping, ----- 
 
 lo 15s. o^od- 
 
 £0 II 6i^d. 
 
 Precipitation, including chemicals, 
 
 ;^i 14s. 2i%d. 
 
 l^ 7 4T%d. 
 
 Filtering, 
 
 ^0 7s. I id. 
 
 £0 7 A-M- 
 
 Pressing sludge, - - . - 
 
 ^0 14s. ii^d. 
 
 £0 10 iT^d." 
 
 The total capital expenditure on the works and machinery up to 31st 
 May, 1896, amounted to ;i^i 11,400. The land acquired cost «!^37,8oo, but 
 ;^2 340 thereof was charged against the Cleansing Department for accommo- 
 dation it obtained. On works and machinery there was spent i^8 1,170, but 
 this amount again is subject to a deduction of ;^52 20 paid by the Cleansing 
 Department. The ordinary expenditure for the year ended 31st May, 1896, 
 amounted to ;!^ 18,282, in which amount is included ^^3333 paid to the 
 Sinking Fund in redemption of debt, and ;^2949 of interest. There remains 
 ;^i 2,000 as expenditure connected with the working establishment, of which 
 sum salaries and wages absorb ^^3879, the account for sulphate of alumina 
 and for lime amounted to ;!^4382, and filter materials cost ^^664, and the 
 remainder is made up of numerous minor charges. The sludge yields no 
 revenue, indeed, there is a charge of ;^2 95 for the removal of 8876 tons, 
 which was not considered worth its own carriage, and the whole expenditure 
 is met by an assessment at the rate of ly^d. per pound, which produced in 
 the year in question .^18,858. 
 
 The experience of sewage purification at Dalmarnock is completely satis- 
 factory. It is demonstrated that, at a reasonable cost, the Clyde and its
 
 SEWERS AND SEWAGE 1^5 
 
 tributaries can be again rendered tolerably wholesome and sightly, though 
 we may not yet look for salmon in the much-churned water of the river, 
 nor hope to see trout leaping in the Kelvin as it flows through Kelvingrove 
 Park. No alternative now is left to the Corporation but to proceed with 
 the treatment of the sewage of the whole of the City, and prudently it has 
 resolved to deal with the vast work in a sectional manner. So long ago 
 as 1877 the lands of Mountblow and Dalmuir were acquired at a cost of 
 ;^ 1 06,000, with a view to their utilization in connection with the purification 
 of the river, a task even then recognized as inevitable. The site on the 
 north bank of the Clyde near New Kilpatrick is admirably chosen for its 
 destined use. The property naturally divides itself into a shore section 
 1 2 5 acres in extent, lying between the Forth and Clyde Canal and the 
 river, and higher level land, i 1 1 acres, stretching upwards to Mountblow 
 House. Parliamentary powers have been obtained to occupy the low-lying 
 shore section with the sewage purification works, and thereon it will be 
 possible to treat the whole remanent sewage of the north of Glasgow, and 
 pass the purified effluent into the Clyde. Into the main sewer all sewage 
 coming from the area north of its line, not only of Glasgow, but also from 
 its western limits onwards to and including Dalmuir, will be received and 
 treated. On that side it is calculated yy per cent, of the sewage of the 
 entire area dealt with will be caught, and as it will be treated throughout by 
 means of gravitation, the serious expenditure due to pumping will be to that 
 extent avoided. For the low-lying districts between the route of the sewer 
 and the river there will be provided a subsidiary intercepting sewer, from 
 which the flow, about 23 per cent, in amount, will be raised by pumping 
 into the main, and in this way the entire sewage of the drainage area from 
 Buchanan Street to Dalmuir will be dealt with. 
 
 It is quite obvious that the City has before it a serious and expensive 
 task, but it is equally clear that its accomplishment is within view. But the 
 cleansing of the Clyde basin does not end with the sewage of Glasgow. 
 From Lanark downwards to the sea the valley is thickly populated, and an 
 increasing flood of sewage, of inky coal-washings, and of manufacturing 
 detritus will continue to be poured into the river and its tributaries. There 
 cannot be a doubt that the several communities will be also called on to 
 do what Glasgow is in the way of accomplishing, and within a reasonable 
 time this foul blot on our civilization will have been removed.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE FIRE BRIGADE. 
 
 Antiquity of the Fire Brigade : Rudimentary extinguishing appliances : Conflagrations in seven- 
 teenth century : Impoverishment of City : Parhamentary 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 : Con- 
 flagration 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 intro- 
 duction of Loch Katrine water : Electrical Fire Alarms : Reorganization in 1878 : Fire- 
 stations, engines, and appliances : Fire losses : Salvage corps. 
 
 Like other respectable institutions the Fire Brigade of Glasgow can 
 trace its history into comparatively renaote antiquity. Its beginnings are to 
 be found in the days of mechanically small things ; its progress was for long 
 chequered and uncertain ; its organization in early days was loose and in- 
 coherent ; and its efficiency was correspondingly uncertain and meagre. But 
 it must be remembered that in early days the means of contending with fires, 
 which we now possess, were not available. Water could be obtained from 
 wells, pumps, or streams only, the means of throwing it in powerful jets and 
 large quantities were unknown or in their primitive and rudimentary condition. 
 At the same time also we must recognize the fact that house property, in 
 former times, was built with little regard to warding off fires ; houses were 
 largely built of wood and covered with thatch, and fires and lights were less 
 carefully guarded than in modern times. Our ancestors, it is true, did not 
 possess the too-convenient fire-raiser, the lucifer match, and they were free 
 from the risk of coal-gas, petroleum, and electric light, all fertile sources of 
 modern conflagrations. And while fires were in olden times both more 
 numerous and comparatively more disastrous than in our own day, it must 
 not be forgotten that the property exposed to fire risk was in no case covered 
 by insurance, and that fire loss fell with full and undivided force on the
 
 THE FIRE BRIGADE 147 
 
 unfortunate owner of the consumed structure. The buildings, no doubt, were 
 simple in construction and not difficult to re-erect ; many single modern 
 warehouses contain more goods within their walls than was to be found 
 within the whole City in the seventeeth century, but these facts notwith- 
 standing, a fire at that time meant complete material ruin to the victims 
 of the conflagration. 
 
 Glasgow, like most mediaeval towns, suffered severely from conflagrations 
 which under favouring conditions obtained a hold, and grew in proportions 
 that fairly baffled all attempts to control their destructive energies. The 
 most disastrous fire, of which we have any record, broke out on 17th June, 
 1652. It began on the east side of the High Street, thence it ran down 
 to the Cross, where it leapt across to the Saltmarket, and extending to the 
 Bridgegate, Trongate, and Gallowgate, in the course of two days it consumed 
 nearly one-third of the town. In the minute of the Council describing the 
 fire " it pleased God to raise," it is said that " efter compt. it is fund that 
 thair will be neir four scoir closses all burnt, estimat to about ane thovv^sand 
 families, so that vnles spidie remidei be vseit and help soght out fra such 
 as hes power and whois hartis God sail move, it is lyklie the towne sail 
 come to outer ruein : and thairfore they have concludit and appoynted that 
 the proveist, with Johne Bell, to ryde to Air to the Inglisch officers thair, 
 quha hes bein heir and seen the towns lamentable conditoune, such as 
 Collonell Overton and vthers, and to obteine from them lettres of recom- 
 mendatioune to suche officers or judges wha sitts in Edinburgh, to the effect 
 the samyne may be recommendit be them to the parliament of Ingland that 
 all helpe and supplie may be gottin thairby that may be for supplie of such 
 as hes thair landis and guids burnt." 
 
 By this fire the town was so impoverished that in their straits the 
 magistrates appealed to the other Corporations throughout the country for 
 charitable aid, to which a generous response was made ; and for the relief 
 of the sufferers a grant of ^1000 sterling was appropriated by the Parlia- 
 ment of the Commonwealth of England, out of the treasury of the seques- 
 trations in Scotland. 
 
 Although the fire-extinguishing appliances at the disposal of the magis- 
 trates had proved miserably inadequate to cope with this great fire, it must 
 not be assumed that the City was entirely destitute of means and precautions 
 for dealing with fire. In February, 1643, the minutes bear that the 
 Treasurer had " ane warrand for the soume of fyftie-twa punds xij s. moneye 
 deburst for the twa dossane of lather buccats and haill charges of the hom- 
 bringing therof, in cariage of them to the shipe for fraught and carieing of 
 them home." Again, in 1649, the Council instructed "Thomas Allane and the 
 Maister of Work to provyd bucketis incais of danger, and recommendis to the 
 Hospitaller to doe the lyk." 
 
 But it was borne in on the Council by disastrous experience that the
 
 148 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 precautions they had hitherto taken were utterly inefficient, and a minute 
 passed on 28th February, 1653, reveals some of the causes of failure, which, 
 grievous to say, were theft and malicious mischief; and it enacts a measure 
 which to this day is operative, although it has long ceased to have any 
 connection with fire prevention. The minute reads thus : " The forsaidis 
 magistratis and counsell, takeand to thair consideratioun the great necessitie 
 they stand in from tyme to tyme for want of lether buccatis, seeing all they 
 had of that kynd ar all stoline away and brockine, and to the effect that 
 some of them may be had and provydet for, it is statute and ordanit that 
 every persone wha sail enter burges or burges and gild brother heirof sail pay 
 fyve pundis by and besyd his ordinar fyne, to helpe to buy the said buccatis." 
 
 The " fyve pundis to helpe to buy the said buccatis," exacted from every 
 new burgess by this statute, continues still to be paid by every freeman 
 burgess of the City : 8s. 4d. sterling (^5 Scots) in the name of bucket-money, 
 being an item in the burgess' fine. The duty of providing the buckets was 
 after the imposition of the charge confided to the Dean of Guild, and in 
 1654 one hundred buckets were brought home according to the Town's order, 
 and the Dean was instructed " to see to the commodious placing and 
 hinging of them." He was also instructed to provide common ladders out 
 of the unexpended bucket money, and these ladders were to be conveniently 
 distributed throughout the City. In November, 1655, it was reported that of 
 the ladders, five long and one short were stored in the Hie Kirk, six were 
 placed in the Grammar School Wynd, eight were assigned to the Flesh Market, 
 and in the Hospital sixteen were stored. 
 
 The dread inspired by the 1652 fire did not quickly pass away, and the 
 question of prevention and control occupied for a long period much of the 
 attention of the Council. On 5th April, 1656, a drastic order in the matter 
 of ladders was enacted in the Council in the following terms : " The saids 
 provest, bailleis and counsell, taking to thair consideratioune the great hurt 
 and prejudice this brughe hes sustined at severall tymes heirtofoir through 
 the occasioun of suddent fyre, and that the want of ledders to be in reddines 
 at sutch tymes has producit sade and wofull eflfectis, and thairfoir they, for 
 preveining the lyk in tyme cumyng, does heirby enact, statute, and ordaine, 
 the heritouris of every clos of landis within this brughe to mak and have in 
 reddines ane sufficient leddir, and to hing the samyn in ane convenient 
 boundis within themselfis, to the effect the samyn may be in reddines at all 
 occasiouns, and that betwixt and Witsonday nixtocum, wnder the pain of 
 twentie pundis ilk persoune, wnforgivin, by and attour they sail be subject 
 to doe the samyn : and for the better taking tryall that obediance be given 
 heirto, divers honest men ar to be nominat and appoyntit in evrie quarter 
 for takein noteice heirof" 
 
 At first the " bucket money " appears to have been rigorously applied 
 towards providing the means for coping with fire, for which it was originally
 
 THE FIRE BRIGADE 1 49 
 
 exacted, and the duty of dealing with the fund devolved on the Guildry, 
 the five pounds Scots being divided equally between the Merchants' and the 
 Crafts' Hospitals. As the demand on the fund was by no means steady, 
 the exaction soon came to be regarded as a convenient contribution to the 
 revenues of the two houses, and as early as 1668 the Council is found 
 acknowledging that the Merchants' and Crafts' Hospitals " hes the benefit 
 now of the haill buckit monye, they appoynt the said twa houses and their 
 collectors to caus mak ane hundreth lether buckits, and the buckit monye 
 to run in the old channel." But notwithstanding the significant instruction 
 about causing the money to run in the old channel, for nearly a century 
 and a half the bucket money was a mere perquisite of and source of revenue 
 to the Merchants' and the Trades' Houses, and the latter body continues to 
 receive, at this day, its share of the money which burgesses have to pay on 
 entry in name of these primitive appliances for fire extinction. In 1789 
 the Town Council stirred up the question of the application of the fund. 
 By minute dated 23rd July, 1789, the Council pointed out that the expense 
 of maintaining fire-engines in the City was considerable, that bucket money 
 was paid to the Merchants' House and Trades' House for procuring and 
 keeping in repair buckets for fire extinguishing, that buckets are now obsolete, 
 but that fire-engines cost much to keep in order ; and the Council therefore 
 arrived at the opinion that the two houses should " appropriate as much of 
 the said bucket money for keeping the fire-engines in repair as will be 
 necessary for that expense." Committees of the Town Council and of the 
 two houses were appointed to consider and report on that proposal, but a 
 masterly inactivity seems to have prevailed, and we hear of no issue of their 
 deliberations. In 1807 the bucket money question came up again for con- 
 sideration in connection with the police legislation of that year, under which 
 the establishment of a Fire Brigade was confided to the Police Commissioners 
 of the burgh, and the Committee of the Council and the two houses were 
 unanimously of opinion that the bucket money should revert to its original 
 use, and for that purpose that it should be accounted for to the Commissioners 
 of Police, instead of being paid to the Merchants' and Trades' Houses. Of 
 this destination of the bucket money the Merchants' House unanimously 
 approved, and the collectors were instructed forthwith to pay over to the 
 Commissioners the part of the bucket money accruing to the house from 
 the entry of burgesses. The conscience of the Trades' House has not con- 
 tinued so tender, and among its minor sources of revenue bucket money 
 now appears. In 1833 the Commissioners of Police sought a conference 
 of the interested bodies on the subject of the refusal of the Trades' House 
 to hand over the bucket money according to their original agreement ; but 
 the Merchants' House, having regularly made the stipulated payments, declined 
 to interfere, at the same time plainly hinting that the Trades' House ought 
 also to stick to the bargain.
 
 150 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Following the fortunes of bucket money has led us away from the object 
 for which buckets and bucket money were originally provided in Glasgow. 
 We have seen that following the great fire, what would appear to be ample 
 provision of leather buckets and ladders were secured. In 1656, the year 
 in which every owner of property was ordained to keep a sufficient ladder 
 attached to his premises, the Council agreed with James Colquhoune, a man 
 of mechanical ingenuity, for the construction of an " ingyne for casting of 
 watter on land that is in fyre." James was sent to Edinburgh at a cost 
 of ^23 14s. Scots, to inspect such an engine already there, and in May of 
 the following year there was paid out of the bucket money £2^ sterling 
 (^300 Scots) " for the pryce of the ingyne laittlie maid be the said James 
 Colquhoune, for the occasioune of suddent fyre in spouting out of water 
 thairon." Immediately thereafter the first fire-station of Glasgow — a humble 
 wooden shed — was set up. On 13th June the Council " concludit that the 
 ingyne laittlie maid be James Colquhoune, be saittit near himself, and the 
 Mr. of Wark to mak ane hous of daillis thereto." From this it would appear 
 that James Colquhoune was not only the maker of the first Glasgow " ingyne," 
 but he was expected to act as fire-master also. 
 
 It is melancholy to find after such ample and even oppressive precautions 
 against fire, that within a few 5^ears the City was again afflicted with another 
 conflagration, only less disastrous than that of 1652. The fire occurred on 
 the 2nd November, 1677, and this second calamity appears to have greatly 
 depressed the magistrates, who in their minute of 4th December thus improve 
 the occasion : " The said day the said Magistrats and Counsell, taking to 
 their serious consideratioune the great impoverishment this burgh is reduced 
 to, throw the sad and lamentable wo occasioned by fyre on the secund of 
 Nov. last, that God in his justice, hath suffered this burgh to fall under, 
 and lykwayes the most pairt of the said burgh being eye-witnesses twyse 
 to this punishment for our iniquities, by this rod, which we pray him to 
 mak us sensible of, that we turn from the evill of our wayes to himselfe, 
 that so his wraith may be averted, and we preserved from the lyk in tyme 
 to come : And becaus such things ar more incident to burghs and incor- 
 poratiounes, by reasone of their joyning houss to houssis, and on being 
 inflamed, is reddie to inflame ane uther." 
 
 Thatched roofs and wooden frame buildings, doubtless, were responsible 
 for the frequency and destructiveness of these fires, and recognizing this, 
 the magistrates prohibited the erection of wooden buildings. 
 
 A great fire occurred in the Gallowgate in 1684, for the staying of which 
 neither fire-engine nor buckets appear to have been of service. Wet hides 
 were taken out of the tan pits in a convenient tannery, and were stretched 
 over the thatched roofs and the walls of the threatened houses, and subse- 
 quently the Council ordered " reparation to be mad to John Waddrop for 
 the loss of his hydes that was taken out of the holes for this purpose."
 
 THE FIRE BRIGADE 
 
 15' 
 
 But possession of a fire-engine and fire-station did not satisfy the Town 
 Council of Glasgow that they had yet adopted all precautions needful and 
 practicable for coping with conflagrations. The subject again came before 
 the Council in December, 1688, when it was " statut and ordainit be the 
 said magistratis and counsell, that everie heritor and uthyr responsable per- 
 sones within the burgh caus mak and provyd ane sufficient lether buckit 
 and put their awine names thervpon, and to have them in readdines at all 
 occasiounes in their awine housses, and in tyme of suddane fyre — quhilk 
 God avert — that they send out the said buckits with their ablest servands 
 for quenching of the said fyre, and to carie water therwith, and the said 
 buckits to be in reddines betwixt and the Fair of Glasgow nixt, under the 
 paine of twentie punds monye, to be exactit aff ilk contraveiner and that 
 intimatioune be made heirof throw the toune to touk of drum ; As also to 
 inhibit and discharge all maner of persones to mak and repair to their barnes 
 for threshing therin their victuall aither morning or evining, unles they have 
 a lantrone or bowet with thame, for preserving the candle or light they sie 
 with, for eshewing of skaith may come thereby as doolfull experience hes 
 laitlie taught, and that under most severe punishing of their persones, and 
 benisching of thame this burgh in all tyme therafter." 
 
 Throughout the eighteenth century we do not find many circumstances 
 connected with fire prevention recorded in the annals of Glasgow. The 
 merchants and the crafts continued to draw the money from burgesses, and 
 the magistrates and Council paid the charges which arose. In 1725 we 
 have it on record that a London-made fire-engine was obtained for the City, 
 and on the 25 th September of that year the Dean of Guild was refunded 
 ;^50 he had expended in payment thereof In 1726 an agreement was 
 entered into between the magistrates and the owners of the sugar houses 
 in Glasgow, which throws some light on the organization then existing for 
 coping v/ith fires. The terms of the agreement were, " that upon the towns 
 exeeming their servants from keeping of the town guard, in respect their 
 labour and work in the sugar house necessarly requyres their working in the 
 night time as well as throw the day, they, in lieu thereof, agree and con- 
 descend that the suggar boyler of each of their sugar houses, with their 
 servants, which will be ten, at least, from each sugar house, shall be ready 
 at all tymes when fire happens in the city, or their being advertised by the 
 drum, or bell, or first allarm thereof, to attend the Magistrats, and give their 
 best help and assistance. The town provyding each suggar house with four 
 slings, and stands and buckets. So that upon the first occasion of fyre, 
 they shall come to the place with them filled with water, and thereafter 
 observe the orders and directions of the Magistrats, and others whom they 
 shall appoynt." 
 
 In the same year (1726) we have the first local mention of insurance 
 against fire in the following minute of the Town Council : " Considering that
 
 152 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 there is ane agreement signed by several of the heretors within the burgh, for a 
 mutual insurance of tenements and houses from losses by fire, do agree that 
 the touns corner house at the Cross be lykeways insured." 
 
 In 1747 the City was in possession of three fire-engines, but that equip- 
 ment was not sufficient to control a fire which burst out in Gorbals in June, 
 1749, whereby the greater part of Main Street, as it existed at that time, 
 with its adjoining thoroughfares, was consumed. According to the Glasgow 
 Journal of the time, there had not happened within sixty years a fire whereby 
 so much devastation was occasioned. Public subscriptions were set on foot for 
 the relief of the sufferers, and liberal subscriptions were received from churches 
 in Edinburgh, and from other sources. 
 
 At the beginning of this century Glasgow was in possession of six manual 
 fire-engines, two of which were presented by the Sun Fire Office, and 
 probably others were similarly obtained, with about 1000 feet of leather 
 hose. They were, of course, in every way less efficient than those now in 
 use. The engines were distributed through the City thus : A, In the Meal 
 Market ; B, at the Potato Market, King Street ; C and D, at the north end 
 of the Wynd Church, on the south side of the Trongate ; E, at Hutcheson's 
 Hospital ; and F, in Laing's Callander Close, Gallowgate Bridge. The keys 
 of the places in which the first four were placed were to be found in the 
 houses of slaters ; and, there being then no permanent fire establishment, it 
 was to such tradesmen that the authorities principally looked for help in 
 case of conflagration. The promptitude of a modern fire brigade could not, 
 in the circumstances, be expected, and the water for fire-quenching having 
 to be drawn from streams and wells, it is not marvellous that fires exhausted 
 themselves more than they were controlled and extinguished. " On a fire 
 alarm being given," says Dr. John Aitken, " the fire drum was beat off from 
 the main guard house, Candleriggs, by the regimental drummer on duty. 
 On midnight alarms he was escorted by two men of the military guard ; 
 and it was usual for the guard to turn out to assist at fires by keeping the 
 ground clear, and on occasions of large fires, and of several hours' continuance, 
 we had a reinforcement of sometimes two or three hundred men from the 
 infantry barracks for the same purpose, viz., to keep a clear space and course 
 for the men employed." 
 
 Under the Police Act of T807, as we have seen, the superintendence of 
 fires was transferred from the Town Council to the Commissioners of Police, 
 and that body proceeded to organize the Department in a more worthy 
 manner than had hitherto been attempted. A special superintendent of fire- 
 engines — one Basil Aitchison, who had already been employed putting 
 fire-cocks in the streets — was, in 1 809, appointed, and he was instructed to 
 have all the engines, pipes, etc., put in proper repair. In i 8 1 1 it was reported 
 that forty fire-plugs were distributed throughout the City, and in 18 16 the 
 number had increased to 152. The growing efficiency of the Fire Department
 
 THE FIRE BRIGADE I 53 
 
 naturally entailed greatly augmented expenditure, to the alarm of the Fire 
 Committee of the Police Commissioners, who, to curb expenditure, resolved 
 in 18 1 7 to dismiss the staff attached to the engines then stationed at Town- 
 head and Dallas Court, and to employ two men to attend to these engines at 
 a salary of a guinea each yearly. They reduced the men attached to the 
 other two engines to eight for each, and the salaries of the masters of four 
 engines were reduced to two guineas per year. The committee estimated 
 about that time that they had under their charge apparatus worth nearly 
 iJ^iooo sterling, and the yearly cost of the fire establishment was the modest 
 sum of ^300, but at that time the yearly number of fires averaged only 
 fourteen. 
 
 In 1825 there were in Glasgow five fire-engines, but three of them were 
 old, and their value for fire extinction was probably illusory. It is not a 
 matter for wonder that complaints as to the efficiency of the department were 
 so loudly expressed that the Fire Committee were obliged to bestir themselves. 
 A chronic warfare had for many years been waged between the Fire Com- 
 mittee and the local fire insurance offices regarding the cost and maintenance 
 of the establishment, and in December, 1825, something like an ultimatum 
 was presented by the Fire Committee to the insurance companies. The Police 
 Commissioners contemplated the discontinuance of the Fire Department 
 entirely, but in the end a communication was made to the Fire Offices 
 intimating that ;^i6oo was required to complete the stock of the department, 
 and the Fire Offices were expected to contribute towards raising this sum. 
 It was suggested that the more powerful offices should each contribute one 
 engine with a distinctive uniform and badge for those in charge of it, so that 
 the public would be advertised of the liberality of the several offices. No 
 result followed the conference over these proposals, and the animosity of the 
 Commissioners continued to slumber on. At the same time they added to 
 their expenditure by increasing the allowance to carters who conveyed the 
 water butts to the scene of fires. The number of firemen was increased 
 from thirty-five to fifty, and the superintendent was allowed a great- 
 coat. 
 
 A detailed code of regulations and instructions for the Fire Department 
 was sanctioned by the Police Board in January, 1834. From these regulations 
 we learn that once every three months all the firemen, engines, butts, and 
 carts, etc., were called out for practice and inspection by the Fire Committee. 
 The men employed were to be of preference such as were by their trades 
 acquainted with buildings, and they were, as far as possible, to be resident near 
 the Police Office in Albion Street, where the engines were then kept. The 
 firemen were each supplied with number tickets and a badge, and they had a 
 signboard — PTREMAN — attached to their dwellings. Sixteen carters living 
 near the police buildings possessed of good horses were also selected by the 
 Fire Superintendent, and to them signboards with their names and FIRE
 
 154 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 BUTT CARTER were supplied. They were instructed in the method of 
 opening and closing fire-plugs, and on an alarm of fire the watchmen on their 
 beats immediately gave them notice ; but beyond these advantages they had 
 to take their chances with other owners of horses, because the first fit horse 
 which arrived at the engine-houses was selected for employment, and paid for 
 according to the scale of premiums in force. 
 
 Immediately on an alarm of fire being given, four fire-drums were sent 
 out through the four quarters into which the City was divided, warning 
 carters, firemen, and the public generally. For the first engine which appeared 
 at the fire, the men who had it and the hose in charge received a premium 
 of I OS. amongst them ; for the second, 8s. ; and for the third, 6s. — provided 
 they were dragged to the scene by the men themselves. When horses were 
 employed the premiums went to the owners of the animals or the men paid 
 for their hire. While on duty at fires the branchmen were paid 4s. for the 
 first hour, 3s. for the second, is. 6d. for the third, and for every succeeding 
 hour IS. Ordinary firemen received for the first hour 3s., for the second, 
 third, and fourth is. each, and for all after at the rate of 6d. If extra assist- 
 ance was hired from the crowd, the persons employed received a ticket, and 
 were entitled to half these rates of payment. 
 
 In 1834 the insurance companies suggested the presentation of a fire- 
 engine from Philadelphia, but it does not appear to have been obtained ; 
 and again, in 1837, in connection with the Police Bill then in Parliament, 
 the fight between the Commissioners and the companies was resumed. On 
 this occasion the fire companies offered to contribute ;^400 yearly towards 
 the expenses of the establishment, but this offer was declined. Under their 
 Bill the Commissioners sought a renewal of the powers they had under 
 previous enactments to charge the half of the fire expenses up to a maximum 
 of ;^I5 against the owners of the property to which the brigade might be 
 summoned. In this the insurance companies combined to oppose the 
 Commissioners, and the previous powers were withdrawn ; and in place the 
 Commissioners were empowered to enter into agreement with any public 
 bodies, companies, or with private persons as to the charge for the engines. \ 
 
 Thereupon the Commissioners resolved to limit their expenditure by reducing | 
 
 the Fire Department to two engines and four butts, and at May next year 
 to discontinue the establishment entirely. In pursuance of this policy, they 
 actually, in June, 1838, declined to pay the firemen's wages, and it was only 
 after an interdict against their action was obtained at the instance of the 
 Town Council that matters were allowed to continue on old lines. Soon after 
 this (in 1840) a superior fire-engine and a staff of men were provided by 
 the West of England Insurance Company, the Police Board affording every 
 facility for the new engine obtaining all alarms of fire. Under the Act of 
 Parliament passed in 1843, the ol^l arrangement for paying for the services 
 of the Fire Brigade was resorted to — half the total cost, up to a maximum 

 
 THE FIRE BRIGADE 155 
 
 payment of ^i 5 within the City, and the whole expenses, plus 25 per cent., for 
 services outside the City bounds. 
 
 The introduction of Loch Katrine water in 1858 into Glasgow gave an 
 opportunity for greatly developing and improving the fire-extinguishing 
 agencies in the City. The first steam fire-engine for Glasgow was obtained in 
 1870 from Shand, Mason & Co., a firm which subsequently supplied both 
 manual and steam-engines to the department. In 1878 a system of elec- 
 trical fire alarms, on a plan devised by Mr. R. S. Symington, was introduced 
 throughout the City, and, notwithstanding the occasional malicious misuse 
 of the signalling apparatus, the method of communication proved of incalcul- 
 able value. The example of Glasgow was quickly followed in other cities, 
 and now, of course, such agency is fully supplemented with telegraphic 
 and telephonic communication between stations and from private houses, 
 offices, etc. 
 
 Since 1891 the Brigade have carried portable telephones on their engines, 
 by which, in connection with the fire alarm wires, telephonic communication 
 can be at any point established, and the location and extent of fire can be 
 announced to the offices, and, if necessary, additional assistance summoned. 
 The Glasgow Brigade, it is believed, was the first to make use of the portable 
 telephone in its organization. 
 
 In 1873 the Fire Committee were constrained to purchase and maintain 
 a stud of horses for the special use of the Fire Department, and more im- 
 portant still, in 1878 the Fire Brigade became a standing permanent force. 
 Up till this time the employees were men engaged in other occupations, who 
 might or might not be available when need of them was the sorest. Now every 
 fireman is permanently employed as such, living in the property of the Police 
 Board, or in a house rented for him in immediate proximity to his fire-station, 
 and he is at all times at call ; and not only is he housed by the Department, 
 but he is provided with uniform clothing, boots, helmet, and belt, and he is 
 daily exercised in working and attending to the efficiency of the beautiful 
 engines he has to work, and in the complex system of inter-communication, 
 by which, in the briefest space, his presence and services may be brought to 
 bear on any point. All this is done for an expense of not less than i^ 12,000 
 yearly to the Police Board. 
 
 In addition to the chief station at College Street, and superintending 
 stations in the northern district at St. George's Road, and at the south side 
 at Warwick Street, there are seven other fire-stations throughout the City, 
 although at two of them no steam fire-engine is kept. On the staff there are 
 a chief officer, 3 superintendents, 7 station foremen, and 98 engineers, firemen, 
 and coachmen — in all 109 persons. For the service there is maintained a 
 stud of 34 horses, 10 steam fire-engines, and 4 manual engines. There are 
 10 large hose and ladder carriages, 5 tool, etc., carriages, 5 hand hose reels, 
 and 4 fire-escapes. The total length of hose, leather, and canvas at the
 
 156 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 disposal of the department is 43,970 feet, and throughout the City there are 
 on the water mains no fewer than 5407 fire-cocks and valve hydrants. Of 
 street fire-alarms there are 124, and there are 29 more private alarms 
 under the control of warehousemen and public companies. The number 
 of fires yearly averages about 450, and in 1894 the fire loss was only 
 ;^36,500, although, taking an average over ten years, the yearly loss rises to 
 ;^io6,8oo. 
 
 It would be as absurd to place to the credit of the Fire Brigade the 
 small fire loss of ^36,500 in 1894 as it would be to blame the establishment 
 for the very considerable total of ;!^2o6,ooo in 1888. In their nature fire 
 losses must range between wide limits, and under certain conditions the most 
 perfect imaginable organization is incapable of arresting the destructive force 
 of fire, which has established a hold on highly inflammable and valuable 
 property. Nevertheless the average worked out by Mr. William Paterson, the 
 chief officer, for two decennial periods are not without significance as to the 
 increased promptitude and efficiency of the Brigade in later years. The 
 
 outcome is shown in the following table : 
 
 Loss per firC; 
 
 Loss per 1000 of population, 
 
 Loss per £1000 of rental, - 
 
 1875- 1884. 
 
 .^349 8 6 
 
 232 15 4 
 
 36 14 I 
 
 1885-1894. 
 
 £239 5 10 
 
 178 2 II 
 
 28 19 6 
 
 In connection with fires there was established in 1873 by the Fire 
 Insurance Companies a local Salvage Corps, which works in harmony with 
 the Fire Brigade. The Corps at first consisted of 7 men and 2 horses, but 
 has from time to time been increased till in 1895 it stood at 20 men and 
 5 horses.
 
 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 181 5 : Light sup- 
 plied 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. 
 
 In a sentence at once vague and ambiguous, the laborious Dr. Cleland in 
 his Amials of Glasgoiv writes, "In the year 17 17 street lamps were first 
 used in Glasgow of a conical form." The grammar of the statement may 
 be passed over, but if it is thereby meant that a general system of public 
 lighting was then in operation or inaugurated, the assertion must be challenged. 
 Public lighting at that period was not common even in great cities, and 
 as Glasgow was but little more than an overgrown village, it is most unlikely 
 that the magistrates with their impoverished exchequer spent any of their 
 revenues on street illumination. That there was a certain amount of public 
 lighting in Glasgow in the latter half of the eighteenth century is made 
 certain by the fact, that the Town Council in the year 1767 expressed the 
 opinion that it would be beneficial to the inhabitants if additional lamps 
 were provided, and the town much better lighted than it then was ; but they 
 lamented that the condition of public income and expenditure did not permit 
 of that and other desirable ameliorations. Later in 1775 the magistrates 
 had under their consideration the propriety of promoting in Parliament a 
 bill for, among other things, the better paving and lighting of the streets. 
 That public lighting was both limited and inefficient at a date subsequent 
 to this is evident from the fact that in 1780 lamps were first placed on 
 the south side of the Trongate, although that was then a principal street of 
 the City. These lamps were erected as a reward for the formation of a 
 foot pavement b)' local proprietors between the Cross and Stockwell Street,
 
 158 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 and their erection was accompanied with the announcement that should the pro- 
 prietors to the west of Stockwell follow, in pavement laying, the public-spirited 
 example of their fellows to the east thereof, the same reward and recognition 
 would be accorded to their labours. In views of the Trongate executed before 
 the end of the century lamp pillars are shown extending along both sides 
 of the street. 
 
 The lighting of the public streets became a statutory duty only under 
 the Police Act of 1800, although in that crude but revolutionary statute 
 the duty is implied rather than expressed. The clauses which deal with 
 the subject empower the Police Commissioners to affix to the walls of houses, 
 etc., lamps and lamp irons. It gives them ample power to punish any person 
 guilty of wilfully breaking or damaging the lamps and their appurtenances, 
 or anyone who shall wilfully extinguish the lights within the same, and it 
 also provides for compensation for the accidental breaking or injury of the 
 lamps ; but the statute makes no provision whatever for the lighting of the 
 lamps, nor for the maintenance of a Lighting Department. From the point 
 of view of modern parliamentary counsel, indeed, the entire statute would 
 be regarded as a most defective and unworkable measure, but obviously at 
 the beginning of the century the spirit rather than the letter was regarded, 
 and, having power to erect lamp-posts, to punish roysterers whose boisterous 
 spirits found a safety-valve in knocking them down ; and specially having 
 got fitting punishment prescribed for the extinguishing of the lights, 
 sufficiently implied and warranted the duty and expense of putting the 
 lights in. 
 
 Of necessity the lighting of the streets at the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century must have been feeble and ineffective. " No light was there, but 
 only darkness visible." " Here and there," says Peter M'Kenzie in his 
 Reminiscences^ " in the lone streets there might be observed the feeble twink- 
 ling of a few oil lamps on their elevated wooden pedestals, but nothing else 
 in that shape could be discerned unless the moon and the bright stars of 
 Heaven broke the darkness and dispelled the gloom." The art of illumina- 
 tion was at that time in no way advanced from the primitive condition in 
 which it was amongst the ancient Athenians. It is wholly in the nineteenth 
 century that the many marvellous developments in illumination have taken 
 place, improvements which, probably more than any other range of modern 
 discoveries and developments, have increased public security and social order, 
 and promoted social intercourse. So far as regards street lighting, the 
 improvements began with the introduction of coal gas as an illuminating 
 material, for there never was any thought of adapting costly and complex 
 lamps, such as the Argand, for burning heavy oils in street lanterns. Gas 
 was first turned on in a street lamp in Glasgow on the 15th of September, 
 1 8 18. With only a rat's tail burner, consuming one cubit foot of gas per 
 hour, the lighting, no doubt, judged by recent standards, would make a very
 
 PUBLIC LIGHTING I 59 
 
 miserable show, but as against the oil lamps it superseded the gas was an 
 enormous advance in brilliancy, economy, and convenience. 
 
 The Police Accounts for the year 18 14-15, enable us to estimate the 
 cost, and to conceive something of the efficiency of the lighting establish- 
 ment of one of the latest years of oil lamp lighting. That year began with 
 a stock of street lamps numbering 1274, and during the season 106 were 
 added to the number, bringing the total up to 1380. The lighting staff 
 then consisted of a superintendent, who was paid at the rate of ^145 per 
 annum, with — for a season of thirty-seven weeks — eleven lamplighters who 
 received each i6s. weekly. For the summer season of fifteen weeks the 
 services of two men only were required, and during that period there must 
 have been very little lighting in the streets, for while the cost of oil, tow, 
 and wick for the turn of thirty-seven weeks was ;^I337, the expenditure 
 on these lighting materials over the summer of fifteen weeks came to something 
 less than iJ^20. 
 
 With the introduction of coal gas, the duties of the Lighting Depart- 
 ment were very much simplified. No more carrying about of oil through 
 the streets, or filling of lamps and of trimming of wicks. The contract for 
 the supply of gas went to the Gas-Light Company or companies, and the 
 lighting and extinguishing only, with the care of posts and lanterns, remained 
 in the hands of the officials of the Lighting Department. So matters con- 
 tinued, till in 1869 the gas-works of the City were acquired by the 
 Corporation. The last contract made by the Police Commissioners for the 
 supply of street gas was entered into with the City and Suburban Gas 
 Company in May, 1858, and it continued till that and the other company 
 were absorbed by the Corporation. For the year. May 1858-59, cost of 
 gas for the public lamps was ^5764. During the first year the Corporation 
 had the gas of Glasgow in their own hands, 1869-70, the sum expended 
 by the Police Commissioners on public lighting was ^18,963, but of this 
 amount ^^8030 was represented by gas supplied for the lights of common 
 stairs. From 1862 till 1867 occupiers were required either to contract 
 for stair lighting by paying a fixed sum for a supply in the street mains, 
 calculated generally on the understanding that lights should be extin- 
 guished at eleven p.m., or, without it, to lead a pipe from the meters 
 within their own houses. After 1867 optional contracting for the lighting 
 of public stairs ceased, and the duty of stair-lighting entirely devolved on 
 the department. 
 
 As regards the lighting private courts, passages, closes, and common stairs 
 previous to 1862, the law was that should the Commissioners deem it expedient 
 to light such spaces out of the public assessments, they were authorized to 
 provide lighting upon receiving an application from the occupiers, or from 
 such a number of them as paid at least one-half the rent of the whole premises 
 to be benefited by the ligluing. The expense of the lamps and lights was
 
 l6o MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 then to be charged proportionately against the occupiers, and paid in such 
 manner as the Commissioners should determine. 
 
 The Police Act of 1862 laid on the Police Board the duty of lighting all 
 streets, roads, and courts within the City, whether public or private ; but in the 
 case of private streets and courts they were empowered to levy an annual 
 payment not exceeding 25s. for every lamp erected and lighted -in a private 
 street, and to recover the same rateably from the proprietors whose property 
 should be served by the lighting. That Act also gave the Board power to 
 enforce the regular and sufficient lighting of all common stairs during such 
 hours as they should from time to time determine. Under this provision the 
 Public Lighting Department were to take charge of the lights on all ground 
 floors and one stair up, leaving to the upper flat to lead a supply from their 
 own meters, or to contract with the gas companies. The charge made by the 
 department was at the rate of 25 s. yearly for each light. The scheme was 
 found not to work smoothly in practice. Complaints were incessant, and 
 much of the time of the officials of the department was occupied in investi- 
 gating complaints and in attending as witnesses in the Police Courts in the 
 prosecution of occupiers on charges of neglected or insufficient lighting of 
 stairs. 
 
 The experience gained in the working of the Act of 1862 led to further 
 modifications when the Police Act of 1866 was sought. By the terms of 
 that measure the duty of lighting and maintaining approved lamp posts, 
 lamps, etc., for private streets and courts is laid on the proprietors, and the 
 maximum charge by the Lighting Department for lighting is reduced to 
 15s. yearly for each lamp. Similarly in the lighting of common stairs, owners 
 are bound to provide gas pipes, brackets, lamps, and burners to the satisfaction 
 of the inspector of lighting, and the extinguishing of stair lights became 
 wholly the duty of the department, a maximum charge of los. per light being 
 leviable from the proprietor or proprietors of the dwellings served by the 
 common stair. The proprietors are entitled to recover the charge of los. 
 actually levied from their tenants, and to retain 20 per cent, of the whole 
 for their trouble of collection and their risk of loss. 
 
 The system of common stair lighting is carried on at a heavy loss to 
 the Police Department. The duty gives employment to 347 men, and 
 for the year ending 31st May, 1895, the cost of wages, gas, etc., was ;!^24,650, 
 while the sum received from landlords was not more than ;^i 4,870. The 
 lighting of private streets and courts similarly costs about ^5300 yearly, 
 and the revenue at 15 s. per lamp comes to not more than ^3 i 30. The deficit 
 under these two heads of ^12,000 or thereby becomes a public burden, 
 made up out of the proceeds of the ordinary police rates. 
 
 The new Act came into force in May, 1867, at which time there were 
 2058 stair lights in charge of the department, and 7200 attended to by 
 the occupiers, in all 9258 lights in common stairs. Within the first year
 
 PUBLIC LIGHTING l6i 
 
 under the new system stair lights increased to 15,335, a growth of nearh- 
 75 per cent., and ever since the increase has been steady and continuous, 
 till in the early part of 1896 the number of common stair lights burning 
 each night in Glasgow is not fewer than 39,000. 
 
 The streets of Glasgow are by no means brilliantly lighted as compared 
 with those of' other cities, and yet the expansion and improvement of public 
 lighting even within the last twenty years have been on a scale almost 
 prodigious. But as the public became accustomed to conveniences and 
 advantages, they became increasingly exigent in their demands, and every 
 improvement led to the demand for more. The resources of science have 
 been directed towards the problems involved in the artificial illumination of 
 large spaces, vast possibilities of development have been revealed, and in the 
 competition of rival illuminating agencies each medium has been worked up 
 to increasing degrees of perfection. Gas has been threatened by electricity, 
 and in the conflict and competition thereby evoked the older and more 
 familiar agency has developed new and valuable resources. The general 
 result is that public lighting which twenty years ago would have been 
 regarded as sufficient, if not brilliant, will now no longer be tolerated. The 
 growth in the demand for and supply of improved lights may fitly be 
 illustrated by comparing the conditions of street lamp illumination in 1877 
 with those of the year 1896, In the earlier year the public lamps in Glasgow 
 numbered 7916, and they were supplied with rat-tail burners, about two-thirds 
 of which — 5155 in number — consumed only one foot of gas per hour, 2468 
 were calculated to burn two feet, 285 were for three feet, and there were 
 only eight lamps in which as much as four feet per hour were consumed. 
 In all, these lamps burned 41,428,000 feet in the year. Now, in 1895-96, 
 there are 13,672 public lamps consuming in the year 129,472,000 feet of 
 gas, there are only four public lamps burning as little as one foot per hour, 
 8973 consume two feet, 3827 have three feet burners, there are 237 burners 
 which consume five feet, 260 for six feet, and smaller numbers for a consump- 
 tion which goes up to twenty feet per hour, for which large amount there 
 is one burner. And these numbers are exclusive of the powerful electric 
 light in the principal thoroughfares, which supplanted many high-power 
 burners along their line of installation. 
 
 Since 1877 the ordinary flat flame burner has supplanted the rat-tail 
 for street lamp lights. In the interim experiments have been made with 
 many forms of burner, such as Siemen's Regenerative, Sugg's Argand, and 
 others ; but such advantages as these promised did not appear to warrant 
 their general adoption, and they were not persevered with. 
 
 Since the end of Februar)-, 1893, a certain number of the principal 
 streets and places in the central district of the City have been lighted by 
 electricity by means of arc lamps. Of these i 1 2 are now in use, lighting 
 the line of Sauchichall Street from Charing Cross to Renfield Street, and 
 
 1^
 
 1 62 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 thence through Union Street and Jamaica Street, through and over Glasgow 
 Bridge, Argyle Street, and Trongate. Buchanan Street and George Square 
 are also lighted by electricity. The cost of the electric energy supplied 
 by the Gas and Electric Lighting Department of the Corporation for street 
 lamps in 1895-96 amounted to ^2850, 
 
 Since the latter part of 1893 an experiment has been in progress for 
 the testing of the employment of the Welsbach incandescent mantle in the 
 lighting of the streets. At first ten lamps were fitted up with Welsbach 
 burners in St. Vincent Place, and these having proved satisfactory both in 
 steadiness and amount of light and in economy of cost, the system is now 
 being tried on an extended scale in Gordon Street, Blythswood Square, 
 Bain Square, and Bridgeton Cross, and in the long line of Bridge Street 
 and Eglinton Street. In all 164 Welsbach burners, fitted each with a bye- 
 pass for lighting, were in use early in 1896 with perfectly satisfactory results, 
 except in the case of Bridgeton Cross, where excessive vibration proved very 
 destructive to the mantles. 
 
 In all the Lighting Department of Glasgow during the winter 1895-96 
 attended nightly to the lighting of 56,905 jets, of which 13,672 were in 
 public lamps, consuming 129,472,000 cubic feet of gas at the cost of 
 ^151745; of^ lamps in private streets and courts there were 4204, having 
 a consumption of 25,267,000 cubic feet valued at ^^^2844; and of stair 
 lights the number was 39,029, consuming 100,172,000 cubic feet of gas 
 of the value of ^11,867. In all the consumption of gas for public lighting 
 amounted to 254,912,000 cubic feet, the price of which was ^^^30,456. The 
 whole cost of the lighting establishment for the }'ear ended 31st May, 1895, 
 was ^61,553, or deducting a small revenue from broken lamps, scrap, etc., 
 it may be stated in round figures as ^60,000. To meet that expenditure 
 there is the charge for private lamps at 15s. each and for stair lighting 
 at I OS. per jet, which together yielded ;^i 8,000, leaving the balance ;^42,ooo 
 to be made good from the general police rate. 
 
 ■V
 
 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 de- 
 spatch works : Disposal of manure to farmers ; to farms and estates of Cleansing 
 Department : Expenditure and revenue. 
 
 The clean.sing of the City was not one of the primal obh'gatlon.s of the 
 burghal authorities of Glasgow. In mediaeval times when the City was of 
 limited extent, when the houses were small, when gardens and open spaces 
 were numerous, and when what are sometimes mistakenly called " sanitary 
 conveniences " were unknown, the necessity for corporate interference in 
 cleaning was not an indispensable requirement for the well-being of the 
 community. The City then was in the condition of many rural villages at 
 the present day yet untouched by the county councillor, where in matters 
 of cleaning, sanitation, and water supply each dweller is a law unto himself 
 In the seventeenth and the early part of the eighteenth century Glasgow 
 had the reputation of being a clean, sweet, well-ordered City, and visitors 
 contrasted it in these respects most favourably with other towns throughout 
 Britain. Such gratification as can be derived from the comparison must 
 be subdued and tempered by the reflection that other cities must have been 
 shockingly dirty, indeed, when Glasgow was esteemed a non-such of whole- 
 some cleanliness. 
 
 For, indeed, the records present us with a picture lamentably short of 
 a present-day ideal of sweetness. The inhabitants of Glasgow had an old- 
 established and almost ineradicable habit of planting their middens on the 
 street close by, and convenient to, their doors. Again and again, with 
 painful but fruitless iteration, the Town Council fulminated minutes against
 
 1 64 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 this " uncomely " habit ; but threats of fines, of escheating of the " fulzie," and 
 other penalties notwithstanding, the practice was persisted in. Removal of 
 these middens was ordered by the minute of date 2 0th October, i599, 
 which runs thus : " It is condiscendit be the bailleis and counsale and thocht 
 meitt be thame present that thair salbe inhibitioune maid that na middingis 
 be wpoun the Hiegate fra sydwall to sydwall wpoun the foirgate in ony syde 
 thairof nor ly langer nor xlviij houris, bot to be transportit af the same, 
 with certificatioune gif thai failley to tak the same awaye, the haill fuilley 
 salbe escheitt and tane awaye be ane commone carter man to the weill 
 of the puir." Here, it will be seen, is a threat to appoint a public 
 scavenger, the profits of whose labours were to be devoted to works of 
 charity. 
 
 The visitation of the dreaded plague in 1646-47 led to extraordinary 
 cleaning measures on the part of the Town Council, Special cleansers were 
 employed for cleaning the foul houses and people in the town, a horse was 
 bought for use in carrying away soiled clothes and sweepings from the town, 
 the cleaning of houses was to be done at the sight of the bailies, all able 
 to bear the expense were to be charged ; a second horse was delivered to 
 Gilbert Currie for " clenging " the streets, and he was to be paid 23 s. Scots 
 for each day he worked with man and horse, besides two pecks of corn 
 weekly to sustain the horse. 
 
 The slope of the High Street, and the upper parts of the town were 
 favourable to the flow and escape of surface water by such channels as it 
 could make ; but when houses were built westward from the Cross by the 
 Trongate, the fall towards St. Tenowes or St. Enoch's Burn, to which a 
 channel or syver was made, was slight, and surface water was easily dammed 
 back. It is very significant that occupiers took advantage of this condition 
 to choke up the gutter with straw and "fulzie," thereby to make and enrich 
 manure. To remedy this an edict was issued by the magistrates in accordance 
 with a minute dated 5th May, 1655, 
 
 "It being maid knowne to the saids magistratis and counsell that the 
 great abundance of red layed without the West Port had fall in in the guitter 
 and stoppit the current of the water, so that sundrie people on the northe 
 syd of the Trongait were forcit to mak brige stones for entrie to thair 
 houssis, the foirsaids magistratis and counsell thairfor does heirby inact, 
 statute and ordaine, that thair be no more red laid downe in that pairt 
 heirefter ; as also that every heretor or tennent wha hes either kill or borne 
 on the north syd of the gait thair, betwixt the west gavill of Hutchisones 
 Hospitall and the Kowlone mouthe, be chairgit at all occasiounes to red the 
 passadge of the water thair foiranent themselfis, and that vnder the payne of 
 fiyve pundis, and to be poindit be the officers thairfor how oft and swa oft 
 as they shall contravin." 
 
 Eleven years thereafter the same mucky condition continued, and again
 
 CLEANSING 1 65 
 
 the magistrates ordained that every heritor and tenant of the lands nearest 
 " the syre keep the same free ilk ane foir against themselfis." 
 
 When the threats, warnings, and penalties of the magistrates were in- 
 effective in abating so portentous a nuisance as door-step and street middens, 
 there is reason to fear that their edicts for the cleaning of the public streets 
 would meet but scant honour and obedience. Orders of this nature, never- 
 theless, repeatedly appear in the Council minutes of the seventeenth century, 
 their frequency giving cause for suspicion that they were neither promptly 
 obeyed nor rigorously enforced. As a sample, the minute of 19th January, 
 1656, may be quoted : 
 
 " The saids magistrats and counsell, taking to thair consideratioun the 
 foulnes and clattines of the commoune calsay, quhilk wald be eisilie mendit 
 give evrie n)xhtbour and foir frunt wald tak pains to clat the calsay weiklie 
 foiranent themselfis, therfoir it is enactit, statut and ordenit, be the saids 
 proveist, bailleis and counsell, that evrie indwaler in foir frunt, in evrie place 
 through the haill towne, sail dight and clat the calsayis foiranent themselfis, 
 weiklie, betuixt the guter and the crowne of the calsay, and that weiklie, 
 vnder the pain of fourtie schillings Scottis to be exactit of ilk contra- 
 veinar ; and siclyk that na maner of persowne lay fulyie on the calsayis 
 whill first they have horssis redie to take away the samyne, vnder the pain 
 of ten pundis wnforgivin ; and ordeins this to be intimat through the haill 
 towne be towck of drume." 
 
 Further unpleasant light is thrown upon the habits of our ancestors in 
 respect of public cleanliness by the order issued by the magistrates in 1696, 
 prohibiting the casting out at windows, by day or night, of dirt or filth 
 of any kind. Whether the cry " Gardyloo " was in Glasgow, as in Edin- 
 burgh, sufficient to transfer to the unfortunate passer all the responsibility 
 for the consequences does not appear, but the habit pointed at by the 
 prohibition is entirely in keeping with the established practice of disposing 
 of filth in the most summary and reckless manner. 
 
 Any improvement in the decency and cleanliness of the streets which 
 may have been effected during the eighteenth century was due only to the 
 improved habits of the people. It was not till the passing of the Police Act 
 of 1800 that the cleaning of the streets and the removal of filth came to be 
 looked on as a public duty, and enjoined by statute. It is worthy of passing 
 comment that in this enactment we have the first step in that municipal 
 communism which in the nineteenth century has developed in many directions, 
 which has entirely altered the relations of the Town Council to the people, 
 which has been productive of incalculable benefit to the poor and the helpless, 
 and has made the City really a community. 
 
 The newly-established Police Board at first appointed no separate cleaning 
 establishment. The superintendence of cleaning was entrusted to the Master 
 of Police, and his staff of night watchmen had the double duty of guarding
 
 l66 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 the streets and keeping them clean. Twice a week, for two hours at a time, 
 the night-watchmen had to ply the broom and wheel-barrow. In summer, 
 when the days were long, watch duty ceased at four o'clock, and then from 
 that hour till six one-third of the force ceased to be constables, and became 
 scavengers. In winter patrol duties ceased at six ; the watchmen went home 
 to bed, and at noon they turned out for their two hours' street-cleaning work. 
 In 1804, however, a separate staff of fourteen scavengers was appointed, but 
 they in their turn were required to assist the watchmen in preserving the 
 peace on holiday occasions. In the year 181 5 the entire scavenging 
 establishment consisted of sixteen men, fifteen of whom received i is. per 
 week, and one — a foreman — had 4s. more. In all the wages' bill of the year 
 was ^5^469, and the expenditure in carting, implements, rent of dunghills, etc., 
 was ;^454. The receipts for manure sold amounted to ;!^4i8, so that the 
 entire cost of City cleaning, such as it was, little exceeded .^500. At a later 
 period the cleaning of the City was put into the hands of a contractor, and so 
 it continued till, in 1868, the Police Board again organized a Cleansing Depart- 
 ment under their own immediate supervision. 
 
 The Police Act of 1843 conferred on the Commissioners enlarged powers 
 of dealing with cleaning. They were by it authorized to appoint an Inspector 
 of Cleansing, to provide for the " watering, sweeping, and cleansing of the 
 streets, lanes, and passages," and also to make regulations for the " watering, 
 sweeping, and cleansing of closes, thoroughfares, and areas for the purpose of 
 disinfection and otherwise promoting the health of the inhabitants therein." 
 But all the filth that the citizens chose to accumulate within their grounds 
 continued to be their private property, and as such could be stored up with 
 all its pestilential energy until such times as it was convenient to traffic with 
 farmers for its removal. The Police Act of 1862 vested all such filth and 
 refuse in the Board, which was removed by a contractor till 1868, when 
 the Cleansing Department was organized on its present basis. 
 
 Under the Act of 1 866 the cleaning of private streets and courts, which 
 up till that time was the duty of the proprietors, was transferred to the Police 
 Board, and power was granted to levy a rate of a penny per pound on the rental 
 from the proprietors so relieved of the duty of cleaning. 
 
 The Cleansing Department of Glasgow, as organized in 1868, is under 
 the management of a statutory official, the inspector or superintendent of 
 cleansing. He is responsible for the cleanliness of the streets and courts 
 within the City, for the regular collection, removal and disposal of the City 
 manure, and generally for the complete state of efficiency of the department. 
 He employs a staff of 1089 men, 740 on day and 349 on night duty. 
 
 For the purposes of cleaning, the City is divided into fourteen districts 
 extending over a total area of 11,861 acres. These are supervised by 
 15 district and 30 divisional foremen, 15 of the latter for night and 15 
 for day work. Of carters there are on the night shift 148, and for day
 
 CLEANSING 
 
 167 
 
 service 83 ; there are J J street sweepers employed by night and 195 by 
 day ; close sweepers working through the day number 204, and of wheelers 
 there are 99. At the despatch works there are employed in all 129 men, 
 the men employed at the farms number 52, there are 39 at the St. Rollox 
 workshops, and the office staff numbering i 8, completes the list. The horses 
 owned by the Cleansing Department number 265, and the vehicles, in all 405, 
 comprise 273 refuse carts, 12 soil and fish refuse vans, 6 lorries and spring 
 vans for delivering feeding, tools, etc., 60 watering carts, 33 sweeping 
 machines, and 2 1 carts used at the farms for agricultural purposes. 
 
 In 1868 the only ground owned by the Commissioners for cleansing 
 purposes was at Dalmarnock Road, on which there was a depot for the 
 storage of City manure. Here also stables for the stud of the eastern 
 district were built. The depot has long ago been abolished, but the stables, 
 etc., of the eastern district still occupy the same site. In the same year 
 (1868) the premises at Parliamentary Road, long the principal establishment of 
 the department, were taken over from Mr. Drummond, whose contract for 
 the cartage and disposal of the refuse then terminated. The premises con- 
 sisting of stables, granary, etc., were altered and extended on various occasions 
 to give accommodation for stores and workshops. But to meet the require- 
 ments of a greatly extended City, stables had to be erected in convenient 
 centres of various districts. As the result of these changes the Parliamentary 
 Road premises are now only partially occupied, and the committee con- 
 template the abandonment of that site, and the erection in the centre of 
 the City of stables, etc., for the Central district, where also would be placed 
 the general stores of the department ; the staff and stud required for St. 
 Rollox district would then be removed to the despatch works there, and 
 with these alterations carried into effect, the principal districts would have 
 accommodation for their own staff and stud. 
 
 The workshops of the department at St. Rollox Despatch Works have a 
 railway siding direct into the shops, and all waggons requiring repairs are 
 by arrangement with the different railway companies sent thither. The 
 steam power required in these shops is supplied from the boiler at the 
 adjacent despatch works, which is fired with cinders saved from the City refuse. 
 
 The sweeping of the paved streets of the City is done during the night, 
 chiefly by rotary horse brushes, of which there are thirty-three in use. The 
 men start at 10 p.m., and work as a rule to 9.30 a.m., with one and a half 
 hours off for meals, but at times they cease earlier according to the state 
 of the weather. The sweeping machines are accompanied by sweepers who 
 gather the sweepings into heaps, and they are followed an hour later, at i i 
 p.m., by carts to remove the sweepings. The principal streets are thus 
 swept nightly, second-rate streets every alternate night, and those of less 
 importance at intervals according to their requirements. The principal 
 streets are also " picked " during the day, and the " pickings " deposited in
 
 1 68 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 bins sunk into the pavements in the principal parts of the City and the main 
 arteries of traffic leading to the suburbs. These bins, numbering 1382, are 
 emptied during the night, and their contents removed along with the material 
 which has been swept to the side of the roadway by the machines. The 
 sweepings so collected being chiefly composed of horse droppings are mixed 
 with the contents of ashpits, etc., in the despatch works, and sold as City 
 manure. The macadamized roads are attended to by the day staff — the mud 
 being either deposited in convenient tips or trucked to the country, where 
 it serves to fill up hollow ground. 
 
 Snowfalls tax the resources of the department to the utmost. On such 
 occasions all the available staff is set to work with the object of having the 
 streets cleared as rapidly as possible, everything else that can stand being left 
 over. The Clyde and Kelvin provide easy and convenient tips for clean snow 
 and sometimes receive great quantities. 
 
 Private streets and courts, which prior to 1866 were attended to by the 
 owners, have, since 1868, been swept by the staff of the Cleansing Depart- 
 ment. In this work 204 men and 1 5 overseers are engaged. Every court 
 is swept once, and in many cases twice or thrice daily, as necessity requires. 
 The dirtier courts are regularly hose-washed, for which purpose they are 
 fitted with taps at the expense of the Commissioners. During the summer 
 months these courts and privies are hose-washed daily, and at other 
 seasons weekly or more frequently, according as the ash-pits are emptied. 
 
 The watering of streets and roads is overtaken by means of forty-eight 
 ordinary watering barrels, containing 330 gallons; three iron tanks, two of 
 456 gallons and one of 345 gallons capacity ; and nine Willacy's patent 
 revolving disc watering machines, eight having a capacity of 300 gallons, 
 and one of 375 gallons. The ordinary barrels are used in the busy streets, 
 while the Willacy machines are best suited for the quieter streets and 
 macadamized roads on the outskirts of the City, where they moisten a wide 
 area with great rapidity. Watering is also resorted to during the night for 
 preventing dust rising from the sweeping machines, and when the streets 
 are in such a pasty condition as to render machine sweeping difficult. 
 
 The collection and removal of refuse — an important section of the work 
 — is dealt with in four sections : (i) Domestic or household refuse; (2) refuse 
 from business premises, such as shops, warehouses, and offices ; (3) excremental 
 matter from public works and dwelling-houses ; and (4) stable manure and 
 refuse from abattoirs. 
 
 Domestic refuse is collected in ash-pits situated in the rear of the 
 several buildings. These are, as a rule, emptied weekly, but in the Central 
 district the pits are attended to twice a week. The men who empty the 
 ash-pits are called "wheelers." They begin work at 10 p.m., and are fol- 
 lowed an hour later by the carts. They work, as a rule, in sets of two or 
 three, each set being furnished with a carrying creel and a barrow fitted with
 
 CLEANSING 
 
 169 
 
 india-rubber tyre on wheel and india-rubber shoes on feet. The barrow is of 
 course used for level places, and the creel where the refuse has to be carried up 
 or down stairs. 
 
 Refuse from shops, warehouses, and other business premises in the central 
 portion of the City, and from Hillhead, Garnethill, and dwellings around 
 Kelvingrove Park is removed daily by the morning dust cart service. The 
 refuse collected by this service is taken away in covered carts with crank 
 axles, so as to facilitate the emptying of the specially-manufactured covered 
 buckets into them. They are considerably larger than the ordinary cart, the 
 refuse being comparatively light. This portion of the City refuse is, as a 
 rule, cremated, nothing of manurial value being in it. 
 
 The excrementitious matter which does not find its way into the sewers 
 is collected in galvanized pails of regulation pattern, which are removed and 
 replaced by clean ones as often as necessary. Owing to the extension of the 
 water-closet s)'stem at the instance of the Sanitary Department, pan closets 
 are being gradually abolished. But there are still in connection with 
 dwelling-houses 3041, and with public works 2434 — in all 5475 pails. The 
 vehicles used for the removal of the pails are four-wheeled covered vans. 
 Each van is constructed to contain 30 pails, each of which is covered by a 
 spring cover with a lining of india-rubber tubing. These vans pass along 
 the streets without the slightest effluvium being perceptible. On reaching the 
 despatch station the pails are uncovered one by one, emptied into a tank con- 
 structed specially for the reception of the excreta, and then washed in hot 
 water, disinfected, and replaced in the van, which is also hose-washed and 
 disinfected. 
 
 The removal and disposal of the refuse from the abattoirs of the City, 
 the manure produced at the stables of the department, that from the stables 
 of the Corporation Tramways Department, as well as that from numerous other 
 stables, involves dealing with about 42,000 tons of highly valuable fertilizing 
 material yearly. 
 
 Having at great pains and expense brought together the vast pile of 
 refuse and rubbish which forms the daily accumulation of the department, 
 the next difficulty is now to dispose of it. Formerly it was stored in depots, 
 where there were at times many thousands of tons of refuse, and such moun- 
 tains of dirt not far removed from dwellings were an intolerable nuisance. 
 No dung depots now exist, and the accumulation of each day must each 
 day be disposed of The refuse, moreover, collected daily is lighter and 
 more difficult to turn into a marketable commodity than when it was left 
 to putrefy, and to meet those difficulties, Refuse Despatch Works have been 
 erected at St. Rollox (north-east), Crawford Street (south), and Kelvin- 
 haugh (west). The purpose of these works is to separate the inferior 
 material from that of manurial value, to reduce the bulk bv the cremation 
 of the former, and so to mix the latter as to form a good fertilizer.
 
 I/O MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Carts with refuse from ashpits and bins on arriving at the works are 
 weighed. They then pass on to the tipping floor of iron, where there are 
 shoots to the flats beneath for the different classes of materal. The ashpit 
 refuse finds its way through one of these into a revolving screen which works 
 in a horizontal position. The finer portions of the refuse pass through the 
 screen into a mixing machine, which also receives a regulated quantity of 
 excrementitious matter from a tank conveniently situated, and also a pro- 
 portion of sweepings from paved streets. The whole is thoroughly mixed 
 by means of revolving blades, and falls into railway waggons on the siding 
 underneath. The manure thus produced finds a ready sale among farmers, 
 whilst the rougher portions of the material which cannot pass through the 
 meshes of the screen are carried by the revolving process out of the bell- 
 shaped mouth of the screen on to an endless carrier. When passing along 
 this carrier any articles of value, such as iron, meat tins, etc., are picked off and 
 thrown aside. The remainder, chiefly light, useless material, falls from the 
 carrier on to a range of furnaces on a lower level. In this manner the 
 useless refuse which formerly rendered the City manure next to unsaleable 
 is reduced to clinkers, a material in good demand among builders. 
 
 During wet weather there is naturally an immense quantity of slushy 
 sweepings collected from the paved streets. In order to utilize this material, 
 which is mostly composed of horse droppings, large iron tanks are provided 
 with means for draining off the water. Into these tanks cart loads of slops 
 are thrown, and when full the tanks are allowed to stand for a day or two 
 till sufficiently drained to be mixed with the prepared manure. Stable manure 
 is dropped from the tipping floor direct into the waggons below, as is also 
 mud from macadamized roads and useless rubbish from the quays and 
 wharves. The stable manure is of course sold, but the rubbish and mud 
 is trucked to tips on the farms of the department at FuUwood Moss and 
 Maryburgh on the Caledonian, and Ryding on the North British Railways. 
 
 The process of cremation reduces the quantity of domestic and shop 
 refuse by about 20 per cent., but there still falls to be disposed of by rail 
 160 waggons or 1080 tons per working day. This total includes all the 
 various classes of material dealt with. Of this quantity about 60 per cent, 
 is sold as manure to farmers scattered over fourteen counties of Scotland, 
 and the remaining 40 per cent., being the unsaleable portion, is sent to 
 tips on the farms of the department. For the transit of the City manure and 
 refuse to the country, 890 railway waggons — the property of the Com- 
 missioners — are employed. There is, as a rule, a steady demand for the 
 prepared City manure, unless during seed and harvest time, and at these 
 seasons the surplus manure is sent to the farms of the department. 
 
 The primary object of the Cleansing Department in acquiring farms 
 was to provide an outlet for surplus and unsaleable City refuse. The first 
 venture was made in 1879 by the leasing, on a thirty-one years' improve-
 
 CLEANSING 171 
 
 merit lease, of 98 acres of bog land — Fuhvood Moss, near Houston, on 
 the Caledonian Railway. In 1889 other 25 acres adjoining were added, 
 thus making 123 acres in all. The original portion is held at a nominal 
 rent of is. per acre per annum for twenty years, and 5s. per acre thereafter. 
 The smaller area costs ;^i5 per annum. This ground was a bog, which 
 yielded no return whatever to the proprietor. The first step taken by the 
 Commissioners was to have the land thoroughl)" drained at a cost of ^^3223, 
 and at the same time a railway was run through it which cost ;^I3I5 — in 
 all ;^45 38. This capital outlay is being cleared off in equal annual pay- 
 ments, so that it will be liquidated at the expiry of the lease. For some 
 years potatoes were the principal crop, the varieties grown on the Moss 
 finding a ready sale as seed ; but of recent years the chief products have 
 been hay and oats, all of which are used in the stables of the department 
 in town. The Moss is now a first-class agricultural subject, and has always 
 shown a profit on the cropping account, the average for three years to May, 
 1895, having been £2^"/, while during the same period it provided annually 
 an outlet for 23,000 tons of unsaleable refuse. 
 
 The estate of Ryding, on the North Monkland branch of the North 
 British Railway, about eleven miles from the City, is 565 acres in extent. 
 This property, which comprises five farms, was purchased in 1891 for 
 ;^I2,575, or ^22 5s. 4d. per acre. With the exception of one farm of 
 103 acres, the lease of which has several years to run, all the land is in 
 possession of, and farmed b}', the Commissioners. The soil is, as a rule, 
 poor and clayey, and capable of much improvement. Since the property 
 was purchased the ground has been thoroughly drained, and suitable railway 
 sidings formed. New buildings and offices have been erected at Bracken- 
 hurst, the central farm, and the steadings at the other farms have been 
 repaired and renovated. The cropping account of the estate for three years to 
 May, 1895, showed an average profit of ^^518, and during that period the 
 quantity of refuse deposited exceeded 30,000 tons yearly. 
 
 Maryburgh is a small property of 3 i acres or thereby on the Caledonian 
 Railway between Glenboig and Cumbernauld, purchased in 1895 for ;^iooo. 
 The object of this purchase is to provide an outlet for surplus City refuse 
 loaded on the Caledonian north line. 
 
 There is a marvellous contrast between the cleansing establishment of 
 the close of the nineteenth century and that with which the century began. 
 A fundamental problem in public health, cleanliness, and decency has been 
 resolutely dealt with, and it has been solved in a thorough and masterly 
 manner. If Glasgow cannot claim to be the originator of the modern 
 methods of treating city refuse, it at least deserves the credit of having 
 adopted with ungrudging spirit the most practical and efficient of appliances, 
 and of having equipped the service on an ample and comprehensive basis. 
 All this means large expenditure, and it is not to be wondered at that the
 
 1/2 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 cost of the department has during the century crept up from two or 
 three hundred pounds to a net amount of nearly one hundred thousand. 
 In the year ended 31st May, 1896, the expenditure on general cleansing 
 was ;^98,36i, and on cleaning private courts and streets there was spent 
 ^^Z^})^!) — i'l 3-^1 ^^^111,724. The receipts of the department amounted to 
 ^33,814, so that the total cost of the service was little short of iJ^8o,000. 
 In reduction of this total there was collected from the special assessment at 
 one penny per pound on proprietors for cleansing private streets and courts 
 the sum of ;!^i 2,493, which leaves a little less than ;^67, 500 to be met out of 
 the general police assessment of the City. In the balance sheet the value of 
 the heritable property held by the department is entered at ;^i 63,804, and 
 the movable property, horses, carts, railway waggons, railways, implements 
 furniture, etc., is valued at ^71,627.
 
 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 
 water : Bath clubs : Establishment of municipal baths and wash-houses : First begin- 
 nings: 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. 
 
 The foundation of the sanitary system of Glasgow was laid in 1800, when 
 the duty of cleaning the streets was assumed by the Police Commissioners. 
 Since that time the duties of the Town Council and Police Commission 
 in relation to public health and sanitation have multiplied amazingly, and 
 their activities have branched out in many directions. The cleaning of the 
 City itself was not, indeed, at first undertaken in the spirit of sanitary 
 amelioration, and it is only in our own later days that its fundamental import- 
 ance as a factor in public health has been recognized and acted on. But from 
 the small beginnings of street sweeping how vast a structure has been raised, 
 and in a sense how systematically and logically has the work been developed ! 
 The advance of the sanitary army has been planned with obvious care, one 
 after another the citadels of dirt and disease have been assailed, and still 
 with unswerving courage and hope the war is carried into the dismal regions, 
 whence issue pain, disease, and death to the poor, the ignorant, the helpless. 
 
 We clean the streets, and within the municipal bounds every space 
 open to the free air of heaven. We compel householders also to clean the 
 common stairs of tenements, which may be regarded as an extension of 
 the street to each separate house door. But further, in ordinary circumstances, 
 we may not go. The Englishman's house is his castle, and so is the Scots- 
 man's. But much more we can do to promote the personal cleanliness, 
 comfort, and health of the poorer citizens. The luxury of a bath is not 
 to be thought of in connection with houses of one or two apartments, and
 
 174 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 in such the washing- of clothes can only be done at the cost of much domestic 
 discomfort. Man, we fear, is naturally a dirty animal, and so is woman, 
 and the almost godly virtue of cleanliness requires to be encouraged and 
 oft inculcated. For this cause, and as a part of their great sanitary scheme, 
 the Police Department have erected and equipped in various districts of the 
 City the Corporation Baths and Wash-houses, specially for the benefit of 
 the poorer classes. They are valuable institutions which deserve to be 
 better known and more fully appreciated by the class in whose interest 
 they are maintained. 
 
 There are few towns in the kingdom which will compare with Glasgow 
 in respect of dirt for its abundance, and its finely adhesive qualities. Both 
 atmosphere and streets, it is true, are frequently washed by copious rains ; 
 but that, notwithstanding, the air is perpetually laden with smoke, which 
 forms a dense cloud for many miles away in the track of the prevailing wind. 
 And the atmosphere is so permeated with moisture that the smoke particles 
 not only acquire adhesive properties, but the surfaces with which they come 
 in contact are prepared to receive, retain, and absorb all manner of dirt 
 from the air. Personal ablution, frequent and thorough, is on that account 
 a necessity, and the amount of clothes'-washing which the conditions demand 
 raises the humble industry of the washerwoman to a foremost rank among 
 employments and occupations. 
 
 In the circumstances it is fortunate that the water supply of Glasgow is 
 ample for every citizen, even were all to become scrupulous as to purity of 
 person and linen, which at present is not the case. And it is of a quality 
 for cleansing purposes and for baths which cannot be excelled ; it has saved 
 the thrifty housewife an incalculable weight of soap, and the luxury of a 
 bath in Glasgow is such as will repay the cost of a long journey. The 
 abundance and excellence of the water supply led to the formation of bath 
 clubs in the City, a species of institution in which Glasgow is the pioneer, 
 and in which indeed it has yet few followers. The essential features of 
 these clubs, which are managed on the principal of ordinary social clubs, 
 consist in the swimming pond and the Turkish bathrooms, with all the 
 necessary apartments and appliances connected with Russian and Turkish 
 baths. Over the swimming ponds there are diving boards, trapeze bars, 
 and other arrangements for physical exercise, and generally reading rooms 
 and recreation rooms are attached to the establishments. Such bath clubs 
 are, however, for the well-to-do, who have in their own homes all the bath 
 appliances required for personal well-being. The baths we have to do with 
 here are the equivalent provided by public authority, and so far supported 
 by the rates, for the benefit of such as desire to wash and be clean, and 
 yet have not in their own homes proper conveniences for effecting such 
 self-respecting purposes. 
 
 Power to erect, equip, and maintain public baths and wash-houses as
 
 BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES 
 
 175 
 
 part of the municipal economy was obtained under the Police Act of 1866. 
 No step towards exercising that power, however, was taken till May, 1869, 
 when the Police Board resolved : " That it be an instruction from this Board 
 to the Sanitary Committee that they shall forthwith provide, at four of the 
 most suitable points of the City, public baths and wash-houses for the 
 accommodation of the inhabitants." Again the matter was allowed to lie 
 dormant till in February, 1875, the Police Board appointed a special com- 
 mittee on baths and wash-houses. Soon thereafter the Baths Committee 
 met for the first time, and in about eleven months afterwards the Police 
 Board — January, 1876 — accepted an offer of the Town Council to lease to 
 them the site of the old washing-house on the Green for the erection 
 thereon of Public Baths and Wash-houses. Thereupon an application for 
 water was addressed to the Water Commissioners, who agreed to supply the 
 Board of Police with all the water required for the Baths and Wash-houses 
 free of charge. Both bodies, be it observed, were the same persons acting 
 in different capacities, but that might not prevent the Chairman of the 
 Baths Committee voting against his own application when sitting as a Water 
 Commissioner. 
 
 In the meantime while the first permanent baths and wash-houses estab- 
 lishment at Greenhead was in course of erection, the Baths Committee 
 acquired the London Road Swimming Bath, and opened it on ist July, 
 1876, which thus was the first bath under direct police management in 
 the City. Hot and cold baths were added to the establishment in autumn 
 of the same year, and the whole cost to the Police Board was about ^^2250. 
 In the spring of the following year the Kennedy Street Baths building, in 
 the north-east district of the City, was offered to the Committee under the 
 conditions of payment of £6^0 to debenture holders, and of assuring the 
 payment of a feu dut}- of ^^30 yearly. These two establishments continued 
 to be managed by the Baths Committee till in May, 1880, the Kennedy 
 Street institution was leased to a tenant, who soon thereafter also obtained 
 a lease of the London Road Baths. The tenant found his holding un- 
 profitable, but he struggled on till September, 1883, when both places 
 were abandoned as baths. The fact that new bathing establishments had 
 by this time been provided by the Police Board in the east at Greenhead, 
 in the north-west at Woodside, and in the west at Cranstonhill, serves to 
 account for the want of success of the unfortunate speculator. 
 
 The Greenhead Baths and Wash-houses were opened in August, 1878, 
 and in the meantime the Baths Committee had been casting about for suitable 
 sites for the erection of establishments in other districts, to which the)- were 
 committed by resolution of the Police Board. A site on the North Woodside 
 Road, the property of the Improvement Trustees, had been agreed on, but 
 all action in connection with building operations was deferred till 1880. 
 Then the question was revived by a memorial from the ratcpaj-ers in the
 
 176 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 north quarter of the City craving the erection of baths and wash-houses in 
 the district, and the Magistrates and Council — Police — agreed in July, 1880, 
 " That the erection of baths and wash-houses be proceeded with in the 
 first place on the ground allocated at North Woodside, as decided by the 
 Board of Police, and that the Baths Committee be instructed to look out 
 for suitable ground in the northern, western, and southern districts, to admit 
 of the erection of baths and wash-houses in these districts, and to report." 
 The Woodside Baths, etc., were finished and opened to the public in 
 September, 1882. 
 
 While the Woodside building was in progress, ground had been purchased 
 at Cranstonhill, Townhead, and Gorbals for the erection of like institutions 
 in these several districts. The Cranstonhill establishment, the first of them 
 to be dealt with, was begun in 1881, and in May, 1883, it was ready and 
 opened for public use. Thereafter the Townhead Baths opened doors for 
 the bath side only in June, and for the wash-houses in October, 1884, and 
 last of all the Gorbals Baths were opened in April, 1885. The site selected 
 for the Gorbals establishment facing Main Street was sufficient to permit 
 the Police Board to erect on the street line a tenement having on the ground 
 floor a range of shops, and the two flats above were finished as halls. In 
 these, on several occasions, exhibitions of art and industry were held under 
 the control of the Museums and Galleries Committee; but as such occupation 
 was intermittent and to the Police Board unproductive, the halls have now 
 been let for manufacturing purposes. 
 
 The original injunction to the Baths Committee to provide baths and 
 wash-houses in the several districts were thus carried out. Four establish- 
 ments were planted on the north side of the river in the midst of a working- 
 class population — Greenhead serving the eastern district, Townhead being 
 in the north-east, the Woodside Baths are planted in the north, and Cranston- 
 hill in the west end. For the south side Gorbals Baths alone do service, 
 but it is surrounded by the bulk of the humbler tenements on that side of 
 the river, and not unduly remote from any of the industrial population of 
 South Glasgow. The extension of the City boundaries in 1891, bringing 
 in large industrial populations in Springburn district in the far north-east 
 and in Maryhill on the north-west, has given these districts a claim to the 
 advantages of baths and wash-houses. The erection of an establishment in 
 Springburn, estimated to cost i!^ 13,680, has been sanctioned by the Police 
 Department, and means for meeting the demands of the inhabitants of Mary- 
 hill are now being devised. 
 
 The capital expenditure on these establishments at May, i 896, amounted 
 to ^119,100, the account for Greenhead standing at £\6,i20\ North 
 Woodside, .^17,350; Cranstonhill, ^23,360; Townhead, ^26,100; and 
 Gorbals, £^2,640 ; but from the shops and halls built in connection with 
 the latter, included in this capital sum, a rent of ;!^320 yearly is obtained.
 
 BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES 1 77 
 
 In each establishment there are two swimming ponds, one of large capacity 
 for males and a smaller for females. These are kept throughout the year 
 at a comfortable temperature, but in the winter they are practically without 
 customers, and attendance at all times fluctuates so steadily with temperature 
 that the statistics of the swimming ponds are as good as a thermometer 
 record. The capacity of the large pond ranges from 73,600 gallons in the 
 case of Greenhead to 104,000 gallons in Cranstonhill, and the depth of 
 water varies from six feet to se\-en feet at the deep ends, and is between 
 three and four feet at the shallow ends of the ponds. The small or ladies' 
 ponds hold from 20,900 gallons — Greenhead — to 38,500 gallons in the 
 Cranstonhill Baths. Ranged around each pond there are dressing-boxes for 
 the bathers, who are of course supplied with towels in the establishment. 
 Of private hot baths there are first and second classes for males, a separate 
 suite for females, and in the Gorbals, where Jews do principally congregate, 
 there is a Kosher bath set apart for that class of the community. 
 
 Greenhead has thirty-two hot baths ; Woodside, thirty-four ; Cranstonhill, 
 forty-one ; Townhead, thirty-three ; and Gorbals, thirty-three. The proportion 
 of first and second class male and of female varies according to the conditions 
 and the demands of the localities. For the swimming pond the charge is 
 twopence, but boys and girls under thirteen are admitted for a penny each, 
 and cards admitting twelve times can be obtained for females at eighteenpence 
 and for boys and girls at ninepence. Special arrangements are also made for 
 admitting schools, classes, and associations of young persons at reduced rates. 
 For the hot bath the charge to males is, first class, sixpence ; and second class, 
 fourpence; and for females, threepence. A reduction of 25 per cent, is made 
 on these rates if tickets in parcels of twelve are purchased at one time. In 
 connection with the various swimming ponds, numerous swimming clubs have 
 been organized throughout the City, and by means of competitions and aquatic 
 displays these bodies do much to encourage healthful and cleanly habits in 
 young persons. Members of such clubs are not only entitled to obtain tickets 
 at reduced rates — thirteen for the price of twelve — but for one night weekly, 
 between nine and ten, clubs get the exclusive use of the pond for their own 
 members on payment of 6s. 8d., which admits forty members, with an additional 
 charge of one penny for each visitor over that number. For women's clubs 
 the charge is 4s. for twenty-four members, and one penny for each visitor 
 additional. 
 
 In the wash-house departments from forty-four to seventy-eight washers 
 can be accommodated at the same time. Each washer is provided with a stall, 
 an ample supply of both hot and cold water, and a wringing apparatus. There 
 are also available in each house four centrifugal hydro-extractors, four drying 
 stoves (three only in Greenhead), six washing machines (eight in Cranstonhill), 
 three wooden boilers, and a mangle. Excepting the Woodside establishment, 
 there is a laundry attached to each wash-house, in which dressing and ironing 
 
 M
 
 1 78 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 of linen are done. For the use of all these washing conveniences a charge of 
 twopence per hour is made. Till recently the Baths Committee had on their 
 lists a staff of washerwomen at each establishment paid weekly wages, who 
 did washings in accordance with a fixed tariff For dressing and starching 
 particularly the services of these women were largely taken advantage of, but 
 as their employment clashed with workshop legislation now come into force, 
 these washers have been dismissed. 
 
 The baths and wash-houses can hardly be said to have been hitherto 
 appreciated quite so well as they deserve. In a City so wide as Glasgow it is 
 difficult to advertise the existence and advantages of such institutions to 
 working people especially, and it is also difficult to change the habits of certain 
 classes. Persons living in the immediate neighbourhood of the wash-houses, 
 it is found, use them freely, and just in proportion to the distance of the 
 dwellings is the decrease of users. It has been found by investigation in the 
 Gorbals district that of the women using the wash-house more than one-half 
 lived within a quarter of a mile of it, and only one-fifteenth part of them came 
 from a distance greater than half a mile. There may be several reasons for 
 this. The place and its advantages are well known to those who live in its 
 immediate neighbourhood, the nearer to their dwellings the greater are its 
 advantages, and women do not care to carry baskets and bundles of clothes, 
 dirty or clean, a great distance through the streets of the City. From inquiries 
 made it has been concluded that most of the women customers of the wash- 
 houses do their washings about once every week, and occupy their stalls on an 
 average not more than two hours at a time. By dividing the annual number 
 of washings by fifty-two therefore, the minimum number of female customers 
 of the wash-houses will be arrived at. Dealing with the baths in the same way 
 it has been concluded that the hot-bath customers take their wash with fair 
 regularity once every two weeks, and the visitors to the swimming ponds, in 
 a more lively way, turn up every four days. As the visitors to the swimming 
 ponds are about three times more numerous than those who use the private 
 baths, it may be assumed that the number of individual customers for the two 
 departments are about the same. 
 
 In the light of these ratios it will be seen that the proportion of the 
 inhabitants who use either baths or wash-houses, though satisfactorily 
 increasing, is still small. It was not till the year ended May, 1886, that 
 there was a full year's experience of the working of the whole five establish- 
 ments. In that year there were 386,570 bathers, 76,718 washings were 
 done, and the total receipts amounted to £67 g2, against an expenditure 
 of ^10,479. Five years later — the year ended May, 1891 — the bathers 
 numbered 453,718, the number of washings was 155,221. The receipts were 
 £giio, against an expenditure of £ii,gg2. And again, after a further 
 interval of four years, we find in 1895 the bathers have risen to 527,313, the 
 washings done 197,035 ; the receipts were ;^ 10,2 2 8, and the expenditure
 
 BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES lyg 
 
 ;^l 2,294. From the figures here given we may conchide that in 1886 the 
 number of individual bathers did not probably exceed 15,000, and that not 
 more than 1200 different women made use of the wash-houses. For the year 
 1895 these figures have increased, so that the number of bathers may now be 
 assumed to exceed 20,000, and that the households represented in the washings 
 number nearly 4000. 
 
 It must be confessed that washing and cleaning are not popular 
 operations with a large mass of the poorer among the industrial population, 
 and, were inquiries to be made, it would probably be found that many of 
 those who use the Corporation Baths and Wash-houses do not strictly speaking 
 belong to the industrial classes. The masses must be educated to a healthy 
 dislike of dirt, and the pupils must be caught young. 
 
 Throughout its whole career the Gorbals Bath has been used by the 
 children attending the Hutcheson Schools on the south side, but these 
 children are, for the most part, drawn from comfortable middle-class homes. 
 To encourage habits of personal cleanliness in the rising generation, the Town 
 Council repeatedly offered to the School Board the use of the swimming 
 baths for children attending public schools at certain hours weekly free of 
 charge. Since March, 1893, this offer has been taken advantage of, and 
 intimated in the various schools, and in the month of June, i 896, the attend- 
 ance of school children on free clays reached 1359 visits. Gentle compul- 
 sion continues to be necessary to induce the children of a humble grade to 
 enter the swimming ponds ; but compulsion, not always gentle, is needed to 
 make them attend school and learn their lessons, and the lesson of cleanliness 
 in clothes, person, language, and behaviour is not the least important in the 
 training of the young.
 
 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. 
 
 The Sanitary Department is one of the most recent organizations of the City 
 of Glasgow, the sanitary work of the Council is coeval with its existence 
 as a ruling and administrating body. In a true sense every action and en- 
 actment which tended in any way to the betterment of the place and the 
 people were sanitary undertakings. That the undertakings of the public authori- 
 ties were not always wise, that their tendency was not invariably for good, 
 and that from well-meant efforts subtle and unexpected evil frequently arose, 
 all go without saying, but we must judge of the times by the standard of the 
 knowledge and experience that were available for them. The complex tissue 
 of sanitary necessities has, in great measure, arisen in our days, and the know- 
 ledge and organization necessary to deal with all their phases do not precede 
 but lumber up in the rear of the conditions. In the middle of the eighteenth 
 century the air of Glasgow was, to a certainty, very pure, the water of its 
 streams was limpid, and its wells were probably uncontaminated ; its soil 
 was sweet and wholesome, and it had no sewers, no drains, and consequently 
 none of the " sanitary conveniences " which are the constant pride, care, and 
 vexation of the modern sanitarian. Yet the City had then and at all periods 
 its sanitary difficulties, which were dealt with according to the light of the 
 times. The frequent reference to lepers in the ancient records of the City 
 shows that Glasgow was in common with all other European communities 
 afflicted with the most loathsome and invincible of all mediaeval diseases. The
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. I. HISTORY l8i 
 
 lepers, in accordance with the Levitical law, " dwelt without the camp," and 
 when the bridge of Glasgow was erected about 1350 St. Ninian's Hospital for 
 leper outcasts was established amid the green fields on the south bank of the 
 Clyde. How the magistrates also sought to defend the City against the pest 
 or plague we have already seen. When in 1647-48 that terrible epidemic 
 held the town with unwonted violence, or as the magistrates expressed it, " as 
 the pleasour of God in ane more bote maner than lies beine scene and knowne 
 heirtofor," the stricken people were lodged in sheds on the town's muir, visitors 
 were appointed to bring in thrice weekly lists of the living and the dead, such 
 medical aid as could be procured was enlisted, the City was isolated from other 
 communities, and having done these things the magistrates awaited the time it 
 would " please God to remove the heavy hand of the pestilence." In connec- 
 tion with these insanitary conditions and epidemic outbreaks of mediaeval times 
 there were, be it noted, applications of the same preventive and remedial 
 agencies which are employed at the present day. There was isolation in its 
 grimmest and most relentless form for the lepers ; for dealing with the visita- 
 tion of the plague the City itself was first isolated, then the individual dwellings 
 affected were cut off from the outer world, and in the end the cases, all officially 
 notified, were taken away to a hospital building — the sheds on the town 
 common — and there treated or left to run their course subject to the vis 
 niedicatrix naturae. 
 
 As leprosy waned the plague grew in force, and in the early part of the 
 seventeenth century it was the terror and menace of Europe. But the plague 
 also had its day, and with its decline small-pox in the eighteenth century 
 took the position of the scourge of humanity, and when, early in the nineteenth 
 century, control was established over small-pox, the European wars left us 
 a fatal legacy in the form of typhus fever. In all these afflictions Glasgow 
 has had her full share, but what may have been the mortality from them we 
 have now no means of ascertaining. Except where visitations were so hot 
 as to arouse public terror and dismay, the poor were left to die, little 
 heeded or helped. Glasgow experienced its first great epidemic of typhus 
 in 181 8. Thenceforward it smouldered on, periodically bursting into 
 epidemic fits of peculiar violence and fatality, till, in the fourth quarter of the 
 century, it appears to have nearly died out. Concurrently with the typhus 
 epidemics, or following immediately in their tracks, came the three great 
 epidemics of Asiatic cholera, which ravaged the City, Cholera first declared 
 itself in Glasgow in 1832, when it carried off 2842 persons — 14 out of every 
 thousand of the population, and at the same time a severe epidemic of typhus 
 was raging. Next, in 1 848-49, the second cholera epidemic, following on a 
 frightful outbreak of typhus, caused the death of 3772 individuals, or 11 in 
 every thou.sand living. Similarly, in 1853-54, a cholera epidemic, following 
 on another outburst of typhus, resulted in 3885 deaths, or 12 per thousand 
 of the population. Cholera again visited Glasgow in 1866, but then so little
 
 1 82 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 favourable to its propagation were the conditions that only 66 deaths were due 
 to its outbreak. 
 
 In the experience of epidemics, great and small, and in chronic prevalence 
 of fevers kept in vigorous activity by dirt, overcrowding, and want, Glasgow in 
 no way differed from other large British centres of population. Our sins 
 were greater, it may be, and in proportion was our punishment. Nor was 
 the municipality in any way exceptional in the spirit in which it viewed the 
 situation and the prolonged inaction in face of conditions so grave and 
 alarming. A great and strikingly widespread and fatal epidemic, such as the 
 first visitation of cholera, stirred the whole people to a condition of panic and 
 dismay. To cope with the cholera emergency measures were passed, local 
 authorities were empowered to provide temporary hospitals and medical 
 attendance, to clean and disinfect, to remove nuisances, and generally to under- 
 take whatever " may appear necessary or expedient for the prevention of the 
 said disease," and for carrying out their purposes magistrates were authorized 
 to levy a special assessment. 
 
 But, while spasmodic action was thus inculcated under the influence of 
 panic and in the heat of the epidemic attack, there was no thought, either 
 imperial or local, of dealing with the other significant enemies, which day 
 by day sapped the life-blood of the community, and with their persistent 
 uniformity claimed as many victims as the more striking outbursts. Some- 
 thing, it was conceived, could be done to mitigate, control, and end the 
 eruptive violence of an epidemic. It was, however, believed to be the ordinary 
 disposition of Providence that sent the steady and ceaseless activity of fever 
 and other infectious ills. It was among the poor and the wretched they had 
 their fixed spheres of activity, and it was only when they flared up with 
 devastating energy that they became matters of great public concern and 
 fit objects of municipal attention. For this the municipality was in no degree 
 to blame, for they merely acted on the convictions and according to the light 
 of the times. It would be as reasonable to blame the Town Council for not 
 having the streets electrically lighted in 1850 as to place to their discredit the 
 fact that they organized no permanent sanitary staff in the early part of the 
 century. 
 
 It was only by slow degrees that public sentiment awakened to the import- 
 ant truth that plagues and epidemics are not to be stayed by panic-stricken 
 spasmodic action during their prevalence. When the nature of epidemics 
 came to be understood, and the true significance of the fevers which never 
 left our borders was appreciated, then the times were ripe for legislation and 
 action. It may be said that the clear and full belief in the controllability of 
 all infectious disease is a conception of our own day ; and, while the 
 bacteriologists and pathological investigators are doing a great work in tracing 
 the nature, causes, and treatment of the ailments, the health officers have 
 done even greater service in showing how they can be prevented from acquiring 
 
 \ 
 
 \
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. L HISTORY 
 
 183 
 
 a settlement, and curbed and controlled in their early stages. It was only 
 when this conception became a rooted conviction of intelligent men that it 
 became possible to have a sanitary department as a permanent and distinct 
 municipal organization. 
 
 It was in 1857 that the Police Commissioners of Glasgow first recog- 
 nized their abiding duty in relation to public health by appointing a 
 committee on nuisances, out of which at a later period the Sanitary 
 Committee was evolved. Throughout all the past years of the century 
 sanitary conditions had been steadily deteriorating, private charity and indi- 
 vidual effort had done something to alleviate suffering and to stay the 
 hastening ills, and the activity of the municipality in many directions reacted 
 beneficially on the health of the City. The Royal Infirmary opened its 
 doors at the end of 1794, and for about seventy years the directors of 
 that noble institution struggled valiantly to accomplish the task, which is 
 now recognized as a fundamental duty of the municipality. From the 
 beginning it appears that as many as 14 per cent, of the cases treated were 
 "fever." In 181 8, when the first great typhus epidemic raged, the pro- 
 portion of fever cases exceeded 60 per cent., and to meet the strain on the 
 accommodation a temporary hospital with 200 beds was erected by public 
 subscription, and opened in March, 18 18. In a period of about sixteen 
 months almost 2000 persons were treated in that structure, which was again 
 brought into use in 1827. The directors at that stage resolved to have 
 erected a permanent special fever-house, because they state " in this large 
 city typhus fever must be at all times liable to occur, and in the narrow 
 and crowded vennels and w}'nds it must be frequently apt to break out 
 with virulence so as to endanger the whole town." So the fever-house was 
 proceeded with, and in 1832 it was opened with an accommodation of 
 200 beds. But in the meantime the gathering wave of typhus epidemic 
 had impelled the magistrates to nominate in 1831 a Board of Health, by 
 whom a disused cotton mill was secured and fitted up with 1 3 5 beds for 
 fever, and the infirmary directors had erected a shed in their grounds 
 giving 60 beds more. And in 1832 all such accommodation was strained to 
 the utmost, for not only was typhus raging, but the first great cholera epidemic 
 swept over the community. In 1837 the City was again overtaken by an 
 epidemic of typhus, and it educed the same sequence of action. The fever 
 hospital overflowed, a Board of Health was constituted, and a temporary overflow 
 hospital was erected. Ten years later, 1847, a typhus epidemic had again 
 to be encountered, this time more prolonged, widespread, and fatal than 
 any recorded, and all the accommodation, permanent and temporary, which 
 the infirmary managers were able to provide, proved quite inadequate for 
 the necessities of the outbreak. The Parochial Boards of both the City 
 and the Barony Parishes opened temporary hospitals — one secured the old 
 Tron Hospital and the other erected sheds. Between them nearly 900
 
 1 84 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 beds were provided, and yet the army of stricken citizens overflowed the 
 whole. In 1847 alone, 1254 beds were provided for fever cases, and 11,425 
 cases received public treatment. In that epidemic there could not be fewer 
 than 43,000 persons seized, almost one in every eight of the population, 
 and the deaths from typhus alone were not less than one in every seventy- 
 five persons living. To add to the calamity, the following year, 1848, 
 saw the second visit of Asiatic cholera, which alone carried off 3772, or 
 eleven in every thousand of the population. Once more, in 185 1, the 
 fever sheds of the infirmary had to be re-opened, and the parishes were 
 compelled to resume their hospital treatment, and, with the cholera epidemic 
 of 1853-54, which claimed in 1854 alone an aggregate of 3882 victims — 
 twelve per thousand — the epidemic record is exhausted till 1862. In that year 
 the Sanitary Department was organized, and a medical officer and an inspector 
 of nuisances were appointed by the Police Commissioners. 
 
 Throughout the long period from 1800 till 1862 the direct ameliorative 
 measures furthered by the Town Council were few. A general system of 
 sewers and drains had been provided, and the condition of the streets in 
 respect of paving was greatly improved. Gravitation water, as we shall 
 see by the chapters dealing with that subject, was introduced by three 
 companies as commercial undertakings ; but the water purveyed by the two 
 amalgamated companies, drawn from the Clyde, had become of more than 
 doubtful quality. The greatest and most beneficent sanitary undertaking 
 ever carried out in Glasgow was, without doubt, the introduction of the 
 magnificent water supply from Loch Katrine, for which the Corporation, after 
 a severe struggle, obtained parliamentary sanction in 1855. That water was 
 turned on in March, i860, and immediately thereafter the Clyde water ♦ 
 as a source of domestic supply was abandoned. In other and more imme- 
 diate sanitary work little was effected. Indeed, to quote Dr. J. B. Russell, 
 the medical officer of health — Evolution of the Function of Public Health 
 Administration, Glasgow, 1895 — from which luminous precis most of these 
 facts are abstracted : " of sanitation in the modern sense there was none." 
 In the Police Acts, passed in 1800, 1807, 1821, 1830, and 1837, there are 
 clauses as to scavenging streets and public places by the authorities, and 
 private closes, etc., by the proprietors; but it was not until 1843 that an 
 inspector of cleaning was introduced, and powers taken " to make regulations 
 for watering, sweeping, and cleansing closes, thoroughfares, and areas, for the 
 purpose of disinfection and otherwise promoting the health of the inhabitants 
 therein," for the cleansing of common stairs by tenants, for regulating the 
 emptying of middens and privies, " according to their dimensions and the 
 local circumstances as regards the health and comfort of the persons in the 
 neighbourhood," to license common lodging-houses, prevent overcrowding, 
 and secure the reporting of fever by the keepers, for carrying out disinfection 
 by the magistrates through the police. Altogether this Act marked a
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. 1. HISTORY 185 
 
 considerable advance, but it was chiefly on paper. It provided no special 
 executive machinery ; functions were so far defined, but, except as regards 
 cleansing-, were left as a sort of by-play to officials appointed primarily for 
 police purposes. Dr. Scott Orr tells us that the great epidemic of 1 847 
 was in full swing before any attempt was made to disinfect either houses 
 or clothing, and Dr. Sutherland testifies to the shameful inefficiency of the 
 general sanitary service in i 849. The filth was a perquisite of the householders, 
 and was removed at the convenience of farmers, a system which now exists 
 only in the smallest villages. 
 
 Obviously a tremendous task lay before the municipality when, in 1857, 
 the first beginnings of a sanitary department were laid in the formation of 
 a committee on nuisances, under the chairmanship of Mr. John Ure, subse- 
 quently Lord Provost of the City. That committee made an elaborate 
 investigation into the sanitary condition of the principal large towns in the 
 kingdom, the powers with which the local authorities were invested, and the 
 provisions they deemed essential to meet the requirements of the City of 
 Glasgow. From the recommendations of that report, the sanitary clauses of 
 the Police Bill of 1862 were formulated and passed through Parliament. 
 Judged by present-day standards the powers sought under that enactment 
 were modest and meagre. These embraced the obligatory appointment of 
 a medical officer or officers, and permission to appoint one or more inspectors 
 of nuisances, and one or more inspectors of common lodging-houses. The 
 specified duties of the medical officer embraced the reporting on districts, 
 streets, or courts in which it appeared to him advisable to adopt special 
 sanitary measures, with the view of preventing the occurrence of epidemics 
 and contagious disease. He was also called on to report the prevalence 
 or threatened prevalence of such disease in any district, and the existence 
 of any nuisance which tended to cause or to aggravate disease, or otherwise was 
 hurtful to the health of the community, and he had to specify the measures he 
 would recommend for the prevention or abatement of any outbreaks. To 
 the magistrates committee was given the power to proclaim, after due public 
 notice, any district reported on by the medical officer; proprietors or occupiers 
 were to be called on to cleanse, whitewash, ventilate, and disinfect according to 
 the instructions of the inspector of nuisances, and such then exceptional powers 
 were to continue for a period fixed and specified in the magisterial edict. 
 Further, during that period, but with the concurrence of the Privy Council 
 only, the magistrates were entitled within the proclaimed district to institute 
 house-to-house visitation, for preventing overcrowding, for prevention and 
 removal of nuisances, for preventing the spread of disease, and for giving 
 medical treatment, and, when needed, accommodation to the sufferers from 
 infectious disease. Regulations were also enacted for lodging-houses, under 
 which their keepers became bound to report every case of fever or serious 
 disease among the inmates of their houses, they were obliged to deliver daily
 
 1 86 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 a list of the names and addresses of the lodgers of the previous night, and 
 they were at all times bound to receive the visits of medical officer or inspector 
 of lodging-houses. 
 
 Under the provisions of the 1862 Police Act a sanitary committee of the 
 police was formed under the chairmanship of Mr. Ure, a medical officer of 
 health, Dr. W. T. Gairdner, now Professor of Medicine in Glasgow University, 
 and an inspector of nuisances were appointed. The latter combined in his 
 own person all the inspectorial functions now distributed over a large 
 staff. " The medical officer and his pigmy staff," says Dr. Russell, " found 
 themselves in a rapidly rising flood of typhus. Since 1843 there had 
 been no epidemic which, judged by the standard of those days, would 
 be designated ' great ' ; yet the disease was never for a day idle. In 
 1859 it touched the lowest point of prevalence — it carried off only 381 
 people. But its tribute was advancing steadily year by year, until in 1864 
 it rose to 11 38, and in 1865 to 11 77. As usual nothing had been done 
 to prepare for the evil day, still less to avert it. The fever-flood ebbed and 
 flowed, its movements registered by the capacity of the infirmary fever-house, 
 and remarked upon with gratification when the permanent wards were 
 sufficient ; with anxiety when they were full. Dr. Gairdner was in the position 
 of a commander-in-chief newly appointed ; an active enemy swarming over 
 the land, holding every strategical point, well-found and well-equipped, while 
 he possessed nothing but his commission. He had to recruit and drill and 
 equip his army, to subsidize mercenaries, to bear a brave front, and make the 
 most of his meagre resources. In January, 1864, three ' non-medical officers, 
 selected from the police force for special sanitary duty,' were added to the 
 staff, and shortly after two shops were fitted up as a ' sanitary office ' at a 
 rent of ;^2 5. In September the first municipal disinfecting and washing-house 
 was established at 66 High Street. The ground rent was £^, and the cost of 
 erection and fittings ^244 ! A staff for fumigating and lime-washing infected 
 houses was organized, and placed with the washing-house, under the Inspector 
 of Cleansing. As the year advanced into winter the usual difficulty of hospital 
 accommodation arose. Conferences were held between the managers of the 
 Royal Infirmary, the Parochial Boards, and the Police Board with their medical 
 officer. The Board resolved to provide temporary accommodation under the 
 1862 Act. Many offers were made for adaptable existing buildings, and 
 at last a willing proprietor of a disused mill in Anderston was discovered. 
 But the moment the proposal became public it excited the neighbourhood 
 into an opposition which was frantic in its threats and impossible to withstand. 
 There was nothing for it but to build, and a site was purchased in the neigh- 
 bourhood of St. Rollox where, amid deep snow, a beginning was made, and a 
 pavilion hospital of wood on brick foundations was erected, furnished, and 
 opened with 136 beds on 25th April, 1865, tJie first Municipal Fever 
 Hospital"
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. I. HISTORY 
 
 187 
 
 The Police Act of 1866 which, with numerous subsequent amendments 
 and additions, is still the measure under which the police of Glasgow is 
 regulated, gave greatly increased and permanent place and authority to the 
 Sanitary department. Under it the authorities became bound " to erect and 
 maintain hospitals and washing-houses, and to appoint a chief sanitary in- 
 spector and subordinate sanitary staff. For the power to compel inspectors 
 of poor to remove fever cases from common lodging-houses, they substituted 
 compulsor)- removal to their own hospital. Between the local Act and the 
 general Public Health (Scotland) Act, passed next year, Glasgow found itself 
 in a position to develop a permanent sanitary department and commence the 
 daily routine of sanitary function, undisturbed by a perpetually impending 
 dissolution. The most difficult task of the new department was the recovery 
 of its work from the police, the Master of Works, and the Inspector of 
 Cleansing." 
 
 Acting under the powers of the 1866 Act the first statutory Sanitary 
 Inspector was in 1870 appointed, the executive staff was re-organized and 
 established on an adequate scale, and new premises were rented at i 
 Montrose Street, where the central offices still (1896) remain, though a new 
 building in the same street, erected at a cost of nearly ^20,000, is almost 
 ready for occupation. Later the cleansing and the health interests of the 
 City were united under one Police Committee — the Committee on Health 
 with Sub-Committees for Hospitals and Cleansing. Towards the close of 
 1870 the estate of Belvidere was acquired as a site for a hospital. In the 
 same year the accommodation in the temporary fever hospital in Parliamentary 
 Road was increased from 136 to 250 beds, and the same number were 
 provided in a hastily-erected building at Belvidere. A new washing and 
 disinfecting house was opened at Belvidere in 1871. In 1878 a permanent 
 small-pox hospital was opened at Belvidere and the portion of the Parlia- 
 mentary Road building which had been reserved for that disease was for 
 the time closed. In 1887 the permanent fever erections which had been in 
 course of building over the previous seventeen years was completed, giving 
 390 beds for patients, and in 1892 the great fever hospital now being 
 erected at Ruchill Park in the north-west of the City, destined to provide 
 440 beds, was begun. When complete the permanent hospital structures 
 under charge of the Health Committee, exclusive of the Parliamentary Road 
 institution which is merely temporary, will provide for the simultaneous 
 treatment of 980 cases of zymotic disease on the scale of 2000 cubic 
 feet per bed. 
 
 In I 88 I the Health Committee came to the important resolution to treat 
 all cases arising in the City free of charge in their hospitals without respect 
 to class or condition. The step was both logical and prudent. Powers of 
 compulsory removal and treatment had been granted to them, but they had 
 no power of compelling payment, nor was it right that they should have
 
 1 88 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 the prerogative of determining who should be charged and who were proper 
 subjects for free treatment ; apart from that, it was of immense consequence 
 that all class distinctions within the hospital should be broken down. Among 
 the poor and the ignorant removal even from hovels was hitherto not looked 
 on with favour ; it was esteemed as one of the tyrannical and oppressive acts 
 against which they dumbly rebelled, and when it was found that those who 
 were in a position to help themselves freely elected to be treated in the 
 hospital the position was entirely changed. Confidence in the institutions 
 and the treatment was increased, and the poor came to see that, instead of 
 the hospitals having any special property in or claim over them, they in 
 common with their fellow-citizens had a claim on the care and benefits of 
 these institutions. 
 
 Under the Police Amendment Act of 1890 greatly increased power of 
 dealing stringently with sanitary questions and with uninhabitable houses 
 were conferred on the police. In particular they were authorized to insist 
 on the provision of sufficient water-closets for all householders, so that the 
 poorest were equally with the rich entitled to have their filth carried away 
 by the convenient medium of water. With the beginning of the same year 
 the Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act was adopted in Glasgow, thus 
 placing in the hands of the Health Committee a powerful agent for dis- 
 covering lurking and incipient dangers. And again the Building Act of 
 1892 placed in the hands of the Dean of Guild Court greatly extended 
 control over new buildings to be erected within the City in respect of space, 
 light, ventilation, and other sanitary conditions. 
 
 The further and minor developments of the activity of the Health 
 Committee may be traced in connection with the outline of the organiza- 
 tion and functions of the Sanitary service in the two divisions into which 
 the operations naturally divide themselves — the preventive or inspection 
 section, and the medical or hospital side.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. H. 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. 
 
 In dealing with the organization and functions of the health service in 
 Glasgow at the present day, it is convenient to make an arbitrary distinction 
 between the inspectorial or detective branch and the nnedical or curative 
 and preventive branch of that service. No line of demarcation between 
 the two phases rather than sides of the service really exists ; the medical 
 officer and the chief sanitary inspector — both statutory officers — have each 
 their specific and statutory duties; but their executive functions, all having 
 one common aim, are not only complementary the one to the other, but 
 they interpenetrate at every point. In the general working of the inspectorial 
 section, it is true, the medical officer is seldom called on to intervene ; 
 but in all cases calling for special action on the part of the Health Com- 
 mittee he is the professional referee, adviser, and chief officer of the service. 
 All sanitary organization, it is true, has its foundation in enlightened 
 selfishness. If infectious diseases had in them no more of menace and 
 danger to the community than pleurisy and bronchitis, there is no doubt 
 that to the present moment the poor would have been left to battle with 
 their ailments unaided by legislation and municipal organization. And had 
 gloomy filth, darkness, and overcrowding not been the fostering seed-bed 
 of all zymotic diseases, the outcasts of Society would have been less an 
 object of public attention than they are made by statute. But what was
 
 I go MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 begun under the instinct of self-preservation, and has its legal and rational 
 basis on that principle, has expanded into a work in which there is a distinct 
 element of public and corporate benevolence. Partly by natural expansion 
 and partly as an outcome of democratic sentiment, the activities of sanitary 
 officials now extend to many concerns which affect the health, comfort, and 
 well-being of the industrial population alone, which only in the most remote 
 manner react on the general community. The pains and penalties of recent 
 laws moreover, their restrictive and coercive force, are directed, not against 
 the poor, the humble, and the ignorant, but against those who would too 
 readily take advantage of their fellow-beings in such case. They are directed 
 against the retail dealer who would readily cheat the ignorant, and against 
 the employer who would force the poor factory-hand to labour under con- 
 ditions ruinous to health, and detrimental to self-respect. Here we have a 
 complete reversal of the primal motive for sanitary activity, which was based 
 on the protection of the classes from the masses. Now in the interest of 
 the masses we seek to coerce the classes. The manufacturer who would 
 carry on his trade in a damp dark stye, the grocer who would foist a com- 
 pound of grease on a poor purchaser under the name of butter, the butcher 
 who would retail diseased beef, and the dairyman who keeps his milk in 
 a dirty shop, draws it from diseased cows, waters it, and sells it laden with 
 disease germs — these, and others beside, come under the watchful eye of 
 the Sanitary Department. Several of the functions of the organization are 
 not statutory, but in all cases bearing as they do on the health and well- 
 being of the community, they have been appropriately assigned to the 
 department, and placed under the responsible supervision of the Chief 
 Inspector. 
 
 For the purposes of sanitary administrations and control the City is 
 parcelled off into seven districts, each of which is placed under the charge 
 of a district inspector. The districts again are broken up into sub-divisions, 
 as nearly as practicable equal in area and population, over each of which a sub- 
 inspector has the charge ; and these sub-divisions are still further broken up 
 for the purposes of statistical record. Each district inspector has for the work 
 of his section the services of a clerk and a drain tester. 
 
 The primal and principal function of the sanitary service is the discovery 
 and abatement of nuisances. " Inspector of Nuisances," in fact, is the 
 original statutory designation of the head of the sanitary service. A nuisance, 
 as defined by the Public Health (Scotland) Act is " any insufficiency of 
 size, defect of structure, defect of ventilation, want of repair or proper drainage, 
 or suitable water-closet or privy accommodation or cesspool, and any other 
 matter or circumstance rendering any inhabited house, building, premises, or 
 part thereof, injurious to the health of the inmates or unfit for human 
 habitation or use." 
 
 Many and various are the defects, neglects, and abuses which bring
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. II. INSPECTION. jgi 
 
 dwelling-houses, workshops, courts, and open spaces within the scope of 
 the statute, and probably no better index of the varieties of the genus 
 nuisance can be afforded than an analysis of the nuisances dealt with 
 by the sanitary officials during the year 1895. In that year 324,571 
 inspections were made for the discovery of nuisances within the City. There 
 were discovered and recorded 32,292, cases of nuisance, of which 31,992 
 were removed or remedied. Of these the greater proportion arose in con- 
 nection with the water supply, water-closets, and drainage. Of dwellings 
 without water supply 2832 were reported ; w^ater supply coming from a 
 cistern in water-closet or other foul situation was found 68 times ; sink, 
 water-closet, or tap broken or out of repair, 4443 times ; defective sinks, 
 144 ; drains, soil pipes, and branches, etc., choked or out of repair, 7135 cases ; 
 broken rhone pipes and gutters, 2309 ; water-closets awanting, 342 times ; 
 defective water-closets, 179. Accumulation and ingraining of filth comes 
 next in importance and frequency, garbage and dirt on roofs, in courts, or in 
 empty houses and cellars giving rise to 1305 nuisances; the condition of 
 external walls of dwellings, stairs, lobbies, and closets caused 6004 com- 
 plaints, and filth on internal walls produced 3093 nuisances. Defects of 
 roofs, walls, etc., of dwelling-houses caused 5 i 5 complaints, and smoky vents 
 yielded 136, and dampness or like cause made 145 houses unfit for habitation. 
 Insufficient light and ventilation and defects of windows yielded 206 
 complaints ; bad smells or diphtheria or enteric fever in house occurred 650 
 times; live animals were the source of 33 complaints, and dead animals 
 under floors were reported 29 times only. In bakehouses 52 nuisances 
 were reported, and in workshops defective closet accommodation, filth, over- 
 crowding, or imperfect ventilation caused 368 complaints. It is satisfactory 
 to find that, out of this vast and varied list, it became necessary to summon 
 before the police magistrates not more than 7 cases, and i 3 cases only were 
 reported to the Procurator-Fiscal for prosecution in the Sheriff Court. In 
 the inspectorial work 22 nuisance inspectors find steady employment. In- 
 cessantly engaged in their districts, each knows the strength and the weakness 
 of every tenement and building under his charge ; he also comes to know and 
 be known to the population, and he is accordingly supported and assisted in 
 many ways by the people who recognize in him the agent of a beneficent and 
 helpful organization. 
 
 The second statutory function of the head of the sanitary force is in 
 relation to common lodging-houses. Under this term are included houses 
 in which persons are lodged, at a rate not exceeding 6d. per night for each 
 person. The description holds whether the payment is made nightly or 
 weekly, or at any period not longer than a fortnight. The term also includes 
 any place where emigrants are lodged, and all boarding-houses for seamen, 
 irrespective of the rate charged for lodging or board. The model lodging- 
 houses of the Improvement Trust and those conducted by private enterprise
 
 192 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 all come under the designation. Of such institutions — the hotels of the very 
 poor — there are throughout the City, but chiefly in the central district, no 
 fewer than 79, giving a maximum accommodation for 9372 persons. The 
 lodgers in these houses are a motley multitude, who seldom own more personal 
 property than the clothes in which they present themselves, and the coppers 
 with which they can secure a bed and twenty-four hours' shelter. They 
 are of all nationalities, they have fallen from all ranks, from the professions 
 and from positions of independence and responsibility. Here mingle dis- 
 robed clergymen and street bullies, decayed gentlemen and area sneaks, 
 tramps, tinkers, labourers, sweeps, thieves, and thimble-riggers. The moral 
 tone is low, the habits are generally unclean, and so sometimes is the language; 
 and the superintendents and owners have a difficult task to keep order and 
 decent conduct in the interests of the cleanly minority, whose misfortunes 
 bring them in contact with much undesirable companionship. In their task, 
 it must be said, their hands are greatly strengthened by the strict police 
 regulations under which the establishments are conducted, and the constant 
 inspection to which they are subject. The discipline of the lodging-houses 
 may be irksome to the inmates, but it is wholesome and beneficial to all, 
 restraining the rough, and thereby making it more bearable by the law- 
 abiding and well-behaved. 
 
 Every house kept as a common lodging-house must be inspected, measured, 
 approved of and registered by the inspector, and applicants for license 
 must produce satisfactory certificates of character, signed by at least three 
 ratepayers in the City. Copies of the rules and regulations under which 
 the establishment is licensed must be placed in a conspicuous part in each 
 room. The keeper is bound to provide proper accommodation for cooking 
 and washing, and the house must have sufficient water-closet accommodation. 
 The keeper is held bound to refuse admission to all intoxicated persons and 
 known bad characters, and he is responsible for good order and decorum 
 within his house. No mingling of the sexes is under any circumstances 
 permitted. The number of persons who may occupy any room is specified 
 in a register ticket — one adult or two children under ten years being allowed 
 for every 400 cubic feet of space, and power is retained by the sanitary 
 inspector to reduce the number of lodgers in the rooms for any sufficient 
 cause, and for a limited period. All floors must be swept daily before noon, 
 and washed every Wednesday and Saturday — oftener if so decreed by the 
 inspector — and staircases and lobbies must be whitewashed twice yearly, in 
 April and October. Walls and ceilings are also to be whitewashed in April 
 and October, and at such other times as the sanitary inspector may order. 
 Windows are to be open, and rooms and beds aired daily for not less than four 
 hours, and except in the case of illness, no lodger can remain in bed after 
 8 a.m. A bed vacated cannot again be occupied for at least ten hours, 
 and, further, to prevent any Box and Cox arrangement, special sleeping
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. //. INSPECTION 
 
 193 
 
 apartments have to be set apart for lodgers who work overnight, and on no 
 account can these apartments be used by night sleepers. No drying of clothes 
 is permitted in any sleeping apartment, and all damp clothes must be dried 
 in an apartment set apart and specially heated for that purpose. All 
 offensive matter must be removed night and morning. No carpets, curtains 
 or hangings, nor anything which might harbour dirt, vermin, and disease 
 can be kept in sleeping apartments; and bedsteads, where open, are required to 
 be iron camp beds for one person only. In apartments exceeding 1 1 feet 
 high, " bunk beds " may be used under certain restrictions, and all beds and 
 bedding must be kept thoroughly clean, to the satisfaction of the sanitary 
 inspector. In all cases of illness a medical practitioner must be at once called 
 in, and should the person be affected with any infectious disease, immediate 
 notice has to be given to the medical officer, the person is removed, and 
 stringent measures taken to cleanse and disinfect the clothes, bedding, and 
 house. Power is given to the medical officer to order the temporary closing 
 of any lodging-house on account of the outbreak of infectious disease within 
 it. Sanitary officials and other officers of the local authority must at all 
 times have free access to any part of any lodging-house. For every infraction 
 of these rules the keeper of a lodging-house is liable to a penalty not 
 exceeding £^, with the additional penalty of £2 for each day's continuance 
 of the offence after proper warning, or failing payment he may suffer 
 fourteen days' imprisonment. 
 
 Two special lodging-house and boarding-house inspectors are employed 
 by the Sanitary Department, and the services of six night inspectors are 
 also called into requisition for the lodging-houses in common with the ticketed 
 houses, to which reference is hereafter made. In 1895, 15 lodging-houses 
 were registered after inspection and measurement ; 2463 day and 83 night 
 visits for purposes of inspection were made to the 79 establishments on the 
 register, and to the credit of the keepers be it said that not one was brought 
 before the public courts for any contravention of the police regulations. 
 
 The casual sojourner in the common lodging-house may be a person of 
 most respectable life and conversation, but the normal inmate is bound to 
 be a Bohemian of the lower orders. He has no place in the .social scale, 
 and no desire to attain a foothold among his fellows. His horizon extends 
 not beyond the day to which he awakens, and if for that day he can stay 
 the pangs of hunger, if he can get wherewithal to command the two luxuries 
 of his life — alcohol and tobacco — therewith he is content. A little removed 
 from this independent individual, although scarcely higher in the scale of 
 being, is the occupant of the " farmed house." The man who takes a farmed 
 room does not stand utterly and entirely alone. He has dependent on, or 
 associated with, him a woman who may be a wife, sometimes the pair have 
 a family, and in some instances two and even three pairs occupy the same 
 apartment. As the common lodging-house represents the hotel of the very 
 
 N
 
 194 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 poor, so the farmed house takes the place of the furnished apartments or 
 furnished houses of the better-circumstanced citizens. The farmed house is 
 taken from week to week by a class of people too poor to afford even the 
 scanty outfit which goes to furnish the apartments they hire. But impoverished 
 and wretched as are these creatures, they are the prey of a race of unscrupulous 
 harpies who batten and wax fat off their squalid penury. 
 
 The " farmed houses " — houses " let in lodgings," which statutorily applies 
 to all houses receiving lodgers, but in practice includes only dwellings of a 
 mean class — are found principally in the wynds and closes of the central 
 district. The speculators, who themselves dwell amid the scene of their 
 activity, rent entire tenements or blocks, each separate room of which they 
 fit out with a bed or beds, some bedding, a table, two or three chairs, a 
 grate, a kettle and pot, and a little crockery, and therewith each room becomes 
 a " furnished house." Such houses are let to the unfortunate and improvident 
 at rents ranging from 4s. per week upwards, the sum paid being generally 
 equal to what the farmer pays for a whole month. One individual holds 
 40 such houses, another 22, and another 12. In 1893 the sanitary officials 
 examined and recorded 204 furnished houses in all. " Most of these houses," 
 says the Sanitary Inspector, " are found in the wynds, lanes, and back pro- 
 perties of the City. Ventilation is seldom, if ever, attended to, and the 
 virtue of cleanliness is but scantily appreciated. These properties are con- 
 tinually in need of repairs, and only those repairs which are absolutely urgent 
 and necessary are carried out. The rooms are generally occupied by couples, 
 with or without families, and although in the majority of instances one couple 
 only was found in occupation, there were cases found of from two to four 
 couples sleeping in the same apartment." The mingled pity and disgust 
 kindled by gross detail condemn both the property and the landlord — the 
 shadowy proprietor who farms the farmers' holdings. 
 
 The man who can boast of the possession not only of a house but of 
 house furniture is of distinctly greater social consequence than the nomadic 
 inhabitant of lodging-houses and farmed apartments. In theory he is, within 
 his own door, sole lord and master, and the fact that he has a place which 
 he can call his own brings him into the rights, privileges, and responsibilities 
 of citizenship. But the householder begins indeed very far down in the 
 social scale. The house of the Glasgow poor in its most rudimentary con- 
 dition is wanting in every essential to home life. It has neither space, air, 
 light, quiet, privacy, cleanliness, nor comfort. More than 30,000 houses of 
 one apartment only exist in the City of Glasgow, and these are occupied 
 by upwards of 100,000 citizens. The occupants pay on an average a rent 
 of two shillings weekly, but houses cheaper down even to 5 s. 6d. per month 
 can be obtained. These miserable dens are for the most part occupied by 
 a class almost as migratory as the dwellers in the lodging-houses. They 
 have many reasons for not rooting themselves at one address or in one
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. II. INSPECTION 
 
 195 
 
 neighbourhood, they part as unceremoniously as possible from neighbours, 
 shopkeepers, and the factor, and their impedimenta are but a sorry hindrance 
 to their quiet disappearance. Many of them are householders, not from 
 pride nor from any desire to keep well with the world, but with no better 
 motive than the hope that thereby they may escape the irksome regulations 
 of the lodging-house, and the constant watchfulness of the police constable 
 and the sanitary officer. But in this hope they are partially disappointed, 
 since a large proportion of the dwellings are " ticketed " and subject to the 
 supervision, day and night, of the sanitary officer. 
 
 The " ticketed house " is one of the less-known institutions of Glasgow, 
 although it has been in existence for thirty years. Under the Police Acts of 
 1866 and 1890 now in force, no house built since 1866 may be let as a 
 separate dwelling of one apartment unless it measures 900 cubic feet of space, 
 a house of two apartments must have 1500 cubic feet, and a house of three 
 apartments not less than 2000 feet of air space. Where the houses had 
 been previously used as separate dwelling-houses the three measurements 
 are respectively 700, 1200, and 1800 cubic feet; but since the passing of 
 the Glasgow Building Regulations Act, 1892, the minimum size of new 
 dwelling-houses has been raised to 1000, 1600, and 2400 cubic feet respec- 
 tively. These measurements indicate clear space, exclusive of lobbies, closets, 
 and of recesses, not perfectly clear from the floor to within 2 feet of ceiling 
 and from wall to wall. These provisions are intended to meet the practice 
 prevalent among the poor of putting children away to sleep in any odd 
 corner or closet. 
 
 By the Police Act of 1866 the authorities are empowered to enter any 
 dwelling-house " of not more than three apartments," in order to measure its 
 cubic contents. If the cubic contents of the three-room house do not exceed 
 2000 feet, the authorities are entitled to state upon a ticket or plate fixed 
 to the door the cubic contents and the number of sleepers allowed in the 
 house according to the stated measurement. The houses so ticketed become 
 subject to continuous inspection. Under the 1890 Police Act the penalty 
 for overcrowding is increased from 5s. to 20s. for every day on which the 
 offence is proved, and although the restriction of ticketing to houses of three 
 apartments is maintained, the standard of space per inmate is extended to 
 all houses. 
 
 The system pursued in Glasgow of preventing overcrowding is a local 
 development. There are about twenty-five thousand ticketed houses in the 
 City, and six special night inspectors are appointed to visit them. This 
 they can do at any time, but inspection is generally made during the night, 
 between the hours of i 1.30 p.m. and 5 a.m., and is most carefully carried 
 out in localities where the practice of overcrowding is suspected. These 
 men take a note of all cases of breach of the regulations, prepare charges 
 and summonses for the police courts, and on two da}'s each week they
 
 196 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 attend the courts to give evidence in support of the summonses they have 
 served. They inspect in couples for purposes of corroboration. They wear 
 a uniform and carry night lamps. An idea of their work may be gathered 
 from the fact that the inspectors make about fifty thousand inspections 
 yearly, and on an average find one overcrowder in every ten visits. In 
 1895, out of 35,722 inspections, they found 3868 cases, or considerably above 
 the average. Of these they warned 2965, 614 were admonished, and 289 
 were fined by the police magistrates. Cases of overcrowding have been 
 found in the central district, where sleepers, who ought to have had 400 cubic 
 feet of air space, were found with ^6 feet, 89 feet, and 98 feet. A box 
 about 3 feet broad, 6 feet long, and 4 feet high, represents nearly the 76 cubic 
 feet in which human beings were found asleep. These instances proves the 
 system a necessity. Of the foetid midnight air in some of these dwellings 
 words carry no conception. 
 
 The inspected population of Glasgow forms an army of at least sixty 
 thousand in number, in which are the bulk of the socially-dangerous 
 elements. To reduce its ranks is the constant effort of the philanthropist, 
 to keep the rank and file in order demands all the vigilance and firmness 
 of the constabulary, and to render their condition bearable to themselves 
 and less of a menace to others is the task of the Sanitary Department. 
 In all the three conditions in which they are met — as lodgers, as occupants 
 of farmed houses, and as owners of ticketed dwellings — their estate is almost 
 hopelessly fallen. Hard it would be to say in which condition they are 
 most abject and irreclaimable. The habitue of the lodging-house may be 
 an unspeakably selfish wretch who spurns every bond of humanity, but he 
 is at least compelled to have some regard to external order and decency, 
 a certain amount of cleanliness is forced on his regard, and he is perpetually 
 subject to the restraining influence of public functionaries. For the occupants 
 of furnished rooms little can be said. They have no pride of possession, 
 no ambition towards independence. They can, up to the point of the Sani- 
 tary Inspector's endurance, wallow in dirt and be good to vermin, they are 
 in every way less controlled for their own good than the lodgers, and 
 improvident and reckless they are the prey of the human sharks who furnish 
 their miserable abodes. Nor is the case of the tenant of the uninhabitable 
 house any better. His "furniture" is a mere illusion, to escape undesired 
 acquaintance and recognition he flits with facility from close to close, he 
 dodges the police, and he tries to hoodwink the Sanitary Inspector. His 
 freedom is to him a heritage of woe, and it were well for him and his 
 dependents if he could be even more supervised, controlled, and inspected, 
 than it is possible with his unsettled habits and his resolute defiance of 
 authority. This hopeless army contributes scarcely anything to the revenues 
 of the City, though the Inland Revenue authorities reap a rich harvest from 
 it, and man for man it costs the City vastly more than the people who
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. 11. INSPECTION 
 
 197 
 
 pay the taxes. From its ranks in large measure our jails are filled, our 
 police courts are kept busy by it, our police give it their chief attention, 
 and it is the main source of all sanitary expenditure ; its ranks occupy most 
 of the beds in our hospitals, and to the public funds are charged the cost of 
 burying manv of those who fail and fall in the battle of life. 
 
 While a never-ceasing struggle is thus being maintained against the 
 ignorant, besotted and filthy lodger and tenant in their own interests, and 
 against the rapacious and not less culpable landlord, the miserable, filthy 
 and vermin-infested erections in which the poor are huddled but barely 
 sheltered, are rapidly falling into utterly unbearable and irreparable decay. 
 The tenants, it may be assumed, are not careful of the landlords' interests, 
 and the factor confines his attention chiefly to the collection of his weekly 
 rents. So the police authorities found it necessary to secure powers to deal 
 with the dwellings as well as with the inhabitants and the landlords. The 
 Police xA.ct of 1890 accordingly gave to the Police Commissioners authority, 
 on the report of the Medical Officer, the Sanitary Inspector, and the Master 
 of Works to declare any house or part of a house to be unfit for human 
 habitation, and to affix to it an order that after a given date it shall cease 
 to be inhabited. The owner of the property is entitled to receive reasonable 
 notice of the proposal, that he may show cause why it should not be carried 
 into effect, and if he at any time execute such work as in the opinion of 
 the Commissioners renders it habitable, they may revoke or vary the order. 
 The Commissioners are authorized to delegate this judicial function to a 
 special committee of their number with a quorum of five, and that committee 
 has been actively engaged in the work allotted to it since 1892. An aggrieved 
 landlord or factor has a right of appeal to the sheriff provided his appeal 
 is lodged within five 4gys after the decision of the committee, and the sheriff 
 is enjoined to dispose of the appeal with all reasonable despatch, and if practi- 
 cable within seven days after its presentation. Up to the end of 1895 
 the Uninhabitable Houses Committee ordered the closing of 288 dwelling- 
 houses, 215 of which were one-roomed, 65 two-roomed, 5 three-roomed, 
 and 3 were of a larger size. 
 
 The most humane and humanizing branch of the inspectorial system is 
 the organization of female inspection. The women inspectors, six in number, 
 are primarily missionaries of cleanliness, but they also do useful service 
 in connection with the working of the Food and Drugs Adulteration Acts. 
 Their principal duties, however, are to visit the denizens of the lower quarter 
 of the City, particularly people living in one and two-apartment houses, 
 and endeavour by persuasion and remonstrance to secure the periodical 
 cleansing of these small dwellings. When a tenant is too poor to purchase 
 or procure cleaning materials, the female inspectors are empowered to issue a 
 note which, on presentation at the Sanitary Department, entitles the holder 
 to a bag of whiting or ochre, and the loan of a whiting brush to do the
 
 198 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 necessary work. They are also useful in reporting cases of cruelty to, and 
 neglect of, children, which when received are forwarded to the Society for 
 the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Further, they give advice regarding 
 elementary cooking, point out the desirability of free ventilation, and the 
 danger of clothes drying in the house at night. Any houses found con- 
 tinuously filthy are reported to the Medical Officer for his inspection and 
 certificate, on receipt of which a notice is sent and a prosecution may follow. 
 
 Drain-testing, for which the police authorities have compulsory powers, now 
 forms a valuable and important feature in the work of the Sanitary Department. 
 Under the Police Act of 1890 the Sanitary Inspector is entrusted with powers 
 to insist on the smoke-testing of drains when he has reasonable cause for 
 suspecting their condition. Should the proprietor object to or obstruct the 
 test the inspector is bound to obtain a magisterial warrant, and the owner 
 is thereon subject to a penalty of forty shillings if he refuses to allow the 
 test, or declines to give reasonable facilities for its application. In case of 
 any proprietor failing to remove the defects which may be indicated by the 
 inspector's report the police commissioners have power to execute the necessary 
 work and to receive the expense as damages from the owner of the property so 
 dealt with. In 1895 no fewer than 4629 separate tests were applied to drains 
 connected with 1473 separate tenements or systems, and of these only 142 
 were found to be in a sound and satisfactory condition. 
 
 Among the miscellaneous duties relating to public health, which have 
 been assigned to the Sanitary Department, are the inspection of bakehouses 
 for cleanliness, of food and drugs for wholesomeness and freedom from 
 adulteration, and of dairies, byres, and milkshops for health of animals and 
 suitability of premises. For these objects there are four inspectors, whose duty 
 it is to go from shop to shop and from store to store^ and particularly from 
 dairy to dairy, making inquiry into the condition of the food and milk 
 vended therein. Their general duty is to see that all the regulations in 
 force are being duly observed. They also attend to the sanitary condition 
 of the vegetable and fruit markets and the fish market. They frequently 
 pay early morning visits to the various railway stations, for the purpose of 
 sampling the milk arriving in butts from the country. When infectious 
 diseases become, in the opinion of the ^^ledical Officer, associated with a 
 particular milk supply, they are sent to make investigations at the farms 
 from which the suspected milk is sent. The number of dairies and milk- 
 shops in the City under their supervision is 1147, and the total number of 
 stall-fed cows within the jurisdiction of the department is 1634. Under 
 the Food and Drugs Act nearly 300 samples are obtained yearly by these 
 officers, and sent to the Public Analyst. A large number of samples are 
 also taken and examined by them, along with the Chief Inspector, merely for 
 purposes of inquiry. These officers also work the INIargarine /\ct, under which 
 15 convictions were obtained in 1895. 

 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. H. INSPECTION 199 
 
 There are three meat inspectors, who make shop-to-shop inspections, and 
 visit all sausage works and knackeries. If any report comes to hand of a 
 cow in any of the dairy-byres becoming sick or wasting, the inspectors visit 
 it, and make an occasional report on the condition of the animal. These 
 inspectors made 9572 visits in butcher shoj^s, etc., during the year 1895, 
 and 3772 morning inspections at railway stations and at the Broomielaw. 
 They secured the condemnation in that year of 6997 lbs. of unwholesome 
 meat through their exertions, besides 21,900 lbs. weight of 438 dead calves. 
 Out of 2315 consignments of meat examined, 10 seizures were made, 5 
 carcases were destroyed by consent, 6 cases were prosecuted and the consigners 
 fined. The Sanitary Department has no share in the inspection of the meat at 
 any of the City abattoirs. No horse-flesh is sold for human food in Glasgow. 
 
 After the appointment of the only Inspector of Factories and Work- 
 shops at present on the staff 752 workshops were, in 1892, inspected and 
 measured, and a plan made of each. In 1895 the inspections numbered 2045, 
 and 503 workshops were measured and registered. In 499 cases the improve- 
 ments suggested by the inspector were carried out. 
 
 The working of the Shop Hours Acts, 1892 and 1893, passed for the 
 preservation of the health of young persons of both sexes under eighteen 
 years of age, has also been put into the hands of the Sanitary Inspector. 
 The Health Committee have appointed all the food inspectors, meat inspectors, 
 and the factory and workshops inspector to be shop hours inspectors in 
 the various shops, stores, warehouses, etc., which they visit in their daily 
 rounds ; and one inspector has been specially appointed to devote his whole 
 time to the work. Upwards of 16,000 notices have been issued inti- 
 mating the main provisions of the Act to shopkeepers, restaurant-keepers, 
 warehousemen, etc. Seven prosecutions were, during 1895, instituted, which 
 resulted in four convictions and the imposition of penalties. 
 
 Within the past quarter of a century a vast amount of ameliorative 
 work has been initiated and accomplished for the benefit of the degraded, 
 the unfortunate, and the very poor. The poor we have still with us in 
 little reduced force, and the vigilance and activities of sanitary authorities 
 may never for an instant relax. With the fundamental problem of poverty, 
 with the economic conditions of society, with the total depravity of man, the 
 Health Committee have only an oblique interest. It is theirs to deal with 
 facts, circumstances, and conditions as they exist. The}- are the licensed 
 and armed foes of all foulness and pestilence ; and, though the members 
 may be individually conscious that there are other means of dealing with 
 the primal causes which produce such hideous blots on our corporate life, 
 it is not through official organizations that the remedies which spring from 
 within can be applied. As it is, sanitary committees may claim to have 
 accomplished a great work in lengthening and strengthening the life of the 
 poor, and of making their condition more bearable, if we cannot say enjoyable.
 
 CHAPTER XX. , 
 
 1 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT HI. 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. 
 
 The infectious diseases with which a local authority are by statute em- 
 powered to deal are small-pox, cholera, diphtheria, membranous croup, erysipelas, 
 measles, scarlet fever, and typhus, enteric, relapsing, continued and puerperal 
 fevers. To these they may add any other infectious disease not statutorily . 
 
 specified should local exigencies demand such a course. 
 
 In dealing with infections the functions of the Medical Officer fall under 
 three heads : (i) The discovery of the infected individual ; (2) treatment of the i 
 
 case ;■ and (3) the destruction of disease germs or infective media. Towards * 
 
 effecting these objects vast and costly organization and machitiery are employed. 
 
 Previous to the adoption of the Notification of Diseases Act in 1890 the 
 Medical Officer had to depend for the detection of infectious diseases chiefly 
 on his staff of epidemic inspectors, of whom there are in Glasgow twelve at } 
 
 work. These functionaries, with the co-operation of medical men, school- 
 teachers, nuisance inspectors, female sanitary inspectors, and others having 
 knowledge of the masses of the people, were able to discover a large pro- 
 portion of the serious cases of infectious disease ; but many slight cases and 
 inconspicuous outbreaks were effectually concealed from them till they 
 accomplished the deadly harm of which they, equally with aggravated cases, 
 are capable. 
 
 The primary responsibility for notifying to the Medical Officer any case 
 of infectious disease within a dwelling-house rests, according to the Notifica- 
 tion Act, on the heads of the family ; next, the nearest relatives have that 
 responsibility, and, failing such, any person relative or not in attendance on
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. HI. DISEASE PREVENTION 2OI 
 
 the sufferer, and, after these, the occupier of the house in which the sufferer 
 dwells. Finally, but more important than any other, comes the medical 
 practitioner in charge of the case. He is bound immediately to certify any 
 declared case to the Medical Officer, giving the patient's name and address, 
 with the specific disease from which he is suffering. The Police Amendment 
 Act of 1890 gives extended powers to the Corporation in relation to school 
 children. It has always been recognized that school is the most fertile and 
 ever active centre in the spread of infectious diseases to which children are 
 peculiarly subject. By the 1890 statute every parent or guardian is pro- 
 hibited from permitting any child dwelling in a house where infectious disease 
 has existed within six months from attending school without first obtaining 
 a certificate from the Medical Officer, which is to be granted free of charge, 
 or from a qualified practitioner, that such child is free from disease and 
 infection, and that the dwelling and all therein subject to infection have 
 been treated and disinfected to the satisfaction of the Medical Officer, a 
 registered practitioner, or the Sanitar>^ Inspector. For offence against this 
 regulation the parent or guardian is subject to a penalty of 40s., and a like 
 penalty can be imposed on any school-teacher who knowingly permits a 
 breach of this regulation. 
 
 In addition to the cases to which they are officially guided the epidemic 
 inspectors carry a general commission of inquiry. They explore the places 
 where disease is most likely to be found, and they consult every possible 
 source of information, and in this duty the female inspectors afford valuable 
 assistance. The volume of work done upon information supplied from these 
 several sources — head-quarters, personal inquiry, and others — may be thus 
 summarized. As the outcome of 146,865 visits made in 1895 the inspectors 
 discovered 2184 cases, and investigated 11,485 others reported. The total 
 (13,669) was composed of typhus fever, 25 ; enteric fever, 796; undefined 
 fever, 15 ; small-pox, 243; puerperal fever, 73; erysipelas, 1189; scarlet 
 fever, 3501 ; measles, 5631 ; whooping-cough, 1440; croup and diphtheria, 
 656; diarrhoeal diseases and chicken-pox, 100. 
 
 The discovery of a case is only the beginning of the epidemic inspector's 
 responsibility. Immediately any case is brought to his knowledge an inspector 
 visits the house, and leaves with the occupier a copy of a pamphlet containing 
 a popular exposition of the law about infectious diseases. In the case of 
 scarlet fever he leaves a further tract explaining the peculiarities of that 
 disease, as to the existence and duration of infection even in the mildest of 
 cases. Doubts or differences of medical opinion arising as to the diagnosis 
 of a case are settled by the Medical Officer. The inspector's function is to 
 supply him with information regarding not the medical aspects, but the 
 external circumstances of each case. The inspector inquires into and reports 
 upon the general physical conditions bearing upon treatment and infection. 
 Home environment affects both the safety of the patient and that of the
 
 202 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 public, and an important feature of the inspector's duty is to ascertain the 
 particulars of house accommodation of the sufferers. 
 
 Thus, of the cases enumerated in the summary, 4791 were removed to 
 hospital, and 8878 were treated at home. As between these two courses 
 the judgment of the Medical Officer is final, and it is chiefly based upon 
 the information of the inspector. The means of isolating the patient defines 
 in practice the line of division between the cases to be removed, and those 
 for which home treatment is allowed. Amongst the poor removal is most 
 frequently an obvious and imperious necessity ; but the Medical Officer has 
 no option. It very rarely happens that he is compelled to obtain a 
 magistrate's warrant for forcible removal. 
 
 The further duties of the epidemic inspectors relate to special outbreaks 
 of disease and to disinfection. In connection with the former they are fre- 
 quently called upon to institute a house-to-house visitation. The term 
 " dwelling," it is of importance in a seaport town such as Glasgow to note, 
 embraces tents, vans, common lodging-houses, seamen's boarding-houses, 
 emigrants' houses, and vessels in the harbour ; in fact, any covering under 
 which human beings habitually sleep. For the floating portion of the popu- 
 lation two inspectors are specially set apart, and one of these, a man 
 of some linguistic attainments, has to deal specially with the ten thousand 
 emigrants who yearly pass through the City. His duty is to see that these 
 bring with them no infectious disease, and that they acquire none during 
 their brief sojourn. His work is of importance at all times for preventing the 
 importation of foreign epidemics, and when cholera or other virulent epidemic 
 disease is abroad in Eastern Europe his task becomes grave and full of anxiety. 
 During the whole time of the sojourn of emigrant parties in the special 
 boarding-house set apart for them they are under medical supervision, any case 
 of infectious illness is promptly removed to the hospital, and such precautionary 
 and preventive measures as the circumstances demand are applied. Sometimes 
 it becomes necessary in connection with an individual case of illness to detain 
 in Glasgow a whole family, and in such circumstances the unaffected members 
 are boarded in the municipal reception house. The same care, watchfulness, 
 and treatment are extended to all vessels arriving from foreign countries, 
 
 Serious risk also arises of the importation of epidemic diseases from 
 districts beyond the borders of Glasgow, where notification is not enforced 
 and where the vigilance of the sanitary authorities is not so efficient as 
 within the City. The danger of outbreaks from individual cases brought 
 into the City is not small, but much more grave is the evil which arises 
 from the sale of milk coming from farms where infectious disease has mani- 
 fested itself, and where, from ignorance or greed, the facts have not been 
 made public, and the distribution of milk consequently is not prohibited. 
 
 For dealing with the risk of infection carried in milk, whether the yield 
 of cows within the City or brought from outland districts, a series of stringent
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. III. DISEASE PREVENTION 
 
 203 
 
 regulations are enacted under the Police Act of 1890. On the certificate 
 of the Medical Officer, or of any other qualified practitioner, to the police 
 authorities that an outbreak or spread of infectious disease is due to milk, 
 the fullest powers are given to trace, first, all the families and persons to whom 
 the suspected milk has been supplied, and, second, the source or sources 
 from which it came. Adequate penalties for offences against these enactments 
 can be enforced, and in the case of persons resident without the City it is 
 provided that the prosecution shall be in the Court of the Sheriff of the 
 County in which such person is domiciled. Having traced the milk and 
 its influence, the case is of necessity passed on to the Procurator-Fiscal to 
 obtain from the magistrate or sheriff an order to prohibit its sale and dis- 
 tribution, until by the removal of the infected person and by satisfactory 
 disinfection the Medical Officer is satisfied that the sale of the milk may 
 be safely resumed. The fiscal is further ordained to make intimation to 
 the local authority of the district in which the infection has arisen of the 
 facts of the case in order that such further measures as may be deemed 
 necessary may be adopted. The penalty for a first offence against this 
 regulation is five pounds, and for a second and every subsequent offence a 
 fine of ten pounds is exigible. 
 
 A case of infection being discovered, it becomes from the public point 
 of view more important to circumscribe the disease than to cure the in- 
 dividual patient. To prevent the spread of the infection the energies of 
 the officials are therefore principally directed. The isolation of the sufferer 
 is but one part of the work, thereby the active cause of disease propagation is 
 dealt with, but disinfection of all that the patient has been in contact with, 
 clothing, bedding, and house must be effected. Here arises the great 
 difficulty in dealing with the very poor. Rarely do they possess more bedding 
 than from day to day they urgently require, and the clothes in which they 
 stand usually represent their entire wardrobe. To order the disinfection of 
 the bed-clothes of such without special conditions would entail intolerable 
 hardship, to disinfect their apparel without meanwhile supplying them with 
 a covering is an impossibility. Hence the statutory sanitary wash-houses and 
 the reception houses established by the Police Commissioners. Under the 
 Police Amendment (1890) Act they became bound not only to provide 
 hospital accommodation for the treatment of infectious diseases, but also 
 houses for the convenience of very poor where they are either in a kind of 
 quarantine, or simply detained while their humble dwellings, clothes, and 
 furnishings are undergoing the disinfecting process. 
 
 The powers with which the Medical Officer is invested in relation to 
 disinfection and purification are wide, searching, and stringent. Sentimental 
 regard for personal rights, for the freedom of the individual, obviously had 
 little weight in the framing and passing of the infectious diseases clauses 
 of the Police Act of 1890. If any house is, in the opinion of the Medical
 
 204 
 
 M UNICIPA L GLA SCO W 
 
 Officer or of two other practitioners, in a filthy or unwholesome condition, 
 or should it require cleaning to prevent or to check infectious disease, the 
 tenant may forthwith be ordered to cleanse, purify, and whitewash his abode, 
 under a penalty of forty shillings, and a daily cumulative penalty of ten 
 shillings, and the police authorities may themselves execute the work, and 
 recover the expense in a summary manner as damages. Like regulations 
 apply to the disinfection of bed and body clothing. 
 
 In Shorter Catechism phrase the work of necessity and the work of 
 mercy go together. Where from overcrowding and inadequate accom- 
 modation, from insufficiency of bedding and for want of clothing, it becomes 
 impossible to purify and disinfect without intolerable hardship to the un- 
 fortunate inmates, then the reception house comes into use. Two such 
 establishments are provided by the Police Commissioners, one containing 
 twenty-six beds at Weaver Street, near the head of the High Street, convenient 
 for the central district, and the second at South York Street, on the south 
 side of the river, in which there are thirty-nine beds. In these the persons 
 boarded, under warrant if necessary, are provided with suits to wear till 
 their own clothes are returned from the sanitary wash-house, they enjoy 
 or endure the luxury of a bath, and they are fed at the public expense. 
 Meantime their dwelling is undergoing white-washing and disinfection, and 
 their bedding, etc., has been sent for treatment to the sanitary purification 
 department. The reception-house boarders may be detained there for such 
 period, not exceeding fourteen days, as the medical officer may consider 
 necessary for the public safety. The period varies according to the nature 
 of the disease which led to removal. This provision brings under direct 
 supervision, and within reach of prompt treatment, cases in which the germs 
 of disease in persons not actually suffering at the time of removal develop 
 themselves during residence in the reception house. 
 
 Two distinct uses are thus made of the reception house. It is a shelter 
 for those whose houses and clothing are undergoing the process of cleansing 
 and disinfection. It is also, when necessary, a place of detention for families 
 visited by infectious disease during the time considered necessary for latent 
 disease to disclose itself 
 
 The past average number of persons boarded in these houses has varied 
 from 300 to 900 per annum. The total expenditure connected with them 
 for 1895-96 amounted to ^^^565, but in that year the guests of the munici- 
 pality were fewer than usual. 
 
 Patient and inmates being disposed of, attention is now given to the 
 disinfecting and cleansing operations proper. The law prohibits the washing 
 of infected articles in any washing-house or green used by more than one 
 family, and under the statute the City provides sufficient washing and dis- 
 infecting establishments for the public requirements, free of charge to the 
 citizens. When home treatment is permitted to a case the epidemic inspector
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. III. DISEASE PREVENTION 
 
 20S 
 
 keeps it in view, and from time to time orders the removal of infected 
 articles till the final washing, with accompanying house purification, is ordered 
 which winds up the case. When the case is removed to the hospital, one 
 washing alone is required ; clothing marked " immediate " must be returned 
 the day it is taken away, if "non-immediate" it may be detained till the 
 following day. The order " immediate " may be taken to imply that the in- 
 mates of the house cannot pass a single night without the use of the bedding 
 and clothes removed for purification. 
 
 An order being given for disinfection the house is first visited by the 
 checker, whose duty is to receive, select, inspect, and carefully catalogue 
 all articles to be treated, to lace them up in a special canvas bag, which 
 he seals up and so prepares for removal by the sanitary van. The office 
 of checker is of recent origin, and was forced on the authorities from the 
 fact that the sanitary wash-house was in danger of being converted into 
 a huge laundry for the washing and cleansing of every article both in the 
 infected home and in others in the neighbourhood. Further, to avoid ground- 
 less claims for compensation it became necessary to note whether articles 
 sent for disinfection were torn or wasted previous to being so sent or not. 
 The system is at least economical. In the year's working, after its initiation, 
 the average number of pieces for washing fell from 6i to 45. A saving of 
 25 per cent, forms a considerable item where the total number of bundles 
 is about 12,000 yearly. In separate articles it means in round numbers 
 the difference between 720,000 and 540,000, the odd 180,000 representing 
 the extent to which the wash-house had been used for laundry purposes. 
 
 The collector and fumigator — duties combined in one officer — follows in 
 the track of the checker. The orders issued daily are divided according to 
 districts among the vanmen. Each vanman is accompanied by a collector, 
 who is furnished with a specially-designed fumigating pan filled with ground 
 sulphur, and calls on the following morning at each of the houses marked 
 in his sheet. On arrival at the first house the collector obtains all the 
 patient's bedding and clothing, the removal of which has previously been 
 arranged by the checker. The fumigator and collector then closes all 
 outlets and sets fire to the sulphur in his water-jacketed pan, places a printed 
 instruction on the door of the apartment, and proceeds to the next house. 
 The average number of houses for each van daily is ten, the number of 
 separate articles is stated about 45, so that each van returns about noon 
 each day with 450 pieces of infected clothing. 
 
 The vans for collecting infected goods are provided with sides which 
 open upwards automatically by means of spring rollers. The driver, without 
 shifting his position, touches a handle which releases the side through which 
 the bundle of clothes is deposited. This arrangement disarms all apprehension 
 regarding the dissemination of infection in the streets. 
 
 Following upon the collectors and fumigators, the limewashers, or white-
 
 206 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 washers, come next in order in the work of disinfection. They follow specific 
 instructions, and limewash the walls and ceilings of apartments and closets 
 which have been exposed to inspection. In 1895 8932 apartments, lobbies, 
 and closets were fumigated; 1564 apartments, 1865 ceilings, lobbies, and 
 closets were whitewashed. 
 
 The process of disinfecting clothing and other articles, and the place where 
 it is performed, are the remaining subjects pertaining to what may, with 
 special reference to the hospitals, be called the extramural treatment of 
 infectious disease. 
 
 When the van-loads arrive at the wash-house the contents of each bundle 
 are ticketed and checked. The various articles are then divided into groups, 
 mats, blankets, white goods, and coloured goods. A solution of bichloride 
 of mercury (corrosive sublimate) is then poured over the goods, and is 
 allowed to thoroughly saturate the fibre. The clothing thereafter is placed 
 in the washing machine, and then whizzed in the hydro-extractors. Thence 
 they are conveyed to the stoves, where they are dried. In the despatch 
 room the tickets are taken off and a new check made, and next they are 
 packed in clean sheets for delivery. Meantime the beds, bolsters, pillows, 
 cushions, etc., are placed in a steam disinfector, where they are subject to 
 high pressure, after which, emerging into the cooling room, they are laid 
 out to dry and cool. All straw beds taken from the lower quarters are 
 burned, and new straw is packed into the disinfected ticks. Carpets are 
 beaten in a special machine, and all the dust and dirt beaten and brushed 
 out of them. Small carpets and floor coverings are treated in a shallow 
 trough. When all is ready the open vans deliver the cleansed and dis- 
 infected clothing, and bring back the fumigating pans left at the various 
 dwellings. 
 
 It is indicative of a great change in public sentiment that those who, 
 in 1 89 1, made the appointment of a checker necessary to prevent abuse of 
 the public service, were in the early days of the sanitary wash-house 
 unwilling to avail themselves of it. Their reluctance rested, in some cases, 
 upon a wish to conceal the presence of infectious disease in their house- 
 holds ; in others, upon a fear that mixing their clothes with others might 
 bring a return of worse contaminations ; and, in a third group, upon a 
 belief that the washing would be better done at home. Figures, in this 
 instance, afford an index to popular feeling. The number of articles washed 
 in 1865 from 6653 cases of infectious disease was 29,489. In 1869 the 
 cases fell to 3389, but the articles washed rose to 39,515 — an increase of 
 10,000, along with a decrease of about 50 per cent, in the number of cases. 
 From year to year the number of articles per case were in round numbers 
 as follows : In 1865,4; in 1869,12; in 1880,36; in 1893,61. The public 
 desire for cleanliness and disinfection became embarrassing, and necessitated 
 the appointment of a checker.
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. IN. DISEASE PREVENTION 207 
 
 It was in September, 1864, that the first municipal disinfecting and 
 washing-house was set up in the High Street. The ground rent of the 
 premises was ;^5, and the entire cost of erection and fittings amounted to 
 ^244, and the "staff" numbered two washerwomen. In 1871 a new and 
 greatly developed wash-house was opened at Belvidere Hospital, with modern 
 appliances, including a hydro-extractor and steam-heated drying stove. The 
 accommodation quickly proved quite inadequate, and again, in 1883, another 
 and much enlarged establishment was provided in the grounds of Belvidere, 
 but entirely detached from the hospital. The buildings, which occupy an 
 area of 2500 square yards, cost about ^^2500, and on machinery and fittings 
 ;^3000 was expended. In that establishment alone, in 1892, there were 
 12,000 separate washings, and nearly three-quarters of a million of separate 
 articles, exclusive of beds and carpets, were disinfected and washed. 6962 
 lbs. of soda ash, 40,620 lbs. of soap were consumed, and 6,240,000 gallons 
 of water were used. 
 
 The increase of population, the annexation of large suburbs, and a 
 serious outbreak of small-pox strained the capacity of the Belvidere estab- 
 lishment to the breaking point, and rendered the erection of an additional 
 wash-house imperative. A site for such an establishment was found in the 
 ground at Ruchill Park allocated for hospital purposes; and there, in 1893, 
 the erection of a building on the most approved plan was begun. The 
 Ruchill sanitary wash-house was opened in October, 1894. To it a site 
 has been devoted, covering upwards of 7000 square yards, the buildings 
 themselves occupying about 3000 square yards. 
 
 The latest improvements in disinfecting appliances and in laundry 
 machinery have been adopted at Ruchill, and the works have been so planned 
 that the outgoing purified articles cannot come near the incoming infected 
 clothing, etc., all stages and processes being in continuous line from first 
 to last. The buildings are in two groups or blocks, the first comprising three 
 dwelling-houses, two van sheds, stables, with harness room, hay loft, and straw 
 store. In the second or main group are the washing machinery hall, the 
 ticketing hall, a cholera and small-pox disinfecting room, a carpet-beating 
 chamber in two sections, a fumigating room, men's and women's bath rooms, 
 women's kitchen and lavatory, store room, office, visitor's lavatory, sorting hall, 
 four drying rooms, workshop, engine-house and boiler-house. A cremating 
 furnace for destroying the infected straw and chaff of beds is on the west 
 gable of the building, and on the same side an air propeller has been fitted 
 which carries off vapour and at the same time maintains a current of air 
 from the outgoing end of the building towards the incoming end in which 
 alone infected articles are present. 
 
 An exceptional feature in the establishment is the steam disinfector pro- 
 vided for treating beds, pillows, and other articles which cannot be washed 
 in the ordinary way. This apparatus is oval in shape, 12 feet long by 6
 
 208 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 feet high, of great strength, the casing being made to withstand steam pressure 
 of 70 lbs. per square inch. The articles, placed in galvanized iron wire 
 baskets, are run into the machine. The steam-tight doors are then closed, 
 and a vacuum is created by means of a powerful ejector. This exhausts 
 the air equally from the inside of the chamber and form the interstices of 
 the bedding and clothing under treatment, the object being to enable the 
 steam when turned on to speedily penetrate every crevice. Steam is then 
 turned on until a pressure of 26 lbs. has been registered on the gauge, and the 
 bedding is kept at a temperature of 290" P'ahr., from twenty minutes 
 to half an hour. The steam is then allowed to blow off and the ejector 
 is again set in operation to produce the necessary vacuum, in order that 
 hot air from a hot-air producer, fitted at the side of the apparatus, may 
 rush into the inner chamber, whereby the moisture in the bedding is dried 
 up. The doors are then opened and the articles are taken out at the end of 
 the apparatus and laid on the floor to cool down. After the various kinds of 
 goods have passed through their allotted course of treatment they are taken to 
 the despatch room whence they are returned. 
 
 I
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 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. 
 
 All measures having been taken to prevent the spread of infection and to 
 extirpate disease germs from the dvvelHng in which a case originated, the 
 care and medical treatment of the patient who goes to the hospital have 
 now alone to be considered. Thither the sufferer is conveyed in the ambu- 
 lance van, and once within its gates there is complete seclusion from the 
 outer world. Relatives and friends hear only of the progress of the patient 
 through the medium of the inquiry room, where twice a day — once on 
 Sundays — the nurses attend in a raised balcony, and from that elevation 
 communicate with inquirers on the floor. 
 
 Under the Police Act of 1866, the establishment and maintenance of 
 a permanent fever hospital became a compulsory duty on the part of the 
 Police Commissioners. The temporary structure on Parliamentary Road, 
 which, temporary as it is, still remains an efficient institution, was the first 
 Glasgow municipal hospital. Belvidere Hospital was the first permanent 
 establishment erected and maintained at the expense of a municipality in 
 Scotland. The park in which it stands is 32 acres in extent, beautifull}- 
 situated on the banks of the Clyde on the eastern confines of the City. It 
 was purchased for ^17,000, commuted into a ground annual of £6So, and 
 on it, in addition to the buildings and offices connected with the hospital 
 proper, there has been found a site for the sanitary wash-house already 
 mentioned. Within the enclosing walls of the spacious park ample space 
 is afforded for the exercise of convalescents, and for their recreation as well 
 
 o
 
 2IO MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 as for the recreation of the large staff, who, by the nature of their functions, 
 are more or less restricted in their social enjoyments. 
 
 The hospital proper is sharply divided into two independent and entirely 
 distinct sections — a small-pox division and a fever division. The small-pox 
 division has its own entrance, its own ambulance van, and a separate staff 
 of medical officers, nurses, and servants, with its own kitchen, inquiry room, 
 offices, washing-house, stores, and even its own mortuary. No communication 
 whatever is permitted between the small-pox and the ordinary fever wards. 
 But when small-pox, as fortunately now is frequently the case, has practically 
 disappeared, it is deemed necessary to retain only one or two pavilions to 
 deal with a possible recrudescence of the disease, and the remaining pavilions 
 — there are altogether five — carefully partitioned off, are devoted to the 
 treatment of fever cases. The small-pox section was the first permanent 
 structure erected on Belvidere, and it was opened in December, 1877, having 
 cost upwards of ;^3 0,000. Within the five pavilions or double wards there 
 are 150 beds, with an allowance of 2000 cubic feet of air space for each 
 patient. The recreation ground of the small-pox side is, of course, entirely 
 separated from that attached to the fever pavilions. 
 
 The fever hospital consists of thirteen pavilions, containing 390 beds, 
 arranged in groups and perfectly isolated. With the pavilions are associated 
 the various stores, offices, and administrative buildings connected with the 
 working of the establishment, all so disposed as best to facilitate adequate 
 and economical service and control. Each pavilion, in both small-pox and 
 fever divisions, consists of two wards, the wards themselves being unequally 
 subdivided into an acute side with eleven, and a convalescent side containing 
 four beds. Projected outwards from the centre of the acute ward is the 
 nurse's room, from the glass screen in which she commands a view of the 
 entire subdivision. Temperature and ventilation are under thorough control, 
 and with waxed floors, varnished woodwork, and tiling, cleanliness is promoted 
 and dust reduced to a minimum. The heating of the entire institution, 
 wards, doctors' residences, and nurses and servants' quarters is effected by 
 hot-water pipes from the boiler-house. There also is raised the steam needed 
 for the laundry engine and drying stove and for use at the cooking ranges 
 in the kitchen. The hospital wash-house is separated into three sections — 
 one for the infected clothes taken from patients on their arrival, one for 
 the linen, etc., from the wards, and a third for the use of the medical 
 attendants, nurses, and other members of the staff, whose clothes and linen 
 are also treated as if infected. Attached to the wash-house is the crematory, 
 where the straw and chaff from every patient's bed is burned immediately on 
 his or her dismissal. When patients are able to be out of bed they are 
 supplied with warmly-lined clothing, which is handed back and disinfected 
 on their dismissal. On the arrival of that time when the patient divests 
 himself of his hospital suit, he passes into the bath-room, where he gets a 
 
 t
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. IV. TREATMENT OF DISEASE 21 1 
 
 bath, and going thence into the dressing-room he resumes his own clothes, 
 and so passes into the care of his friends, if such he has, and out into 
 the world, no longer the special care of the Health Committee of Glasgow. 
 
 To many children and young persons who come from sordid homes, 
 from base surroundings, and from brutal neglect, the experience of their last 
 days spent in the hospital must be nothing short of a revelation of a new 
 world. There in the blissful tranquillity of mind which accompanies returning 
 health they lead a life of calm enjoyment, with comforts, luxuries, and above 
 all, with human sympathy such as they never before dreamt of, and such, 
 alas, as they are never likely to meet again. There is small wonder that 
 many of the little ones leave the hospital with tearful regret, and doubtless 
 they look back to the days of their convalescence there as the sunniest spot in 
 their grey existence. 
 
 But it is not every case that terminates in recovery and issuing forth 
 to the battle of life. When the soundest constitutions, aided with the most 
 skilful treatment and the most tender and solicitous nursing are unable 
 to withstand the deadily attacks of infectious disease, how can we look for 
 a favourable proportion of recoveries among the puny starvelings of the lanes 
 and closes ? When a case terminates fatally in the hospital the body must 
 under penalty be conveyed direct to the grave from the institution. No 
 " wake " may be permitted over the body of any person who has died of 
 infectious disease whether in hospital or in a private house. And no such body 
 can be removed in any public conveyance, not being a conveyance reserved for 
 such a purpose, till the Medical Officer has certified that every precaution 
 necessary for the public safety has been adopted to his satisfaction, and that 
 under a penalty of £\o. 
 
 The experience gained by the Corporation in connection with the work- 
 ing of the Parliamentary Road and the Belvidere Hospitals has been turned 
 to good account in connection with the planning of the establishment at 
 Ruchill now in course of erection. In its construction also the suggestions 
 and improvements derivable from other sources in the United Kingdom and 
 the Continent have not been overlooked, and as Ruchill may be said to 
 embody the latest ideas connected with the construction of municipal hospi- 
 tals for infectious diseases, a somewhat detailed account of that institution 
 may not be out of place. 
 
 The entire scheme of the Ruchill Hospital embraces the erection of 34 
 distinct blocks of buildings, of which 16 are pavilions for the patients, and 
 in these the greatest interest centres. Twelve of the pavilions are large and 
 contain each 30 beds for the patients, while each of the four small pavilions 
 has 12 beds, thus giving accommodation in all for 408 patients; but this 
 number does not exhaust the resources of the hospital, as 48 additional 
 beds could easily be provided in the small pavilions should emergency 
 require. Even then the cubic feet of air space per patient would still be
 
 212 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 in excess of the requirements of the Local Government Board. Careful 
 attention has been given to the planning and general arrangements of the 
 pavilions, particularly in connection with the ventilation and sanitation, and 
 the systems adopted have met with unqualified approval from such specialists 
 as have had an opportunity of judging. The experience gained at Belvidere 
 has been invaluable, suggesting numerous improvements which bid fair to 
 realize the hope of making Ruchill Hospital rank second to none. While, 
 of course, the chief attention has been bestowed on careful planning, the 
 architecture of the buildings has not been neglected. The style adopted is 
 a sympathetic treatment of Elizabethan, red-stone dressings being used with 
 a fine quality of red brick for filling in the colouring, giving a warmth of 
 tone to the buildings admirably adapted to the surroundings. Next in interest 
 to the pavilions comes the administrative block, a huge stone building facing 
 the west with a frontage of 240 feet, and wing walls extending north and 
 south for a distance of 189 feet. Bedrooms are here provided for 202 
 nurses, with bath-rooms and lavatories on a complete scale. It provides also 
 a large recreation hall which can be utilized for entertainments. Sitting- 
 rooms and four large sick-rooms for use in the event of illness, not of an 
 infectious nature, have also been provided. Ample provision for the require- 
 ments of the superintendent, doctors, assistant-doctors, and matron has been 
 arranged, bedrooms, dining-rooms, library, business rooms, etc., being com- 
 prised in the accommodation. 
 
 Directly facing the entrance by Bilsland Drive the inquiry room block 
 has been arranged with a view to provide every facility to inquirers for 
 receiving information regarding the condition of the patients, without incurring 
 the slightest chance of infection, the inquiry room itself being conveniently 
 situated and constructed so that inquirers may see and speak to the charge 
 nurses who stand at a safe distance in a gallery. In this block a Dorcas 
 store occupies the basement, the upper floors embrace office, telephone room, 
 shoemaker's shop, and nineteen bedrooms for male employees, with recreation 
 room, baths, lavatories, and other necessary conveniences. 
 
 To the east of the inquiry room block is the morgue block, while on the 
 west is the clearing-house block, the former having a post-mortem room, labora- 
 tory, museum, lecture hall and funeral apartment. The clearing-house block 
 comprises separate bath-rooms for six males and six females, with entering 
 and retiring rooms ; the fire-engine station is placed between the baths for 
 the two sexes, thus isolating them from each other, and providing a central 
 site for the fire-engine in the event of an alarm. Adjoining the wash- 
 house of the Sanitary Department are placed stables block, boiler house and 
 workshops block, and wash-house block, all of the most approved construction. 
 
 In a line to the south of the inquiry room block, and flanked on each 
 side by pavilions, stands the kitchen and stores block, which embraces all 
 stores connected with the culinary department, dining halls, kitchens, work-
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. IV. TREATMENT OF DISEASE 213 
 
 rooms for female employees, and clothes stores. The day workers block, 
 which provides 78 bedrooms for housemaids, cleaners, and other under- 
 servants, is also in the same line. In connection with the establishment it 
 is proposed to erect a water tower, which will contain tanks for the storage 
 of water, the high elevation of the site demanding such provision. Along 
 Bilsland Drive a row of dwelling-houses are to be erected, two detached 
 houses for house steward and master of works, and four semi-detached 
 houses for other non-professional officers being provided, while between them 
 a prettily designed entrance gateway and gate lodge will form an attractive 
 approach to the hospital. The area of ground included in the hospital 
 policies covers 34 acres, and is enclosed by a brick boundary wall, inside of 
 which extends an iron railing. The intervening space will be filled in with 
 shrubbery on the completion of the building. The estimated cost of the 
 buildings, exclusive of site, is i^200,000. 
 
 Under the Annexation Act of 1891 the City acquired proprietary rights 
 and responsibilities in the Fever Hospital at Knightswood, lying to the west 
 of the Police Burgh of Partick. That institution was erected jointly by 
 Partick, Hillhead, and Maryhill, and the respective interests of the burghs 
 in the institution was fairly represented by their proportionate representation 
 on the Board of Management consisting of eleven members. Of these six 
 represented Partick, three Maryhill, and two Hillhead, and as Glasgow 
 absorbed the two last named burghs, it now sends five representatives to 
 the Board, it has the right to send to the hospital all cases arising within 
 the former boundaries of these burghs, and it bears the proportion of the 
 annual expenditure which would have been exigible from them. The share of 
 the annual cost of the hospital, which is regulated by the proportionate rentals 
 of the original contributing authorities, in the case of Glasgow for the year 
 1895-96 amounted to ;^i86o, being one-half the total expenditure. 
 
 The annual cost of the Sanitary Department of the City varies with 
 the condition of public health, but within modern limits an increase of cases 
 does not imply a corresponding growth in expenditure. The entire establish- 
 ment is maintained on a scale calculated to cope with a seriously high average 
 of infectious disease, and it is only when epidemic conditions of some gravity 
 manifest themselves that the resources of the department become strained, and 
 increased staff and service in all sections become necessary. The cost per 
 patient is thus in general considerably less when the hospital accommodation is 
 fully occupied than in periods of sound public health; but in the vast com- 
 munity of Glasgow, with its great aggregate of epidemic disease, a large and 
 steady supply of patients is gathered into the hospitals. The year 1892-93 
 was marked by a serious outbreak of scarlet fever, and a development of 
 small-pox of quite unexampled extent and severity in recent experience. 
 In the year ended 31st May, 1893, the number of cases of scarlet fever 
 treated was 3452, of which 2550 were taken to Belvidere and 902 were
 
 214 ' MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 treated in Parliamentary Road. In the same period 434 cases of small-pox 
 were dealt with in the small-pox hospital. The expenditure of the financial 
 year 1895-96 of the City hospitals amounted to ^^36,383, the Parliamentary 
 Road establishment being responsible for ;^ 10,094, Belvidere Fever Hospital 
 ;^24,8o5, and the cost of the Small-pox Hospital reached only ;^I483. 
 The proportion of the expenditure at Knightswood Hospital appertaining to 
 the City was ;^i86o, thus bringing up the total cost of hospital work for 
 the year to upwards of ;^3 8,000. The total cost of the Sanitary Department 
 to the City for that year was <^7 9,101, nearly the whole of which amount was 
 met by assessments under the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1867, and the 
 Glasgow Police Act, 1 866. 
 
 From the day on which the Sanitary Department re-opened the Parlia- 
 mentary Road Hospital — the 26th of April, 1865 — till the 31st of May, 
 1894, there have been treated in the various municipal hospitals of Glasgow 
 a grand total of 74,295 cases, of which 8073 ended fatally, a proportion 
 of iO'6 per cent, of mortality. Parliamentary Road, in twenty-nine years 
 and one month, has a record of 16,796 cases with 1807 deaths, a mortality 
 of iO'8 per cent.; Belvidere Fever Hospital, from 25th December, 1870, 
 till 31st May, 1894, had 56,320 cases and 6195 deaths, or a mortality 
 equal to i i per cent. ; and in the Small-pox Hospital from 6th December, 
 1877, till 31st May, 1894, there were 1179 cases, resulting in 71 deaths, 
 equal to 6 per cent, of mortality. It is proper to observe that the small- 
 pox cases themselves numbered only 811, more than half of which occurred 
 in the year 1892-93, and the total number of deaths from that disease was 
 63, a mortality percentage of 7"8. The balance is represented by fever 
 cases proper treated in the small-pox wards, when the latter disease was 
 little prevalent, or altogether absent, as already explained. The mortality 
 rate is, no doubt, in excess of what occurs in private practice, a circum- 
 stance not to be wondered at in view of the feeble vitality of a large portion 
 of the patients conveyed to the public hospitals. 
 
 And what is the outcome of the stupendous work of the Municipality 
 of Glasgow towards improving the health and bettering the conditions of 
 life of the vast lower stratum of the community? Between the Improvement 
 Trust and the Police Commissioners millions of money have been expended, 
 and for thirty years an increasing warfare has been kept up against dirt, 
 darkness, and disease. Has the result been commensurate with the effort 
 and the expenditure ? Before answering the question, it is well to bear in 
 mind that frightful as were the conditions thirty years ago, there is no reason 
 to believe that the City had sounded the lowest depths of possible human 
 existence. Indeed it is perfectly certain that with a policy of laissez-faire, 
 the evils amid which the poor lived and died would have increased in 
 accelerating ratio. There is nothing in the form of a shelter into which 
 human beings will not creep and seek to establish themselves, no structure
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. IV. TREATMENT OF DISEASE 215 
 
 is too mean, dirty, disreputable, and broken down to be an object of the 
 avarice of rapacious and unprincipled owners. What might have been, to 
 what depths of deadly misery the meaner parts of the City might have 
 sunk, it is almost impossible to imagine. The conditions were already on 
 the score of public safety unbearable in 1866, and the drastic remedies of 
 the municipality were not applied a day too soon. 
 
 A brief study of the record of mortality from zymotic diseases for forty 
 years, from the period when the Scottish Registration Act came into opera- 
 tion in 1855 to the end of 1894, affords a most striking and satisfactory 
 justification of all that has been done and expended in Glasgow by the 
 sanitary authorities. Dividing the period into decades we get ten years of 
 presanitary experience, ten in which the sanitary authorities were groping 
 their way towards system and order, and two lapses of ten in which results 
 began to manifest themselves. For the purposes of comparison Dr. Russell 
 has reduced the total mortality to a standard of death-rates per million, 
 brincrins out the following remarkable figures : 
 
 
 Zymotics. 
 
 Phthisis. 
 
 1855-64, - 
 
 - 7,841 
 
 3,918 
 
 1865-74, - 
 
 - 7,377 
 
 3,940 
 
 1875-84, - 
 
 - 5,056 
 
 3,396 
 
 1885-94, - 
 
 - 3,822 
 
 2,458 
 
 Other Diseases 
 of Lungs.* 
 
 Other Causes. 
 
 All Causes 
 
 5,170 
 
 13,121 
 
 30,050 
 
 6,522 
 
 12,692 
 
 30,530 
 
 6,322 
 
 12,113 
 
 26,886 
 
 5,329 
 
 11,566 
 
 23,175 
 
 * Exclusive of croup. 
 
 Contrasting the experience of the first and last ten years of the period 
 we have a decrease of 23 per cent, on the total death-rate, almost entirely 
 due to zymotics and phthisis, the decrease in the former alone being no 
 less than 51 per cent., and on the latter it amounts to 37 per cent, on the 
 mortality. In 1864 — the year previous to the beginning of hospital work — 
 in a population of 420,738 persons, there were 13,674 deaths; thirty years 
 later, in a population increased to 686,820, almost 60 per cent, the number 
 of deaths reached precisely the same figure, 13,674. 
 
 There is not in the list a single infectious disease which has entirely 
 resisted the ameliorative efforts of the sanitary authorities. Some have 
 proved themselves much more amenable to control than others, a circumstance 
 which is sufficiently accounted for by the peculiarities of the diseases them- 
 selves. Typhus may be said to be practically extirpated. In the ten 
 years, 1855-64, the deaths from that disease numbered 5558; in the 
 decade ending 1894 they were only 167. From small-pox the deaths in 
 the first period were 2197, in the last they were reduced to 45. Enteric 
 fever was not separately registered till 1865. In the ten years, 1865-74, 
 the deaths it caused numbered 2251; for 1885-94 the deaths registered 
 were 11 38. With children's diseases the success is not so striking. Scarlet 
 fever is the most formidable of all the enemies with which the sanitary
 
 2l6 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 powers have to cope. It is never absent, and in spite of all precautions it 
 becomes epidemic in unexpected quarters. Yet it also has been sensibly- 
 curbed. In the first decennium, 1855-64, it contributed a total of 4770 
 deaths; in the next period, 1865-74, epidemics raised the deaths to 6607; 
 but thenceforth a notable decrease set in, and for 1885-94 the total deaths 
 amounted only to 2269. Of all zymotic diseases measles appears to be 
 the least amenable to public control. In the ten years ended 1864 measles 
 caused 3474 deaths; in the ten years ended 1894 the deaths 4642. It 
 would thus appear that measles is the one zymotic disease which has baffled 
 the efforts of the sanitary officials, and the reason is not far to seek. " The 
 acute stage of infectivity," says Dr. Russell, " is over before the acute stage 
 of the disease is fully established." Before the case is removed the most of 
 the damage is done. The record of whooping-cough is also one of obstinate 
 tenacity, and it is not a little remarkable that this disease, popularly regarded 
 as more troublesome than dangerous, is the most persistent, formidable, and 
 fatal of all our zymotics. In the ten years, 1855-64, it claimed 6377 
 victims; in the decennium ended in 1894 it was the cause of 6223 deaths, 
 and taking the increase of population into account — in the end nearly double — 
 the decreased mortality cannot be regarded as other than highly satisfactory. 
 The course of diarrhoeal disease has in Glasgow been more influenced by 
 water supply than by any other cause. From 1 860 Loch Katrine water, 
 probably the purest supply in the world, has been turned on in Glasgow. 
 The cholera epidemic of 1854, when part of the water of the City was 
 drawn from the Clyde, carried off 3886 victims, 12 per thousand of the 
 population; cholera again broke out in 1866, but then it caused only 68 
 deaths in all, and obtained no real hold on the people. The deaths from 
 diarrhoea, dysentry, and cholera in the ten years ended 1864 came in all 
 to 4049, 2719 in the first five years when water supply was impure; in the 
 ten years, 1885-94, there occurred 3034 deaths from this class of disease. 
 It is in the case of children under one year of age that these diseases maintain 
 a high and persistent average death-rate, and with these the sanitary authori- 
 ties are comparatively powerless — " the mother," as Dr. Russell remarks, " is 
 after all the domestic sanitary inspector. In 1874 a simple tract on the 
 necessity of domestic cleanliness in air, clothes, and food was drawn up by 
 Dr. Russell, and with the permission of the Registrar General, a copy is 
 given to every person who in Glasgow registers a birth. In dealing with 
 such intimate domestic matters as the care of children, it is found that the 
 services of the female Sanitary Inspectors are of great value. Diphtheria 
 was not recognized and separately classified till 1857, and it has been steadily 
 increasing since, but apparently at the expense of its ally croup. Summing 
 the deaths under these two diseases together, a distinct but not notable 
 decrease in the proportion of fatal cases is brought out. For the ten years, 
 1855-64, they together were responsible for 2327 deaths; in the ten years
 
 HEALTH DEPARTMENT. IV. TREATMENT OF DISEASE 
 
 217 
 
 ended 1894 they caused 2581 deaths. Of the minor zymotics, erysipelas, 
 puerperal fever, influenza, etc., it is sufficient to say that the ten years, 1855-64, 
 record of deaths amounted to 4330 ; while for the later ten years 1885-94, in 
 the greatly increased population, they occasioned 4044 deaths. 
 
 The aggregate of disease, suffering, and deadly misery which has been 
 warded off has surely been a sufficient sanction for the expenditure by the 
 Health Committee and an ample reward for their labours. And be it re- 
 membered it is not in zymotic diseases alone that the beneficial influence of the 
 public sanitary work has been experienced. It is with such diseases that the 
 department is primarily concerned, but whatever tends to diminish and check 
 infection, in like manner reduces the potency and fatality of every other class 
 of disease. The stamina of the entire population has been improved, their 
 vitality has been quickened, and the average longevity has been distinctly 
 increased. Glasgow, from being an unhealthy City with an annual death-rate 
 per thousand of from 30 to 33, has become a really healthy community with a 
 death-rate ranging from 20 to 23, a fairly satisfactory condition as great urban 
 populations go. The Police Commissioners, aided by the Improvement 
 Trustees and the Water Trustees, the Municipality of Glasgow in fact, for 
 under different names they are the same body, have taken away the reproach 
 from the City ; they undoubtedly faced a Herculean task — they have cleaned 
 an Augean stable. Their labours are by no means at an end, nor has the 
 goal been reached. What they have accomplished only points hopefully to 
 what is possible yet to do. Every coign of vantage secured, every repulse of 
 the dread foe effected, gives new opportunities of successful attack, and in- 
 creases the hope of ultimate victory all along the line. It has been demonstrated 
 that zymotic diseases can be curbed and controlled — already their fatality in 
 Glasgow has been decreased by 50 per cent. The contest in which these 
 results have been attained has developed the aggressive skill of the assailants, 
 and with their increased knowledge and improved methods it should be 
 possible in the future to work even greater havoc in the weakened strongholds 
 of the foe. That a community living under the highly artificial conditions of 
 modern city life should attain entire immunity from disease is too much to 
 expect. We shall have the sick and the feeble as well as the poor always 
 with us. But that fact notwithstanding every citizen should have at least 
 the possibility of living a healthy, comfortable, and useful life, and towards 
 that ideal condition, yet in the dim and distant future, the efforts of the 
 Sanitary Department are entirely directed.
 
 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 of 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 Improve- 
 ment Trust : General results : Pioneer work : Duties in the future. 
 
 " Various portions of the City of Glasgow are so built, and the buildings 
 so densely inhabited, as to be highly injurious to the moral and physical 
 welfare of the inhabitants." So runs the preamble of the City Improvement 
 Act of 1866, and the measured words of the parliamentary document had 
 ample warrant in the conditions under which a large proportion of the 
 humbler citizens existed. The injurious conditions were not of recent origin, 
 but filthy foetid crowded dens do not sweeten with age, their horrors in- 
 crease in ever-accelerating ratio. When the vivid pictures of overcrowding 
 in dirty dark dens, drawn by impartial observers early in the century, are 
 realized, when we are told that the devastating plague of typhus was never 
 absent, and that it frequently burst into epidemic eruptions of deadly 
 violence, when we think of the dense accumulation of misery, vice, crime, 
 and disease, of all that makes human life repulsive and unbearable, we are 
 ready to wonder that official persons spoke with complacency and satisfaction 
 of the affairs of Glasgow, and that for their own protection the citizens did 
 not insist on the application of curative measures to the terrible evils. Why 
 in particular, we wonder, did not that great-souled reformer. Dr. Thomas 
 Chalmers, see that before he could make any permanent impression on the
 
 THE IMPROVEMENT TRUST 
 
 219 
 
 moral condition of the people for whom he laboured so well, it was necessary 
 that they should be enabled to live under conditions compatible not only 
 with health but with ordinary self-respect? About 1820, it is true, the 
 evils of overcrowding were of comparatively recent origin, and their train of 
 attendant horrors was only beginning to be manifest. The point of view 
 was, moreover, in important subjects very different. Sanitary science did 
 not exist, preventive medicine was a term unknown, an epidemic was " a 
 visitation of God " to be borne as we now bear a severe winter, and there 
 was scarcely a glimmering conception that such visitations could be warded 
 off by human agency. And the " rights of property " were also much more 
 sacred in the first quarter of the century than they are at its close, land- 
 lordism was a powerful force, an oligarchal town council was not likely to 
 challenge the landlords' position, and democracy had not yet raised its head. 
 There was little for the people except to suffer in dumb, hopeless misery : 
 to wallow on in the increasing filth and wretchedness of their hovels, and 
 to send out periodical reminders of their existence and condition in the 
 form of epidemic scourages which brought death and woe into many helplessly 
 consenting households. 
 
 The overcrowding which worked deadly havoc in Glasgow cannot be 
 traced further back than the last quarter of the eighteenth century. It was 
 when cotton spinning on the factory system was introduced that the population 
 began to increase with phenomenal rapidity, large masses of people from 
 rural villages crowded into the City, and within its narrow limits they had 
 to find somewhere to lay their heads. The ancient lines of street were 
 closely built up, but behind the houses there were ample open gardens. 
 These were essentials of both comfort and decency of the homes ; but for 
 the poor incomers they were unattainable luxuries, the gardens were built 
 over with tenements so closely packed together as to leave bare means of 
 access to their doors and stairs, the front houses were deserted by their 
 well-to-do occupiers, who withdrew to the more open outskirts, and their 
 dwellings were divided up into many separate houses of seldom more than 
 one apartment. There was no power to stay this reckless and detrimental 
 activity, and all the region on both sides of the High Street from the 
 College downwards, the Gallowgate, the Trongate west to Stockwell Street, 
 and thence to the river and the Saltmarket were packed generally so closely 
 that neighbours could shake hands or rather fight from their windows 
 across the narrow space left between tenements. And this, be it remem- 
 bered, was the state of things when the water supply was still obtained 
 from public wells, when sewers were unknown and drains had no existence, 
 and when filth was private property to be removed only when a price could 
 be obtained for it. 
 
 The graver evils of overcrowding did not make themselves at first felt 
 when the population was fresh from rural life, when the properties were
 
 220 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 comparatively new, and when walls and soil were not yet saturated with 
 filth. But morally and physically the people quickly deteriorated, houses 
 were allowed to fall into wretched disorder, and everywhere about were 
 neglect, misery, and dirt. Such an outcome was inevitable ; inevitable also 
 were crime and disease, and these evils, begun in such impenetrable burrows, 
 increased in amount and intensity with alarming speed till they became a 
 standing menace to the social fabric. To aggravate the evils of the situation 
 there grew up in this population a mass of human beings, poor wretched 
 outcasts, who possessed no home and had no personal goods whatever. For 
 these, when they could afford a copper or two, lodging-houses were provided 
 by enterprising persons, and the crowding, dirt, and moral confusion in these 
 establishments were almost incredible. Let one example suffice. In 1818 
 Professor Graham, of Glasgow University, inspected a lodging-house which 
 consisted " of two rooms separated by boards, the first i 3 feet by i i , the other 
 15 feet by 8." In these, he says, "twenty-three of the lowest class of Irish 
 were lately lodged. To-day there are fourteen, of whom two are confined with 
 fever, three are convalescent, and only one has hitherto escaped. There are 
 only three beds in this house, denominated with the facetiousness which 
 enables an Irishman to joke with his own misery ' flea barracks,' one of 
 them in a press half-way up the wall, the others wooden frames on which 
 are laid some shavings of wood scantily covered with dirty rags." 
 
 From time to time public attention was officially called to the horrors 
 of the wynds and closes, and the evils themselves attain such gigantic pro- 
 portions as to compel every thoughtful citizen to regard them with the gravest 
 concern. Tentative efforts were made not only by the Corporation, but by 
 private citizens also to grapple with the problem, but clearly the task was too 
 vast for restricted effort, and even the Corporation had to obtain exceptional 
 powers to cope with it. 
 
 Hence the City Improvement Act of 1866, the first impulse to which was 
 given by a private association of benevolent citizens, wealthy men, who 
 attempted the task of buying up some of the worst areas with the view of 
 laying out proper streets through them, and thereafter having buildings of a 
 decent and wholesome character erected on the vacant spaces. But the want 
 of compulsory powers rendered their efforts futile, and besides it was painfully 
 obvious that the task of transforming the core of the City required broader 
 shoulders than those of private citizens. Among the committee concerned 
 in the benevolent but inadequate enterprise was Lord Provost Blackie, and 
 he, with a full knowledge of the extent and the difficulties of the undertaking, 
 guided a committee appointed in 1865 by the Town Council in their con- 
 sideration of the provisions of a draft Improvement Bill. Skilfully pioneered, 
 the Bill was approved of by the Town Council without opposition from the 
 public or from property owners, and it passed smoothly through both Houses 
 of Parliament, receiving royal assent on the i ith June, 1866. After the
 
 THE IMPROVEMENT TRUST 221 
 
 Bill was passed, it is right to mention that the association of gentlemen 
 above alluded to handed over to the Improvement Trustees the whole of the 
 properties they had acquired at purchase price. 
 
 Under the 1866 Act the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council 
 were appointed trustees for carrying out its purposes and to exercise its 
 powers. These were, in brief, to acquire houses and land within certain 
 defined compulsory areas, to purchase other lands by agreement, to alter, 
 widen, and divert existing streets, and to form new streets as shown on the 
 plans submitted to Parliament, to take down existing buildings and to sell 
 the materials thereof, to lay out lands so opened up of new, and to sell or 
 dispose of the grounds and buildings they may acquire on lease or on feu 
 as they may deem proper. Power was also given to the trustees to erect 
 buildings on their lands, and to sell or lease the same. Under certain restric- 
 tions power was given to the trustees to eject tenants from the properties 
 they acquired, and generally, it may be said, they were endowed with all 
 the powers and rights of any ordinary Glasgow land and house owner. 
 
 The area scheduled under the Act amounted to only 88 acres, but it 
 contained a population of upwards of 51,000 persons. It lay principally in 
 the central district of the City on both sides of the High Street, the 
 Saltmarket, the Trongate westward to King Street on the south, and to 
 South Albion Street on the north side, and the western section of Gallowgate. 
 Through the Calton district there were also several areas scheduled, and 
 one at Bridgeton, from Bridgeton Cross to the Green by what is now 
 James Street. On the south side the areas scheduled included the greater 
 part of the old village of Gorbals and part of Hutchesontown. The powers 
 for compulsory acquiring the properties in these scheduled areas were limited 
 to five years from the passing of the measure, but under the Act passed in 
 1 87 I that period was extended five years more. The powers of compulsory 
 purchase thus expired in June, 1876. 
 
 It was calculated that the entire cost of the scheme to the ratepayers might 
 amount to half a million, and to meet that power of imposing an assessment 
 was conferred on the trustees to the amount of 6d. per £ over the first 
 five years, and at the rate of 3d. per £ for the remaining ten years of the 
 period. The tax was leviable on the occupiers of property alone. Borrowing 
 powers to the extent of i^ 1,2 50,000 were also conferred on the trustees. 
 The trustees were further empowered to acquire a new park in the north- 
 eastern district of the City, and to expend for that purpose a sum not 
 exceeding ^40,000. 
 
 Armed with these powers the trustees proceeded without delay to exercise 
 their functions. The Act received royal assent on i ith June, 1866. On 
 1st August following the trustees held their first meeting, and the necessary 
 committees for carrying out the provisions of the statute were appointed, 
 and on the 6th of September the assessment for the year was fixed at 6d.
 
 222 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 per £ — the maximum rate exigible. Up till this time rosy-coloured anticipa- 
 tions of the financial success of the undertaking had possessed the public 
 mind, and a fine glow of enthusiasm was evoked for a gigantic work of 
 benevolence, which was in their estimation not only to cost nothing, but 
 which the more sanguine expected would be as profitable as it was praise- 
 worthy. It was argued that the rotten slum properties would be acquired 
 for small sums, and that the price to be realized from stances on the broad 
 and spacious streets to be formed would more than recoup the whole 
 expenditure of the trustees. Supported by public acclaim, and resolved on 
 a thorough policy, the trustees, who did not share in these Utopian views, 
 felt warranted in exercising their powers to the full. But there was in store 
 for them a rude shock, the flimsy fabric of public enthusiasm disappeared at 
 the first intimation that to begin with the occupant ratepayers would be 
 called on to bear an addition so heavy to their local taxes. The ratepayer 
 was injured ; and immediately a storm of indignation and protest took 
 the place of the sentimental sympathy of the earlier stages. Lord Provost 
 Blackie had been throughout an eager and consistent supporter of the scheme, 
 he had been an active member of the voluntary association which began 
 the work taken up by the Town Council, he pioneered the Bill through 
 Parliament, and he was first chairman of the Improvement Committees. 
 His term of office expired within a few weeks after the imposition of the 
 obnoxious sixpence. He was anxious to return to the Council chiefly that 
 he might continue his work on the Improvement Trust, but to the lasting 
 disgrace of Glasgow, the man who, more than almost any other, did a great 
 work for the health, the moral sweetness, the credit of the City, was rejected 
 by his unrighteously indignant constituents. The vessel which had been 
 so harmoniously constructed, and which was launched smoothly amid the 
 paeans of praise thus encountered stormy weather from the very beginning 
 of its beneficent voyage. No longer had the trustees the favouring gale of 
 united public opinion to encourage and urge them on, and within the 
 Council, as well as outside, opinion was much divided, criticism was hot 
 and acrimonious, and obstruction rampant and obstinate. 
 
 No doubt a serious blot on the Act was the clause which threw the burden 
 of the rate wholly on occupiers. The powers and provisions of the Act 
 affected property alone, the operations of the trustees could not fail to be 
 beneficial generally to owners of property throughout the City, and nearly 
 all the money they were authorized to expend would find its way into the 
 pockets of landlords and others interested in house property. That from 
 such a burden landlords should be nominally exempt appeared strange, 
 and the circumstance became and remained the one great rock of offence in 
 measure. It was vain to argue, in the presence of so practical a grievance, 
 that all such imposts distribute themselves, and that the first payer is in 
 various ways recouped. Men who have a big tax paper thrust into their
 
 THE IMPROVEMENT TRUST 
 
 223 
 
 hands do not give much heed to fine spun theories, and the occupiers con- 
 sidered that they were unfairly treated. When their grievance assumed the 
 form of a tax of a farthing it became an affliction which could be borne 
 with much calmer resignation than an impost of 6d. per pound, and since 
 in 1896 the Improvement rate ceased to be levied the difficulty has 
 disappeared. 
 
 But though criticised and obstructed the trustees were undeterred. At 
 the close of the first financial year the trustees had received as the proceeds of 
 the sixpence rate a sum of iJ^3 8,000, they had raised loans to the amount 
 of ;i^i 44,000, and from rents of properties they received ^1500. In the 
 purchase of properties a beginning had been made to the modest extent 
 of ^50,000 only. For the second year the rate of assessment was after 
 much discussion fixed at fourpence, and from that time onwards the work 
 of the Trust proceeded on a scale commensurate with the vastness of the 
 task which lay before it. Large sums of money were borrowed, extensive 
 purchases were made, demolition at first went on apace, and builders were 
 found ready to take up building areas at sufficiently remunerative feu duties 
 and ground annuals. The earlier years of these operations coincided with a 
 period of abnormal inflation and excitement in the building trade and the 
 property market. Great fortunes were beginning to be made, on paper 
 chiefly, by speculators in house property. Prices, values, and rents went 
 up by leaps and bounds, and the City Improvement Trustees, now the most 
 extensive owners of house property in the City, shared in the general boom of 
 prosperity. At a time when building speculation was most active and 
 apparently most prosperous, about the end of 1874, ^"^ after the Trust 
 had been eight years in active operation, its position and prospects were 
 thus officially stated. On the purchase of property i^i,3 17,700 had been 
 expended, and for the completion of the undertaking it was estimated 
 that a further sum of ^184,500 would be required. On the formation of 
 streets, sewers, etc., the expenditure was stated at ;^70,ioo, the cost of 
 management, including parliamentary expenses, had been ;^7 0,800, and the 
 future management expenses were estimated at ^60,000. In purchasing 
 and laying out Alexandra Park ^40,000 had in 1871 been expended. 
 Thus the total past and prospective expenditure of the Trust was at this 
 time stated at i^ 1,743, 300, let us say almost one million and three quarters 
 sterling. Against this expenditure the column of assets showed as the price 
 of properties sold ;i^229,8oo, of which ;^i 2,000 remained to be paid; the 
 capital value of feu duties and ground annuals created was estimated at 
 £}^\2,AtOO, the ground on hand available for sale was estimated to be worth 
 ;C886,400, the proceeds of rates till this time were ^222,600, and an impost 
 for the next six years at the rate of twopence yearly was expected to realize 
 ;^i 25,000. These figures, amounting roundly to i^i, 776,000, showed that 
 at the close of the period for which rating powers then existed, the period
 
 224 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 moreover at which it was then expected the Trust would be wound up, there 
 would remain a surplus of i^3 3,000, and the Glasgow public would have a 
 splendid park, a fine range of spacious streets, and healthy spaces for the 
 moderate expenditure of ^3 1 4,000 spread over a period of fifteen years. 
 
 Demolition of houses did not begin on any considerable scale till 1870, 
 but between that time and May, 1874, houses which had sheltered 15,425 
 persons were pulled down. The policy of the Trust was to scatter as far 
 as possible the dislodged population, to encourage the erection of houses 
 suitable for their wants on the outskirts, and in the vicinity of public works 
 where they might find employment. The trustees did not then contemplate 
 the erection of dwellings for the working population, being of opinion that 
 such was the function of private enterprise, and they deemed it impolitic 
 to compete with or in any way discourage the building trade. To become 
 philanthropic landlords they reasoned would be unjust competition with 
 and discouraging to private builders who necessarily sought a return for 
 their investments, and an unfair burden on the citizens generally. The 
 trustees, however, purchased the estates of Overnewton and Oatlands, situated 
 respectively in the western and south-western districts of the City, laying 
 them out for building on a liberal plan ; and the sites were speedily bought 
 up and occupied with a good class of dwelling-house. 
 
 But there was one class, and that the most abject in the City, the dwellers 
 in lodging-houses, for whom they were impelled by the revelations connected 
 with such establishments to make provision, and hence the erection of public 
 lodging-houses to which subsequent reference will be made. A good deal 
 of trouble was taken by the trustees to discover and record the movements 
 and subsequent housing of the population they displaced. The greater 
 proportion of these had dwelt in single apartments rented at from 2s. 6d. 
 to 3s. 6d. per month, and it was found that about one-third of such tenants 
 went to houses of more than one room. Of those who had occupied two 
 rooms rented at about 5s. monthly the greater part again went to the same 
 accommodation — about 10 per cent, to larger and 17 per cent, to smaller 
 houses. The greater part of those who occupied three and four apartments 
 contented themselves with fewer rooms; but the general conclusion was that 
 the operations of the Trust in all cases led to an increased expenditure 
 for house accommodation to the families removed. For with justice it was 
 remarked, that to speak of three or four apartments when such houses yielded 
 a rent of only from 5 s. to 8s. 6d. per month " was a mere fiction and a 
 fiction of a very tragic kind." In the old rooms it was found that the 
 average number of inmates in single apartment houses was 3*6 against 3*3 
 in the houses to which they removed. In two room houses the average was 
 4"6 for both old and new, in three room houses there were 4*3 in the old 
 and 4"9 in the new, and the so-called four rooms of the old accommodated 
 5 '6 and new G'l inhabitants.
 
 THE IMPROVEMENT TRUST 225 
 
 It will be seen that at the end of 1874 the trustees considered their 
 task, so far as regards the purchasing of property, nearly at an end. For 
 about three years thereafter demolition and clearing went on apace — the 
 bidding for building stances continued to be brisk, the building trade and 
 the house property market appeared to be in a thriving condition. But 
 early in 1878 all business perceptibly slackened, a most uneasy feeling 
 began to spread as to the soundness of building speculations in Glasgow, 
 and bankruptcies became ominously frequent. The crisis and the crash 
 came late in the year with the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank and 
 the commercial confusion which accompanied and followed that great disaster. 
 In the midst of failure, depreciation, and stagnation the Improvement Trustees 
 found themselves the possessors of great areas of cleared land, and a huge 
 aggregate of the meanest and most insanitary property in the City. Their 
 land was unsaleable, much of what they had sold for large prices, and on 
 which costly tenements had been erected, became unprofitable and ultimately 
 was thrown back upon their hands, and they were powerless to amend and 
 improve the properties of which they had become owners. The period, 
 moreover, within which the trustees had power to levy assessments was 
 rapidly approaching expiry, and with seriously depreciated and unrealizable 
 assets, they found themselves in a most awkward dilemma. Raised up to 
 purify and purge the City, to sweep away slums and dens of pestilence, 
 they were, and were forced to remain, the owners of some of the meanest 
 property within the jurisdiction. And how could the Magistrates and 
 Town Council put into force the penalties of the law against private owners 
 of slums and insanitary houses, when they themselves owned such wretched 
 property ? 
 
 To free the trustees from their pecuniary difficulties further parliamentary 
 powers were clearly indispensable, and the Improvements Amendment Act 
 was consequently passed into law in 1880. In the preamble to this measure 
 the trustees narrate what they had already accomplished, and show the 
 difficulty into which they had come. They had, they say, acquired all 
 the lands they considered necessary under their compulsory powers, and they 
 also had become possessed of various other lands and houses by agreement. 
 They had constructed new streets and altered and diverted others, and 
 they had erected various lodging-houses and dwellings for the poorer classes. 
 They narrate that their power to levy assessments expires in 1881, that they 
 have borrowed on mortgage .^1,226,500, and on temporary loans ^^80,700, that 
 they have spent for purposes of the 1866 Act ^^1,869,100, less ;^379,400 
 received for properties sold by them. They had by the Act been entitled to 
 raise a sum estimated at i^5 16,000 had they levied the maximum rate; but 
 having imposed only sixpence the first year, fourpence the four following years, 
 threepence for two years thereafter, and thenceforth only twopence, they 
 estimated that with the two years' assessment yet to run they would realize 
 
 P
 
 226 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 in all only ;^373,ioo. In the course of their dealings they further state 
 that they had in selling land created feu duties and ground annuals to the 
 estimated value of ;i^5 50,100, and that they have on hand property valued at 
 ^791,400. The Act gave the trustees power to borrow ^^250,000 additional, 
 that is i^ 1, 5 00,000 in all, it removed the limitation of the period of assess- 
 ment, but reduced the maximum to twopence per pound, and it gave power 
 to dispose of the lodging-houses they had erected to the Magistrates and 
 Council (Police). It also provided for the establishment of a Sinking 
 Fund to come into operation only after the works of the trustees are com- 
 pleted and the properties realized. The fund is to be such as will, within 
 twenty years, pay off the whole of the money then owing by the trustees, 
 and the powers of assessment are to be exercised only for providing that 
 fund and meeting the expenses of managing the Trust. Thus the winding 
 up of the Trust is indefinitely postponed, although its conclusion is, by the 
 terms of the Act, distinctly anticipated. 
 
 For about ten years, from 1878 till 1888, the energies of the trustees 
 were largely paralyzed. Efforts to obtain purchasers for vacant building 
 ground, even at reduced prices, were futile, and the trustees had unwillingly 
 to nurse their property, much of it condemned by themselves. But un- 
 occupied land in the heart of a busy city can be nursed only at a ruinous 
 expense. The situation of most of the vacant stances was such as to fit 
 them only for houses for the working people and for the smaller class of 
 shops. But the price at which the ground had been acquired by the Trust 
 rendered it impossible to erect houses which could be cheaply rented, and 
 so a deadlock arose. In the end the trustees were, with great hesitation, 
 forced to exercise the powers which the 1866 Act conferred on them, these 
 being not only to lease or feu their lands, but " to erect buildings thereon, 
 and to dispose thereof and lease the same." To a small extent, at an early 
 stage, they had exercised their building powers, chiefly with a view of 
 providing models for private builders. In the Drygate they erected two 
 tenements at a cost of ;^3426. They contained each twelve houses of two 
 rooms, at from ;i^8 los. to £g 15s. yearly, and seven houses of a single 
 apartment, let at from ^5 14s. to £6 los. Nothing further in house 
 building was done till, in 1888, when, to quote from Bailie Chisholm 
 (^Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, 1896), "after long dis- 
 cussions, and with fear and trembling, Block No. i, east side of Saltmarket, 
 corner of Steel Street, was begun. This was followed by Block No. 2, to 
 the north of No. i ; and thereafter, but specially during the last four years, 
 there have been erected, on vacant ground in most cases, and on the site of 
 ruinous and disreputable tenements in others, buildings consisting of shops 
 and dwelling-houses at a cost of ;^i2 5,ooo." 
 
 " Exclusive of tenements that are at present in course of erection in Kirk 
 Street, Calton, Saltmarket, and neighbourhood, the Trust owns considerably
 
 THE IMPROVEMENT TRUST 227 
 
 over a thousand dwelling-houses, accommodating a population of nearly 
 6000. The entire property is superintended by a general manager, who 
 has under him two caretakers. These latter visit regularly and frequently the 
 household property, and see that it is kept in a condition of cleanliness and 
 comfort, and that one or two careless or ill-behaved tenants are not allowed 
 to destroy the peace of the tidy and well-doing." 
 
 " It has to be acknowledged that, until quite recently, the Trust did 
 little in the way of erecting cheap dwellings for the very poor. Two 
 explanations may be offered of this admitted fact. First of all, it was 
 thought that a fair, if not a sufficient, provision for this class was already 
 in existence ; and, in the second place, the localities in which the alternative 
 of building was first forced upon the Trust were so situated that cheap 
 dwellings were an impossibility, no matter how low the cost of the buildings 
 might be, owing to the price of the ground. But latterly, when the more 
 clamant cases of Saltmarket and Trongate have been dealt with, the Trust 
 has addressed, and is addressing itself, in Rottenrow, and St. James' Road, 
 Stobcross Street, Kirk Street, and Cumberland Street, Calton, to the pro- 
 viding of comfortable and sanitary dwellings for poor people, at an annual 
 rent of from i^4 los. for a well-equipped single room, upwards." 
 
 From the earliest stages of their experience the trustees recognized 
 that the necessity lay on them to provide for the dregs of the population 
 which found occasional shelter in the numerous lodging-houses scattered 
 through the wynds and closes. That the majority of these lodgers belonged 
 to or were dangerously associated with the criminal classes, that all were 
 necessarily familiar with vice in its most loathsome form, it is needless 
 to say. These lodging-houses were the homes, the breeding places, the 
 nurseries of the criminal population, and when many of them by purchase 
 fell into the hands of the trustees, and were promptly shut up, the 
 congestion of others only aggravated their condition. The existence of the 
 low lodger class could not be ignored, and that it embraced a large proportion 
 of the ordinary customers of the police constable was no reason why the 
 unfortunates should continue to be the prey of harpies worse than themselves. 
 Consequently it was resolved that lodging-houses should be established 
 under the auspices of the Improvement Trust, in which it would be possible 
 for the very humblest to exist under conditions not inconsistent with decency, 
 cleanliness, and self-respect. In 1870 two such establishments erected by 
 the trustees were opened — one in the Drygate for males, and the other in 
 East Russell Street for women. Since that time these homes have been 
 greatly enlarged, and others at intervals have been built and occupied, till 
 now there are seven Corporation lodging-houses in different districts of the 
 town, giving in all nightly accommodation for 2227 persons. Each lodger 
 has a separate cubicle in a spacious dormitory, a wooden partition seven 
 feet high separating each, and a comfortable bed with daily-aired and weekly-
 
 228 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 changed bed-clothes. The air-space in the dormitories allowed to each cubicle 
 at first was 331 feet; in the latest additions it is 435 feet. The dormi- 
 tories must be vacated every morning at eight o'clock, but the lodger has 
 the right to the use of the establishment for twenty-four hours. He has 
 the use of a kitchen provided with a hot plate, cooking utensils, and dishes, 
 and from a shop within the establishment he can buy such uncooked food 
 as he wishes. A commodious dining-hall is at his disposal, and in each 
 there is an ample and airy day hall and recreation room. When it is 
 added that the lodgers have bath and lavatory accommodation and con- 
 veniences for washing and drying clothes, and all this for the modest payment 
 of from 3|d. to 4id. daily — women's house, 3d. to 4d. — it may look as if the 
 attractions of the institutions are of a superlative order. " The Corporation 
 lodging-houses," says Bailie Chisholm, " have done far more than provided 
 comfortable accommodation for their own residents. They have set up a 
 standard of comfort to which others have been compelled to conform. And 
 now, under the combined influences of this healthy rivalry, and of more 
 stringent sanitary regulations, the old pestilential lodging-houses have dis- 
 appeared from our midst." 
 
 " The latest, and, in some respects," continues the Bailie, " the most inter- 
 esting, addition to the Trust's lodging-house enterprise is that which, though not 
 yet completed, has already attained considerable notoriety as ' The Family 
 Home.' This is not a home, as many seem to think, in which thriftless, careless 
 fathers and mothers are to be relieved of all responsibility to their children, 
 and allowed or invited to throw the care of them over on a maternal cor- 
 poration. It is an effort to enable a most deserving class to do better for 
 themselves and their children than without such assistance they could possibly 
 do. If one were asked what class of the community is the most helpless, 
 and stands most in need of guidance and aid, I am sure a very little con- 
 sideration would suggest this to many as the most likely answer : It is poor 
 labourers who have lost their v.aves, and have three or four young children, 
 or young widows who are similarly left. Just think what these people have 
 to do. To go out at five or six in the morning is nothing in itself, but 
 then what about their own food, and especially what about their children ? 
 Are they to be locked in, or locked out, or left their own masters with an 
 open door ? The man may get some woman to look after his children, but 
 all he can afford to give her is such a trifle that in many cases the woman 
 is unsuitable, and proves a curse both to him and his children. Then, when 
 the man comes home, or to turn to the other sex, when the widowed m.other 
 comes home, worn out with a day's charring, or some such employment, is 
 it reasonable to expect her to begin and scrub out her house, take her turn 
 at the stair, and attend to all the demands which our modern police regula- 
 tions properly make ? To expect all that is to expect the impossible, and 
 the condition of Glasgow and Glasgow poor to-day is to a large extent
 
 THE IMPROVEMENT TRUST 229 
 
 traceable to the unreasonable burdens that are laid on such shoulders, already 
 overtaxed." 
 
 " The Family Home is designed for widows, or for widowers with young 
 children. It consists of 160 single rooms, each capable of accommodating 
 one adult and three children. Each room is isolated, plainly furnished, heated 
 with hot water, and lit with electricity. The cleaning therefore will be 
 reduced to a minimum. The children will be taken charge of during the 
 day, those of them of school age will be sent to school, those under it will 
 be taken care of in the home, where a creche, a general recreation room, 
 and a cooking and dining room are all provided. It is not meant to be a 
 charitable institution. Each resident will pay a daily charge to cover the 
 rent of the room, and the care of, and food for the children. The Family 
 Home is meant to help those who seem to need it most, to spend their 
 little earnings to the best advantage for themselves and for those dependent 
 on them." 
 
 It cannot fail to strike the most casual observer that it is in the meanest 
 and most impoverished localities of every town that the whisky shop is 
 found most thickly planted, and apparently most flourishing. It is like a 
 fungus growth which finds its feeding ground in the dark, damp recesses where 
 higher life refuses to exist. In this trade the trustees have neither part nor 
 lot. Among the properties they acquired there were, as might be expected, 
 many licensed houses, which commercially represented a large money value. 
 From the first it was a resolution of the trustees that no license of any kind 
 for the sale of intoxicating liquors should be granted for new premises owned 
 by them, and, as opportunity offered, the licenses held by tenants were with- 
 drawn, till now not a drop of drink can be sold in any building over which 
 they have control. 
 
 Concurrently with the operations of the Improvement Trust other agencies 
 have been at work which, in only a lesser degree, have been powerful in 
 sweeping away slums, and forming lungs in the congested and insanitary 
 areas. Chief of these are the great railway works which have been carried 
 through the heart of the City. Right through the centre of several of the 
 very worst areas in the neighbourhood of the Cross, Gallowgate, Saltmarket, 
 and the Bridgegate, the City Union Railway has been formed. The 
 Glasgow and South-Western and the North British, in making their joint 
 depot in the High Street, cleared away the squalid Boar's Head Close, the 
 Vennels, the Havannah and much wretched property lying between the old 
 College and Duke Street, and in the formation of the short Bridgeton 
 line valuable clearances were also made. At several points also the 
 formation of the Caledonian Central Railway has been highly beneficial, 
 especially in the neighbourhood of Glasgow Cross, and again at Stobcross 
 Street, Anderston. 
 
 And while the Magistrates and Town Council Improvement Trustees were
 
 230 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 engrossed in their duties, improving not only compulsory areas, but also 
 effecting clearances in districts not expressly scheduled in the Acts, the same 
 Council as Police Commissioners were actively employed in similar tasks in 
 other areas. In 1873, and again in 1877, parliamentary powers were 
 conferred on the Police Board to alter, widen, and convert streets, and to 
 form new streets in various parts of the City. The primary object of these 
 measures, undoubtedly, was the improvement of roadways and communication 
 in the various scheduled districts ; but incidentally also valuable sanitary 
 improvements were effected under authorized operations, especially in Stob- 
 cross Street and the streets which connect it with the Harbour of Glasgow, 
 and in the region of Stirling Road and Dobbie's Loan, and in Castle Street, 
 etc. These improvements were executed at a cost of about ^223,000, and 
 in 1894 the Board received the sanction of Parliament to transfer to the 
 Improvement Trustees the properties, feu duties, and ground annuals acquired 
 in connection with the undertakings. Of these properties the trustees became 
 possessed at the price of ;^ 103,200. 
 
 In the work of ameliorating the domestic life of the poorest, the Improve- 
 ment Trustees have also not been without private assistance. Various associa- 
 tions have in their own ways set themselves to considering and debating the 
 problem of the better housing of the poor. The Presbytery of Glasgow in a 
 semi-official capacity conducted an inquiry into the subject, out of which there 
 has been, however, no practical outcome. " Slumming " never became a 
 fashionable recreation in Glasgow ; but the Ruskin Society, in addition to 
 debating the question largely, has done something to encourage that pursuit, 
 and so also has the Kyrle Society. Well intentioned effort of this kind may 
 result in some individual good ; but the real and permanent benefactors are 
 those who raze the rookeries, and who let the free light of heaven into all 
 human dwellings. 
 
 Of real importance has been the work of the Glasgow Workmen's Dwellings 
 Company, a body of gentlemen animated with philanthropic motives, but who 
 sensibly endeavour to base their operations on reasonable commercial principles. 
 They seek to provide really good houses for persons in receipt of small wages, 
 and to give them all the comforts that can be legitimately expected for the 
 rents paid. The company owns two tenements of small dwelling-houses in 
 Rottenrow, near the Cathedral : they have renovated four old tenements at 
 Mile-End, in the east ; and on the south side in Bolton Street they have 
 transformed a wretched, ill-famed, dilapidated range of houses into well-lighted 
 and ventilated and properly equipped houses. The rents charged range from 
 2s. weekly for single apartments to 3s. for two-room houses. In all cases 
 these tenements are under the charge of resident caretakers, whose duty it is 
 to see that the tenants are cleanly and decent in their habits and behaviour. 
 The company have spent nearly ii^ 17,000 in acquiring and renovating their 
 properties ; they have for that about 200 houses, which shelter 600 or 700 
 
 i
 
 THE IMPROVEMENT TRUST 
 
 231 
 
 persons. Their undertaking, valuable in itself, is of significance in the way of 
 demonstrating that it is possible, feu duty permitting, to provide decent houses 
 for decent people on fairly remunerative terms. 
 
 In the meantime also a powerful lever has been put into the hands of 
 the Sanitary Committee of the Police by the Glasgow Police Amendment 
 Act of 1890, under which any house may be declared unfit for human 
 habitation, and shut up under a certificate to that effect under the hand 
 of the Medical Officer, the Sanitory Inspector, and the Master of Works. 
 On such a certificate being issued, a copy is served upon the owner or 
 factor of the property, a court presided over by five members of the 
 Sanitary Committee, at which the certifying officials and the accused land- 
 lord or his agent are present. After such investigation and discussion as 
 may be necessary, the order is issued for shutting up the condemned 
 building, due attention being given to the convenience of the unfortunate 
 occupants. The owner has a right of appeal to the sheriff, which appeal 
 must be lodged within five days, and disposed of if possible not more than 
 seven days thereafter. An order when issued may be revoked after it has 
 been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Health Sub-Committee that 
 the evils which rendered the erection uninhabitable have been cured. Of 
 the value of this provision there can be no question, but awkwardly enough 
 it could have been turned trenchantly against its own authors, who were 
 the unwilling owners of much unsound property. We might have had in 
 Glasgow a practical exposition of the Gilbertian conceit of the same body 
 being the court and the accused, the same counsel would appear in succession 
 on both sides, and the judge would be called on to sentence himself The 
 dilemma might have been awkward, but meantime, by strenuous efforts, we 
 have set our own house in order, and can with clean conscience call on 
 others to go and do likewise. 
 
 Briefly, the financial operations and position of the Trust as at 31st 
 May, I 896, may be stated thus : On the purchase and improvement of lands 
 and buildings there has been expended ^i, 9 5 5,500, and on the erection 
 of tenements and lodging-houses ;^2 3i,5oo — in all i^2, 187,000. Ground 
 has been sold or feu duties created amounting to ^1,072,700, and the 
 heritable property in the hands of the Trust is valued at ^^692,000, showing 
 a deficiency of upwards of ^423,000. From assessments there has been 
 raised in twenty-nine years a total of ^593,000, and that account may now 
 be regarded as closed, for the rate has now ceased to be levied, and 
 without it the accounts show a balance on the right side, which goes 
 to the credit and reduction of the valuation account. The excess of lia- 
 bilities over assets in the balance made up in May, 1895, amounted to 
 ;6^98,ooo, which, added to the total assessments, brings out the whole cost 
 of the gigantic undertaking to this time to be ;!6^69 1,000. For this con- 
 tribution of ;^69i,ooo, or a little less than ^^24,000 yearly, the citizens
 
 2^2 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 have an incalculable improvement in the health, cleanliness, and moral 
 condition of the Cit}' ; countless lives have been saved, and incalculable 
 aggregate of pain and suffering has been alleviated, and the standard of 
 healthy and comfortable life has been signally elevated. Of tangible 
 material benefits, the Alexandra Park has been added to the City, 30 new 
 streets have been formed, and 26 have been widened and improved, 
 invol\-ing a concession of about 100,000 square yards of ground, on which 
 work, together with the covering over the Camlachie and INIolendinar bums, 
 ;^ 1 05, 000 was spent 
 
 Glasgow was the pioneer cit>- in its improvement policy, and its example 
 has been followed by many others. Possibly our need was the sorest ; for 
 that a deadly gangrene was eating into the verj- heart of the Cit}- was obvious, 
 clear also it was that the evil could be alleviated only by the strenuous surgerj' 
 that had been exercised. The experiences of the Improvement Trustees have 
 taught the Town Council valuable lessons. They led directly to the enact- 
 ment of the Buildings Regulation Act of 1892, and armed with its powers 
 the Corporation can effectually prevent the recurrence of conditions in any 
 part of the Cit>- such as the Improvement Trustees had to face. But there 
 is no finalit}' in Cit}- Improvement work. The standard of decency and 
 comfort in house accommodation has been enormously elevated since 1866 ; 
 ever}' victor}- won by the sanitarian and by the social reformer only increases 
 their demands and their beneficent pretensions ; the poor themselves are 
 aw-akening to a healthy instinct for improvements, and what is deemed good 
 enough for the close of the nineteenth centurj* will certainly be rejected 
 early in the twentieth. The City Improvement Trustees have still ample 
 work in store for them. 
 
 I
 
 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, 1S08 : 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 pro- 
 posed : 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. 
 
 A CITY and district blessed with a rainfall so copious as that which descends 
 on Glasgow and the lower part of Clyde valley cannot be other than well 
 watered. The saintly Kentigern and his followers found water both abundant 
 and pure in the Molendinar Bum, besides a natural spring of sweet water 
 on the steep and rugged bank of the stream. By the side of that spring, 
 it is said, the saint established his cell, and around it to this day rise the 
 venerable and massive grey walls of Glasgow Cathedral. For centuries 
 the pure streams and the clear wells afforded a sufficient water supply 
 for the City. Writing in 1736 M'Ure. the historian, says: "In the Citj- 
 there is plent}- of water, there being sweet water wells in several closes of 
 the town, besides sixteen public wells which serve the Cit}* night and day, 
 as need requires, all with pumps in them for drawing the water." In the 
 first decade of the nineteenth centur>- the Cit}-, with a population of about 
 100,000 souls, was entirely supplied from wells of which Cleland enumerates 
 and describes thirty in different parts, maintained for public ser\-ice. In 
 addition there were many private wells, and the sandy nature of the soil 
 over the lower parts of the Cit)- permitted an almost indefinite expansion 
 of such primitive sources of water supply. But as the population increased, 
 and as the open spaces were covered with buildings, the limits of well-planting 
 became narrowed, whilst the necessity for water, in counter proportion, in-
 
 234 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 creased. The swarming multitude, moreover, loaded the soil with accumula- 
 tions of filth which percolated downwards and infused deadly contamination 
 into the water. And what befel the springs also happened to the streams. 
 The population and manufacturers along their banks and drainage area 
 increased, land was brought into cultivation, and from every direction in- 
 creasing proportions of sewage laden water found its way into the water 
 courses. The change from the sparkling limpid waters of a burn in its 
 pristine purity, with its wary trout and swarming minnows, to a noisome, 
 foetid open sewer was but slow, and in that gradual poisoning of the water 
 sources lurked one of the most subtle evils from which our ancestors in 
 their ignorance suffered. 
 
 It is impossible at this day to realize the hardships, the loss, and the 
 sufferings entailed on our ancestors at the beginning of the century 
 through the deadly dearth and impurity of the essential element of water. 
 One well to supply three thousand persons ! if we count not the private wells. 
 How much this implies of weary waiting for turns to get the household 
 " stoups " filled with the precious fluid, and how sparingly it would be used 
 for the primal necessities of life. Ignorance is truly bliss, for had our forefathers 
 known any better their state would have been simply intolerable. And yet 
 they accepted the conditions of their existence with cheerfulness, and even 
 a glamour of poetry and romance attaches to the wells which no poet has, 
 yet at least, succeeded in throwing around the kitchen spigots. We can 
 call up in imagination the faithful Nelly of Captain Paton trudging to 
 the West Port, stoup in hand, to bring one of the constituents of the 
 famous " bowl " brewed by Lockhart's hospitable old soldier. Suitability for 
 punch-making appears, indeed, to have been the one fame-giving quality 
 in Old Glasgow wells ; the reputation of the West Port well in this respect 
 stood highest, and it was so greatly run on that hours had sometimes to 
 be spent waiting till those first come were served. Next to the West Port 
 in punch-making qualities came the Deanside well at the foot of Balmano 
 Brae. Probably neither the West Port nor Deanside, however, equalled 
 the famous spring in Lochaber, which the natives esteemed the best in all 
 the Highlands : " A watter that would stand two glass of whisky to one of 
 watter." 
 
 So early as 1775 the necessity for a water supply other than the City 
 wells was pressingly felt, and in that year a surveyor was employed to examine 
 and report on probable sources around the City. Nothing came of this move- 
 ment, nor was there any result of a second survey made a few years later, and 
 the lapse of time vastly intensified the evils and difficulties. How severely 
 the population was pinched may be judged from the fact that a private citizen, 
 Mr. William Harley, in 1804, began the business of water-merchant. About 
 the year i 800 he had led water from springs in his lands at Willowbank by 
 pipes to a large reservoir at what is now the intersection of West Nile Street
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. I. EARLY SOURCES 235 
 
 and Bath Street, and there he had fitted up an extensive and complete range 
 of hot and cold baths for public use — whence the name Bath Street. At 
 the same place also, on the site of what is now a branch of the Technical 
 College, he had established a dairy with accommodation for nearly 300 milch 
 cows, which dairy in its day was one of Glasgow's famous institutions. Without 
 any covert insinuation it may be said that such a stock of cows necessitated a 
 great supply of water. The adventurous Harley found it profitable to sell 
 water without admixture of milk. He sent four wheeled water-carts through 
 the streets, and, selling the prized fluid at the rate of one halfpenny per stoup, 
 is said to have realized thereby no less than ;^4000 per year. 
 
 A population growing at a phenomenal rate, in such dire straits for 
 water, presented a magnificent field for either philanthropic or commercial 
 action. Water the people must have, and to supply the want a Bill, partly 
 municipal in origin and partly promoted by private citizens, was, in 1 806, 
 introduced into Parliament and passed into law, whereby was incorporated 
 the Glasgow Water Company, or officially the Company of the proprietors 
 of the Glasgow Water Works. The object of the Company was to raise 
 water from the Clyde at Dalmarnock, about two miles above Glasgow Bridge, 
 and thence supply it to the City and suburbs. The Act empowered the 
 company to raise a capital of iJ^ 100,000, divided into ^50 shares, and it 
 was specially provided that the liability of each subscriber should be limited to 
 the number of his shares. Of these shares the Town Council held throughout 
 twenty, and in the constitution of the Company it was provided that the Lord 
 Provost should ex officio be a member of the Managing Committee. The other 
 original members of the body, nine in addition to the Lord Provost, were 
 nominated in the Act of Parliament. 
 
 Under the guidance of James Watt and Thomas Telford, the company 
 at once proceeded to form, on the north bank of the river, filtering beds 
 and ponds, and to erect pumps for raising the water from these ponds to 
 distributing reservoirs in Sydney Street, Drygate, and Rottenrovv^ The 
 Dalmarnock filters were very soon found to be insufficient, and ground 
 was acquired on the lands of Farme, on the opposite south bank of the 
 river. There an open jointed brick tunnel or culvert was constructed 
 parallel with, but at a lower level, than the bed of the river, and through 
 the sandy banks the water percolated from the Clyde into this tunnel, whence 
 it was led into the subsiding reservoir, and conveyed thence in the bed of 
 the river by a spherical jointed pipe designed by Watt to the pumping 
 station on the north side. Through the river bank into this culvert there 
 percolated on an average about 8,000,000 gallons of water per day, but 
 the quantity varied with the state of the river. The method of filtration 
 was ingenious, but most unsatisfactory. Such as it was, however, it had to 
 do duty for many years as the larger proportion of the potable water of Glas- 
 gow, and very considerable quantities were passed into consumption without
 
 236 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 undergoing any filtration whatever. Among the many causes which contributed 
 to the bad eminence of Glasgow during the first part of the century in matters 
 of health and vitality, indisputably the chief factor was the wretched water 
 supply. 
 
 The Glasgow Water Company was not long left in undisputed possession 
 of statutory powers to distribute and sell water to the citizens. In 1808 
 an Act was obtained by the Company of Proprietors of the Cranstonhill 
 Water Works for the purpose of raising water from the Clyde at Anderston, 
 about a mile below Glasgow Bridge, thence conveying it to reservoirs at 
 Cranstonhill, then a western suburb, from which to distribute it through 
 Anderston and the City and suburbs of Glasgow. It was, in fact, expressly 
 a rival company working from the west end, as the Glasgow Company 
 worked from the eastern district. The capital of the Cranstonhill under- 
 taking was fixed by statute at the modest total of ;^30,ooo in ;^5o shares, 
 and power was given to the company to borrow a further sum of iS^ 10,000. 
 
 For the next thirty years these companies fought each other with un- 
 remitting violence, while they also struggled to supply the City with water, 
 a task in which they miserably failed. Between them there never was 
 any question of apportioning the City, and seeking to direct their energies 
 each to meeting the necessities of allotted districts. They laid their pipes 
 side by side along the streets where they had the prospect of many customers, 
 and the remote and sparsely-peopled localities were by both impartially 
 neglected. The Gorbals, on the south side of the river, was a district then 
 rising in population and importance, but neither company at first contemplated 
 the supplying that quarter at all. 
 
 The domestic water rates charged against consumers by the Glasgow 
 Company in its early years were 5s. for all rents under ^4 ; between £a, and 
 £6 rents the rate was 6s. ; and it was 7s. on rents ranging from £(i to ;^8. 
 On all rents from £'^ upwards the water rate was 5 per cent, on the rent. 
 The water rates of the Cranstonhill Company were on a lower scale for rents 
 from £6 and upwards, the maximum charge being 42s. on rents of ^60 or any 
 greater sum. But house rents higher than £60 were not common in Glasgow 
 during the first decade of the century. The companies, be it observed, had no 
 compulsory rating powers — they were entitled to sell to consumers, and to 
 charge all persons who used their water ; but they had no authority to levy 
 any rate on the public at large. 
 
 The Glasgow Company was a commercial success, and in 18 16 the ^50 
 shares were worth £'] ^ each. Not so the Cranstonhill Company, which, during 
 the thirty years of its separate existence, did not in all succeed in making a 
 return to the shareholders of as much as one-hundredth part of its capital stock. 
 The Cranstonhill Company was indeed an unfortunate undertaking. In 18 12 
 they had to get parliamentary powers to increase their capital by ;6^ 10,000, 
 and to extend their borrowing powers an equal amount. Again, in 1 8 1 9, they
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. I. EARLY SOURCES 
 
 237 
 
 were compelled to go to Parliament for the more serious undertaking of 
 removing their works from the river below the City to a point above it. City 
 drair age and the refuse of manufactories had in ten years so polluted the 
 water of the Clyde that it was no longer possible to draw drinking water at 
 Anderston, and the Cranstonhill Company were forced to plant their pumps 
 and reservoirs also at Dalmarnock, a little below the works of the rival Glasgow 
 Company. 
 
 Thence the water had to be pumped to the reservoirs at Cranstonhill, and 
 to new distributing reservoirs the company formed at Garnethill. All this 
 implied an enormously increased expenditure ; consequently the capital was 
 now fixed at i^200,ooo, with ;^5 0,000 of borrowing powers. In the same 
 session of Parliament the Glasgow Company also obtained an Act by which 
 their capital and borrowing powers were increased to the same total as that of 
 the Cranstonhill Company. Under these measures the rates the companies 
 were authorized to levy were made uniform. For domestic supply their rates 
 allowed a minimum charge of los., and a maximum of ;!^io yearly on each 
 householder ; on rents under £100 at the rate of £y los. per cent, per annum; 
 and on rents exceeding ^100 the rate was fixed at ^5 per cent. 
 
 With these enlarged powers the companies did their best to meet the public 
 requirements. But they laboured under great difficulties, and they satisfied few 
 excepting the shareholders of the Glasgow Company, who, after being fairly 
 started, enjoyed a dividend of 7 per cent, per annum, and had the satisfaction 
 of seeing their wealth grow by " unearned increment." The companies did not 
 foresee that the City was to increase with the potentous rapidity which was its 
 experience in the early half of the century. They had a source of supply 
 which at best cannot have been free from suspicion from the very first, and 
 which year by year was increasingly polluted, till it became the foul thing we 
 now know. The methods of filtration adopted were rough, and could afford 
 no protection against the subtle influences of tainted water. Every gallon they 
 disposed of had to be pumped up at great expense to a considerable elevation, 
 and all the higher parts of the City were but intermittently and imperfectly 
 supplied. In elevated situations where the water would not come to the 
 people, the people had to go to the water. Under these conditions it was 
 impossible to look on the work of the companies as other than a stop gap, 
 and the question of greater and purer sources of supply was frequently under 
 public consideration. 
 
 In 1829, ten years after the companies obtained their enlarged powers, 
 the Town Council became the mouthpiece of public complaints regarding the 
 deficiency of the water supply, and specially, on their own account, they 
 complained that the companies neglected their statutory duties of keeping the 
 water pipes full by night with a view to fire extinction. Strong in the letter 
 of the law, and spurning its spirit, the Water Companies defied the Council. 
 They pointed out that their statutory obligations were to allow water to be
 
 238 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 drawn from their pipes for Fire Brigade purposes ; but that did not impose 
 on them the duty of keeping water in these pipes. Consequently the Fire 
 Brigade, equally with thirsty citizens, had to take their chance of finding, 
 by night, the element needed for their wants. 
 
 After twenty-five years of competition with the Glasgow Company, and 
 of ministering to a thankless and unremunerative public, the directors of 
 the Cranstonhill Company concluded they had enough of the enterprise, 
 and in 1833 the rivals agreed to the heads of an Amalgamation Bill. The 
 project excited the most lively opposition on the part of the Town Council, 
 who viewed with dread the prospect of a monopoly in the supply and 
 sale of so necessary an element of life as water. Notwithstanding the 
 attitude of the Council the Bill was promoted ; but the project was defeated. 
 The companies undismayed returned to the charge ; and thereon in the 
 reformed Town Council the proposal that the water supply of the City 
 should be under the sole control of the Council was first enunciated. In 
 March, 1834, a motion was submitted by Mr. Henry Dunlop, which inter 
 alia embraced this resolution : " That the election of the Town Council 
 being now vested in a very large constituency, it would be for the benefit 
 of the public that the works for supplying the City with water should be 
 conducted under their control — that they should belong to the Corporation, 
 and that the profits should be applied to public purposes." 
 
 Mr. Dunlop's resolution was favourably entertained and reported on, and 
 in due time the companies were approached, who, however, declined to part 
 with their privilege of supplying water to the public. Again, in 1836, the 
 companies were in Parliament seeking amalgamation, and thereupon the 
 resolutions of the Town Council took shape. They also submitted a Bill 
 for acquiring the water works and placing them under a public board. The 
 Council's Bill was effective as a fighting weapon, and resulted in the with- 
 drawing of both measures. 
 
 For a third time the persistent companies in 1838 approached Parliament 
 seeking amalgamation. Again the Town Council opposed ; but whether 
 the heart was taken out of the opposition, or whether, as in the scriptural 
 parable. Parliament was weary of their much importunity, may not now be 
 decided. Sufficient to say that the companies got their Act, and thence- 
 forward there was but one company in the north side of Glasgow. The 
 Act was fettered with important restrictions and provisions in the public 
 interests. The preamble declared that by amalgamation it would be possible 
 to supply more and better water at a lower price than under the competition 
 of the two companies. To make the promise effective the amalgamated 
 company became bound to supply occupiers with good wholesome water 
 at a rate not exceeding £6 los. per cent, upon rental, with a deduction 
 of one-tenth when the rent exceeded ^5, and at a rate not exceeding 5s. 
 on all rents at or under ^5. The maximum leviable from any single
 
 THE IVATER SUPPLY. I. EARLY SOURCES 239 
 
 occupier was fixed at £\o, and the minimum at 5s. in any one year. The 
 company was also bound to supply for the cleansing of the streets, etc., water 
 in such quantities as the Police Commissioners should require, up to a 
 maximum of 2,000,000 gallons yearly at the rate of lod. per thousand 
 gallons. The Act also contained provision for the supply of manufacturers 
 and other special consumers of water. 
 
 The Glasgow Water Company was not long left in undisturbed enjoy- 
 ment of their water monopoly. The water supplied was neither good in 
 quality nor sufficient in quantity. In 1838 the total daily supply appears 
 to have been about 6,000,000 gallons, equal to an allowance of 26 gallons 
 per head to a population of 250,000 persons, and all that was drawn from 
 a rapidly deteriorating river. The public were uneasy and dissatisfied, and 
 the company were compelled to seek other and better sources. From 
 the time when amalgamation was first suggested many projects and surveys 
 of possible areas of supply had been made, partly at the instance of the 
 Town Council, partly by the companies, and partly by adventurers moved 
 by philanthropic motives or the prospect of gain. In 1845 the floating 
 schemes were brought to the test of parliamentary investigations. No 
 fewer than three Bills dealing with the water supply were in this year 
 prepared for presentation to Parliament. A company was formed to 
 promote a scheme for bringing water from Loch Katrine, in the Perthshire 
 Highlands, a bold and original project for diverting the distant waters 
 of the Forth into the Clyde. This great pioneer measure, suggested by 
 Lawrence Hill and Lewis Gordon — their names deserve to be graven in 
 brass — was taken up with vigour and enthusiasm, and only withdrawn 
 when the Water Company in possession gave assurance of their good faith 
 in pushing a still bolder scheme to tap the more distant Loch Lubnaig, 
 for which purpose they deposited a Bill. That measure was opposed by 
 the Town Council, not on its preamble, but on a subsidiary clause which 
 was adjusted to the satisfaction of all parties, and it passed into law in 
 1846, Having got their Act the water company found it entirely 
 impracticable owing to the amount of compensation water they became 
 bound to send down the river Teith for the satisfaction of millowners 
 and of other water-rights on that stream. Consequently the Act joined 
 the melancholy company of " dead letters." 
 
 But simultaneously a third measure was under parliamentary considera- 
 tion, the provisions of which proposed to meet the necessities of the inhabitants 
 of the Gorbals and other districts on the south side of the river more 
 adequately than had hitherto been done. The Gorbals Water Bill was pro- 
 moted to supply water, pure and wholesome, to Gorbals, Pollokshaws, and 
 Govan, and to places intermediate and adjacent in the counties of Lanark 
 and Renfrew. Notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the Glasgow 
 Water Company, who considered the Bill to be an invasion of their rights,
 
 240 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 the measure was passed into law, and the Gorbals Gravitation Water Company 
 began operations. As the works of that company still form an important 
 integral part of the water supply works of Glasgow they may be briefly 
 described. 
 
 Gorbals became an integral part of municipal Glasgow in the same year 
 that the Gorbals Water Company was incorporated. At that time the 
 population south of the Clyde was between sixty and seventy thousand 
 persons. The powers obtained by the company enabled them to impound 
 the water of the Brock or Brockburn and its tributaries. The drainage area 
 amounts to about 2,560 acres, lying at a height of between three and four 
 hundred feet above the sea in the parishes of Mearns, Eastwood, and Neilston 
 in Renfrewshire, about six miles to the south-west of the City boundary. The 
 capital of the company was fixed at ;i^i 20,000, with borrowing powers to 
 the extent of ;!^40,ooo. The maximum rate for domestic supply was limited 
 to one shilling per pound of rental, and the company was restricted to 
 dividends of 7 per cent, per annum. The Gorbals water was turned on in 
 1848, and being incomparably better than tliat of the Glasgow Company, 
 it was generally favoured by residents in the south side, with the result 
 that the income of the Glasgow Company immediately suffered a reduction 
 of i^4,ooo. In 1850 the Gorbals Company obtained an Act to increase their 
 capital by ;^30,ooo in shares and ;^ 10,000 in mortgages, with the purpose 
 of bringing Rutherglen, Barrhead, Nitshill, Hurlet, and other places within 
 their limits of supply, but these powers were not exercised. A third Act 
 was obtained in 1853 renewing the powers of the Act of 1850, and adding 
 the town of Renfrew to the area of supply. 
 
 On more than one occasion schemes were elaborated for greatly extending 
 the gathering area controlled by the Gorbals Company. In the final contest 
 before Parliament in 1855 the Gorbals supply scheme was brought into 
 serious competition with the Loch Katrine scheme promoted by the City. 
 By the supporters of the Gorbals Company it was computed that a maxi- 
 mum of 30,500 acres of gathering ground could be secured in the upper 
 reaches of the river Cart, with its tributaries the Levern Water and the Earn 
 Water, which would be sufficient to yield a daily supply of thirty millions 
 of gallons. It was asserted on behalf of this scheme that the thirty millions 
 of gallons per day could be obtained at less cost than the same quantity from 
 Loch Katrine, while the expenditure would be incurred gradually as the 
 necessities of supply increased. But there were many objections to the 
 scheme, among which were its ultimate insufficiency and the confessed dis- 
 coloured and indifferent quality of much of the water. Fortunately for Glasgow 
 the Town Council gave undivided adhesion to the Loch Katrine scheme, 
 and the Gorbals proposals were rejected. 
 
 The area from which the Gorbals water is drawn continues to be the 
 same as it was previous to the passing of the Loch Katrine Act. The water
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. I. EARLY SOURCES 241 
 
 is collected into four reservoirs lying from 352 feet to 296 feet above sea level. 
 The water areas of these reservoirs are respectively 153! acres, 47I acres, 
 2 1 acres, and 4 acres, and their entire capacity is almost a hundred and 
 seventy thousand millions cubic feet, equal to a daily supply of five million 
 four hundred and fifty thousand gallons for 194 days. It was computed that 
 the catchment area would prove sufficient, in a dry year, to yield that quantity 
 daily, and on this basis the compensation water was fixed at one fourth of 
 the total yield. The compensation water passed down the stream for the 
 use of the lower proprietors amounts to 1,450,000 gallons daily, and the 
 amount drawn off for public comsumption ranges from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 
 gallons, which principally goes to supply the wants of the population lying 
 between the reservoirs and Glasgow, with the southern suburbs Barrhead 
 Go van, and Renfrew. 
 
 The upper and by far the largest of the series of reservoirs, Balgray, is 
 that into which the major portion of the water passes, and in which it settles 
 before being carried down to the lower reservoirs and thence to the filter- 
 beds. An artificial channel has been constructed along the margin of this 
 reservoir for discharging the flood water, and as it passes the others lower 
 down, arrangements were made whereby they also could be filled from it, 
 and that is sometimes done when the weather is dry and the water clear. 
 From the lowest reservoir the water is conducted by a stone conduit, 340 
 yards long to the filters. At the time of the transference of the works to 
 the City these occupied an area of 3823 square yards, and were much too 
 limited for the efficient filtration demanded by modern notions. Since 1877 
 the filtering area has been increased to 7842 square yards, and over that 
 area there is a bed of 30 inches of Arran sand, 4I inches of gravel, and 
 l8 inches of broken sandstone, through which all the water distributed for 
 consumption has to pass. From the filters the water passes into the clear 
 water tanks, of which there are three, two at a level of 240 feet above 
 ordnance datum and one at 295 feet above datum, with a combined capacity 
 of a little more than 5,000,000 of gallons. 
 
 In the later years of their existence the Glasgow and Gorbals Companies 
 were able to supply, jointly, about 13,500,000 gallons daily to a population 
 which numbered from 350,000 to 400,000 souls. A supply which consider- 
 ably exceeded 30 gallons per head cannot, in the light of the conditions 
 of great urban populations generally, be regarded as defective in quantity, and 
 it was not in that direction that the great want of the citizens of Glasgow lay. 
 By the time the Loch Katrine Bill received sanction the condition of the 
 Clyde had become alarming ; there cannot be a doubt that the water supplied 
 by the Glasgow Company was poisoning the inhabitants, and the untainted 
 water of the Perthshire lakes was not turned on a day too soon. In March, 
 i860, the Corporation Commissioners were able to turn off the river water 
 as a source of domestic supply for ever. 
 
 9
 
 242 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Water from the River Clyde is, however, still used for manufacturing 
 purposes. Under Acts of Parliament obtained in 1866, 1873, ^^id 1879 
 arrangements were made and carried out for removing the weir which used 
 to stand across the river a little above Hutchesontown Bridge, and for 
 supplying Clyde water to manufacturers from a public system of pumping- 
 engines, reservoirs, and distributing pipes. This public supply takes the place 
 of the private suction pipes and pumps owned by a number of firms whose 
 premises lay near the river. Much of the original private machinery for 
 drawing water from the Clyde became ineffective through the lowering of 
 the level of the water consequent on the removal of the weir. The public 
 supply was partly to compensate for this loss. The pumping station and 
 reservoirs are situated at Westthorn, on land immediately to the east of 
 that owned by the Corporation, and occupied by the Belvidere Hospital. 
 The works consist of an engine-house containing two separate condensing 
 horizontal pumping engines of 80 horse-power each, together with the 
 necessary boilers and relative appliances. These engines raise water from 
 the river into two reservoirs with a total capacity each of about four millions 
 of gallons. The top-water level of these reservoirs is at a sufficient elevation 
 to enable the water to be delivered into tanks placed at convenient heights 
 above the ground within works situated in the districts of Bridgeton, 
 Hutchesontown, etc., where it is intended to be used. The water is dis- 
 tributed from the reservoirs by a large main with suitable branches. The 
 leading main is at first 42 inches in diameter, it goes from Westthorn by 
 way of Springfield Road, Dalmarnock Road, and Adelphi Street to Main 
 Street, Bridgeton. Here it is diminished to 36 inches diameter. It continues 
 down Newhall Street and across Glasgow Green to the Clyde opposite Govan 
 Street. The main here crosses the river, and is continued along Govan Street 
 to Crown Street where it ends. The diameter on the south side is gradually 
 diminished from 36 ins. to 1 2 ins. 
 
 The amount of water delivered by these works is over two-and-a-half 
 millions of gallons per working day. The price to ordinary consumers is 
 15s. per 100,000 gallons, being rather less than half the price of Loch 
 Katrine water. To certain firms whose interests were specially protected 
 by the Acts of Parliament the price is fixed for definite quantities at 5s. 6d. 
 per 100,000 gallons.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. II. LOCH KATRINE. 
 
 Rival Water Bills in 1845 : Gorbals and Loch Lubnaig Acts : Failure of latter : Inter- 
 position 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. 
 
 In 1845 no fewer than three great schemes for supplying Glasgow with 
 water were in the field. There were the Gorbals scheme, successfully pro- 
 moted, as we have already seen ; a Loch Katrine scheme, ardently advocated 
 by a body of citizens ; and a competing Loch Lubnaig scheme, put forward 
 by the Glasgow Water Company, doubtless in good faith, and not the less 
 heartily supported by the company because it would prove an effective 
 weapon against its rivals, which indeed it did in the case of the Loch 
 Katrine Bill, that measure being withdrawn ; and in 1 846 the measure 
 promoted by the Gorbals Company and the Loch Lubnaig Bill of the Glasgow 
 Water Company received royal sanction. As already mentioned, the Loch 
 Lubnaig scheme proved impracticable, and the failure of the company to 
 carry out the project convinced the Town Council that the time for municipal 
 action had come : that the public interest was no longer safe in the hands 
 of private companies. At the same time that these water bills were being 
 locally discussed and formulated a special committee of the Town Council 
 reported, with reference to both gas and water works, that it would be a 
 great public benefit if both enterprises were taken out of the hands of private 
 joint-stock companies, and placed under the control and management of the 
 Magistrates and Council, or of Commissioners on behalf of the public. No 
 imincfliatc action followed on this report; but again, in 1S50, Lord Provost 
 
 i
 
 244 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Sir James Anderson moved, " That notice be given of a Bill to take over 
 the works of both the existing (Glasgow and Gorbals) water companies." 
 Sir James Anderson's motion was defeated, and once more, in 1851-52, a 
 private company, formed to bring water from Loch Katrine, approached the 
 Council with a request that the Corporation should undertake the manage- 
 ment of the water supply as a trust or commission controlling a distinct 
 fund to be raised by debenture or mortgage on the rates. In March, 1852, 
 Professor Macquorn Rankine and Mr. John Thomson, C.E., the engineers 
 who had been consulted by the promoters of this Loch Katrine scheme, 
 addressed a remarkable letter to the Council, in which the advantages of a 
 Loch Katrine supply were pointed out with singular terseness and lucidity, 
 and in which the practicable character of the undertaking was clearly 
 demonstrated. In the subsequent discussion of this project Sir James 
 Anderson maintained his former opinion " that they would never have a 
 better supply in Glasgow, unless the Corporation took it boldly up, and 
 worked out a scheme of their own." He and others stood out for municipal 
 proprietorship as well as management. The matter was then remitted to 
 a committee, whose report, unanimously adopted in both committee and 
 Council, determined the question. " It appears to this committee," so runs 
 their pronouncement, " to be most desirable that the power of supplying 
 the City with water should be vested in the Magistrates and Council, as a 
 separate trust for the benefit of the inhabitants, rather than in any private 
 company." 
 
 Once committed to the principle, the action of the Town Council was 
 swift and decisive. John Fredrick Bateman, C.E., was appointed consulting 
 engineer to the Council in December, 1852, and in March, 1853, he reported 
 that the Loch Lubnaig project, again promoted by the Glasgow Water 
 Company, the only one then in the field, was " not the cheapest nor the 
 best." The Town Council opposed the Company's Bill on these grounds, 
 as well as on the principle that the supplying of water should be vested in 
 the Corporation, and the measure was thrown out. In the meantime, in 
 accordance with the approved recommendation of the committee above 
 mentioned, the Town Council passed a resolution, " That at the earliest 
 possible period the necessary steps should be taken, by the introduction of 
 a Bill into Parliament in the next session, and otherwise, for vesting the 
 power of supply in the Magistrates and Council, and for obtaining that supply 
 from the best source." Mr. Bateman thereupon continued his investigations, 
 going on the assumption that a suitable scheme must immediately yield 
 from twenty to twenty-five millions of gallons per day, and be capable of 
 large extension to meet the anticipated increase of population. He found 
 the Endrick, Allander, and Duchray all deeply stained with peat during 
 rainy seasons ; and of the lochs he significantly said : " Notwithstanding 
 the heavy rains which have darkened Loch Lomond and Loch Lubnaig,
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. 11. LOCH KATRINE 
 
 245 
 
 and rendered their waters distinctly though slightly brown, Loch Katrine 
 remains clear, cold, and bright, and all but absolutely colourless." 
 
 Loch Katrine being thus singled out in the north, Mr. Bateman 
 turned his attention to the drainage areas of the south. Of the Clyde, 
 after a lengthened period of rain in warm weather, he says : " I never 
 saw running stream so darkly stained as the Clyde at Hyndford Bridge, 
 and its tributaries below that point. As seen in the streams the water 
 is as dark as strong clear coffee in a coffee cup ; and I much doubt if 
 any filtration that could practically be carried out would effectually remove 
 the colour." Upon the Gorbals water district he said that it might yield 
 at an outside estimate from twenty-five to thirty million gallons daily, but 
 some proportion of that water was of doubtful quality, and the resources 
 of the region were not sufficient to make it a satisfactory source. He was 
 compelled to fall back upon Loch Katrine, and with forcible brevity he 
 exclaims : " Loch Katrine seems to stand alone in the field. No other 
 source will meet all the requirements of the case." 
 
 Mr. Bateman's opinion was strongly buttressed by that of Dr. Robert 
 Angus Smith, a distinguished chemist. He pointed out that the geological 
 formation of the district is metamorphic rock, principally mica slate, smooth and 
 hard, scarcely at all friable, and containing almost nothing soluble in water. 
 Even at flood times the tributary streams hold little matter in suspension, and 
 almost no inorganic matter in solution. The loch he regarded as " a depositing 
 reservoir sufficiently large for the purification of the most turbid stream, 
 its great surface exposure answering the purpose of a filter to a large 
 extent. But the great mass of entering water requires no purification ; and 
 it is probable that any coloured matter entering would probably be lost 
 in the enormous amount of the colourless portion, and become pure without 
 any further process. The streams are themselves clear, and after lying quietly 
 in the lake become brilliant." " No town," continues Dr. Smith, " will have an 
 equal abundance of such remarkably pure water." Leaving out of account 
 the incalculable sanitary blessings derivable from the use of water such as that 
 under consideration. Dr. Smith, in his report, alluded to the enormous advan- 
 tages the supply of pure soft water would confer on many industries. He 
 specially singled out the bleaching and calico-printing trades of the district, 
 and indicated that it would not only cheapen processes but greatly improve 
 results. In the same connection it may be noted that, after the water was 
 introduced, Mr. Bateman estimated the saving in domestic articles effected 
 by reason of its softness and purity at a sum equal to the whole water-rate. 
 These articles included soap, tea, and coffee. The saving in soap he placed at 
 ;{^30,ooo annually. Careful returns, he said, showed that nearly one-half 
 of the soap formerly used would suffice. 
 
 A Bill, based on the reports of Mr. Bateman and Dr. Angus Smith, was 
 introduced into Parliament in session 1854. It might be thought that a
 
 246 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 scheme so strongly recommended would meet with no public opposition ; 
 but, on the contrary, the battle of the Bill was fought with obstinate bitterness. 
 It was denounced in ward meetings as unjust and oppressive, and calculations 
 of the cost of the scheme ran up to half-a-crown per pound of rental as a 
 probable water-rate. In the committee of the House of Commons a mine 
 was sprung on the promoters by Professor Fredrick Penny, of the Ander- 
 sonian University, Glasgow, who, founding on the marked purity of the water, 
 alleged that it dissolved lead with great energy, and stated that his experi- 
 ments pointed to the conclusion that led and stored in lead pipes and cisterns 
 the water would be exceedingly hazardous to use and indeed highly poisonous. 
 Penny's sensational evidence in the parliamentary committee occasioned 
 an adjournment of the inquiry, and much expert testimony was obtained 
 to show that the inferences and fears based on his experiments were en- 
 tirely groundless. Although his assertions gave rise to a good deal of 
 popular excitement, it is a remarkable fact that the matter never again was 
 even mentioned in the parliamentary committees. During the adjournment 
 the Lords of the Admiralty interposed against the scheme, alleging that the 
 abstraction of so much water from the Teith would interfere with the naviga- 
 tion of the Forth. The latter, being a sluggish stream which brought down 
 much silt, required, it was asserted, the added waters of the Teith to keep 
 the navigation open, and that could not be done if one-half of the Teith 
 water coming from the lochs was withdrawn. On behalf of the promoters 
 it was shown that the alleged one-half could in no case be more than one- 
 sixth ; that fifty million gallons sent daily to Glasgow would not amount 
 to one-four-hundredth part of the water passing Stirling in heavy floods ; 
 that when the lochs were refilling after a drought, the diminution of the 
 river at Stirling would not be more than one-fortieth or one-fiftieth part ; 
 and that in dry weather the volume of the river would, by compensation 
 water, actually be increased. The interposition of the Admiralty, nevertheless, 
 was effective in procuring the rejection of the measure. 
 
 A Bill, to all intents and purposes the same, was again promoted in 1855. 
 In the meantime, Messrs. Stephenson & Brunei had confirmed Mr. Bateman's 
 report ; the Town Council had arranged to compensate the Commissioners for 
 the Forth Navigation for any damage which might arise to the navigation of 
 that river with a payment of i^/ooo ; the owners of salmon fishings were 
 satisfied ; the Gorbals Water Company agreed to accept 6 per cent, upon 
 their capital stock of ;^ 180,000; arrangements were made with opposing 
 inhabitants in Gorbals, and with landlords ; the chemical objection was pro- 
 nounced baseless ; and an understanding had been arrived at with the landed 
 proprietors affected by the scheme. The Bill, so buttressed, passed the House 
 of Commons ; in the Committee of the House of Lords only a burlesque of 
 opposition was made ; and the measure received the royal assent on 2nd July, 
 1855. The parliamentary struggle cost the City nearly ;!^26,ooo, a large
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. II. LOCH KATRINE 
 
 247 
 
 sum, but not too much for the priceless benefit it secured to a great community. 
 Under the Act, skilfully piloted through many difficulties and much opposition, 
 the Magistrates and Council were appointed Water Commissioners, with power 
 to delegate their executive authority to " The Water Committee." The pay- 
 ment to the Gorbals Company was fixed as above stated : that of the Glasgow 
 Company, as arranged by subsequent arbitration, was 4^ per cent, upon their 
 ordinar}^ stock of ^^303,700, and 6 per cent, upon their preference stock of 
 iJ^4 1,680. The compensation to both companies took the form of perpetual 
 annuities of about iJ^2 7,000. 
 
 The chain of lakes over which the Act of 1855 empowered the Glasgow 
 Town Council to exercise authority comprised Loch Katrine, Loch Achray, 
 Loch Vennachar, and Loch Drunkie. The natural drainage of these is into the 
 River Teith, the overflow from Loch Katrine passing into Loch Achray, which 
 in its turn drains into Loch Vennachar, into which also the channel from 
 Loch Drunkie runs. The water scheme was planned to take the supply for 
 Glasgow from Loch Katrine alone, leaving to the other lakes the task of 
 providing the compensation water to be run down the River Teith. Power 
 was given to convert the basin of Loch Katrine into a large reservoir by 
 raising the level of the water 4 feet above the summer level, and draining 
 it down 3 feet below that level, thus giving a supply of 7 feet from a 
 superficial area of 30587 acres. For impounding compensation water it was 
 not necessary to interfere at all with Loch Achray, but the Commissioners 
 were empowered to raise Loch Vennachar 5 feet 9 inches above summer 
 level, and draw off water to 6 feet lower than that level, giving 1 1 feet 9 
 inches over an area of 1025 acres. Loch Drunkie they were authorized to 
 raise 25 feet over a water area of 138 acres. The drainage area of Loch 
 Katrine is 23,192 acres, and that of Loch Vennachar with Loch Achray and 
 Loch Drunkie is a little greater, being over 24,600 acres. For the supply of 
 the City the Commissioners were restricted from taking any greater quantity 
 any one day than 50,000,000 gallons, and they became bound to send daily 
 down the Teith compensation water in amount not less than 6,480,000 cubic 
 feet, or 40,500,000 gallons. 
 
 As a source of water the Loch Katrine district has the valuable charac- 
 teristic of lying within one of the wettest regions in the United Kingdom. 
 The air laden with moisture from the Atlantic Ocean strikes against the high 
 hills which lie around and to the west of Loch Katrine, and so cooling down, 
 precipitates vast sheets of rain. Careful records of the rainfall at numerous 
 points in the drainage area have been kept since the passing of the 1855 Act, 
 which show that the average annual fall ranges from about 60 to 95 inches. 
 At Glengyle, at the upper end of Loch Katrine, the annual amount of rain 
 frequently exceeds 100 inches, while in specially wet years it has been found 
 to rise to nearly 130 inches, and its average over a long series of years is about 
 92 inches of rain. With a rainfall so copious falling on steep and hilly ground 
 
 k
 
 248 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 little soil is formed, the rocky skeleton of the earth is comparatively bare, and 
 a large proportion of the water which falls finds its way rapidly and with 
 little loss from evaporation into the several lake reservoirs. 
 
 The total length of the aqueduct constructed under the 1855 Act is 
 about 34 miles. At Mugdock Castle, 26 miles from the loch, a reservoir 60 
 acres in extent, and having a capacity of 488,700,000 gallons, was con- 
 structed, and from this store, the surface level of which is 317 feet 
 above the level of the sea, the water is conveyed in cast-iron pipes into 
 the City. 
 
 The aqueduct outlet is situated about 5 miles above the lower or 
 Trossachs end, and 3 miles from the upper or Glengyle end of the loch. 
 The aqueduct, which is formed by tunnelling through primitive rocks to 
 the length of ii| miles, and by masonry to a length of lO;^ miles in open 
 cuttings and over bridges has a diameter of 8 feet, with a fall of 10 inches 
 per mile, and across the Duchray, Endrick, and Blane Valleys the water 
 is carried 3| miles in cast-iron syphon pipes, having a fall of 5 feet per mile. 
 It was calculated that the aqueduct would be sufficient ultimately to convey 
 50,000,000 gallons of water to the City daily, while the 4-feet cast-iron 
 pipes, with their fall of 5 feet per mile, should, according to calculation, 
 each have had a capacity of 20,000,000 gallons only. Both these estimates were 
 falsified in experience. The jagged edges of the tunnelled portions of the 
 aqueduct were found to have a retarding influence on the flow, which reduced 
 the maximum capacity to about 42,000,000 gallons daily, while conversely 
 the smooth and glassy surface given to the interior of the cast-iron pipes 
 by pitch coating increased their carrying capacity to nearly 30,000,000 gallons 
 per day. On the one hand, the period when it became necessary to duplicate 
 the pipes was deferred ; but, per contra, the expanding City of Glasgow 
 approached much more rapidly to a balance of consumption and total 
 carrying capacity than was dreamt of in the early years of the new 
 supply. 
 
 In describing the works before the British Association at Aberdeen in 
 1859, Mr. Bateman said : "Of the 26 miles which lie between Loch Katrine 
 and the service reservoir, 13 miles are tunnelling, 3| miles are iron piping, 
 and the remainder, where the ground has been cut open, is an arched 
 aqueduct of 8 feet in diameter, having the same inclination as the tunnels. 
 Where the ground has been excavated it is filled in again over the aque- 
 duct, which is covered throughout, and the surface restored to its original 
 condition. 
 
 " There are in the whole work seventy distinct tunnels, upon which 
 forty-four vertical shafts have been sunk for facilitating and expediting the 
 completion of the work. The first tunnel commences immediately upon the 
 aqueduct leaving Loch Katrine. It is 2325 yards in length, 600 feet below 
 the summit of the hill, and has been worked, in addition to the open ends.
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. 11. LOCH KATRINE 
 
 249 
 
 by twelve shafts, five of which are nearly 500 feet deep. The tunnel is in 
 gneiss and mica slate. The last tunnel is at the southern extremity of the 
 aqueduct, just before it enters the service reservoir. It is 2650 yards in 
 length, almost wholly through whinstone, at a depth of 250 feet below the 
 summit of the hill." 
 
 The works were begun in May, 1856; on the 14th of October, 1859, 
 her Majesty Queen Victoria turned on the water at Loch Katrine ; and in 
 March, i860, the public supply was inaugurated. The whole cost of the 
 undertaking, as completed at that time, was ^^^920,000, made up of p^77 1,500 
 for aqueduct, syphon pipes, reservoir, two mains to the City, and the necessary 
 re-arrangement of the piping through the streets, etc. ; ;^7 9,000 for lands and 
 compensations ; parliamentary expenses, ;^27,5oo ; and engineering and office 
 expenses, ^^42,000. 
 
 Within less than ten years it became necessary to increase the supply 
 of water brought into the City. The built and tunnelled portions of the 
 aqueduct had, as we have seen, a much greater carrying capacity than the 
 syphon pipes and the cast-iron troughs over the bridges, and it was there- 
 fore only necessary to add to these latter works. In 1864 the height of 
 the cast-iron troughs over the bridges was increased so as to make them 
 sufficient to carry the whole flow of water through the built and tunnelled 
 aqueducts. In 1868 a second line of syphon pipes was carried over the 
 Duchray, Endrick, and Blane Valleys, the pipe in the Duchray Valley being 
 like its companion, 48 inches in diameter ; while, in the other two, 36-inch 
 pipes were laid. The demand for water continued to increase apace, and 
 soon it became necessary to further add to the syphon piping, so as to 
 bring into the Mugdock reservoir the full quantity the aqueducts were 
 calculated to carry. Accordingly a third line of syphon pipes across the 
 three valleys had to be provided, and in October, 1875, ^ 48-inch pipe 
 was stretched across the Blane Valley. This was followed, in January, 1877, 
 by a pipe of similar gauge over the Endrick Valley, and in January, 1882, 
 the system was completed by running a syphon 42 inches in diameter over 
 the Duchray Valley. Now it was that the mains leading from the reservoir 
 into the City were insufficient to deliver the needed supply, and accordingly, 
 between 1873 ^^^ 1880, two additional 36-inch mains, the high and the 
 west district mains, were completed. With the furnishing of these the whole 
 length of pipes of 36-inch gauge and upwards, in connection with the Loch 
 Katrine supply, amounted to more than 44^ miles. The cost of these 
 additions to the supply was ^^290,500. In the same interval ^222,000 had 
 been spent on new pipes in the City and the district, and on the improvement 
 of the Gorbals filters ;i^2 1,500 had been expended. The capital expenditure 
 on works since the initiation of the Loch Katrine undertaking therefore, till 
 1880, reached ;^ 1,4 5 4,000. 
 
 Into the details of the distribution within the City considerations of space
 
 250 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 as well as the technical nature of the subject forbid us to enter. Originally 
 the water was conveyed to the City in two 36-inch mains; but between 
 1873 and 1880, as already stated, two additional 36-inch pipes were laid 
 between the service reservoir and the area of distribution. The whole lie 
 side by side for 3 miles till Canniesburn is reached, at which point 
 one pair goes off to enter the City by the Garscube Road, and onwards 
 to the top of New City Road. Here this pair separate, and one of them 
 takes the supply to Springburn, St. Rollox, Dennistoun, and the other 
 higher levels on the north of the City. The second carries the water to 
 the middle levels of the City as far as Parkhead, Shettleston, and Tollcross 
 on the north side of the river, and to Rutherglen, Crossbill, and the high 
 levels on the south of the Clyde. The second pair pass southwards from 
 Canniesburn to Anniesland, when separating one enters the City by the 
 Great Western Road, supplying the whole of the low-lying central portion 
 of the City, and the other passing down to the Dumbarton Road supplies 
 Partick ; it is continued to Bridgeton, which district it supplies, and crossing 
 the river it also provides for all the low-lying parts of the southern 
 districts. 
 
 When the service reservoir was constructed at Mugdock, the water 
 being at a level of 317 feet above the sea, it was anticipated that the 
 whole population could be supplied by gravitation. And such, indeed, would 
 have been the case within the limits of compulsory supply had builders 
 been content to occupy the moderate elevations which previous to i860 
 were built over. But the district of Springburn, which rises to an altitude 
 of about 360 feet above the sea, at a point where a day supply cannot 
 be depended on higher than 210 feet, was gradually occupied with dwellings, 
 and it became necessary to pump water into an elevated reservoir for local 
 supply. This task was undertaken by the Barony Parochial Board in 
 their capacity as Local Authority, and by them two reservoirs of a joint 
 capacity of 2,787,000 gallons v/ere erected at an elevation of 369 feet 
 above the sea, into which water was pumped from a receiving tank at 
 a lower level of 209 feet. A supply equal to 12 days' consumption was 
 thus provided for the necessities of the district. In the same way the 
 wants of the Hogganfield district, 3 miles east of the City bounds, were 
 provided for by pumping water into a reservoir of 340,000 gallons capacity 
 at an elevation of 358 feet above the sea. These works were transferred 
 to the Water Commissioners in 1892. 
 
 In a report to the Town Council, drawn up in 1855 by the engineers, 
 Stephenson & Brunei, it was estimated that about the year 1900 the 
 population to be supplied might number 760,000, and the consumption 
 of water would then amount to 30,000,000 gallons daily. Three years 
 later Mr. Bateman, calculating that the population would increase at the 
 rate of 25 per cent., and the water consumption 35 per cent., each ten
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. II. LOCH KATRINE 
 
 !5I 
 
 years, arrived at the conclusion that about 1882 the population to be 
 served would be 775,000, and that the consumption of the rate of 36^ 
 gallons per head would be under 29,000,000 gallons per day. 
 
 Experience of the year 1882 demonstrated that the population served 
 numbered 762,000, that the consumption for domestic purposes was 36"65 
 gallons, and for manufacturing purposes I4'2 5 gallons — in all just under 
 5 1 gallons per head per day. These figures brought the total daily con- 
 sumption to beyond 38,000,000 gallons, a quantity coming perilously 
 near the maximum obtainable from Loch Katrine and the Gorbals jointly. 
 The former could not be depended on for more than 40,000,000 gallons 
 per day, and from the Gorbals works only between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 
 gallons could be drawn. 
 
 From these circumstances it was evident that the time had arrived, and 
 that much earlier than by any authority anticipated, when it became 
 necessary to provide for an increased supply, and in 1885 an Act of 
 Parliament was obtained to enlarge the authorized supply from the Loch 
 Katrine region. That Act gave power to the Water Commissioners to 
 raise the level of Loch Katrine 5 feet additional, w^hich, with the 4 feet 
 obtained under the 1855 Act, and the power to drain off to 3 feet below 
 the summer level, gave the Commissioners control over 1 2 feet vertical of 
 water, and it further brought Loch Arklet into the field of supply. Arklet 
 is a comparatively small lake which, although only lying 1000 yards from 
 the margin of Loch Katrine, and 83 yards higher up, yet belongs to the 
 Clyde basin, seeing it drains into Loch Lomond. Power was obtained to 
 raise the level of Loch Arklet 25 feet, and to carry its water into Loch 
 Katrine by means of a tunnel through the hill. The effect of these pro- 
 visions in the storage of water available for the City supply may be thus 
 stated: Loch Katrine has now a water area of 30587 acres; an addition 
 of 5 feet to the water level will increase that area by 9 1 1 acres, or 
 precisely to 3I50"I9 acres, and raise its water capacity from 5624 millions 
 of gallons by 4225 millions to a total capacity of 9849 millions of gallons. 
 To this increase must be added the total capacity of Loch Arklet, with 
 an area of 409*38 acres, and a water storage of 2059 millions of gallons, 
 giving for the Loch Katrine works a total ultimate reservoir capacity of 
 11,908 millions of gallons, say roughly 12,000 millions of gallons available 
 for consumption. To that amount add the storage capacity of the Gorbals 
 works, 1058 millions of gallons, we have a storage of water for consumption 
 equal to about 13,000 millions of gallons, against a storage under the 
 1855 Act equal to only 6682 millions of gallons. In effect then the store 
 of water on which Glasgow can draw will be doubled when the powers 
 obtained under the 1885 Act are fully exercised. 
 
 The further undertakings sanctioned consist practically of a duplication 
 of the entire works from the loch to the City — new outlet, new tunnels, new
 
 252 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 aqueduct and bridges, new syphon pipes, new storage reservoir, and new 
 mains to the various points in the area of supply. While the old aqueduct 
 was 25I miles long from the loch to Mugdock reservoir, the new works 
 between the same points being carried from the loch to Craigmaddie 
 reservoir by the side of Mugdock reservoir will, owing to the straight 
 Hne in which they are carried, be only 23^ miles long. And while the old 
 aqueduct, measuring 8 feet by 8 feet, conveys not more than 42,000,000 
 gallons, the new structure, i o to 12 feet wide, and 9 feet to 9 feet 6 inches 
 high, will be capable of passing not less than 70,000,000 gallons per day. 
 The huge new service reservoir, Craigmaddie, is constructed to contain 
 694,000,000 of gallons per day, while the Mugdock structure holds not 
 more than 488,700,000 gallons. 
 
 Both aqueducts for long stretches run parallel and side by side, though 
 the more direct course of the new work separates them at some points as 
 much as a mile and a half. In the meantime the raising of the water in 
 the loch to the extent of 5 feet, as sanctioned in the 1885 Act, and the 
 formation of the Arklet tunnel are deferred. The total length, 23I miles, 
 of new aqueduct from the loch to Craigmaddie aqueduct will be composed 
 of tunnel to the extent of 18 miles 78 chains, lined with concrete where 
 necessary ; in cut and cover, all lined with concrete, i mile 34 chains ; and 
 of syphon piping, 3 miles 8 chains. The longest tunnel in the line is that 
 known as the Kelty, which measures 4594 yards, upwards of 2\ miles; and 
 the Black Rig tunnel is but little shorter, being within a few yards of 
 2 1 miles. Several of the other tunnels are upwards of a mile in length. 
 There are but two syphons on the line of the new aqueduct — the first 
 crossing the Endrick Valley is 2 miles 3 1 chains long, and the second 
 carried over the Blane Valley is but 1194 yards in length. In these pro- 
 vision is made for laying four pipes of 48 inches diameter, but for the 
 present it is deemed necessary only to lay two. At eight points along the 
 line connecting channels have been formed between the two aqueducts, and 
 mechanism has been arranged to direct the flow of water from the one into 
 the other, so that any given section may be emptied for repairs or for other 
 purposes without interrupting the continuous flow of water. 
 
 The most serious, difficult, and costly part of the new works has been 
 encountered in connection with the formation of the great new reservoir at 
 Craigmaddie. It was desirable to have the reservoirs, both old and new, 
 close together, and along one side they are divided from each other by the 
 east embankment of the original reservoir. In the construction of the 
 embankment of the new reservoir great and unexpected difficulties have been 
 met, and it was found necessary to carry a puddle trench to an unprecedented 
 depth chiefly through sandstone in a disturbed and broken condition, and 
 partly through intrusive trap, the excavation of one part going to the depth 
 of 195 feet below the original surface of the ground or 198 feet below
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. 11. LOCH KATRINE 
 
 !53 
 
 the embankment level. The enormous amount of excavation and puddling 
 thereby entailed greatly retarded the work, and rendered it correspondingly 
 costly. The relative extent and capacity of the two reservoirs are shown 
 
 in the following 
 
 
 Depth. 
 Feet. 
 
 Available Depth. Area. 
 Feet. Acres. 
 
 Capacity. 
 Mill. Galls. 
 
 Days* 
 
 Supply 
 
 Craigmaddie, - 
 
 So 
 
 40 87 
 
 694 
 
 18 
 
 Mugdock, 
 
 60 
 
 50 62 
 
 488I 
 
 I2| 
 
 At the reservoir, junction channel arrangements have also been made 
 so that the water from the new or old aqueducts can be made at will to 
 flow into either new or old reservoir, or into both. 
 
 The total cost of the duplication of the works from the loch to the 
 streets of Glasgow and the district will, it is estimated, be not less than 
 ;^ 1, 2 50,000, and by spreading this expenditure over a series of years it is 
 anticipated that the population will be provided with this vast additional 
 supply without a farthing's addition to the rates and charges. Already the 
 duplication of the aqueducts over certain sections alone has increased the 
 amount of water which can be poured into the reservoirs by no less than 
 8,000,000 gallons per day. 
 
 Drawn from such a vast natural reservoir, the water is remarkably uniform 
 in quality, temperature, and colour. Summer sun and winter storm affect it 
 but little ; it is absolutely free from pollution, and the Corporation have secured 
 perpetual immunity from sewage taint by buying up, at a cost of ;!^ 18,000, 
 from surrounding proprietors over the whole drainage area their right to feu 
 their lands, so that the whole region will remain in perpetuity a silent solitude, 
 the gathering ground of the waters as they distil from the clouds. 
 
 In a thick sheet the water is seen to have a faint brownish tinge due 
 to a minute proportion of suspended peaty matter. Its contained impurities 
 are represented in parts per 100,000 as follows: Total solid impurities, 
 2'92i5; organic carbon, "147; organic nitrogen, "0165; ammonia, "ooo ; 
 nitric nitrogen, '006 ; total combined nitrogen, "0226 ; chlorine, "638. In 
 hardness, as already noted, it equals distilled water, averaging, according to 
 Dr. Clark's scale, '95. As already said, it needs no filtration. In the basin 
 by which it passes from the loch into the aqueduct there are fixed a range 
 of strainers to keep back fish, leaves, wood, or any solid matter. The strainers 
 consist of wooden frames, 7 feet 3 inches by 3 feet of inches, covered with 
 copper-wire netting having nine meshes per square inch. Again at the 
 point where it enters the service mains of the City it is similarly strained.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. III. COMMERCIAL ASPECTS. 
 
 Increased consumption of water entirely for trade purposes : Use of water power from gravi- 
 tation : 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. 
 
 While the consumption of water in Glasgow has gone up by leaps and 
 bounds during the period it has been in the enjoyment of the copious re- 
 sources of the Perthshire lochs, an analysis of the careful statistics kept by 
 the engineer shows that the domestic consumption per head of the population 
 has not really increased. In the year 1852 under the regime of the com- 
 panies the domestic consumption was 35*65 gallons, and for trade purposes 
 it was 3*25 gallons per head of the population. In 1861 the first complete 
 year of the Corporation Loch Katrine supply the figures were for domestic 
 purposes 34"2 8 gallons, and for trade consumption 5*82 gallons. Thirty 
 years later, in 1891, the domestic supply had actually decreased to 31*60 
 gallons, but the quantity drawn off for trade purposes had risen to 17*16 
 gallons per head. In the interim in certain years the domestic consumption 
 had risen to as much as 38 gallons per head, and there is no doubt that 
 increased cleanliness, the extension of the supply, and the general introduction 
 of water-closets into properties of even the meanest class have all added 
 enormously to the legitimate and beneficial use of water in households. 
 That, in face of these circumstances, the domestic consumption has actually 
 decreased instead of showing a great expansion can be explained only by 
 the perfect condition in which the supply pipes are kept, by the close and 
 continuous system of inspection to which the entire water supply is subjected, 
 and by the rigid testing of water fittings conducted by the department. 
 
 While the domestic supply per head has thus been substantially and 
 beneficially controlled, it will be seen that the water taken for trade purposes
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. III. COMMERCIAL ASPECTS 
 
 255 
 
 in thirty )-ears has increased three-fold. Out of a total revenue of about 
 ;^i 86,000 realized in the year 1895-96 ;i^io5,ooo was derived from supplies 
 for other than domestic purposes. And as all the water so consumed is 
 paid for by meter or by special rates this trade consumption is pure gain, 
 and affords a welcome and substantial relief to the ratepayer. The Water 
 Commissioners enter the market with a valuable commercial commodity, and 
 its abundance, excellence, and cheapness have a most stimulating influence 
 on many industries. It is not water alone that the Corporation has, in 
 ample store, to dispose of, but, what is of much more importance, they have 
 in that water an abundant reserve of power, and the fact that there were 
 in the City about 600 hoists and upwards of 100 hydraulic presses worked 
 direct from the main, shows that the water pressure has been very largely 
 utilized. But at most simple gravitation could not be depended on to 
 yield a pressure of more, during the day, than from 45 to 50 lbs. per square 
 inch even in favourably situated areas. Under such a pressure the consump- 
 tion of water itself when used for power was very large, and the charge on 
 the consumer was correspondingly heavy. The experience of other large 
 industrial communities demonstrated that great economy on both sides, to 
 the Corporation as well as to the consumers, would be effected by supplying 
 water under greatly increased pressure, and a private company sought to 
 provide hydraulic pressure to the public as had already been done in London, 
 Liverpool, and Hull. But the Commissioners themselves resolved to under- 
 take the service, and accordingly, in 1892, parliamentary authority was 
 obtained to establish hydraulic power works. These works have been in 
 partial operation since the 30th of May, 1895, and now consumers in the 
 central districts of the City have at their disposal water under a pressure 
 of not less than 1120 lbs. (half a ton) per square inch. Under this system 
 consumers of water power can obtain their supplies at a cost of little more 
 than one-half of what they paid for water under gravitation pressure, and 
 that at an expenditure of only one-twentieth part of the water required 
 under the low pressure system. The substitution of high pressure water 
 for water of gravitation pressure thus reserves an enormous quantity for the 
 purposes of the ordinary water supply. 
 
 The Hydraulic Power Supply Works of Glasgow occupy the triangular 
 space or gusset formed by the junction of High Street with the Rottenrow. 
 The site is opposite that of the new Barony Church, and looks towards the 
 open space. Cathedral Square, with the Necropolis and the Cathedral in the 
 distance. The open character of the situation and the important public 
 character of the neighbouring buildings warranted the Corporation in giving 
 the street elevation of the works a more dignified architectural character 
 than is usually accorded to such erections. In pleasing accordance with 
 the history and traditions of the locality, a treatment of the building 
 in the Scottish baronial style has been selected, and a \'cry successful.
 
 256 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 well-balanced and harmonious frontage in red sandstone has been 
 secured. 
 
 The engine-house of the works has been laid out to accommodate six 
 sets of vertical triple expansion engines each of 200 indicated horse-power ; 
 but in the meantime three sets only have been installed, giving 600 horse- 
 power. Each set of engines is designed to deliver 230 gallons of water 
 per minute when running at a speed of 60 revolutions ; but it is not intended 
 to work these at a rate greater than 50 revolutions per minute. The station 
 is provided with two accumulators erected in towers rising to a height of 
 60 feet, which towers form a distinct architectural feature in the building. 
 These accumulators have rams 18 inches in diameter with 23 feet stroke, 
 and each is loaded with 127 tons inclusive of ram and casing. The water 
 supply is taken from the Corporation mains, and the tank storage 
 provided is equal to 200,000 gallons. The supply from the station is carried 
 through the streets in four 7-inch mains, the pressure on these being given 
 by the two accumulators ; but by-pass and stop-valves are so arranged that 
 the pressure can, if necessary, be applied to any or all by one accumulator 
 only. The four mains form two separate circuits, in all about 9 miles in 
 length, and at various points, about a quarter of a mile apart, these circuits are 
 connected by pipes fitted with valves, so that they may be worked as one 
 whole or two separate circuits. From the 7 -inch mains 6-inch and 5 -inch 
 pipes branch off into the streets within the area of supply, and all these 
 pipes are provided with valves by which the street may be cut off when 
 required. The Commissioners provide from these pipes a branch or connection 
 for each consumer, with a valve or stop-cock attached thereto, and all service 
 pipes, valves, and other appliances beyond must be supplied at the expense of 
 the consumer. These appliances must be tested previous to connection with 
 the mains up to a pressure equal to 3000 lbs. per square inch, they must be 
 provided with valve or stop-cock within the building where the power is 
 used, a relief valve loaded to 1200 lbs. per square inch must be attached 
 to the service pipe, and all machinery and appliances must be kept perfectly 
 water-tight. All the machines in use in one building, or by one consumer in 
 that building, are required to pass the water used into one system of return 
 pipes for rneasurement by a single meter, which is provided by the Commis- 
 sioners for a rent paid by the consumer. The minimum charge per quarter 
 for a single machine is 24s. when the quantity of water used does not exceed 
 3000 gallons. The price rises in gradually decreasing ratio, so that 13,000 
 gallons costs £>^\ for ^5 the quantity supplied is 17,000; 100,000 gallons 
 cost ;^20 ; 200,000 gallons, ;^3 1 5s.; and 300,000 gallons, ;iC4 2 los. Above 
 that quantity the charge is by special arrangement. 
 
 The staff connected with the supervision, maintenance, and repair of 
 the water works is necessarily considerable in number, and scattered over a 
 wide area. Over' the entire system is the chief engineer, Mr. James Morris
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. II L COMMERCIAL ASPECTS 
 
 257 
 
 Gale, M. Inst. C.E., who has designed all the works connected with the 
 duplication of the Loch Katrine Works in addition to discharging his ordinary 
 stated duties of maintaining the works in perfect repair, and of superintending 
 the entire engineering staff under his control. That staff consists of an 
 assistant engineer, and about a dozen other office assistants, civil engineers, 
 and mechanical, architectural, and general draughtsmen ; three foremen over 
 pipe-laying gangs, two inspectors for pipes, valves, etc., in makers' yards ; about 
 twenty inspectors of water fittings, with a principal and an under foreman. 
 Lodged in different districts of the City are about twenty turncocks, whose 
 duty is to give assistance in the event of any pipes bursting. In the store 
 and workshop there are from twenty-five to thirty men employed, and the 
 clerical staff numbers about ten. The works between Loch Katrine and 
 the City are divided into six sections, each under a responsible superintendent, 
 who has watchmen and workmen under him to the number of about fifteen 
 for each section. 
 
 With the coming into operation of the 1855 Act, the Water Commissioners 
 took over the capital stock and mortgage debt of the Glasgow and the Gorbals 
 Companies. The debts and liabilities of the two companies amounted to 
 ;^7 6,000 ; for the Glasgow Water Company's stock annuities at 4^ per cent, 
 were issued on a capital sum of ^^^303, 700, and at 6 per cent, on ;^4 1,680. 
 For the stock of the Gorbals Water Company annuities at 6 per cent, on 
 ^180,000 were granted in accordance with the parliamentary bargain. These 
 annuities, amounting in all to ;^52 5,38o, valued at 4 per cent., represented 
 a capital sum of ;^674,i8o, which, plus ^^76,000 mortgage debt, made the 
 amount paid by the City for the Glasgow and Gorbals Works and their rights 
 equal to three-quarters of a million sterling. The entire cost of the original 
 Loch Katrine Works, as completed in i860, was as already stated, so that 
 ;^920,ooo, with the turning on of the Loch Katrine supply the total expenditure 
 and liabilities had risen to ^1,670,000. Between 1862 and 1882 additional 
 lines of syphon pipes were laid over the valley tracks, new and additional 
 piping was provided in the district, and the Gorbals' filters were greatly 
 extended; all of which, with other minor expenditure, added ^534,000 to the 
 cost of the works, bringing the expenditure on the works up to .?^ 1,4 5 4,000, 
 and the total cost of the water undertaking to i^2, 2 04,000. Such, roundly 
 stated, according to the water engineer, Mr. James M. Gale, in his communi- 
 cation to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in March, 
 1883, was the expenditure on the water supply of Glasgow up to May, 1882. 
 
 Turning now to the official accounts of the Water Committee, issued in 
 June, 1896, we find the capital expenditure under the Acts previous to 1882 
 stated at ;^2, 160,000. On new works, under the Acts of 1885 and 1892, 
 there had been already expended.;^ 1,2 3 5,000, making in all a capital expen- 
 diture of ;^3,446,ooo. The principal items in the expenditure under the 
 1885 and 1892 Acts were ;^279,ooo for the construction of the Craigmaddie
 
 258 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 reservoir, then approaching completion, ;^i 74,000 for the Blane Valley 
 contract, ;^i 04,000 under the Loch Chron contract, ;^i 08,500 for the Kelty 
 Tunnel, £\ 10,000 for new mains between Craigmaddie and the City, ^87,000 
 for the Duchray contract, ;i^7 0,000 for lands and compensations under the 
 Acts of 1885-92. In connection with the Hydraulic Power Supply Works 
 the expenditure at May, 1896, stood at i^7 8,000, and the balance was made 
 up of payments of smaller amounts under contracts in progress, engineering 
 expenses, and expenditure on properties, including contributions to the Muni- 
 cipal Buildings' account, equal to about ^15,000. On River Supply Works 
 for trade purposes the capital expenditure was i^i 01,000, bringing the grand 
 total of capital expenditure, as at 31st May, 1896, to ;^3, 538,000. The 
 indebtedness of the Water Commissioners at that date consisted of ^234,980 
 of funded debt, ;!f 1,975,500 borrowed under the Corporation Loans Account, 
 and the sum of the two Sinking Funds in operation together equal to 
 £^802,600. The value of the annuities granted to the Glasgow Water Com- 
 panies (^483,700 at 6 per cent, and ;^4 1,680 at 4I per cent.) has also to 
 be taken into account. Under the Act of 1885 these annuities were, for 
 Sinking Fund purposes, capitalized at ;^7 20,000, thereby adding ^194,000 
 nominal to the debt. From Sinking Fund accumulations annuities of nominal 
 capital value of ^^24,740 have been redeemed at a cost of ;^40,050. The 
 Sinking Fund for the redemption of debt came into operation only in the 
 year 1870, ten years after the water of Loch Katrine was turned on, and 
 fifteen from the date of the original Act. The Act stipulates that a minimum 
 of \\ per cent, on the total debt shall be yearly paid into the Sinking Fund. 
 Under the 1855 Act unlimited power of rating was conceded only over 
 the area within the municipal bounds lying to the north of the river. Within 
 the municipality on the south side of the Clyde the annual charge for 
 domestic supply was restricted to is. per pound of rental, the maximum 
 eligible under the powers of the Gorbals Company ; and for supply beyond 
 the municipality the maximum charge was is. 2d. per pound of rental. 
 Under these conditions there was a fear, not unnatural, that the rates 
 might become excessive and unduly burdensome in the area north of the 
 Clyde, but experience soon happily proved that such dread was without 
 foundation. During the first few years — from 1856 till 1862 — the charge 
 on the north side of the river, and on areas outside the municipality, was 
 at the rate of is. 2d. per pound, and on the south side it was is. During 
 the two years, 1862-63 ^"^^ 1863-64, it was found expedient to raise the rate 
 on the north side of the Clyde to is. 4d. per pound ; and since that period 
 all changes have been in the way of reductions of the rate. In 1864-65 
 the municipal rate north of the Clyde was reduced to is. 2d.; in 1865-66 
 it was brought down to the level of the rate on the south side — is. per 
 pound ; and ever since that year ratepayers within the municipal bounds, 
 both north and south, have been treated alike. The rate continued at is.
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. III. COMMERCIAL ASPECTS 259 
 
 per pound till 1870-71, when it was made Qd. ; from 1871-72 till 1886-87 it 
 stood at 8d. ; for three years thereafter it was 7d., and since the year 1890-91 
 the domestic water rate has been 6d. per pound of rental. Beyond the munici- 
 pality the charge has also been reduced, but to a less extent. In 1867-68 
 id. was taken off the domestic rate, reducing it to is. id.; in 1871-72 it 
 was further reduced to is., at which it stood for two years, when it was 
 brought down to i id. ; and in 1890-91 the charge for domestic supply 
 beyond the municipal bounds was fixed at lod. per pound, at which it now 
 stands. In the interim by annexations considerable areas have been brought 
 within the municipality of Glasgow, which became thereby entitled to the 
 lower municipal rate; and specially by the Act of 1891 a large population 
 was added to the City, and thereby immediately gained the substantial 
 advantage of a reduction in water rates to the extent of 4d. per pound 
 on house rental. The domestic rate in Glasgow covers all charges for baths 
 and closets in dwelling-houses, and there is no restriction to the number 
 of such conveniences which may be fitted up in any house. There is 
 further a public rate of id. per pound chargeable against owners on the 
 annual value of all properties within the municipality, a tax imposed 
 for the benefits derived through the introduction of the Loch Katrine 
 supply. 
 
 The experience of charges for water supplied by meter and for special 
 purposes has also been in the direction of steady and substantial reductions. 
 In 1861-62 the prices charged for meter supplies ranged in a sliding scale 
 from IS. per 1000 gallons for minimum quantities down to 4d. per 1000 
 gallons where the quantity taken was above 4,000,000 gallons per quarter, 
 with a minimum total charge of ^5 per annum. From 1862 to 1864 the 
 prices ranged from 9d. to 4'8od., the minimum charge remaining at ^5 per 
 annum. In 1871-72 the maximum price was reduced to 6d., ranging down 
 to 4*8od., and the minimum charge was restricted to £\ per annum. From 
 1872 to 1875 the charge was fixed at £2 per 100,000 gallons, with a 
 minimum charge of £\ yearly; and in 1875-76 the minimum charge was 
 reduced to ;^3 per annum. In 1876-77 the meter rate was £\ 17s. 6d. per 
 100,000 gallons; minimum charge, ^3 per annum. Again in 1877 and until 
 1890 the rate was ^i 13s. 4d. per 100,000 gallons, or 4d. per 1000 gallons; 
 the minimum charge continuing at ;^3 per annum ; but that minimum charge 
 in 1890-91 was lowered to £2 per annum, at which it now stands. The 
 rates also for hotels and spirit shops, restaurants, etc., have been reduced 
 from IS. 2d. per pound on rental to 8d. per pound. The annual charge for 
 horses has fallen from 4s. to 2s., and for cows from 3s. to 2s. each. 
 
 Charitable institutions are all supplied free of charge, as are also the 
 public baths and wash-houses in the City belonging to the Corporation. 
 Nor do the Water Commissioners charge the Corporation for water used 
 for cleansing purposes, watering streets, flushing sewers, extinguishing fires,
 
 26o MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 etc., and as a quid iwo quo the Corporation as Police Commissioners do not 
 levy any assessment on the value of the Water Commissioners' pipes, etc., 
 in the public streets for police and statute labour purposes. 
 
 The saving to consumers represented by these decreasing charges amount 
 to a princely sum. Under the domestic rate alone it is calculated that the 
 saving to ratepayers till May, 1896, amounts to a total not less than 
 ^^650,000. In the same way the saving represented by reductions under 
 meter charges is not less than ^490,000, and the decrease in trade charges 
 equals a sum of about ^120,000. In all therefore the savings under these 
 several heads have amounted to nearly ;^ 1,200,000, and had the charges 
 remained at the by no means exorbitant rates at first levied, the capital 
 expenditure under the original Loch Katrine scheme would now have been 
 nearly extinguished, and the community of Glasgow would have had their 
 magnificent works almost free of debt. The sinking fund for the extinction 
 of the debt on the extension works comes into operation in June, 1897, 
 and is also fixed at a minimum rate of i \ per cent. The whole additional 
 expenditure thereby entailed will easily be met from the revenue now accruing 
 to the Corporation, while the normal expansion of income will put it in the 
 power of the Water Department either to further decrease rates, or to reduce 
 the debt at a rate considerably more rapid than contemplated under the 
 obligations of the statute. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the substantial reductions in rates and charges, the 
 annual revenue of the Water Department has increased both steadily and 
 with rapidity, having only on one or two occasions, when considerable 
 reductions in rate came into operation, shown the slightest decrease or want 
 of elasticity. In 1856-57, the first year of the Corporation's collection, the 
 revenue was ^^62,300 ; twenty years thereafter, in 1876-77, with greatly 
 reduced rates it was considerably more than doubled, having amounted to 
 i^ 1 36,200; and there is no doubt that at the end of another twenty years 
 from that period the revenue will considerably exceed three times the amount 
 of the first year's collection, and that with rates not one-half the amount 
 originally levied. The total revenue in 1895-96 was ;^i 89,700, of which 
 amount the domestic rate on houses yielded £6ifioo\ the public water 
 rate produced ;!^i6,78o; for meter supplies there was paid ^68,400; and 
 trade charges, including payments by builders, came to ^36,500. The River 
 Supply Works produced almost ;^3000, and there were various other small 
 items of revenue which make up the balance. 
 
 The annual expenditure has naturally shown a similar progressive increase 
 which, however, has been neither so uniform nor so rapid. In the year 
 1856-57 it began at ^58,605 ; twenty years afterwards, in 1876-77, it touched 
 almost ;^ 1 20,000, and in the year 1895-96 it amounted to ;f 147,800, exclusive 
 of ^36,000 carried to the credit of the Sinking Fund. In that expenditure, of 
 course, the principal charges are for interest on debt under the form of annuities
 
 THE WATER SUPPLY. III. COMMERCIAL ASPECTS 261 
 
 and pa}'ments to the Corporation Loans Fund for advances, etc., which amount 
 in all to over £g6,y 00. The wages paid exceed ^22,000 per year, and for 
 salaries in Engineering Department and the salaries and expenses of the 
 Treasurer's Department, including collectors of rates, etc., the annual expendi- 
 ture is ;^8200. Rates, taxes, materials, and miscellaneous charges cost nearly 
 £2 1 ,000. There is also an annual loss on the accounts of the River Supply 
 Works of about £9^0, or with the payment of ;!^I5I2 to the Sinking Fund, 
 the deficiency of revenue under that account reaches ^^^2440 yearly. 
 
 There is certainly not another city in the kingdom, indeed it is doubtful 
 if anywhere on the face of the earth there is a large population so bene- 
 ficially situated as the people of Glasgow for water supply in respect of 
 abundance, purity, and cheapness. It has been of incalculable value in 
 fostering the arts and industries of the City, in promoting the health and 
 welfare of the people its blessings and benefits may never be reckoned up ; 
 and to come down to the prosaic but still essential question of price, what 
 other community has control of a practically unlimited supply of such water 
 at a cost of little more than a shilling per year to each person who enjoys 
 its benefits ?
 
 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 com- 
 panies 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 : Indebted- 
 ness 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. 
 
 The arguments which go to show that the supply of water to a great city 
 ought to be under the sole control of the municipal authorities thereof, can 
 be used with almost equal cogency and force in favour of the municipalization 
 of the supply of illuminating gas. Gas, it is true, is not a prime and funda- 
 mental necessity of human existence ; the race has lived, and could yet exist 
 without artificial illuminants of any kind. That consideration, however, does 
 not affect the argument. Illuminating gas is an essential convenience of a 
 modern civilized city, and the citizens are entitled to obtain it under the 
 most convenient and least onerous conditions possible. That its production 
 and distribution constitutes a natural monopoly may be easily demonstrated. 
 Free competition in the gas industry is an obvious impossibility, and even 
 the rivalry, we do not say competition of two companies, is carried on with 
 such needless duplication of distributing pipes and other plant as to greatly 
 increase the expense of the manufacture without any compensating advantage.
 
 CORPORATION GAS AND ELECTRICITY 263 
 
 The rivalry of two companies implies two separate bodies empowered at will 
 to tear up the public roadways, the duplication of pipes throughout every 
 street and lane, two sets of pipes introduced into every house with all the 
 attendant danger and destruction which characterize gasfitters' work generally ; 
 double leakage, double risks of explosion, double trouble all along the line 
 but no real benefit of competition, which to be effective, must be unlimited. 
 The legislature itself, at an early period, recognized the impracticability of 
 competition when by statute a limit was set to the profits which any gas 
 company could legally divide. 
 
 And yet the company stage in the gas industry was of great and 
 practically indispensable value. A corporation cannot be a pioneer ; it cannot 
 undertake speculative risks, nor can it nurse and develop, at the public 
 expense, systems and schemes, the public utility of which are only hypo- 
 thetical. In this direction is the field of private enterprise ; and it is right 
 that the men who incur the risk of promoting and carrying to a practical 
 issue any new undertaking should be allowed to reap a sufficient reward 
 for their speculative boldness. The feasibility of manufacturing illuminating 
 gas, and of conveying it by pipes throughout an entire city, had to be 
 established ; the public utility and importance of the undertaking had to 
 be demonstrated before any corporation would be warranted in taking up 
 the industry. These services the joint-stock companies rendered to the 
 public, and they were justly entitled to the reward of an ample return on 
 the capital they risked in nursing the new illuminant. For half-a-century 
 the making and distribution of gas was a company enterprise in Glasgow. 
 The shareholders received a good return for the money they invested, and in 
 the end they got a generous price for the properties they were called on to 
 hand over to the Corporation. 
 
 The Glasgow Gas-Light Company was formed and incorporated by Act 
 of Parliament in 18 17, with a sanctioned capital of ;^40,ooo and power 
 to borrow i^ 10,000 further. Under the Act the company became bound, 
 before paying any dividend, to lay aside a sum, not less than ^^2000 nor 
 more than ;^3000, out of profits, as a fund to meet contingencies. Gas 
 was turned on in the City in September of the following year ; and that 
 the advantages of gas-lighting were immediately and widely recognized is 
 manifest from the fact that the company had, within four years thereafter, 
 to apply to Parliament for power to double their capital. The contingent 
 fund, under the Act of 1822, which authorized the raising of an additional 
 ;{J^40,ooo, was increased to a minimum of ^^5000. Again, in 1825, power 
 to raise further capital, to the extent of ^20,000, making the whole capital 
 account ;^ 100,000, was obtained from Parliament. In the Act then 
 obtained the important proviso was inserted that " ay, and until there 
 be another company incorporated by Act of Parliament or otherwise for 
 the supply of the City and suburbs of Glasgow with gas, the annual
 
 264 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 dividend of the said Glasgow Gas-Light Company shall not exceed in any 
 one year ten per centum per annum." In the following year, so rapid was 
 the expansion of the gas industry, and so profitable was the undertaking, 
 the company were again in Parliament promoting a Bill to add ^50,000 
 to their capital, and opposing a Bill under which it was proposed to 
 incorporate a new company. They were successful in both issues, and 
 received authority to sell to the public 2000 shares of £2^ each; and it 
 was enacted that the premium realized from such transaction should be 
 expended on extending and improving the works, and that no part of it 
 was to become a fund for division among the proprietors, so as to form a 
 source of individual profit. By the sale of these shares the company realized 
 a premium of ^49,724, which, added to the iJ^i 50,000 of dividend bearing 
 capital, raised the total to £\(^(^,'J2<\. 
 
 So equipped, the company continued its prosperous career, but not without 
 much grumbling and dissatisfaction from the public. The monopoly was 
 evidently viewed with jealous eyes, and it was alleged that the company not only 
 neglected the statutory duty of triennially investigating their profits to find 
 whether they exceeded the average of 10 per cent., but that they added 
 to their works out of revenue, and thereby unduly oppressed the consumers 
 of the period. In 1835 five Commissioners, appointed at a public meeting, 
 made an investigation and report, in which they brought out that, at 31st 
 May of that year, the Gas Company were " justly and truly indebted to the 
 consumers of gas in the sum of i^5 3,788," and they were warned that if 
 " they persevere in their present charges for gas, and refuse to give 
 indemnity to the public, another gas company will in all probability be 
 formed." 
 
 It is hardly needful to say that the hypothetical claim of Commissioners, 
 which they suggested should be liquidated by a reduction of 50 per cent, 
 on the rates then current over a period of five years, was disregarded. For 
 eight years more the company continued to hold the field undisputed ; 
 but in 1843 a new company, "The City and Suburban Gas Company of 
 Glasgow," was formed and incorporated by Act of Parliament, with authority 
 to raise capital to the extent of ;!Ci $0,000, and to borrow on mortgage 
 up to a sixth part of their share capital. The company proceeded with 
 vigour to exercise their powers, and from 1844 the citizens had such 
 benefit, or otherwise, as the existence of two companies with similar statutory 
 powers was calculated to yield them. 
 
 The public, though at first better served, do not appear to have been 
 more satisfied under the new conditions than they were when the old company 
 had undisputed control of the industry. In 1857 both companies had 
 occasion to seek in Parliament increased capital and extended powers, and 
 the Town Council, rejoicing in the victory they had gained over the water 
 companies, joined issue with the gas proprietors. The opposition of the
 
 CORPORATION GAS AND ELECTRICITY 265 
 
 Council was so far successful that, while the companies were allowed to 
 get their Acts, they severally entered into provisional contracts with the 
 representatives of the Council, under which they agreed to transfer to the 
 Corporation their works, property, and funds at the 31st May, 1858, subject 
 to the discharge of their whole debts and liabilities, and the payment of 
 perpetual annuities of 8 per cent, on the nominal amount of each company's 
 shares, or on demand from the individual shareholders a money payment of 
 double the nominal amount of such shares. The Council were also to 
 have the right to pay out shareholders at the same double rate. The 
 agreements fell to be ratified by the Town Council within four months of 
 the date of their signature ; but as the Council failed to homologate the 
 action of their representatives the negotiations fell to the ground, and the 
 companies were, in the meantime, left in undisturbed enjoyment of their 
 new Acts. Thereby each company obtained power to add ^50,000 to 
 their capital ; but it was stipulated that the new stock created should 
 carry a maximum dividend of 7^ per cent, only, that it should be sold by 
 auction, and the premiums realized on the sale should be applied towards 
 extensions of the works. 
 
 The war between gas producers and gas consumers thereafter continued 
 with increased bitterness. A public meeting of indignant citizens was held 
 under the presidency of the Lord Provost in the City Hall, on 14th 
 September, 1859, when a resolution was unanimously adopted to the effect 
 that the price of gas was unnecessarily high, and ought to be immediately 
 reduced, and calling for an investigation of the company's books to discover 
 whether the surplus profits are applied in terms of the Acts of Parliament 
 for reducing the price. A committee was appointed to carry out the sense 
 of the resolution, and, after a good deal of friction, and an appeal to the 
 Sheriff of Lanarkshire, ultimately detailed reports on the affairs of both 
 companies were obtained from Mr. James M'Clelland, C.A. The most 
 important inferences from these reports were that the City and Suburban 
 Company had never throughout its career earned quite sufficient profit to 
 enable it to pay 10 per cent, although from the year ending June, 1853, 
 that maximum division had been steadily made, partly at the expense of 
 a "premium account," and partly by making no sufficient allowance for 
 depreciation of works and plant. In relation to the old Glasgow Gas- 
 Light Company the investigation brought out the serious fact of an 
 enormous loss of gas by condensation, leakage, or other untraced cause. 
 For the three years over which the detailed investigation was carried the 
 loss was in 1858 23-29 per cent, of the total make, in 1859 it amounted 
 to 2r86 per cent., and again in i860 it came to 23'i9 per cent. A loss 
 of almost one-fourth part of the total quantity of gas produced, of course, 
 in itself meant a serious addition to the gas bills of the paying consumers. 
 In ordinary well-controlled practice the gas unaccounted for does not exceed
 
 266 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 10 per cent., so here there was one-eighth part of the gas made needlessly 
 gone to waste. 
 
 The Glasgow Gas Consumers Committee wind up their report with the 
 old threat of a new gas company. " Having," they state, " fully discussed 
 and considered all the information relating to the manufacture and sale of 
 gas which has been brought under their notice at numerous meetings held 
 by them, they have arrived at the conclusion that, to meet the wants of 
 the public, it is necessary that a new gas company should be established in 
 this City forthwith." Small good the second company did them, yet they 
 clamoured for the establishment of a third branch to the monopoly, with 
 the prospect of public confusion, wasteful and useless expenditure, and an 
 assured return to the shareholders. 
 
 A better solution of the hardships of the long-suffering gas consumer 
 was, however, to be reached. Once more the Town Council bestirred them- 
 selves, and after full discussion, in September, 1867, they arrived at the 
 unanimous resolution, " That in the opinion of this Council it would be for 
 the public interest if the supply of gas to the City and the citizens were 
 placed under the control of the Town Council, and that the follovvang gentle- 
 men be and are hereby named a Committee to negotiate with the existing 
 companies, with a view to their interests being fairly dealt with, and the 
 supply of gas transferred from them to the Town Council." No amicable 
 understanding was arrived at between the committee and the directors of 
 the gas companies, and in the end the battle had to be fought out before 
 Parliamentary Committees. For the session 1868-69 notices of bills were 
 given on behalf of the Corporation (ist) for powers to erect gas-works and 
 to supply gas within the municipality, City, and Royal Burgh of Glasgow 
 and its suburbs, and (2nd) for the purchase of the works of the two com- 
 panies by agreement. At the same time the Glasgow Gas-Light Company 
 and the City and Suburban Company promoted bills for raising additional 
 capital for increasing and extending works, and so the forces were set in 
 battle array. Pending the opening of the fight an offer was made by the 
 Town Council to take over the works, property, assets and liabilities of the 
 companies, paying the holders of the 10 per cent, stock perpetual annuities 
 of 9 per cent., and the 7|- per cent, stockholders with perpetual annuities of 
 6| per cent. The offer, substantially embracing the terms ultimately con- 
 ceded under parliamentary authority, was declined by the companies. Parlia- 
 ment refused to sanction the Bill for the erection of municipal gas-works ; 
 but the Corporation Purchase of Works Bill, under the title of " The Glasgow 
 Corporation Gas Act, 1869," transferring the undertakings of the two com- 
 panies to the Council, received royal sanction. The shareholders received 
 perpetual annuities of ^34,762 los., being at the rate of 9 per cent, on 
 ;^300,ooo of 10 per cent, maximum dividend stock and at £,6 15s. per 
 cent, on ;^i 15,000 of 'j\ per cent, stock. In security for the payment of
 
 CORPORATION GAS AND ELECTRICITY 
 
 267 
 
 these annuities the properties present and future of the Gas Department were 
 mortgaged ; and, as further security, power of rating to the extent of 6d. per 
 pound over the rental of the City was conceded. The mortgage debts of 
 the two companies, which amounted to almost ;!^i 20,000 were also taken 
 over by the Corporation. It cannot be said that the gas shareholders were 
 inadequately recompensed in getting guaranteed annuities one-tenth less in 
 value than the maximum dividends they were entitled to earn as traders. 
 On the other hand, from the consumers point of view, the annual payment 
 of nearly ;^3 5,000 of annuities represents a serious dead-weight on the cost of 
 manufacture, and with the mortgage debts and obligations taken over, the 
 capital cost of the works to the citizens as a going concern was a serious 
 burden. 
 
 The Corporation entered on the possession of the gas-works, and began 
 business as gas manufacturers on the ist of June, 1869. The works acquired 
 from the Glasgow Company consisted of three manufacturing stations, having, 
 in all, 576 retorts, situated, one in the north of the City — Kirk Street, 
 Townhead ; a second in the western suburb of Partick ; and a third on 
 the south side — Tradeston. From the City and Suburban Company was 
 acquired the large Dalmarnock station at the east end of the City, in which 
 were accommodated 868 retorts. During the last ten years of their existence 
 the price charged by the companies ranged from 5s. down to 4s. 2d. per 
 thousand cubic feet, with discounts of 5 per cent, on accounts between £\ 
 and i^20, of 10 per cent, on accounts between i^20 and ;^ioo, and of 
 15 per cent, on all sums above ;^ioo. The price per thousand feet, subject 
 to these discounts in the last years of the companies, was 4s. 7d., and in 
 that year their total production of gas was 1206 millions of cubic feet. 
 
 In the second year of their undertaking the Town Council, allowing only 
 half the previous discounts, reduced the price to 4s. 2d. within the municipality; 
 but in the area of supply beyond the City bounds the price was 2|d. per 
 thousand feet more, a differential charge which was productive of much 
 trouble, and as things turned out, of heavy cost, to the Corporation. The odd 
 2jd. was justified on the plea that the ratepayers of the City had become 
 liable to the imposition of a rate of 6d. per pound on their rental to meet any 
 deficiency in the revenue ; and an untoward accident might have necessitated 
 the exercise of such a rating power. Certain suburban consumers, however, 
 perceived in the differential charge a grievance, and a company was forthwith 
 formed under the name of the Partick, Hillhead, and Maryhill Gas Company, 
 with a capital of ;^i 30,000, to supply gas in districts outside the municipal 
 bounds, but still within the limits of the compulsory supply of the Corporation. 
 Consequently duplicate mains and pipes were laid down within these districts, 
 and a competition with the Corporation was set up, with all its attendant 
 friction, waste, and bad blood. The Partick, Hillhead, and Maryhill Company 
 never obtained any statutory powers, although they made repeated efforts to
 
 268 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 secure an Act of Parliament, and they were only allowed to open up streets 
 and roads for laying their pipes by the sufferance of the several suburban 
 burghs and local authorities. The company began to supply gas in 1873, 
 and in the first year of their activity produced 6^ millions of cubit feet. 
 The company had a somewhat chequered and precarious career ; depen- 
 dent for very existence on the tolerance of shifting public authorities, 
 and working in a state of chronic antagonism to the Corporation 
 Gas Department. The various Annexation Bills promoted by the Town 
 Council of Glasgow, with the view of absorbing the suburbs in which alone 
 the company supplied gas, were felt to threaten the privileges they enjoyed, 
 and in consequence the directors were among the strenuous opponents of all 
 annexation measures. In the circumstances it was deemed expedient to buy 
 up the concern ; and in 1888 a provisional agreement was arrived at between 
 the Town Council and the directors, but the shareholders declined to imple- 
 ment its terms. In 1891 the company was for the last time in Parliament 
 seeking statutory recognition, and they had fortified their position by buying 
 up for i^ 1 1,000 the works of the Dalmuir, Kilpatrick, and Bowling Gas 
 Company, lying principally beyond the range of the Corporation supply. 
 Negotiations again ensued, and in the end the directors agreed to accept 
 .^202,500 for their works, and a clause embodying this agreement was inserted 
 in a Bill promoted in Parliament by the company in 1891, and on ist July 
 of that year the Corporation entered into possession of the company's works 
 at Temple. Notwithstanding the unfavourable conditions under which the 
 works had been carried on, the quantity of gas made had increased steadily 
 year by year, and in the last year of their working the quantity produced 
 reached 342 millions of cubic feet. The undertaking had, however, little 
 pecuniary success ; and taken all over it did not realize on its preference 
 capital (^^30,000) more than an annual return of 5^ per cent, while the total 
 dividend to ordinary shareholders on their ;^ 100,000 did not exceed i\ per 
 cent, per annum. 
 
 The works of the old companies, which came into the hands of the 
 Town Council in 1869, were found to be in need of extensive renewals, 
 and to meet the steadily growing demand large additions were also impera- 
 tively required. A loss of more than 23 per cent, of the gas made from 
 the works of the Glasgow Company is a sufficient indication of the condition 
 of the pipes and joints under the charge of that body. The Townhead work 
 was, moreover, very badly situated for a gas-work, being in an elevated 
 position and remote from any railway siding. One of the earliest duties of 
 the Corporation was therefore the provision of additional facilities for making 
 and storing gas, and consequently the Glasgow Corporation Gas Act of 1871, 
 empowering the Corporation to erect and equip works at Dawsholm, near 
 Maryhill, and to discontinue the Townhead works, was obtained. The Daws- 
 holm works at the time of their erection had a productive capacity equal
 
 CORPORATION GAS AND ELECTRICITY 
 
 269 
 
 to 3,000,000 cubic feet per day. Not again till 1882 did the Corporation 
 require to go to Parliament for powers to add to their gas supply, and then 
 it was the Dalmarnock works which they were empowered to double in 
 productive capacity, and authority was also obtained to lead railway sidings 
 into the station for the direct delivery of coal. The Act of 1882 also gave 
 power to reduce the illuminating quality of the gas from 25 candle, which 
 was the statutory minimum under the 1869 Act, to 20 candle; but as a 
 matter of fact the illuminating power has not been permitted to fall under 
 an average of 22 candle. An Act passed in 1888 enabled the Corporation 
 to acquire additional land and railway sidings at Tradeston, and to entirely 
 reconstruct the works at that station, thereby adding a productive capacity 
 of not less than 6,000,000 cubic feet daily to the resources of the department. 
 The acquisition in 1891 of the Temple works from the Partick, Hillhead, 
 and Mar)-hill Company already alluded to, and the purchase in the same 
 year of the Pollokshaws works for i^ 14, 5 00 completed the equipment of 
 gas-works as at present existing. The old Partick works were abandoned, 
 and now the great stations and works of the department are in the east at 
 Dalmarnock, in the north-west at Dawsholm and Temple (the two connected 
 by a tunnel under the Forth and Clyde Canal), and in the south by the 
 Tradeston works. Subsidiary works are at Old Kilpatrick and Pollokshaws. 
 The limits within which the Corporation now supply gas are extensive, ranging 
 from Bowling on the west to Mount Vernon on the east, a distance of 16 
 miles ; and from Bearsden on the north-west to Burnside on the south-east, 
 a stretch of 10 miles. 
 
 The following figures indicate the capacity of the several works : 
 
 
 Retorts. 
 
 Production per 
 Day. 
 
 Gas-Holder 
 Capacity. 
 
 Maximum Produc- 
 tion, 1895-96. 
 
 Dalmarnock, 
 Dawsholm and Temple, 
 Tradeston, - 
 Pollokshaws, 
 Old Kilpatrick, - 
 
 832 
 
 1946 
 
 1088 
 
 27 
 
 8 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 7,000,000 
 
 1 8,000,000 
 
 1 0,000,000 
 
 165,000 
 
 50,000 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 4,260,000 
 
 10,978,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 I 50,000 
 
 25,000 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 1,398,395,000 
 
 2,031,975,000 
 
 1,338,831,000 
 
 29,656,000 
 
 13,027,000 
 
 Total, 
 
 390 [ 
 
 35,215,000 
 
 23,413,000 
 
 4,811,884,000 
 
 The largest gas-holder in possession of the Corporation — the third in 
 size in the world, it is believed — erected in 1893 at Temple works, has a 
 capacity of 6,000,000 cubic feet, and another of like capacity was in 1 896 
 being erected at Tradeston. 
 
 Among the provisions of the Corporation Gas Act of 1882 there was a 
 clause empowering the Corporation to make and sell gas for heating, for
 
 2/0 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 power-producing, and other non-illuminating purposes. There has been 
 hitherto no attempt to manufacture a special non-illuminating gas in Glasgow, 
 to provide which would obviously necessitate at least special storage and 
 distributing mains and pipes. There is no doubt that the use of gas of 
 high illuminating quality for heating and power production is wasteful and 
 extravagant, but the duplication of gas-holders, the laying down of a second 
 set of mains and pipes — indeed, we may say the initiation of a new industry — 
 are serious undertakings, not to be lightly entered upon. And yet the 
 amount of gas used in Glasgow for non-illuminating purposes must now 
 be very large. The conveniences of cooking and heating by gas has been 
 recognized for many years, and as the stoves and other devices have gradually 
 improved, they have come so largely into use as to create no inconsiderable 
 increase in gas consumption in all communities. The use of these con- 
 veniences in Glasgow has developed enormously since 1885, when the Gas 
 Department opened a depot for the sale and hire of gas cooking stoves, 
 and the sale of gas fires, etc. The undertaking proved an immediate success, 
 the sale of stoves and fittings has been large and increasing, and in 1895-96 
 the receipts for sales have exceeded ;^8oo. Stoves of various sizes and 
 qualities are hired out to consumers at rents ranging from 6s. yearly upwards, 
 and from that source in 1895-96 no less than ^4330 was derived. At the 
 close of that financial year the department held on hire and in store stoves 
 to the value of ^27,200, and the direct profits of the undertaking for the 
 year exceeded ^500. 
 
 These figures indicate a very large consumption of gas for non-illum- 
 inating purposes, and beyond that there is the considerable employment of 
 gas in the gas-engines which now are installed in many establishments. 
 Indeed, it is now not uncommon for gas to be used indirectly only as an 
 illuminant : being employed as the motive power in engines which drive 
 dynamos for the production of electric light. Again, in the various forms of 
 incandescent burners, now extensively used, the gas is really consumed as a 
 heating and not as a directly lighting agent. Were the use of incandescent 
 lights to become general, and the ordinary burner to become as much a 
 thing of the past as the oily cruisie, then might high candle-power gas also 
 cease to be made — gas would become entirely a heating and power producing 
 agent : it would be a light producer not from its flame, but more economically 
 from its heat, and its heat also would be the quality of value for all its 
 other uses. 
 
 Since the Corporation became gas manufacturer to Glasgow in 1 869 
 the consumption has gone up leaps and bounds. The make of gas by the 
 companies in the last year of their existence we have seen exceeded 1200 
 millions of cubic feet. In the year ending 31st May, 1870, the department 
 made 1295 millions of feet, in 1875 the production had increased to 1649 
 millions, in 1880 it reached 1859 millions, in 1885 it was 2368 millions.
 
 CORPORATION GAS AND ELECTRICITY 
 
 271 
 
 in 1890 the amount made was 3058 millions, and in 1895 there were 
 produced no less than 4525 millions of cubic feet. In a quarter of a 
 century the production has been increased by 249 per cent., an average 
 annual increase of about 5 \ per cent. 
 
 The increase of gas consumption is further strikingly exemplified by 
 the increase of revenue from gas rents under the Corporation, Let it be 
 borne in mind that in the first business year the price of Corporation gas, 
 subject to certain discounts, was 4s. /d., and that for the succeeding ten 
 years it ranged from 4s. to 5s. 5d., reaching that high figure in the years 
 of inflated prices and coal-famine, 1874-75. In 1876, after all discounts 
 had been abolished, the price was reduced to 4s. 2d., and since that time 
 the progress has been, with the brief exception of one year, steadily downward, 
 till, for the year 1896-97, the price is reduced to 2s. 2d. per 1000 feet. The 
 exception to the rule of reduction in price occurred in 1892, when, owing 
 to a deficit in the previous year's account, it became necessary for the 
 year only to increase the price from 2s. 6d. to 2s. 9d. In the face of 
 this reduction of the price of gas to less than one-half of the rate charged 
 in 1873-74 the gross revenue has risen, with however considerable fluctuations, 
 till in 1895-96 it amounted, under a charge of 2s. 4d. per 1000 feet, to 
 ;^6o5,8oo, while in the year 1869-70 with the rate of charge at 4s. 7d., 
 the gross revenue was no more than ;^2 3 5,7oo. 
 
 Under the capital account the amount standing against expenditure on 
 works in 1869-70 was ;^532,3I7. The necessity for great extensions and 
 renewals of plant in the early years added rapidly to the amount under this 
 head, notwithstanding the fact that considerable sums were annually written 
 off in name of depreciation, and in 1876-77 the total reached ;^ 1,044,000. 
 From that point the capital account decreased till, in 1889, it stood at 
 ;^6o5,ooo, since which time extensions at Tradeston, the purchase of the 
 works of the Partick, Hillhead, and Maryhill Company, and of the Pollok- 
 shaws Gas-Light Company, and the provision of great additional gas-holders 
 etc., have increased the account till, in 1896, it reached the large sum of 
 ;6^ 1, 1 62,000. From the first year of the Corporation management down 
 to 1896 there has been spent on reconstruction, extensions, and additions 
 no less than i^ 1,7 6 2, 000. At the same time there has been written off 
 in name of depreciation of works and plant about ;!^i, 005,000, while all 
 existing works, pipes, and plant have been kept in a state of repair 
 and efficiency. As a result the Corporation Gas Works and plant are now 
 a fine property in the best working order, equipped with the most approved 
 modern plant, and valued in the books of the department on a very moderate 
 basis. The efficiency of the works is demonstrated by the fact that, whereas 
 in 1869-70 the capital employed in relation to the quantity of coal carbonized 
 stood in the ratio of ^^3 lis. lod. to every ton, in 1895-96 the ratio was 
 C2 5s. The average price of coal, of which 148,110 tons were used
 
 272 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 in 1869-70, was then 13s. 5d. ; in 1895-96 the average price paid for the 
 516,351 tons carbonized was 9s, r74d., being a reduction of 4s. 3-26d. 
 per ton, or 32'46 per cent. But in the earlier year every 1000 feet of gas 
 made cost for coal 18 "4 id,; in the latter year the same quantity of gas cost 
 in coal only i r77d. — a decrease of 36*06 per cent. The net reduction 
 in the price of gas between the first and last year, after allowing for the 
 discounts of the earlier period, is 2 3'6d. — due to enhanced value of 
 residual products, improvements in methods of manufacture, and the greater 
 efficiency and economy of the works generally. 
 
 The indebtedness of the Gas Department is represented in the first 
 place by the annuities payable to the shareholders of the old companies, to 
 which allusion has already been made. That amount, nominally i^4 15,000 
 (;^300,ooo at 9 per cent, and £115,000 at £6 15s. per cent), involving 
 an annual charge of ^^34,760, is in reality equivalent to a capital sum of 
 ^1,269,000. Under the mortgage account the liability stands at the sum 
 of i^ioo ; but the indebtedness to the Corporation Loans Department was 
 in 1896 ^520,000, and under the sinking fund the amount applied in the 
 redemption of mortgages and loans was ^^^248,43 5. The total nominal 
 liabilities of the department therefore were ;^i, 183,500, but valuing the gas 
 annuities at the present market price, the indebtedness of the department 
 would be increased to i^ 1,7 8 9,000. 
 
 The Corporation Gas Act of 1869 provided for the institution of a 
 sinking fund to be begun two years after the passing of the measure, the 
 sum to be set apart to be not less than one per cent, per annum of the 
 amount borrowed under the Act, with such interest accruing on the accumula- 
 tions as was chargeable on the mortgages, etc., redeemed from the fund. In 
 no case was the amount paid into the sinking fund to be less than ;^2000 
 in any one year. The accumulations under this head at 31st May, 1896, 
 reached a total of ;!^3 14,000, which had been invested in the redemption 
 of mortgages, i^i 88,500 ; on the redemption of Corporation Loans, ^60,000 ; 
 and in payments into the Corporation Loans Fund, ;^6o,ooo — in all ;^3o8,500, 
 invested at 31st May, 1896. 
 
 In regulating their financial affairs the Gas Committee have wisely been 
 guided by a determination to make the consumer pay his fair proportion of 
 the cost and risk involved in the manufacture and distribution of the gas. 
 There is no thought of benefiting the gas consumer of a succeeding genera- 
 tion at the expense of the living citizens. But prudence demands that 
 provision should be made against the possibility of a revolution in illumination 
 and heating, whereby gas might become a thing of the past, and the gas- 
 works and plant become obsolete and valueless, leaving only a legacy of 
 heavy debt to future generations. That some great discovery of adaptation 
 might suddenly render the gas-works, etc., quite useless is more than a 
 possibility ; but against that contingency, which may be contemplated with
 
 CORPORATION GAS AND ELECTRICITY 
 
 273 
 
 perfect equanimity, the sinking fund is a sufficient protection. When any 
 great revolution in illumination and power production arrives it will be 
 widely and generally beneficial, and there is nothing unfair in a generation 
 which reaps the benefit of the march of knowledge and invention being 
 called on to pay the modified penalty which attaches to all changes and 
 even to all improvements. 
 
 Nor have the Town Council of Glasgow been tempted to earn a profit 
 from their gas industry whereby to foster other but alien objects. The man 
 who burns gas in Glasgow and its suburbs is assured that he is thereby 
 called on to pay for gas only and not for palatial erections, for libraries, or 
 art galleries, nor for any other public object however laudable and desirable. 
 And yet the temptation to apply gas revenues to other than gas purposes 
 was considerable, and the right was indisputable. The Town Council had 
 the precedent and example of several English municipalities in which, 
 systematically, surplus gas revenue is applied to other public purposes. The 
 Town Council, moreover, is supplying a wide-spread population with gas at 
 a cost far below what these scattered communities could produce gas for 
 themselves, and the City receives no benefit in return from these consumers. 
 In the gas-rents the Town Council had the means and the right to secure 
 and to divert substantial profits to such public purposes within the City as 
 they might deem proper ; but they have justly and prudently refrained from 
 exercising their right, and the consumer's gas-bill, as nearly as practicable 
 represents the cost of the illuminant as it is consumed. 
 
 ELECTRIC LIGHTING. 
 
 Previous to 1890 little had been done in the way of providing electric 
 lighting in Glasgow. Under the Corporation Gas Bill of 1882 it was pro- 
 posed to take statutory powers to supply electric light, but the clauses 
 relating to that subject were struck out before the measure came to be con- 
 sidered by any Parliamentary Committee. The Town Council were watchful 
 to prevent any private company from acquiring an electric lighting monoply, 
 or from obtaining power to interfere with the public streets ; and while one 
 company was, in the centre of the City, carrying on a limited business as 
 producers and distributors of electric energy by means of overhead wires, 
 other work in this way was confined to private installations for the exclusive 
 use of the houses or premises for which the electricity was generated. 
 
 In 1890 the Town Council deemed the time to have arrived when it 
 became their duty to add to their enterprises that of electric lighting, and 
 accordingly a Provisional Order was applied for and obtained, which empowered 
 and required them to provide electric energy within a limited area embracing 
 the principal business streets and premises on the north side of the river. 
 The order sanctioned the raising and expenditure of capital, and the entcr- 
 
 §
 
 2/4 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 prise was attached to the Gas Department — the Gas Commissioners as Local 
 Authority under the General Electric Lighting Acts becoming responsible for 
 any deficit that might arise in conducting the undertaking. In 1891 active 
 steps were taken, under the advice of Lord Kelvin, for carrying into effect 
 the powers conferred on the Corporation, and Professor A. B. W. Kennedy 
 was entrusted with the preparation of the general scheme. 
 
 On the 1st March, 1892, the Corporation acquired and entered on the 
 possession of the premises and plant of Muir, Mavor & Coulson (Ltd.), in 
 John Street and Miller Street, at a price of ^15,000, and from that date 
 the Corporation electric lighting dates. That company was then supplying 
 to 37 consumers, by means of high tension overhead mains, current equivalent 
 to 5,000 eight-candle power 33 Watt lamps, and the Board of Trade 
 sanctioned the continuance of this supply only till August of the ensuing year. 
 
 Meantime a site for a central station was obtained in Waterloo Street, 
 and in the spring of 1892 the building was commenced. The installation 
 was sufficiently advanced to permit of the inauguration of the lighting of 
 the principal street with arc lamps by the Lord Provost, on the evening 
 of Saturday, 25th February, 1893, and on Saturday, 22nd April following, 
 the current was switched on to the incandescent mains. 
 
 On the advice of Lord Kelvin the Electric Lighting Committee adopted 
 the low tension three-wire system, with a direct current at not more than 
 200 volts pressure. The current, all carried underground, is conveyed and 
 supplied to the distributing mains at various points throughout the area of 
 supply by two conductors, positive and negative, termed feeders, which deliver 
 the electricity to the distributing network at 200 volts. The distribution 
 is effected by three wires, positive, middle, and negative, generally laid 
 together on each side of the street ; but in some streets two wires only are 
 laid, positive and middle on one side, and negative and middle on the other. 
 As a rule only two wires are led into the consumer, positive and middle, 
 or negative and middle, and as far as possible care is taken to balance these 
 so that current is equally taken off both sides. When a large supply is 
 taken all three wires are led into the main switchboard of the building, 
 which is then made to balance itself. The several wires — positive, middle, 
 and negative — are in continuous connection throughout the area lighted, and 
 the middle wire is led back into Waterloo station. 
 
 The demand for current for lighting purposes has increased with satis- 
 factory steadiness. In the first year, ending 31st May, 1893, the consumers 
 numbered 108; in 1894 they had increased to 378; in 1895 they were 
 586; and in 1896 they rose, to 855. The electricity generated in the first 
 of these years equalled 408,000 Board of Trade units, but of that the large 
 proportion of 26 per cent, was unaccounted for. Private consumers took 
 262,218 units; street lighting accounted for 25,494 units, and 13,975 units 
 were used on the works. The quantity generated in the year ending May,
 
 CORPORATION GAS AND ELECTRICITY 
 
 275 
 
 1896, reached 1,279,687 units, of which i2-8 per cent, was lost — 886,606 
 units going to private consumers, 204,353 units to the street lamps, and 
 23,898 units being used in the works. Thus while the quantity generated 
 in 1896 is three times that generated in 1893, the total sold increased 
 nearly four-fold. 
 
 The price charged to private consumers was for the first two years 7d. 
 per Board of Trade unit; but in 1894 the charge was reduced to 6d. per 
 unit, at which it continued till 1896, when an arrangement was introduced 
 under which it becomes necessary to ascertain the greatest quantity of 
 electricity taken at one time by any customer, which consumption is called 
 " the maximum demand." An indicator for this purpose is placed in each 
 consumer's premises, and that " maximum demand " must be consumed one 
 hour daily, or 182^ hours each half-year, before any rebate is allowed. Under 
 that consumption 6d. per unit is charged, and for all in excess thereof the 
 charge is 4d. per unit. 
 
 The capital expenditure account at 31st May, 1896, stood at ^131,961, 
 after writing off i^i 7,202 for depreciation of works and plant. The gross 
 revenue for the year ending 31st May, 1896, was ^^25,862, the expenditure 
 was i^ 1 1,590, the depreciation written off for the year amounted to ;^632 9, 
 and after paying interest on the loans from the Corporation loan fund, 
 and transferring ;^i3i6 — i per cent, on the borrowed capital — to the sinking 
 fund, in terms of the Electric Lighting Act, there remained a surplus of 
 ;{^2 38i, which was transferred to the Gas Department, in terms of the Electric 
 Lighting Provisional Order, and in repayment of sums advanced during the 
 first two years of Electric Lighting operations.
 
 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 Com- 
 missioners : 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. 
 
 The markets of the City were relatively of much greater importance in 
 mediaeval times than they are in these later days of free trade and unlimited 
 competition. Their supervision, and the control of buying and selling 
 generally, formed a leading and onerous branch of the duties of the Town 
 Council. There were many reasons why that should be so, in addition to 
 the fundamental circumstance that a large proportion of the revenues of the 
 City was derived from the tolls and customs the magistrates exacted on 
 trading. In accordance with the then prevailing conceptions of political 
 economy the Council yearly regulated the price of all common articles of 
 diet and drink of the people. The exercise of that function necessitated 
 the enactment of special regulations to secure the due supply and distribution 
 of the ordinary commodities, involving the enforcement of many minute 
 and irritating rules, almost incomprehensible under modern conditions. The 
 Council further considered themselves bound to directly supervise the quality 
 and wholesomeness of the food and drink sold to the citizens, and to permit 
 of such skilled inspection as was available, it was convenient that all articles 
 should be exposed in an appointed public market. Accordingly we find in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that there were numerous market 
 stances throughout the City, with special days and hours on which alone they 
 were open and active. Some of these markets were held on the open street.
 
 MUNICIPAL MARKETS 
 
 277 
 
 the appointed place of others was within one or other of the kirkyards ; 
 and for certain others, such as the meal market, special buildings were 
 provided. The precise locality in which the various markets were held 
 is not always easily discoverable, but those held on the street were moved 
 from place to place as suited the convenience of the magistrates or the 
 traffickers. Thus in May, 1634, a Council minute enacts "the provest, 
 bailleis, and counsall abone specifeit, haifing takin to thair consideratiouns 
 that it is necessar and expedient that the mercatis within the said brugh 
 sould be dispersit and sett in all pairtis of the toun and vnderstanding that 
 thair is na mercat place about and abone the Wynd Heid of the said brugh, 
 and the houssis thair lyklie to decay and na competent maill to be gottin 
 thairfoir, thairfoir they, be the tennour of this present act, statut and 
 ordaine that the hors mercat daylie in all time cuming, (except the tyme 
 of the fair of Glasgow haldin yeirlie in the moneth of Julij) sail be haldin 
 betuixt the Kirk port, the Stable Grene port, the Drygait Heid, Wynd 
 Heid and Rattounrow ; and als that the salt mercat, corne mercat, lint 
 seid and hemp seid mercat be haldin in all tyme cuming abone the College, 
 quhair the hors mercat was haldin of befoir ; and ordanis the officeris of 
 this brugh to vrge all personis, sellaris of horssis, salt, hors corne, lint seid 
 and hemp seid, to go and mak mercat in the placis abone specifeit." A 
 few days earlier the Town Council " fund it neidfull for the tounes use to 
 by James Brounes barne yaird and rig of land at the bak thairof lyand nixt 
 to the West Port on the northe side thairof," and in August following they 
 ordained " the removal of the old Tronegait Porte, and the flesche mercat, 
 and to build the flesche mercat in the place of Thomas Brounes barne and 
 yaird." 
 
 It would be an unprofitable task to follow the history and migrations of 
 these several municipal markets. Under use and wont and chartered rights 
 they continued till the beginning of the nineteenth century, and then they 
 received statutory recognition and extended powers by the provisions of the 
 great Police Act of 1800. Section 82 of that Act is in these terms: 
 
 " And whereas the Magistrates and Town Council of the said City have, 
 for the accommodation of the inhabitants thereof, erected large and convenient 
 market-places for the sale of meal and corn, butcher meat, fish, potatoes, 
 and vegetables of all kinds, and other commodities and articles sold for the 
 use and consumption of the said inhabitants, and have expended large sums 
 in purchasing ground for these purposes, and in erecting buildings thereon ; 
 and have erected a large and convenient slaughter-house for killing cattle, 
 and have lately enclosed and paved some grounds adjoining thereto to be 
 used as a market-place for the sale of live cattle, in order to prevent the 
 inconvenience arising from their being exposed to sale in the streets : Be it 
 therefore enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the said Magistrates 
 and Town Council, in council assembled, and they are hereby empowered
 
 278 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 and authorized, at any time or times, to make, ordain, and establish such 
 orders, rules, and regulations, for the better regulating all and each of the 
 aforesaid market-places, slaughter-house or houses, and all other public market- 
 places erected, or which shall hereafter be erected, within the said City ; and 
 likewise to make, ordain, and establish such orders, rules and regulations, 
 relative to the manner of collecting the dues in the said public markets, 
 and in other places within the limits of the said City, or in any other place 
 or places in the vicinity thereof, to which the said market-places, slaughter- 
 house or houses, may afterwards be removed, as they shall judge fit and 
 expedient ; and also from time to time, as occasion may require, to repeal, 
 add to, and alter such rules and regulations." 
 
 The Act proceeded to give the Magistrates and Council power to exact 
 duties on live cattle exposed for sale in the Cattle Market ; one penny for 
 each ox, cow, or bull ; threepence for a score of sheep or of goats ; twopence 
 for a score of lambs ; a penny for each sow, hog, or boar, and a halfpenny 
 for each calf. The sale of such animals on the public streets was pro- 
 hibited, except during the recognized local fairs : Whitmonday, the Fair of 
 Glasgow, St. Mungo's or twenty day of Yule Fair, and Skyers' Thursday. 
 Finally, all former market dues, maills, duties, customs, and other taxes on 
 traffic in markets were confirmed and continued to the Magistrates and 
 Council. 
 
 Writing in the year 18 15 Dr. Cleland, in his Annals of Glasgoiv^ thus 
 describes the public markets of the City : 
 
 " The principal Beef, Mutton, and Fish Markets are situated in King 
 Street, The former occupies a space of i 1 2 feet by 67 feet, and the latter 
 173 feet by 46 feet, subdivided into stalls around the area. The courts 
 are paved with freestone, and the fronts formed of ashlar work, with rusticated 
 entries; the Beef Market in Bell Street being fitted up in a plainer style. 
 The Vegetable or Green Market is also allotted into stalls, and is so spacious 
 as to occupy the whole site of the former Wynd Church, having its principal 
 entry from King Street. The Butter, Cheese, and Poultry Markets are placed 
 in Montrose Street. The Tron, or Weigh House, is a large building, situated 
 on the north side and at the east end of Ingram Street, and is used for the 
 general purposes of a Tron and Store-House, Prior to the late erection of 
 markets in the City of Newcastle the markets in King Street were con- 
 sidered the best in the island. Each stall in the Fish Market has a water- 
 pipe in it and a bench covered with lead. The other markets have also a 
 plentiful supply of water," 
 
 The same writer, in a report prepared in 1840, in connection with the 
 visit of the British Association to Glasgow in that year, says : " Previously 
 to 1818 the principal fleshers in this City were frequently obliged to travel 
 a circuit of seventy or eighty miles to purchase cattle in lots, and to rent 
 expensive parks in the neighbourhood of this City to graze them in. The
 
 MUNICIPA L MARKE TS 
 
 279 
 
 mode of suppl)^ is now completely changed. In 1 8 1 8 a spacious market- 
 place for the sale of cattle was fitted up adjoining Graham Square, between 
 the south-east and the north-east approach to the City, in which there are 
 a commodious inn, stables, sheds, a byre to hold 120 bullocks in view, and 
 260 pens to contain 9360 sheep. This market-place, allowed to be the 
 most complete in the kingdom, occupies an area of 29,561 square yards, or 
 rather more than six imperial acres, is paved with whin, and inclosed from 
 the streets by ashlar stone walls. Since its formation, graziers and dealers 
 for more than fifty miles around Glasgow, find it their interest to send 
 cattle to it, where they find a ready sale, and a return in cash. It is 
 admitted that this market has been of great use to all classes of the 
 community, excepting, perhaps, the more wealthy fleshers. The dealers are 
 benefited by a regular sale, without running the risk of bad debts ; the 
 public have a more steady and plentiful supply of butcher meat of the 
 best quality ; the flesher is saved the trouble and the public the expense of 
 travelling. The flesher of small capital, who formerly had not the means 
 of getting good meat, can go to market, and if his capital be equal to 
 purchase a bullock and a dozen of sheep or lambs, he can compete with 
 -*his more wealthy brethren. Monopoly is now unknown. This market has 
 also been beneficial to the Corporation of the City, whose members are the 
 trustees. The dues, which are moderate, were let by auction at Whitsunday, 
 1836, for a period of years, at the annual rent of ;^I285, a sum which, 
 after paying the interest of the debt, ground-rent, repairs, and every other 
 expense, leaves a clear profit to the trust fund of upwards of ;^500 per 
 annum. It is matter of gratification to me to have projected this market, 
 and to have brought it to its present prosperous state. Prior to its 
 establishment, cattle of every description were sold on the streets in various 
 parts of the City, and to a very limited extent. Since that period the sales 
 have increased rapidly. During the year ending 1st May, 1828, viz., ten years 
 after the market was opened, the sales, exclusive of horses, calves, and pigs, 
 amounted to 162,740 animals ; viz., bullocks and milch cows, 17,840; sheep 
 and lambs, 144,900." 
 
 Markets then have belonged to the Town Council of Glasgow by 
 ancient charter, and by the use and wont of seven centuries at least. Their 
 existence has been recognized, and their continuance and extension sanc- 
 tioned by modern legislation ; and now we have several markets in Glasgow 
 owned by the Corporation under the Common Good Account. As a 
 Markets Trust, they control others, and the traffic in foreign cattle is under 
 the Council, as Local Authority under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) 
 Act of 1878. For the existence and the perpetuation of certain of these 
 markets there is no better reason than the fact that they ha\'e been in our 
 midst, owned and controlled by the municipality from time immemorial, 
 or that they are the lineal descendants and heirs of ancient markets.
 
 280 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 There has been no assize of bread, no magisterial and arbitrary fixing of 
 the price of the food of the people, since the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century ; and petty customs, maills, and duties were abolished in the year 
 1 846. There are obvious reasons why the sale and slaughter of animals 
 for human food should be under the control of municipal authorities, and 
 in a minor degree the traffic in fresh fish, perishable fruits and vegetables 
 is also a fit object of public control. There is more difficulty in discovering 
 any reason for the Town Council taking under its charge the dealing in dogs, 
 rabbits, pigeons, and canary birds, as is the case in Glasgow, and why the 
 Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Council should concern themselves with the 
 dealing in and disposal of old clothes would be difficult of explanation, if not 
 of defence. 
 
 The markets which now belong to the Corporation, and form part of 
 the Common Good of the City, _ are the Bazaar, or Fruit and Vegetable 
 Market, the Bird and Dog Market, and the Old Clothes' Market. These 
 are under the supervision of a committee of the Council, to which is also 
 allotted the control of the several public halls of the City, and of the 
 various clocks maintained at the expense of the Corporation. As Markets 
 Commissioners under statutes, beginning with the Glasgow Markets and 
 Slaughter-houses Act, 1865, the Town Council owns and regulates the 
 Cattle Market, the Dead Meat Market, the Slaughter-houses, and the Fish 
 Market, and as Local Authority, through a special committee of the Council 
 with the addition of a trade expert, they own and control the foreign cattle 
 trade which comes to the Clyde at Shieldhall on the south side of the 
 river below Govan, and at Yorkhill Wharf on the north side, within the 
 harbour of Glasgow. 
 
 TJie Bazaar is the modern representative of the ancient vegetable 
 market of Glasgow, which in the eighteenth century was situated over the 
 site of the Old Wynd Church in King Street. It now occupies an oblong 
 covered space, bounded on the north by Ingram Street, on the west by 
 Candleriggs, on the south by Bell Street, and on the east by South Albion 
 Street. In the south-east corner are situated the buildings of the Central 
 Police Office ; and elevated on iron columns the building and offices 
 of the City Hall, extending from Candleriggs to South Albion Street, pass 
 over the centre of the Bazaar area. The Bazaar was laid out in 1 8 1 7 
 under the supervision of Dr. James Cleland, and occupies a site given off 
 by the Town Council in 1696 as a bowling green, with the express condition 
 that it should be used for that recreation in all time coming. As originally 
 planned, the covered erection embraced an area of 2377 square yards. 
 Subsequent additions and extensions have increased the accommodation, 
 till now the Bazaar proper covers 7879 square yards, divided into 58 
 stances, which for site and buildings have cost ;^6o,ooo. 
 
 In recent times the nature of the business and occupancy of the Bazaar
 
 MUNICIPAL MARKETS 281 
 
 has changed very much, and the volume of what may be called the legitimate 
 trade of the institution has increased enormously. In its early days the 
 stalls of the Bazaar were by no means restricted to dealers in fruit and 
 vegetables. They were occupied by retail greengrocers, dealers in provisions, 
 eggs, butter, and cheese, poultry and game dealers, and second-hand book- 
 sellers ; and there were also toy shops and undefined stores. The concentration 
 of the wholesale provision and produce trade in the immediate neighbourhood 
 to the present day indicates the influence the Bazaar had on determining the 
 trade of the district. Miscellaneous trading has now been entirely eliminated, 
 and the cheese market is the only establishment unconnected with the fruit 
 and vegetable trade which remains within the limits of the structure. 
 
 Although the area of the Bazaar has been increased more than three- 
 fold since it was first opened, the increase has not been in proportion to 
 the growth of the population, and incalculably less has it kept in measure 
 with the development of the vegetable, fruit, and flower trade. Since 
 the opening of the Bazaar indeed an entirely new trade has sprung up ; 
 it has assumed enormous dimensions ; and every season adds to its wide 
 range and to the variety of its staples. In 1 8 1 7 Glasgow was, of 
 necessity, restricted for its supply of fresh fruit and green vegetables 
 to the immediate vicinity of the City, and to the orchards of Clydesdale. 
 Culinary vegetables and ordinary small fruits were grown only on the 
 garden scale, and apples and pears were almost the only fruits which were 
 then cultivated for sale. The business of the greengrocer must have been 
 of very modest dimensions, fruits were not yet looked on as fit material 
 for ordinary trading, and it is doubtful if a single cut flower was then sold 
 in the City. But steam navigation had just established itself in the waters 
 of the Clyde, and was beginning to spread throughout the world, roads 
 were being formed, and in due course railways appeared, and with these 
 came marvellous changes in the possibilities of traffic and in the habits of 
 the people. We have become a fruit-eating people, and we eat fruits simply 
 because they have been made available for our consumption. The tribute 
 of the tropics comes to our table ; in the remotest ends of the earth fruits 
 are cultivated for our consumption, and from far Tasmania we draw part 
 of our apple supply. The variety of vegetable products now available for 
 everyday use is no less remarkable than the growth in the demand, and 
 there is scarcely a desirable vegetable or fruit cultivated under the sun 
 which is not to be found in the Bazaar of Glasgow. The development of 
 the foreign traffic has had a marvellous influence in stimulating the home 
 industry in fruit and vegetables. Fields are now stocked with growing 
 vegetables and fruits which till recently were never cultivated outside kitchen 
 gardens ; and acres of glass houses are devoted to the cultivation of forced 
 fruits, which but a few years ago were quite unknown in our midst. 
 
 As a result of the phenomenal development of the vegetable and fruit
 
 282 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 trade, the Bazaar of Glasgow, which is the pivot on which the traffic turns, is 
 entirely inadequate for the demands on its space. In the congestion of its 
 approaches in the early parts of the day, and in the bustle and confusion 
 that pervade the whole place throughout market hours, it is not incomparable 
 to Covent Garden and its surroundings. The result of the cramped and 
 hampered conditions is that a large proportion of the trade, which naturally 
 and properly should pass through the Bazaar, is carried on in great warehouses 
 built in the neighbourhood, and the chief good effected by the institution 
 consists in centring the wholesale trade in one well-defined district of the City. 
 
 The Bazaar business has changed with the changing times. Retail trade 
 is still carried on, but it is on the most insignificant scale, and steadily the 
 tendency is towards dealing on the great scale. Nearly all the stanceholders, 
 of whom there are about two dozen, hold auctioneers' licenses, and conduct a 
 large portion of their business by auction methods. In summer, during the 
 height of the fruit season, auction sales are held daily beginning at 9 o'clock ; 
 and during the winter months such sales are held only thrice a week, beginning 
 at I I o'clock in the forenoon. With increasing trade and restricted accom- 
 modation there has arisen a strong competition for stances in the Bazaar, which 
 therefore has become a highly remunerative property to the Common Good of 
 the City. Within ten years the receipts for stances have increased from a 
 little more than ^2000 to over ;^3 300. The stances are let on monthly 
 occupancies with rents payable in advance ; but the Town Council re- 
 serves the right, in lieu of rent, to charge such dues on goods as they 
 may fix. 
 
 Cheese Market. A portion of the Bazaar, entirely distinct and divided 
 off from the fruit and vegetable stances, and having its own entrance in South 
 Albion Street, is allotted to the wholesale cheese market. About 1500 square 
 yards of floor space is devoted to it on the South Albion Street side, and 
 in galleries one stair up carried round three sides of the north division of the 
 vegetable market. The cheese market is open only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, 
 and Fridays, and the business is entirely wholesale. The market is, indeed, the 
 lineal representative of the ancient cheese market of Glasgow, which was 
 held on certain days under magisterial supervision, and in which dues 
 were charged according to the quantity offered for sale. The cheese sold 
 is entirely native produce, principally the kinds known as Cheddar and 
 Dunlop from Ayrshire. There is no appropriation of stances or positions 
 to dealers, and any one who has cheese to sell may have it placed on 
 the racks in the market on payment of the prescribed dues. A rent charge 
 is made at the rate of 4s. 6d. per ton for all cheese brought into the 
 market. For a payment at that rate the cheese is weighed and allowed 
 to remain over two market days, but if not sold and removed within that 
 time, an additional charge of is. per week or part of a week is levied on 
 every ton weight. Goods sold must be taken away within forty-eight hours ;
 
 MUNICIPAL MARKETS 283 
 
 if left longer, a charge of 2s. per ton for every day or part of a day after 
 the expiry of the forty-eight hours is made. 
 
 The Bazaar is under the direct control of the Markets Sub-Committee of 
 the Corporation, under whom a superintendent deals with stanceholders and 
 their servants, and supervises the working of the institution in accordance 
 with the code of bye-laws drawn up in 1883 and approved of by the Home 
 Secretary. These bye-laws regulate the times of opening and closing, give 
 powers to deal with drunk and disorderly persons and loiterers, and to regulate 
 the traffic within the Bazaar. They also provide for keeping the place clean 
 and free from obstructions, for regulating fires and preventing conflagration, 
 for the confiscation and destruction of unwholesome goods, for the regulating 
 of auction sales, and for the licensing of porters, jobbers, etc. 
 
 As an asset in the accounts of the Common Good the Bazaar has in- 
 cluded with it certain properties facing the four streets which bound it, and the 
 City Hall which is elevated over its central area. Together they stand in 
 the books at a valuation of i^i 17,000, they yield a revenue of ^7500, of 
 which ;^4300 is credited to the Bazaar side, while the annual expenditure is 
 ^^'3600, one-half of which goes against the Bazaar. The balance represents 
 the Corporation's interest and profit on the undertaking. 
 
 The Bird and Dog Market. Why the Corporation should be specially 
 concerned with the traffic in canary birds, pigeons, rabbits, and dogs is not 
 very obvious ; but that the market meets a public want is a sufficient justi- 
 fication of its existence. Its institution has put an end to the hawking of 
 such live stock along the streets, and to the establishment of a prescriptive 
 right to a street market, which under modern conditions would prove an 
 unmitigated nuisance. The Bird and Dog Market under comfortable and 
 convenient conditions enables fanciers and dealers to come together ; it gives 
 a richer choice to the one side and a better market to the other, all at a very 
 small charge which recoups the Corporation for the trouble and expenditure. 
 
 The market within living memory was centred in Cochrane Street ; sub- 
 sequently the dealers migrated to Ingram Street, and attached their cages 
 to the railings of the Ramshorn (St. David's) Church. Thence they were 
 moved under magisterial authority to a lane between the Central Police Office 
 and the Bazaar, and latterly they were accommodated with a wooden shed 
 in Jail Square, where now the market stands. It is a spacious and sub- 
 stantial masonry erection covering an area of 720 square yards, lighted from 
 the roof, and flanked, in the front facing the Green, with shops. The present 
 structure was opened for business in December, 1876, and it stands in the 
 accounts of the Common Good at a value of ^4000. It is rented to tacks- 
 men for £\\2 per year, and from shop rents another ^iio is drawn. 
 
 The market is held on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, and is 
 divided into a wholesale and a retail department. The wholesale side is set 
 apart for dealers who have stock to dispose of to stanceholders or other
 
 284 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 retailers. A charge of a halfpenny for each creature exposed in it is made, 
 and buyers other than stanceholders pay a penny for admission to the 
 wholesale market. In the retail department stances, 6 feet wide by 9^ feet 
 high, are let for not more that 3 s. per week, and casual dealers are charged 
 a penny per day for each animal they bring in, and a halfpenny for each 
 cage space they occupy. Cages are supplied in the market, when necessary, 
 for a halfpenny per day. 
 
 The Clothes' Market, or in popular parlance Paddy's Market, an institution 
 primarily for trafficking in old clothes offers a very curious example of 
 magisterial supervision. The market is really an outcome of purely humani- 
 tarian care for the very humblest stratum of the population. About the 
 middle of the century a site was granted for it on an uncovered space in 
 Jail Square where the Bird and Dog Market is now established. Subsequently 
 it was accommodated in a partly-roofed space in the old City slaughter-house 
 with entry from the Briggate ; and in July, 1875, the present spacious market 
 in Greendyke Street, with a floor area of 2380 square yards, was opened. 
 
 The market is farmed out at an annual rental of ;^2 295, in addition 
 to the cost of watching, lighting, cleaning, and keeping the internal fittings 
 in repair. For this the tacksman is entitled to charge rent for stances at 
 the rate of not more than 5s. per day, and is. per day for the use of a 
 lockfast store. Shopkeepers and retail dealers who have no stance nor store, 
 when purchasing in the wholesale market, are required to pay 6d. per day ; 
 and every person who enters the market with goods for disposal to dealers 
 is liable to be charged one penny. The market is open every day at nine 
 o'clock, closing in summer at eight, in winter at seven, and on Saturdays 
 throughout the year at ten o'clock. 
 
 The market stands in the Common Good Accounts at a value of ^27,500. 
 The ordinary expenditure amounts to about ;^48o, which deducted from the 
 rent leaves ^1850 as the rent and profit of the Corporation for its parti- 
 cipation in this humble, but, at present, useful traffic. 
 
 Markets Coniniissioners. By an Act of Parliament — Glasgow Markets 
 and Slaughter-houses Act — passed in 1865, the Town Council were con- 
 stituted Commissioners for holding and managing the Cattle and Horse Market, 
 the Slaughter-houses and the Fish Market of the City. Subsequent measures 
 passed in 1871, 1877, 1884, confirmed and enlarged their powers under the 
 original Act, and specially gave them power to add a Dead Meat Market 
 to the conveniences of the Cattle Market of the City. 
 
 Cattle Market, etc. In the year 181 8 the Cattle Market, as we have 
 seen, was removed to what was then the eastern bounds of the City, and 
 established on a space which had been intended for an open square in the 
 district. At frequent intervals it has been much enlarged, and now the 
 market covers an area of 35,000 square yards, a large proportion of which 
 is roofed over, and it provides accommodation for showing for sale about
 
 MUNICIPAL MARKETS 285 
 
 2000 cattle and 15,000 sheep in pens; and, at the same time, 1000 cattle 
 can be loose up in sheds, and 160 milch cows can be fed in byres within 
 the market. A hotel, several bank offices, and numerous other offices are 
 accommodated within its bounds. E71 suite with the Cattle Market there 
 is a Horse Bazaar, occupying an area of 980 square yards, with the necessary 
 stables for putting up 112 horses. The Moore Street Slaughter-houses 
 attached to the market extend over 12,500 square yards of ground; and 
 the Dead Meat Market, erected under powers of the 1877 Act and opened 
 for trade in 1879, covers about 3700 square yards. For many years the 
 market accommodation, specially the slaughter-house side, has been cramped 
 and inconvenient ; and plans are now under consideration for greatly adding 
 to the lairage and slaughter-houses, for providing for the scientific inspection 
 of carcases, and for otherwise bringing the resources and accessories of the 
 markets fully abreast of the most completely equipped institutions of the 
 kind in the kingdom or on the continent. 
 
 These markets and slaughter-houses are enclosed in an area bounded 
 by Duke Street on the north, Moore Street on the west, Gallowgate on the 
 south, and Bellgrove on the east. The City Union Railway passes in a 
 tunnel under the market, and from it, by extensive cattle sidings, there 
 is direct communication to the market from both the North British and 
 the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Companies. The other great 
 Scottish Railway Company, the Caledonian, although serving the largest cattle 
 producing area of the north country, has no direct access to the market, 
 and is bound either to drive live stock through the streets from St. Rollox 
 depot, or to pass over its north country cattle traffic to the North British 
 system at Greenhill. 
 
 The principal Cattle Market day is Wednesday ; but the market is open 
 for business every day of the week. Under the Glasgow Corporation Act 
 the maximum tolls leviable are for oxen, cows, bulls, and heifers per head 
 9d. ; for sheep and lambs per head id., for calves 2d.; for swine and goats 
 3d. ; in the Horse Market the rates are for animals over i 3 hands high 6d., 
 and under 13 hands 3d. In the year ending 30th May, 1896, there were 
 exposed for sale in the market 59,247 cattle, 245 calves, 439,584 sheep, 
 29 goats, 9235 swine, and 15,385 horses. 
 
 Section 52 of the Glasgow Markets and Slaughter-houses Act, 1865, 
 makes it clear that the legislature meant the Markets Trustees to have a 
 monoply of market rights in cattle and horses within the City. The clause 
 reads : " Every person who shall sell or expose to sale any cattle or any 
 horses, mule or ass in any public place within the limits of this Act, or 
 within three miles of the cross of Glasgow except in the market-places 
 established by the trustees, shall for every such offence be liable to a 
 penalty not exceeding five pounds ; and after a market-place for the sale 
 of raw hides shall be opened by the Commissioners, every person who
 
 286 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 shall sell or expose for sale or cause to be exposed for sale any raw hide 
 or hides of cattle in any public place within the limits of this Act or 
 within three miles of the Cross of Glasgow except in the market-place 
 established or to be established by the trustees, shall for every hide so sold 
 or exposed to sale be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten shillings ; 
 provided also that none of the penalties before mentioned shall extend 
 to any cattle, horse, mule, ass, or raw hide exposed to sale or sold in the 
 Burgh of Rutherglen, or in the villages of Pollokshaws, Langside, or 
 Long Govan, in the counties, of Renfrew or Lanark, or to any private 
 sale thereof in private premises, or to any sale thereof in such premises by 
 a licensed auctioneer, or in the case of raw hides to any private sale 
 thereof in the slaughter-houses." 
 
 Section 13 of the Markets and Fairs Clauses Act (1847), also incorporated 
 in the Act, is to the following effect : " After the market-place is opened 
 for public use, every person other than a licensed hawker, who shall sell or 
 expose for sale in any place within the prescribed limits, except in his own 
 dwelling-place or shop, any articles in respect of which tolls are by the 
 special Act authorized to be taken in the market, shall for every such offence 
 be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings." 
 
 Notwithstanding the manifest purport of these clauses many firms of 
 auctioneers and certain semi-public associations deal in cattle in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the market, and there are horse bazaars throughout the 
 City where periodical auction sales are advertised and conducted, fft his 
 examination before the Royal Commission on Market Rights and Tolls in 
 1889, Bailie Stevenson, chairman of the markets committee, stated : " I submit 
 that such sales are really rival markets and contraventions of the protection 
 which was intended by the above sections to be given to public bodies, who, in 
 the interest of the community and under the authority of Parliament, had pro- 
 vided markets and slaughter-houses. The language of the above section is, 
 however, somewhat unfortunate and ambiguous, and I submit that you should 
 recommend that it be amended by public legislation, so as to make it clear 
 that such sales outwith the Cattle Market are illegal." 
 
 To the Commissioners Bailie Stevenson also complained of the absence 
 of power to seize and condemn animals apparently unfit for human food ; 
 and he pointed out that the existence of numerous semi-private markets 
 rendered the detection of disease among animals an undertaking of great 
 difficulty. 
 
 Slmighter-houses. In the meantime there are three public slaughter- 
 houses in the City : Moore Street, at the Cattle Market, in the east ; Scott 
 Street, off Bobbie's Loan, in the north ; and Victoria Street, in the southern 
 district. But as soon as the contemplated additions to the accommodation 
 at Moore Street shall have been carried into effect, it is intended to con- 
 centrate the whole of the business in that huge place, where indeed by far
 
 MUNICIPAL MARKETS 287 
 
 the greater part of the slaughtering is already carried out. The sheds 
 and yards at Moore Street presently provide accommodation for dealing 
 with 560 cattle, 2500 sheep, and 240 pigs at one time; and the dues 
 payable on animals killed in the public abattoirs are : for oxen, Qd. per 
 head; for calves, sheep, and goats, i H. each; for lambs, |d. ; and for 
 pigs, IS. The following table shows the number of animals dealt with in 
 the three slaughter-houses in Glasgow yearly from ist June, 1890, till 
 3 I St May, 1896 : 
 
 
 Oxen. 
 
 Calves. 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 Lambs. 
 
 Pigs. 
 
 Goats, 
 
 I89I, - 
 
 - 36,008 
 
 1502 
 
 177,687 
 
 38,081 
 
 28,497 
 
 46 
 
 IS92, - 
 
 - 39,032 
 
 2451 
 
 215,686 
 
 56,966 
 
 30,621 
 
 50 
 
 1893, - 
 
 - 56,304 
 
 3143 
 
 242,038 
 
 68,178 
 
 23,750 
 
 33 
 
 1894, - 
 
 - 45,263 
 
 3539 
 
 242,333 
 
 83,523 
 
 28,553 
 
 55 
 
 1895, - 
 
 - 42,608 
 
 2880 
 
 224,188 
 
 65,136 
 
 39,409 
 
 56 
 
 1896, - 
 
 - 30,554 
 
 2537 
 
 211,908 
 
 51,601 
 
 54,878 
 
 28 
 
 The fluctuations under the head of oxen, and the serious decrease in 
 recent years, are accounted for by the growing importations of foreign cattle, 
 which, under Board of Agriculture regulations, must be slaughtered at the 
 landing place. On that account a huge abattoir has been established at 
 Yorkhill, at which, in the meantime, a large proportion of the meat supply of 
 Glasgow is obtained. 
 
 The Dead Meat Market, also facing Moore Street, and extending to 
 Graham Square, opened in 1879, was a necessary outcome of the successful 
 inauguration of the ocean traffic in carcases during that decade. The 
 meat came at first from America in chambers chilled by air passing over 
 ice, a method of limited and imperfect application, which, however, was 
 sufficient for the comparatively short Atlantic voyage. The invention of 
 the Bell-Colman dry-air refrigerator and other cold-producers put it within 
 the power of shippers to draw from all parts of the world, and with the 
 introduction of such machines the trade in foreign dead meat became an 
 established factor in the food supply of the United Kingdom, with which 
 home stock rearers had to reckon. The facilities offered by the Dead Meat 
 Market have exercised a marked influence over the retail butcher trade in the 
 West of Scotland. The market may now be regarded as the central depot of 
 the wholesale meat business, and the butchers, instead of dealing in live 
 animals, buy from the exposed carcases such portions and qualities as 
 suit their business ; and thus the trade is better and more economically 
 supplied, and food is more expeditiously distributed than under the old 
 .system. 
 
 In the Dead Meat Market there are 45 stances let weekly, at the rate 
 of ^d. per square foot per week, to wholesale dealers, from which a rent 
 of about /^I200 is obtained. In addition dues are levied on carcases at 
 the following rates : For oxen, (S(\. ; for fat calves, 3d. ; slink calves, id. ; sheep
 
 288 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 and lambs, id, each ; and for pigs, 2d. per animal. There is also exigible, 
 for weighing meat, a toll at the rate of |d. per hundredweight or any part 
 thereof 
 
 Under the Police Amendment Act, 1890, greatly enlarged powers were 
 granted to the police authorities for the inspection and seizure of suspected 
 animal food, and for the destruction of carcases, etc., which have been con- 
 demned as unfit for consumption. Not only can the person in whose 
 possession such meat is found be proceeded against, but the original seller, 
 wherever the sale may have taken place, is subject also to prosecution, and 
 liable for the same pains and penalties as the immediate owner or possessor of 
 the suspected meat. 
 
 Comprehensively viewed the Cattle Market may be looked on as a 
 great factory for the preparation of butcher meat, with a depot for its dis- 
 tribution, and with several sections for dealing with the by-products and 
 waste material of the industry. Without coming on any public street, 
 animals — the raw material — may be brought from the railway siding direct 
 into the market. Thence, after sale, they pass into the slaughter-house 
 department ; and as dressed meat they are conveyed into the Dead Meat 
 Market, from which the carcases are distributed to the shops of the retailers. 
 The blood is carefully collected, and goes principally to the albumen makers ; 
 hides are conveyed to the hide markets ; and tallow is prepared for the 
 market in the searching-room, and is sold by auction in the sale-room of 
 the dealers in hides, and taken direct from the searching-room to the 
 warehouses of the purchasers. A large department, fitted with numerous 
 steam-heated iron vats and cold water troughs, is devoted to the preparation 
 of tripe, where that material is cleaned, soused, and prepared for sale and 
 cooking; and a section of the same place is set apart for the cleaning and 
 preparation of ox and calf feet, and the hoofs there separated are sold to comb 
 factories, etc. In the gut-cleaning department intestines are prepared for 
 the sausage makers and for other purposes, and bladders are inflated and 
 dried for the various uses of that membrane. All these departments bring 
 a certain amount of grist to the mill of the Markets Commissioners, and 
 among them they dispose of everything that belongs to or comes from 
 the slaughtered creatures. 
 
 Fish Market. The Fish Market, situated by the side of the river 
 between East Clyde Street and the Briggate, covers an area of upwards of 
 2000 square yards. Nominally it is divided into a wholesale and a retail 
 department, but while it possesses conveniences for retail dealers, practically 
 there is scarcely any such business in the market. The revenue of the 
 market is derived from the renting of stances, of which there are forty- 
 seven, and from dues on goods brought into the market by dealers who 
 are not stanceholders ; but the latter source of income has completely 
 dried up, showing that the whole trade is in the hands of the established
 
 MUNICIPAL MARKETS 
 
 289 
 
 dealers. The rents levied for stances are at the rate of 4s. 6d. per annum 
 for each square foot of space occupied, payable weekly in advance ; and 
 casual dealers getting the use of a stance pay 4d. for each box or barrel of 
 fish they bring into or buy within the market. 
 
 The Commissioners have the same claims for a monopoly of the 
 wholesale trade for fish as they possess for meat under the Glasgow Markets 
 and Slaughter-houses Act of 1865 ; but no attempt has been made to 
 enforce such rights, nor to cause the wholesale trade to pass through the 
 market, or to pay dues to the Commissioners. With the view of detecting 
 and condemning unsound fish, as well as from other considerations of 
 public policy and convenience, the Commissioners consider that all wholesale 
 fish trade outside the limits of the market should be expressly prohibited. 
 
 For the year ended 31st May, 1895, the entire revenue of the Markets 
 Commissioners amounted to ^^22,500. In that amount the principal items 
 were : from the Cattle Market ;^6300, Moore Street Slaughter-house 
 i^5 500, the Dead Meat Market ;^3200, and the Triperies i^iSoo. The 
 Fish Market yielded ^^2900, and the remaining items of revenue arose out 
 of the minor slaughter-houses, and from various properties adjacent to the 
 markets owned by the Commissioners. The ordinary expenditure was 
 ;^ 1 7,000, including ;^66oo of interest and sinking fund, leaving ^^^5500 
 of a surplus revenue ; but deducting ^2200 of extraordinary expenditure 
 the actual excess amounted only to ^^3300 on the year's transactions. 
 Under the capital account the Cattle Market with its accessories, the Dead 
 Meat Market, Moore Street Slaughter-house, and several adjoining pro- 
 perties, are valued at i^i 82,300; Milton and Victoria Street Slaughter- 
 houses, i^i6,900; property at Victoria Street, ^2900. The Fish Market 
 is valued at ^^40,000, and contiguous property represents ;!^i 3,900. These 
 sums, with movable property and open accounts, raise the assets to 
 ;{i^26o,8oo, against liabilities equal to ;^ 160,000, bringing out free assets 
 amounting to i!^ 100,800. The liabilities are principally loans from Cor- 
 poration loans fund i^i 29,700, and sinking fund ^27,800. 
 
 Foreign Cattle. When the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act of 1878 
 was passed, it was not anticipated that the Magistrates and Town Council, 
 constituted Local Authority under its provisions, would, in that capacity, 
 become owners of the chief cattle markets, and come into the control of a 
 large share of the meat trade of Glasgow. Under the Privy Council they 
 were entrusted with the duty of dealing with contagious outbreaks among 
 animals, with compensating owners for the loss of herds, and with the 
 levying of rates to meet such compensation allowance. The importation of 
 foreign cattle is, under Privy Council — now Board of Agriculture — orders, only 
 permitted at certain specified landing places, and except under special 
 exemption all animals must be slaughtered where they are landed. For 
 some years there was permission to import, and pass into the country, cattle 
 
 x
 
 290 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 from Canada, where there are stringent and efficient cattle quarantine laws. 
 On account of the exemption of Canadian cattle it became necessary to 
 keep them entirely separate from all other imported stock which fell to be 
 slaughtered at the landing-place. Special landing-place and lairage for 
 Canadian cattle were provided first at Plantation Wharf within the harbour, 
 and subsequently at Shieldhall, on the south side of the river, below Govan, 
 whence live stock was moved to abattoirs, or into the country for feeding 
 purposes as desired. For the reception of other foreign cattle, landing, 
 lairage, and slaughtering accommodation was secured on ground leased from 
 the Clyde Trustees at Pointhouse Wharf, Yorkhill, on the north side of the 
 river. Begun on a modest scale the trade in live cattle increased with 
 marvellous rapidity, and with it there were required many changes and in- 
 creases in the accommodation for the trade. In 1894 there was completed, at 
 a cost of almost ;^5 0,000, a nearly entire reconstruction of the Yorkhill 
 lairage, etc., giving provision at that landing-place for dealing with 4000 
 cattle. The slaughtering accommodation and conveniences are of the most 
 improved description, and spacious chill rooms have been provided in which 
 meat can be stored and preserved in perfectly sound condition any length 
 of time. In all, the capital expenditure on Shieldhall and Yorkhill has 
 amounted to upwards of ;^ 110,000; but of that about ;^2 5,000 has been 
 written off on account of the sale of old materials, and removal from the 
 west lairages at Yorkhill on the completion of the new buildings on the 
 east section of that landing-place. 
 
 The trade is almost entirely in cattle and sheep, with an occasional 
 but altogether insignificant consignment of calves and pigs. Beyond the 
 United States and Canada only two regions whence supplies have been 
 drawn appear in the Clyde list. From the Argentine Republic, in two 
 years, a small number of cattle, 267 in all, and 2744 sheep were received ; 
 and within the two years, ending in May, 1896, a considerable and increasing 
 trade in sheep from Iceland has grown up. In the year ended May, 1895, 
 there were imported 7479 Iceland sheep, and in the following year the 
 number increased to 10,844. The cattle trade from the United States 
 began in June, 1879, ^^d in the following twelve months 5065 head were 
 landed. In the next year the number rose to 9221; in 1884 it was 
 19,443, a maximum it did not again reach till 1889, when it amounted 
 to 21,569. From that it increased to 43,580 in 1892, which is the high- 
 water mark of the United States cattle trade up to this time, for, after 
 dropping to 31,591 in 1893, and to 30,381 in 1895, the number reached 
 only 38,426 in 1896. The Canadian cattle trade has also grown to great 
 dimensions, but that too in a fluctuating manner. In its first complete year, 
 ended May, 1881, there were imported 14 591 head. After a decline of 3000 
 in each of the next two years the figures bounded up to 17,585 in 1884, 
 and, continuing to mount, reached 26,036 in 1887. After another great drop
 
 MUNICIPAL MARKETS 
 
 291 
 
 and gradual rise the imports reached the maximum 38,026 in 1891. In 
 1893 29,886 were inspected and passed, but 243 were ordered to be 
 slaughtered. In the following year the number inspected and passed 
 was only 16,000, and 1778 were slaughtered. In that year the order of 
 the Board of Agriculture permitting the distribution of Canadian cattle was 
 rescinded, and during the two years, ended May, 1896, the importations from 
 Canada have been 18,240 and 22,584 respectively, all of which have been 
 slaughtered on landing. The withdrawal of the exemption of Canadian cattle 
 from compulsory slaughter has rendered it unnecessary to maintain any dis- 
 tinction in landing, and in the meantime, since ist January, 1896, the Shield- 
 hall landing-place and lairage have not been in use. At the present time the 
 Yorkhill stage is the only public landing-place for foreign cattle in Scotland. 
 
 The importations of sheep have been of a very fluctuating and uncertain 
 character. Till 1 894 the number brought from the States never exceeded 
 in any one year more than 4000, frequently they were under 1000, and 
 in three separate years there was an entire blank. In 1894 the number 
 brought from the States was 4133, next year the number rose to 32,446, 
 and for the year ended in May, 1896, the number was 19,792. The 
 Canadian sheep trade has been more extensive, but little steadier. For the 
 first complete year ended May, 1881, the Canadian sheep imported numbered 
 8675; they rose to 12,622 in 1884, whence with fluctuations they descended 
 till, in 1888, they numbered 2448. From 1890 till 1895 they did not reach 
 1000, the number being only 50 in 1892, and in 1894 there was not a 
 single head imported. Then in 1895 the imports sprang suddenly up to 
 16,472, and in the year ended May, 1896, the maximum number of 34,724 
 Canadian sheep was brought to the Clyde. In all, since the opening of 
 the Yorkhill and Shieldhall landing-places in 1879 till the 31st of May, 
 1896, there have been landed 728,967 cattle, 226,539 sheep, and 121 3 pigs — 
 a grand total of 956,719 living creatures brought from the Dominion of 
 Canada and from foreign states. 
 
 The market days at Yorkhill are Monday and Tuesday weekly, and 
 about 40 per cent, of the carcases which pass out of the gates are taken to 
 the Dead Mead Market. At that market also all the offal is dealt with ; 
 but for convenience a searching-house for tallow, under the supervision of 
 the Markets Commissioners, is maintained at Yorkhill. 
 
 Formidable indeed is the competition with Scottish stock farmers, which 
 the figures given above represent, and let it be remembered that this is 
 only one wing of the foe they have to face, for we take no account of the 
 chilled meat trade and the tinned meat industry which from all parts of the 
 world converge on our island. But to the wage-earning millions the point 
 of view is different, and were it not for this foreign competition animal food 
 would certainly have reached prohibitive prices in the British Islands, and 
 it would have been as rare as hot-house grapes on the tables of the poor.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE CORPORATION TRAMWAYS. 
 
 Tramway lines a natural monopoly : Direct working versus leasing : Origin of Glasgow tram- 
 ways : 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 oiif: Equipment for Corporation undertaking: Inauguration of Corporation 
 service : Opposition of Tramway Company : Its failure : Traffic under Corporation 
 management : Financial results. 
 
 When the formation of street tramways in Glasgow was first suggested it 
 was not contemplated that the Corporation should have any direct interest 
 in the enterprise, either in the way of making the lines or in working the 
 traffic ; but our ends have been so shaped that the lines from the first 
 were municipal property, and in later days the Town Council saw fit to take 
 the working of the traffic into their own hands. In undertaking the duties 
 of public carriers of passenger traffic the Council became committed to a 
 huge and very significant extension in communal activity, but the step 
 was not without logical and practical sanction. The streets of any city are 
 in the widest sense public property, open to the traffic of the whole world. 
 In their use there can be no monopoly, and only such restriction as may 
 be needed to enable all to enjoy to the full their advantages. A line of 
 tramway rails is in an entirely different position. It forms a natural monopoly 
 special and limited in its application, and of necessity restricted and exclusive 
 in its use. It was manifestly right that the official conservators of the public 
 streets should have the first, if not the sole, right of carrying rail tracks 
 through them. Although Parliament did not in the beginning contemplate 
 conferring general powers of working tramways as a municipal enterprise,
 
 THE CORPORATION TRAMWAYS 293 
 
 and indeed had a standing order against granting such powers, yet we cannot 
 but regard the distinction between working the property direct or through 
 the agency of a leaseholder as one of convenience, not of principle ; and 
 being the owner of the tramways, the Corporation has naturally the right 
 and even the duty of directing the traffic on them. The question simply 
 resolves itself into whether a corporation can best serve the interests of a 
 community by direct service or through the medium of a commercial agency. 
 That question the Tramways Committee of the Town Council, after an 
 experience of leasing their property for twenty-three years to a public com- 
 pany, and after two years' direct working, have now solved. 
 
 Tramway enterprise, as we have said, did not begin in Glasgow through 
 the direct initiation of the Town Council, About 1870, when the tramway 
 fever overran the country, two rival companies sought to induce Parliament 
 to entrust them with the exclusive rights of laying down street tram- 
 ways in Glasgow. Between these would-be benefactors the Town Council 
 interposed, opposing the projects of both, and ultimately an agreement was 
 arrived at under which their Bills were amalgamated. Among the heads 
 of the agreement there was this important clause that, in the event of the 
 Bill becoming law, the promoters should suspend all active operations for a 
 period of six months from the date of enactment, and if within that period 
 the Corporation determined to enter into possession, the joint promoters 
 were to stand down and the Town Council were to take their place as owners 
 of the measure with all the powers and responsibilities it implied. The 
 Bill was duly passed, the Town Council within the specified time resolved 
 to take over the Act, and so the duty of making the tramway lines became 
 part of the functions of Glasgow Town Council. The provisions of the 1870 
 Act conferred on the Corporation power either to work the tramways as a 
 municipal enterprise or to lease them to private adventurers. The Council 
 elected to lease the undertaking, and the British and Foreign Tramway 
 Company having acquired the promoter's right to a lease under the Act, 
 the prospectus of the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company was issued 
 b}- that body. 
 
 The terms of the prospectus provided for a payment of ;^3 50,000 to 
 the British and Foreign Company, in return for which they undertook to 
 assign the lease to the new company, to equip the tramways with 200 cars 
 and 50 omnibuses, to supply 2000 horses of an average value of i!^2 5 each, 
 with all the appliances, harness, etc., necessary for working the traffic, and 
 to endow the company with heritable property of the value of i^6o,ooo. 
 They, moreover, undertook to implement certain agreements entered into 
 with omnibus proprietors in Glasgow, to bear the expense of the formation 
 of the company, including a proportion of the cost of administration during 
 the construction of the lines, and to free the company from certain minor 
 obligations to the Corporation. After the formation of the Glasgow Tram-
 
 294 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 way and Omnibus Company it was found that the full equipment was not 
 required; and of the subscribed capital, 3500 shares at £\o^ only £'^ per 
 share was called up. When accounts came to be cleared between promoters 
 and company, it was found that the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus 
 Company received in property, plant, horses, and cars to the value of 
 £116,4.24, and that the cost of the lease was ^^^179,576. The latter amount 
 represented manifestly a heavy deadweight on the Tramway Company's 
 enterprise ; and as against it there were no assets whatever the company 
 had to endeavour to extinguish the amount by systematic payments out 
 of revenue. 
 
 Between the Corporation and the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus 
 Company an agreement was drawn up for leasing the lines for a period 
 of twenty-three years from ist July, 1871. Under the conditions of that 
 agreement the Council undertook to begin the making of the tracks within 
 four months after the ist of June of that year. The Company on their 
 part were to provide a working capital of not less than iJ^2 0,000. They 
 undertook to maintain the lines throughout their tenancy in good working 
 condition, to keep up the roadway between the rails and 1 8 inches beyond 
 the outer rails, and at the end of their lease they bound themselves to 
 hand over the lines in a condition as good as new. For the due implement- 
 ing of these conditions the company agreed to set apart yearly a sum 
 equal to 4 per cent, of the cost of the construction of the lines, to be 
 applied to their maintenance and renewal. Any unused balance of this 
 renewal fund, it was agreed, should at the close of the lease revert to 
 the company. The further payments by the company to the Corporation 
 were arranged as follows : ( i ) The recouping to the Corporation of the 
 interest actually paid on the total expenditure on the tramways including 
 parliamentary expenses ; (2) payment of 3 per cent, per annum on the 
 same expenditure to a sinking fund for redemption of the debt ; (3) a 
 rent equal to ^150 per mile for the tramway lines constructed and 
 actually in use ; and (4) repayment to the Corporation of the expenditure 
 connected with the Council's management of the tramway undertaking. 
 For the due implementing of their contract the company became bound 
 to invest ;^6o,ooo in approved heritable property, over which a bond and 
 disposition in security was to be granted in favour of the Corporation. 
 Future extensions of the tramway system sanctioned by Parliament, it 
 was agreed, should be subject to the same conditions ; but a right to 
 oppose any such extensions in Parliament was conceded to the company. 
 A tariff of maximum fares to be charged was scheduled and attached to 
 the agreement, and the company undertook to carry working people morning 
 and evening between the hours of five and seven for half tariff fares. The cars 
 and their rate of travelling were to be subject to the approval of the Corpora- 
 tion, and powder to make bye-laws for the regulation of the traffic as well as for
 
 THE CORPORATION TRAMWAYS 
 
 295 
 
 the licensing of drivers and conductors was reserved. Any failure on the 
 part of the company to duly conduct a sufficient service over any line 
 was to be punishable with a penalty of ^10 per day, and the recouping 
 of such expense as might be incurred by the Corporation in making good 
 the deficiency, and a general penalty of i^iooo for non-fulfilment of the 
 terms of the agreement on either side was imposed. If required, the Corpora- 
 tion became bound to obtain parliamentary authority for making effectual 
 the conditions of the lease. , 
 
 The construction of the authorized lines was vigorously proceeded with, 
 and on the 19th of July, 1872, the first section was open for traffic. It 
 extended from St. George's Cross to Eglinton Toll, a distance of 2f miles, 
 through New City Road, Cambridge Street, Sauchiehall Street, Renfield 
 Street, Union Street, Jamaica Street, Glasgow Bridge, Bridge Street, and 
 Eglinton Street. Thereafter in quick succession the line in Sauchiehall 
 Street was extended westward from Cambridge Street to Royal Crescent. 
 The line from the east to the west of Glasgow was begun by the formation 
 of the section from Bridgeton Cross to Candleriggs. On the south side 
 a connection was formed from Bridge Street to Paisley Road Toll ; and 
 in the west the long stretch from Whiteinch beyond Partick to Royal 
 Crescent, more than 2% miles of line, was constructed — all these being open 
 before the end of 1872, In the following year the line from Whiteinch 
 to Bridgeton Cross was completed by the formation of a connection from 
 Derby Street to Elderslie Street, thence to Jamaica Street, and on to 
 Candleriggs ; and in the same year a branch from that trunk stretching 
 from Great Hamilton Street to Camlachie Burn was inaugurated, as was 
 also, a little earlier, the line from St. Vincent Street to Dennistoun. In 
 all, within the first three years of the lease, \^\ niiles of double track 
 was constructed and opened to traffic through the most crowded thorough- 
 fares of Glasgow. From that period to 1880 the extensions of the system 
 were comparatively unimportant, those of any consequence being the loop 
 from New City Road by Cowcaddens to Sauchiehall Street, from Bridgeton 
 Cross along the London Road, and on the south side the extension from 
 Eglinton Toll to Queen's Park. In 1880 and the two following years 
 important extensions in all amounting to about 9 miles of double track 
 were carried out. These included the prolongation of the Hillhead lines 
 from Belhavcn Terrace to Hyndland Road, the extension from Butter- 
 biggins Road, first to Shawlands, and ultimately to Pollokshaws, the forma- 
 tion of the Saltmarket and Govanhill line, the Glassford Street line, the 
 branch from St. George's Cross, first to Garscubc Toll, and later to Maryhill 
 terminus, the extension from Camlachie to Parkhead, the Rutherglen Road 
 line with its connections by Govan Street and Norfolk Street. With these 
 all in operation in September, 1882, the City possessed fully 25 miles 
 of double track tramways. Again in 1886 there occurred a period of
 
 296 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 activity in tramway development when the extremities of the Crosshill and 
 Govanhill systems were joined by a line along Queen's Drive. The line 
 from Mitchell Street to Great Western Road by Bothwell Street and 
 Woodlands Road was constructed, and the Springburn line was also laid 
 down. In all, on this occasion, about 5 miles of tramway line was formed, 
 one portion along Woodlands Road being single track. Subsequent additions 
 during the currency of the lease were comparatively unimportant, consisting 
 only of minor connections and a short line laid along Sandyford Street, 
 with the view chiefly of accommodating the International Exhibition traffic 
 in 1888. With stable connections, etc., there were at the end of the 
 lease of the Tramway Company about 3 1 \ miles of tramway line in 
 operation. 
 
 Under the Corporation Act of 1893 powers were obtained inter alia for 
 the formation of about 'j\ miles of new line, and some portions of the routes 
 thus sanctioned were ready for opening on the ist of July, 1894, the day 
 on which the Corporation entered on the working of the traffic. These lines 
 embrace a branch from Bridgeton Cross by Main Street to Rutherglen Bridge, 
 a line from Argyle Street to Mount Florida through Stockwell Street, Main 
 Street, Gorbals, and Cathcart Street, and an extension from Rockvilla to 
 Possilpark, opened in April, 1896. A connection was made from Bothwell 
 Circus along St. Vincent Street to Dumbarton Road, towards the formation of 
 which line a sum of ;!^2 5oo was received from the Caledonian Railway 
 in compensation for the interruption of traffic in Argyle Street, caused by the 
 Sunday workings in connection with the formation of the Central Railway. 
 Certain doubling of the Woodlands Road line was also carried out. In all, 
 with depot connections, etc., there was open in Glasgow at the 3 i st of May, 
 1896, 3 5 miles i furlong 18 yards of tramways, of which 5 furlongs 61 
 yards are single track, and 2 miles i furlong and 103 yards consist of 
 depot connections. 
 
 The tramway lines have been skilfully planned with the view of best 
 serving the great traffic avenues of the City. The heart of Glasgow lies in a 
 triangle formed by the three great railway stations, the Central, St. Enoch, 
 and Queen Street ; thence the great arteries of communication radiate in every 
 direction to the outskirts. The main tramway routes in operation, of which 
 there are now 12, are so planned that the cars enter that triangle, and nearly 
 all pass through it going from one extremity of the City to the other. 
 Consequently within this very circumscribed triangle a traveller has the 
 opportunity of proceeding by car to any quarter in the City served by the 
 tramways, and by passing from one car to another he can in succession go 
 over every route without, at any point, walking more than a few yards. 
 The arrangment of long through routes has added greatly to the convenience 
 and celerity of the service without unduly taxing the horses. Cars keep 
 going steadily on picking up and putting down passengers at the most
 
 THE CORPORATION TRAMWAYS 297 
 
 convenient points. They do not make any arbitrary and somewhat prolonged 
 stoppage at one central point where the congestion of other traffic renders 
 the shifting of the horses a risky operation, while the obstruction of the road- 
 way by the standing cars becomes a public nuisance. 
 
 For many of the lines formed during the currency and later portion of 
 the lease new parliamentary powers had to be obtained. Bills were promoted 
 by the Corporation and Acts passed in 1875, 1879, 1884, and 1885, and to 
 the whole of these measures the Tramway Company declared their opposition. 
 In consequence of their hostile attitude it became necessary for the Corpora- 
 tion to enter into modified agreements with the company which, while not 
 affecting the original lease, resulted in granting concessions of importance to 
 the company in their working of the extensions. The following is a statement 
 of the sums expended during the currency of the lease by the Corporation 
 on the construction of lines, with the modifications secured by the Tramway 
 Company under each new agreement : 
 
 I. Expenditure on basis of Original Agreement and Lease 
 
 with the Company of 1S71, ^223,563 8 o 
 
 II. Expenditure under Agreement of 1879, on which neither 
 
 Sinking Fund nor Renewal Fund is paid, - - - 72,533 14 6 
 
 III. Expenditure under Agreement of 188 1, upon which pay- 
 
 ment of interest, at the same rate as under Original 
 Agreement, was postponed until the lapse of four 
 years from date of opening the lines for traffic, viz., 
 till 15th September, i886, - 9,844 4 o 
 
 IV. Expenditure upon the relaying of the lines along Tobago 
 
 Street, upon which a Sinking Fund of 5 per cent, 
 per annum and interest at rate fixed from time to 
 time under Original Agreement is chargeable, - - 362 11 6 
 
 V. Expenditure under Agreement of 1882, in extension of 
 lines to Pollokshaws, as sanctioned by " The Glasgow 
 Corporation Act, 1884," upon which interest at 4^ 
 per cent, per annum is chargeable, no payment 
 being made on account of Sinking Fund, mileage rate 
 or renewal, ....-.-. 4,260 12 4 
 
 VI. Expenditure under Agreement of 1S85, on Bothwell Street, 
 Woodlands Road, St. George's Road, and Queen's 
 Drive tramways, on which interest at 4 per cent, 
 per annum is payable, commencing to run at Whit- 
 sunday, 1887, with mileage rate on i mile 6 furlongs 
 209 yards of the tramways, commencing at Whitsunday, 
 1892, no Sinking or Renewal Fund being paid, - 19, 116 14 o 
 
 VII. Expenditure on lines to Springburn, on which interest is 
 payable at 4 per cent, from date of opening the 
 lines to traffic, no Sinking nor Renewal Funds being 
 provided, 18,168 14 4 
 
 Total, ;^347,849 18 8
 
 298 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Although under these later agreements no renewal fund was provided on the 
 capital expenditure, the accumulations under the original agreement were to 
 be applied equally to the renewal of all lines, old and new. 
 
 In 1887 the Tramway Company promoted a Bill in Parliament to widen 
 the scope of their Articles of Association, and to enable them to enter on a class 
 of business foreign to the object for which they were primarily incorporated — 
 the working of the tramways of Glasgow. That measure the Corporation 
 resolved to oppose, and, after negotiations, an agreement was arrived at under 
 which the company consented to withdraw their Bill. In that agreement there 
 was embodied a condition that, five years before the expiry of the company's 
 lease, negotiations should be commenced between the Corporation and the 
 company, with a view to the prolongation of the lease, and that for the 
 pourparlers six months should be allowed. It was made a condition that, 
 in the event of a lease for a prolonged period being agreed on, both parties 
 should reserve the right, at intervals of five years, to have the rent and other 
 financial conditions reconsidered, on either giving six months' notice to the 
 other party. And failing to come to an agreement, it was provided that the 
 Corporation should be free to enter into treaty with other parties. 
 
 Under these conditions an interchange of views began in 1889, and a 
 series of conditions of let were formulated by the Corporation, and duly 
 submitted to the company. Into these conditions it is now needless to enter. 
 They were not satisfactory to the company for the reasons that they would, 
 if agreed to, limit the working hours of the tramway servants — the Corporation 
 proposed a sixty-hours' week — that they would narrow the scope of the 
 company's business, and reduce its income from hiring and the carriage of 
 mails and parcels — the Corporation proposals read that the company was to 
 restrict itself to the business set forth in the Articles of Association ; that it 
 would take away profit from advertisements in and on cars, which were to be 
 prohibited ; and that it would burden the company with unnecessary renewals, 
 and with the expense of uniforms to drivers and conductors. What was 
 most strenuously objected to were the proposals of the Corporation to restrict 
 the lease to five years, and to retain to themselves the right to enter on 
 possession of the lines two years before the expiry of the lease for the purpose 
 of adapting them for mechanical haulage. The conditions which were most 
 popular with the public were the resolution of the Corporation to restrict the 
 hours of labour of tramway servants, and to insist that the car attendants 
 should be properly dressed. No agreement was arrived at between the parties, 
 who on several points stood resolutely apart, and the statutory time for the 
 negotiations expired, leaving the Corporation with a free hand to deal with 
 other offerers, or to undertake the duties of the traffic as a municipal enterprise. 
 
 There never was any thought of inviting offers from a second party, and 
 the Council turned earnestly to the question of taking the working into their 
 own hands. Some doubts having been expressed as to their legal right to
 
 THE CORPORATION TRAMWAYS 
 
 299 
 
 undertake such work, and as to the financial arrangements involved in it, 
 an opinion was obtained from the Attorney-General of England and the 
 Lord Advocate of Scotland, which clearly and unequivocally maintained 
 that the Corporation possessed powers to work their whole lines, and to 
 employ the resources of the Common Good towards the equipment of the 
 undertaking. 
 
 In the meantime the Tramway Company prepared for a struggle with 
 their old opponents the Tramway Committee. They presented a petition to 
 the Court of Session for powers to widen the scope of their Articles of 
 Association, so as to enable them to carry on business, not only as a Glasgow 
 Tramway Company, but also as omnibus, road car, coach, stage carriage, and 
 cab proprietors, carting and general contractors, carriers and undertakers. 
 Notwithstanding the opposition of the Corporation the powers asked for 
 were granted, and the company found themselves in a position to compete 
 with the Corporation for the street traffic of Glasgow. They anticipated 
 that with their large capital, their hands free from all Corporation control, 
 and unhampered by mileage rate, sinking fund, and other charges, and with 
 liberty to charge such fares as they considered expedient, they would be 
 able to control the passenger traffic of the City. Naturally they set them- 
 selves to encourage their non-tramway trade, and smart 'buses drawn by four 
 horses were placed as models on certain important routes, and off the rails 
 traffic was fostered in the most careful and painstaking manner. 
 
 Some time after the failure of the lease negotiations, and after the 
 Corporation had determined to enter on the tramway working, in accordance 
 with agreement conditions, they approached the company with the view of 
 acquiring their stations and plant, or such proportion of these as might be 
 required for the traffic. In December, 1891, the company offered under 
 certain conditions to sell to the Corporation their whole property, plant, and 
 horses, or alternatively to sell their five properties, 250 cars at least, and not 
 fewer than 1500 horses, the price of the properties to be paid at Whit- 
 sunday, 1892, and the company to lease these from then till the ist July, 
 1894, at a rental of 5 per cent, on their price, the cars and horses to 
 be paid at the end of the company's lease. 
 
 In their half-yearly report, issued soon thereafter, a statement was made 
 of the intention of the company to organize a complete system of omnibus 
 traffic in the streets of Glasgow, and thereupon the Tramway Committee 
 caused an intimation to be made to the effect that, as a condition essential 
 to the continuance of the negotiations, the company should undertake not 
 to enter into competition with the Corporation in carrying street traffic of 
 the kind served by tramway cars. This condition the Tramway Company 
 declined to recognize. They pointed out that they did not offer to sell 
 the goodwill of their business ; that they had bought up omnibus companies' 
 undertakings at large prices, and they complained that the Corporation had
 
 300 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 in the middle of their negotiations imported new conditions into their proposals. 
 Moreover, they affirmed that, on the faith of the original basis of advances 
 on the part of the Corporation, important and valuable details of the com- 
 pany's business had been imparted, which might properly enough be given 
 to a bond fide buyer, but which would never be communicated to a rival. 
 After the interchange of certain further recriminations and justifications these 
 negotiations also ceased, and the Corporation and company stood prepared 
 for war to the knife. 
 
 The Tramway Committee were now left with little more than two 
 years in which to obtain sites and build depots, stables, and car sheds for 
 their extensive business, to procure cars, to collect horses sufficient to equip 
 an army, to accustom those animals to their work, and to organize a personal 
 establishment of considerably over one thousand hands. They had, more- 
 over, to consider the question of mechanical as against horse haulage, but 
 the time at their disposal practically shelved that subject. Nevertheless 
 in all their plans the probability of substituting some form of mechanical 
 haulage for horse-power was kept in view, and the depots and stations 
 were acquired and planned, primarily to accommodate horses and horse- 
 drawn cars, yet so as to be serviceable for other forms of power, should 
 such afterwards be resolved on. Indeed, in relaying the lines along Tron- 
 gate and Argyle Street, lifted in connection with the Central Railway 
 operations, cast-iron boxes have been fitted for holding sheaves or blocks, 
 in view of the possible adoption of cable haulage on that important section. 
 
 At midnight on Saturday, 30th June, 1894, the Tramway Company 
 finally withdrew their cars from the streets of Glasgow, and on Sunday, 
 1st July, the Corporation service was inaugurated. To get everything 
 ready for this start had involved a vast amount of preparation, and a 
 necessarily great expenditure all within a limited period. Sites for depots, 
 stables, and car sheds had to be selected, and the necessary erections 
 planned and carried out without delay. Nine convenient sites were acquired, 
 two on the south side — Coplawhill and Kinning Park ; two in the western 
 district — Kelvinhaugh and Partick ; three in the northern part of the City — 
 Maryhill, Cowcaddens, and Springburn ; and two in the east — Whitevale 
 and Dalmarnock. At these various establishments there was provided 
 stabling for 3500 horses, sheds for 300 cars, and accommodation for other 
 vehicles, such as lorries, water vans, brakes, and offices and stores. At 
 the Coplawhill establishment, in addition to sheds, stables, and offices, 
 there was erected car-building and repairing works, a saddlery factory, a 
 rail repairing shop and general stores ; and at Kinning Park the granaries 
 and forage stores for the entire system were centred. Fully three months 
 before taking over the traffic several of the stables and sheds were ready 
 for occupation. Then the purchase of horses was entered upon, and 
 simultaneously the delivery of new cars, which were contracted for in
 
 THE CORPORATION TRAMWAYS 301 
 
 Birmingham and Shrewsbury, began. Before the end of May, upwards 
 of 3000 horses, drawn from all parts of the United Kingdom, France, 
 Canada, and the United States, were purchased, and as far as possible 
 the animals were practised in drawing cars over short reaches of lines 
 leading to and from the sheds — for the Committee were precluded from 
 using the street tracks. Before the end of June 244 cars of a light and 
 elegant construction, having capacity for 40 passengers each — 18 inside 
 and 22 outside — were delivered, and the ist of July found the depart- 
 ment fully equipped and ready to offer a service little short of that till 
 then conducted by the Tramway Company. 
 
 That service began with running only 108 cars, and with horses 
 doing half work, for it was judged prudent to harden and train the animals 
 to their labour by degrees. Simultaneously the Tramway Company put 
 175 omnibuses, drawn each by three horses, on the familiar routes, and 
 proceeded to do their best to " blanket " the car traffic. From the first 
 halfpenny stages of about half-a-mile were adopted on the cars, and on 
 the 'buses that minimum fare soon afterwards was conceded. The number 
 of Corporation cars was quickly added to, and within three months more 
 than double the original service was placed on the streets. Moreover, 
 a revised tariff of fares was adopted, under which the penny stages were 
 greatly lengthened, and long through routes were arranged. Facilities for 
 street locomotion in Glasgow were thus plentiful and cheap, but the rumbling 
 of the heavy 'buses was the cause of a distracting din. It was not long 
 till it became obvious that the Tramway Company were waging an unequal 
 war. In the struggle -for public patronage the car waxed and the 'bus 
 waned ; in the end the company had to confess themselves beaten, and 
 by degrees they withdrew from the contest. 
 
 During the first eleven months of the Corporation service, from ist July 
 1894, to 31st May, 1895, cars with small omnibuses for terminal traffic 
 to a maximum number of 272 in any week, ran 5,192,031 miles, carrying 
 57,104,647 passengers, about 39 per cent, of whom paid one halfpenny 
 only, and the total receipts from fares amounted to i^2 2i,i2i, being at 
 the rate of io*26d. per car mile. In addition to the opposition of the 
 Tramway Company, the Corporation enterprise had several adverse circum- 
 stances against which to contend. A very large number of horses were 
 at first idle and unremunerative, and although they consumed full rations 
 and were otherwise costly to keep and manage, they did only half work. 
 Then a winter of quite unexampled severity and duration had to be faced, 
 which at once added to the expenditure and decreased the income. The 
 Corporation, moreover, deliberately cut off one source of revenue from adver- 
 tisements, and on the cars they dressed their drivers and conductors in 
 neat uniforms, and they reduced the hours of labour to as nearly as 
 practicable ten hours daily. They must further be credited with greatly
 
 302 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 improving the trafific by the employment at all stations of an adequate 
 staff, and even such small details as the employment of points boys at 
 junctions did not a little to expedite and improve the running. With 
 all their additional expenditure, with cheapening of fares, and with the 
 cutting off of revenue, it was with more than relief that the Tramway 
 Committee were able to end their eleven months working with a fair 
 credit balance of ^^^24,204, and that after allowing i^i 8,644 fo^ maintenance 
 and renewals of tracks, buildings, horses, and equipment. Out of the 
 ^24,204 profit .^9193 was written off capital account in name of depre- 
 ciation, L^y^o was placed to the beginning of a permanent way renewal 
 fund, and to the Common Good there was paid ^^8260, being eleven 
 months' proportion of the agreed on annual payment of ^9000. 
 
 The accounts for the first complete financial year, ended 31st May, 
 1896, present even a more favourable picture than the statement for the 
 preceding eleven months. In that year the mileage run was 6,932,650 
 miles, the passengers carried numbered 86,462,594, and the traffic receipts 
 were ;^328,827, being an average of ir38d. per car mile. Extra receipts 
 raised the revenue to ^^o 3 34,3 37 ; and, the total working expenses being 
 ;^25i,iio, there remained a balance of ^^83,267. After paying interest 
 on capital «^ 12,656, sinking fund ;^ 10,541, the stipulated contribution to 
 the Common Good ;^9000, depreciation ;i^ 17,809, and crediting the 
 permanent way renewal fund with i^ 17,000, there was still left a balance 
 of ^16,259, which has been placed to the credit of a general renewal fund. 
 
 In connection with this gratifying result it should, however, be remem- 
 bered that the Tramway Committee obtained possession of lines at a 
 cost of ^143,000, on the making of which ^^345,000 had been expended. 
 The capital expenditure on lines at the close of the Tramway Company's lease 
 amounted to ^344,965, but towards the reduction of that total payments to 
 sinking fund from the Tramway Company and interest allowed by the Cor- 
 poration on the accumulations amounted to ;^20 1,470 ; hence the balance 
 of the Tramway Construction Account when the undertaking reverted to 
 the Corporation was ;^ 143,49 5. As a return the Tramway Committee came 
 under obligation to pay yearly into the Common Good the sum of ;^9000, 
 which payment is made a first charge on the profits of the undertaking. 
 In the last complete year of the company's enterprise their payments to 
 the Corporation amounted to ;i^30,oi8, made up of interest on capital 
 expenditure, ;^i 2,465 ; mileage rate, ;^307i ; sinking fund, ;^6725 ; renewal 
 fund, ;^7456 ; and allowances for Chamberlain's department expenses, ;^300 ; 
 and the converse payments of the Corporation amounted to ;!C24,3 58, 
 comprising interest, ;^9876 ; the sinking fund and renewal payments, ^6725 
 and ^7456 respectively; and the expenses of the Chamberlain's department, 
 ;£^300 — leaving a free revenue to the Common Good of ^^5600. 
 
 In all, the total amount received by the Corporation from the company
 
 THE CORPORATION TRAMWAYS 303 
 
 during the currency of the twenty-three years' lease was ;^240,2 39 in name of 
 interest on capital expenditure, and ^^^45,992 as mileage rate: while the sum 
 expended by the Corporation for interest on current tramway debt and on 
 sinking fund was ^^222,604, leaving a balance of £6^,62'^, or an annual 
 average of £2766 as the mileage rate and other profits of the Corporation. 
 In addition the Corporation received, as above stated, ;^20 1,470 towards the 
 cost of construction of the lines, reducing the capital account by that 
 amount, and enabling the Tramway Committee, as we have already seen, 
 to enter in possession of a property which cost almost ^345,000 at a nominal 
 cost of ;^i43,495. 
 
 The capital account of the Corporation Tramways, as at 31st May, 
 1896, stood at ^^582,993. The chief items which go to make up this 
 respectable total are the permanent way account, which stood at £iy2,o6y ', 
 and ground, buildings, and fittings, which cost i^ 18 4,901. The horses, 
 4082 in number, stand in the books at i^i 14,296; the cars and other 
 rolling stock come to ^49,949 ; miscellaneous expenses incurred previous 
 to 1st July, 1894, add other ;^38,992 ; and harness, utensils, uniforms, 
 and furniture are responsible for the balance of the capital expenditure.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 THE CLYDE NAVIGATION. 
 
 Ancient rights of Glasgow in the river : Their confirmation by Charles I. : Primitive con- 
 dition 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 navi- 
 gation : 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. 
 
 " Glasgow made the Clyde — the Clyde made Glasgow." In such brief and 
 pithy terms much of the secret of the prosperity and the remarkable com- 
 mercial development of the City is to be found. Among the undertakings 
 fostered and built up under the supervision of the Town Council of Glasgow 
 none is comparable in magnitude and in far-reaching influence to the work 
 done by and for the City in developing the navigation of the Clyde up to 
 the harbour of Glasgow. From time immemorial the City of Glasgow has 
 been in possession of extensive powers and privileges over the river from 
 the City outwards — rights which not infrequently brought the burghers into 
 conflict with their neighbours in the Burgh of Dumbarton. The ancient 
 privileges of Glasgow were narrated, confirmed, and renewed to the citizens 
 under the great charter of Charles I., granted in 1636, instituting the City 
 as a Royal Burgh. In that important deed it is narrated that " the Provost, 
 Bailies, Councillors, and community of our said Burgh and City of Glasgow 
 have undertaken not a few excellent works, and expended great charges 
 and expenses these many years past, in rendering the River of Clotta, that 
 is the River of Clyd, upon which the said City is founded and situated, 
 navigable for ships, boats, and barks, and other vessels, for importing and 
 exporting native and foreign commodities, to the great comfort of our lieges
 
 THE CLYDE NAVIGATION 
 
 305 
 
 dwelling there, and to those coming to the bounds and counties next adjacent 
 to the same." In the grants de novo there is, in the charter, included " liberty 
 of the said river of Clyde, and width either side from the Bridge of Glasgow 
 to the Clochstaine ; likewise with liberty and immunity of ship stations, that 
 is of the Roidis of Inschgreen, Newark, Pot of the Rig, or of any other 
 station of ships within the said river of Clyde, between the Bridge of Glasgow 
 and the said Clochstaine, for loading and unloading merchandise and goods 
 belonging to the said burgh, burgesses, and inhabitants thereof; as well 
 imported and exported by them in ships and other vessels of this our 
 kingdom of Scotland, as imported and exported in ships belonging and 
 pertaining to foreigners and strangers." And in a subsequent clause there 
 is given and granted " free power, liberty, and privilege to our said Burgh 
 of Glasgow, burgesses and inhabitants thereof, to the trad, trafifick of selling 
 and making merchandise within the parts of the said river and water of 
 Clyde with foreigners, and all other persons coming and resorting thither, 
 and of building harbours and stations of ships, embankments, and the gittie- 
 heads, for rendering the said river more navigable, within the entire bounds 
 of the said river, from the said Bridge of Glasgow to the Clochstane, and 
 for receiving their ships, boats, and barks, within the bounds of the said 
 river as far as the greatest tide flows, and for taking stones and sand within 
 any part of the said river, so far as said the greatest tide, the spring-tide, 
 flows, for building embankments, harbours, stations of ships, and the gittie- 
 heads, and for repairing and improving the same, and with the same ballasting 
 their ships, boats, barks, and other vessels, together also with power and 
 privilege to them of exacting, asking, and levying anchorage dues, and the 
 shore siller and other duties of all merchandise, boats, barks, and other 
 vessels arriving at the Broomielaw of Glasgow, or at any other port within 
 the said river of Clyde, according to use and custom." The police supervision 
 of the river and the jurisdiction of the water bailie are also confirmed by 
 the charter. 
 
 The " great charges and expenses " and the " excellent works," to which 
 the charter of Charles I. alludes, had up to his time been productive of little 
 good effect in clearing the river, although the condition of the channel, and 
 the defence of their rights in it, had on many occasions given much concern 
 to the magistrates of Glasgow. Above the City a short swift-flowing hill 
 stream, subject to sudden spates which brought down vast quantities of soil 
 and debris, the Clyde from the City downwards was tidal, its course was 
 continued through a level plain, its feeble and resurgent currents found a 
 devious and shifting path between soft, muddy margins, and amid sandbanks 
 and shifting shoals. 
 
 So far as recorded, it was about the middle of the sixteenth century 
 that the authorities of Glasgow, Renfrew, and Dumbarton jointly made 
 the first serious effort to improve the navigation of the upper reaches, At 
 
 u
 
 306 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 that time and for two centuries later the first and the most serious obstacle 
 to inward navigation consisted of Dumbuck Ford, situated immediately above 
 Dumbarton. To cut a channel through that compacted mass of gravel was 
 the first requisite for improving the navigation ; but the united efforts of 
 the three rival burghs, with the appliances then at their disposal, appear 
 to have been practically fruitless. Access to Glasgow by water could be 
 obtained only by boats and lighters, carrying burdens of not more than 4 
 or 5 tons, and in that state the navigation, if such it can be called, continued 
 till the later part of the eighteenth century. 
 
 But the mercantile instincts of the inhabitants of Glasgow were strong, 
 and an outlet for maritime enterprise was eagerly sought after. As we have 
 already seen the Town Council of Glasgow made overtures to the Burgh 
 of Dumbarton for the acquisition of a harbour there, but partly from jealously 
 and partly from a short-sighted policy, at which men of the present day 
 marvel more than did contemporaries, the proposals of Glasgow were 
 declined. Undaunted, the Glasgow councillors crossed the river, and on 
 the other bank, 3 miles above Greenock, they, in the year 1662, laid the 
 foundations of Port-Glasgow, and there built for themselves a harbour. 
 The adventure did not answer the expectations of its promoters, and the 
 improvement of the channel from Broomielaw downwards continued to 
 engage the attention, and sometimes the efforts, of Glasgow Town Council. 
 In 1688 a quay was built at the Broomielaw at a cost of £\666 13s. 4d. 
 sterling ; but for nearly a hundred years thereafter no substantial improve- 
 ment was effected on the water-way to and from it. 
 
 In 1755 the magistrates obtained from the celebrated engineer, John 
 Smeaton, a report on the condition of the river, and on the possibility of 
 improving the navigation. Smeaton took no sanguine view of the Clyde as 
 a navigable stream, and his principal recommendation was the construction of 
 a lock and dam at Marlin Ford, about 4 miles below the City, to secure a 
 depth of 4 feet 6 inches at all times up to the Broomielaw quay. The lock 
 he proposed should be sufficient to take in a vessel 70 feet long, or to let 
 pass a sloop or brig of above 1 00 tons, " when there is water in the river to 
 admit it." 
 
 Acting on this recommendation, the magistrates of Glasgow obtained, in 
 1759, the first Act of Parliament for the improvement of the navigation of the 
 Clyde. Under it powers were given " to cleanse, scour, straighten, enlarge, 
 and improve the said river from Dumbuck Ford to the Bridge of Glasgow, 
 and to dig, cut, and deepen the same or any part thereof, . . . and 
 to build, erect, or make in, over or on the said river, . . . such and 
 so many locks, weirs, pens, dams, and cuts, trenches, and other works as to 
 the said Magistrates and Council and their successors in office shall appear 
 necessary and convenient for the promoting the said navigation." The 
 Act provided that no lock or dam should be placed lower down the river
 
 THE CLYDE NAVIGATION 
 
 307 
 
 than Marlin Ford, and it gave power to the Council to levy tolls, and lock 
 and keelage duties, which, however, were to be leviable only from the time the 
 lock or locks were erected and in working condition. 
 
 Smeaton's proposals and the Act founded on them did not hold out 
 much promise for the Clyde navigation, and it is a fortunate circumstance 
 that the parliamentary powers were not acted on. The prospect was, indeed, 
 not stimulating to a cautious and prudent Council ; the expenditure involved 
 would have been great, and the return for it was problematical. But at 
 this time the City was rapidly growing, and its trade with the colonies was 
 bringing it into the front rank among commercial cities. The problem 
 of the navigation of the river became increasingly important, and again, 
 in 1768, the magistrates called in skilled advice. The report obtained 
 in that year from Mr. John Golborne, of Chester, formed the foundation 
 and starting-point of every improvement and development of the Clyde 
 navigation to the present day. Golborne's simple proposals are thus 
 set forth : 
 
 " The River Clyde is at present in a state of nature, and, for want of 
 due attention, has been suffered to extend too much ; for the sides in most 
 places being much softer than the bottom, the current has operated there, 
 because it could not penetrate the bed of the river, and has by those means 
 gained in breadth what is wanting in depth. 
 
 " I shall proceed on those principles of assisting nature, when she 
 cannot do her own work, by removing the stones and hard gravel from the 
 bottom of the river where it is shallow, and by contracting the channel 
 where it is worn too wide ; for quantities of sand brought down by the 
 spates form banks in the channel to the great detriment of the navigation. 
 The first and grand obstacle is Dumbuck Ford, 1 2 miles below Glasgow 
 Bridge, where, the river dividing itself into two channels, the reflowing 
 current is greatly weakened, and the bottom, being covered with a crust 
 of hard gravel, cannot be worn down to a proper depth ; but, if a jetty were 
 extended over the south channel, to confine the current and the hard 
 crust of gravel removed by dredging, the reflowing current would then act 
 with greater force, and soon grind down a deep and capacious channel. 
 
 " By these means, easy and simple in themselves, without laying a re- 
 straint on nature, I humbly conceive that the River Clyde may be deepened 
 so as to have 4 feet, or perhaps 5 feet depth up to the Broomielaw at low- 
 water." 
 
 The whole expense of these improvements, he estimated, would not exceed 
 the modest sum of £'i6\o. In connection with Golborne's report James Watt 
 was instructed by the Council, in 1769, to make a survey of the river; and 
 among the shoals noted by him it is interesting to find that Dumbuck Ford 
 itself at low water gave a depth of 2 feet, and at Hirst Ford, now within the 
 harbour of Glasgow, only 14 inches of water at low tide, and at neap tides
 
 308 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 only 3 feet 3 inches of water were found. At that time the neap tide was 
 sensible only the length of Glasgow Bridge. 
 
 Acting on these reports the second Act of Parliament for the Clyde 
 Navigation was applied for and obtained in 1770. Under it power was given 
 to deepen the channel and improve the navigation between the lower end of 
 Dumbuck Ford and Glasgow Bridge, " so that there shall be 7 feet of water 
 in every part at neap tides." The method sanctioned for effecting this 
 deepening and improvement was that suggested by Golborne in his report. 
 The Council were for that end empowered " to alter, direct, and make, or 
 cause to be altered, directed, and made, the channel of the said river through 
 any land, soil, or ground — part of the present bed of the said river — between 
 the lower end of Dumbuck Ford and the Bridge of Glasgow aforesaid, and 
 to make, set up, and erect on both sides of the said river such and so many 
 jettees, banks, walls, sluices, works, and fences for making, securing, continuing, 
 and maintaining the channel of the said river within proper bounds, for the 
 use of the said navigation, as to the said Magistrates and Council and their 
 successors in office, shall seem proper and convenient, and for that purpose 
 to cleanse, scour, deepen, and enlarge, or straighten or confine the said river 
 and channel thereof, or any part or parts of the same, within the limits afore- 
 said, and to dig or cut the soil, ground, or banks of the said river, and soil, 
 sand, and gravel in the bed thereof, and to lay the same upon the most con- 
 venient banks of the said river, and to plant the banks on each side of the 
 said river within the bounds aforesaid with willows, or other shrurbs, for the 
 safety or preservation of the said banks, and for preventing the same from 
 being hurt or carried away by the said river." 
 
 The Act further repealed the provision of the 1759 Act, under which the 
 right to levy and collect rates and duties was suspended till the dam and lock 
 authorized by it should be constructed and ready for use, and immediate 
 power was granted to impose and collect rates specified in the Act. The work 
 recommended by Mr. Golborne and authorized by Parliament was proceeded 
 with forthwith, and Golborne himself undertook the then formidable task of 
 removing Dumbuck Ford. For the sum of ^^2300 he contracted to make 
 a channel 300 feet wide, and at low water 6 feet deep. So well did he fulfil 
 his undertaking that, in 1775, the magistrates, finding he had deepened the ford 
 10 inches more than contracted for, paid him ;^I500 beyond his contract price, 
 presented him with a silver cup, and made a present of ^100 to his son. The 
 confining of the flow in a definite and narrow channel by means of projecting 
 jetties was successful in creating a scour, and thereby helping nature to make 
 and keep a channel. The spaces between these jetties, as Golborne antici- 
 pated, began to silt up and form a solid, grass-covered foreshore. In this way 
 the landowners ex adverse obtained much valuable land, which at later times 
 they sold back to the Clyde Trustees, when it became necessary to widen the 
 navigable channel beyond the limits to which it was reduced under Golborne's
 
 THE CLYDE NAVIGATION 309 
 
 scheme. In 1781 IMr. Golborne reported: "It gave me great pleasure to 
 observe the channel at Dumbuck has considerably increased its depth since I 
 removed the ford," and that, " on sounding it with the magistrates, on the 8th 
 day of xAugust, 1781, at low-water, we had the pleasure to find no less than 
 1 4 feet ; for the jetty which I had carried over the south channel turned the 
 current so effectually down the north channel, and the machines which I have 
 used having cut through the stratum of clay into the sand, it was in many 
 places from 20 feet to 22 feet deep." 
 
 The work of deepening, straightening, and otherwise improving the channel 
 from Glasgow Bridge downwards thus auspiciously and simply begun has 
 continued, it may be said, without intermission to the present day. The 
 third Act of Parliament promoted by the Town Council for the improvement 
 of the navigation was passed in 1809. It was based on reports previously 
 obtained from the eminent engineers Rennie and Telford. In 1799 Rennie 
 had recommended the alteration of some of Golborne's jetties and the running 
 of a rubble wall from point to point of them on each side, thus making 
 continuous banks for the stream. The report from Telford in 1 806 insisted 
 on the imperfection of projecting jetties, and urged the completing of the 
 parallel dykes begun by Mr. Rennie. He further recommended the formation 
 of a towing path from Renfrew to Glasgow, to expedite by aid of horse- 
 power the passage of vessels over the 5 miles which lie between these 
 points. Instead of any extension of the quays along the river sides Telford 
 recommended the formation of a wet dock within the river bed, and the 
 diversion of the channel to the south to obtain the necessary dock area. 
 Rennie's report in 1807 dealt with the channel and width he recommended 
 it should have throughout. Telford's proposals to form a dock were allowed 
 to drop, the towing path was formed and continued to be used till the days 
 when steam tugs supplanted the horse and the towing rope, and power was 
 obtained under the Act to deepen the river till such time " as the said 
 river is at least 9 feet deep at neap tides in every part thereof between 
 the Bridge of Glasgow and the Castle of Dumbarton." 
 
 The era of steam navigation now dawned, and in 1 8 1 2 Henry Bell's 
 little " Comet " was launched from the shipbuilding yard of John Wood at 
 Port-Glasgow. The qualified success of the little craft was sufficient to 
 establish the practicability of the propulsion of vessels by steam. In 18 13 
 the " Comet " was followed by three steamers of larger capacity, the " Elizabeth," 
 the " Clyde," and the " Glasgow," and thereafter steamboats increased rapidly, 
 adding largely to the briskness of the river. General traffic to the river 
 and harbour was also flowing with satisfactory though fluctuating rapidity. 
 Till the year 1785 the annual revenue never touched ;i^2000 ; from that year, 
 in which it suddenly rose to .^3256, it ranged till 1795 from about ;^20OO 
 to £,'iyOQO ; and afterwards with minor fluctuations the receipts increased till, 
 in the year of the third Act of Parliament, 1809, it reached £,z^arOJ. Between
 
 3IO MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 that date and the year of the fourth Act, 1825, the revenue increased with 
 considerable fluctuations to upwards of ;^8ooo, the minimum year being 
 181 2 with an income of ^^^4597 ; and the highest point touched was in 
 1824, when ;^85 5 5 was gathered. 
 
 The fourth Act of ParHament, which gave powers to deepen the river 
 from Glasgow Bridge to Port-Glasgow and Cardross to at least 1 3 feet was 
 passed in 1825. Under it also a special Board of Trustees was constituted, 
 consisting of the Town Council of Glasgow and five other persons interested 
 in the trade and navigation of the river and Firth of Clyde, to be nominated 
 by the Town Council. Up to this period the harbour and navigation rights 
 had been the sole and exclusive property of the Town Council as representing 
 the burgh, burgesses, and inhabitants ; and all the improvements effected 
 were initiated and carried into effect by the Council alone. The Clyde 
 Navigation was indeed a department of the Corporation of Glasgow, carried 
 on since 1759 under statutory restrictions, with a finance department distinct 
 from the ordinary treasury of the City. 
 
 From 1825 onwards the progress of the general trade of Glasgow may 
 be said to have been the measure of the expansion of the revenues of the 
 Clyde Trustees, for by that period the river was in a condition fitted to 
 receive and deal competently with all tonnage which presented itself And 
 so it has continued to the present day ; as the size and draught of the 
 vessels has increased so has the river bed been scooped out and the channel 
 kept of sufficient capacity for all it is ordinarily required to float. 
 
 An important Act of Parliament — the fifth — was passed in 1840, under 
 which the constitution of the Trust was varied and greatly extended. The 
 trustees under the provisions of this Act were the Lord Provost, five 
 bailies, excluding the River Bailie, the Dean of Guild, the Deacon-Convener, 
 and fifteen Town Councillors, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, 
 three representatives of the Merchants' House, two from the Trades' House, 
 two elected by the bailies of Gorbals, and one each from the then existing 
 Burghs of Calton and Anderston. A new scale of rates and duties was 
 laid down, and different duties were prescribed for three sections into 
 which the harbour and river were divided. (i) From Glasgow to Renfrew 
 Ferry ; (2) thence to Dalmuir Burn ; and (3) thence to Newark Castle. 
 Power was given to deepen river and harbour throughout to 17 feet, and 
 the limits of the river on both banks were laid down in the Act. Under 
 these latter powers very large modifications were made in the channel, 
 principally in the way of widening it and rendering it more uniform. Thus 
 at Finnieston quay the width of the river in 1840 was 160 feet, and now 
 it is there 400 feet wide ; at Renfrew the width was 245 feet, but now it 
 is 410 feet; and at the mouth of the Cart, where in 1800 it broadened 
 out to 800 feet, it had been reduced before 1840 to 275 feet, and now 
 it measures 500 feet.
 
 THE CLYDE NAVIGATION 31I 
 
 Since 1 840 several Acts of Parliament have been obtained dealing 
 with docks, improvement of navigation, and borrowing powers, etc. In 
 1858 the constitution of the Trust was again varied by Act of Parliament, 
 and the regime at present in force w^as instituted. The trustees now are 
 the Lord Provost of Glasgow, ex officio, chairman, nine members returned 
 b}' the Town Council, two from the Merchants' House, two elected by 
 the Chamber of Commerce, and two from the Trades' House, and nine 
 returned by an electoral body of shipowners and harbour ratepayers — in 
 all twenty-five members. The qualification of elector of Clyde Trustees 
 is ownership to the extent of 100 tons, at least, in any vessel or vessels 
 registered in the port of Glasgow, or payment of rates amounting to at 
 least ;^io yearly to the Clyde Trust, and candidates for the office of elected 
 trustee must own at least 257 tons in a vessel or vessels, or pay not less 
 than £2^ yearly of Clyde dues and rates. Under the 1858 Act the harbour 
 of Glasgow was defined as extending from Hutchesontown Bridge — the 
 site of the ancient bridge of Glasgow — to the mouth of Kelvin ; and the 
 river, for the purposes of the Act, ended at a line drawn from Newark 
 Castle to Cardross Burn. The Act authorized a depth of not less than 17 
 feet at neap tides throughout the whole of the harbour and river so defined. 
 
 In 1836 there was only 15 feet of water in the navigable channel 
 at high- water, now there is not less than 28 feet, and, says Mr. James 
 Deas, C.E., engineer to the trustees, to whose valuable papers on the 
 river Clyde we owe most of the data and information here given, " it 
 is an interesting fact that the bed of the river is now as deep at Glasgow 
 as at Port-Glasgow, and that it is virtually level throughout." 
 
 In 1 87 1 the lower estuary of the river from Newark Castle to the sea 
 was placed under the jurisdiction of the Clyde Lighthouses Trustees. The 
 improvement of the navigation in this section of the river immediately 
 occupied the attention of the trustees and their engineers, Messrs. D. & T. 
 Stevenson of Edinburgh, were instructed to make a survey of, and to 
 report upon, the navigation and the works necessary for its improvement. 
 That attention was needed to the channel in the lower reaches was shown 
 by the fact that out of fifty-nine groundings which took place in 1871 
 in the Clyde, five happened in the region between Port-Glasgow and the 
 sea, the greatest draught being then 2 1 feet 7 inches. Messrs. Stevenson 
 recommended that a line of channel 1 8 feet deep at low-water should be 
 provided from Port-Glasgow to the Tail of the Bank at Albert Harbour, 
 Greenock, this channel at its lower end to be 492 feet in breadth at the 
 bottom. In the centre of this channel, from its lower end at the Albert 
 Harbour to the James Watt Dock immediately above Greenock, it was 
 recommended there should be a cut 5 feet deeper and 200 feet in width, 
 giving in this section 23 feet of depth at low-water. To improve the 
 bend of the navigation, the foreshore at Garvel Point, outside the James
 
 312 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Watt Dock, was to be cut away. The work was begun in 1873 and 
 carried on with hired plant till 1880, when, in order to secure its more 
 expeditious completion, a fixed dredger and three hopper barges were 
 acquired by the trustees, which thereafter were employed in the improve- 
 ment and maintenance of the navigable channel of the lower reaches in 
 accordance with Messrs. Stevensons' recommendations. 
 
 For upwards of a century the improvement of the Clyde channel has 
 gone on with prudent assiduity and untiring energy and success. At no 
 time have works been undertaken which it was not well within the power 
 of the trustees to execute without undue financial or engineering risk, at 
 no time have the facilities for traffic been notably inadequate to the necessities, 
 while it cannot be said that undue or over-ambitious schemes causing un- 
 remunerative expenditure have been indulged in. The deepening effect 
 of " scour," caused by Golborne's projecting jetties and the excavation of 
 fords, of course soon reached its limit. The scour in early years was 
 helped by ploughing and harrowing up the compacted deposits, and thus 
 loosening sediment which was carried away by the ebbing tides. Gravel 
 banks and other heavy materials were also ploughed, raked, and scraped 
 to the contiguous banks ; and in the early years of the century dredgers, 
 worked first by hand and then by horse-power, were set in operation for 
 the deepening of the channel. In 1824 steam dredging was introduced, and 
 since that time the work of scooping out and maintaining the navigable 
 channel by steam-power has gone on uninterruptedly. The first steam 
 dredger excavated only to a depth of 10 feet 6 inches; in 1892 there 
 was set in motion the " Cairndhu," a 90 horse-power dredger capable of 
 excavating to a depth of 40 feet. The fleet of dredgers now steadily 
 at work consists of one double bucket machine of 50 horse-power, dredging 
 to a depth of 32 feet ; one single machine 25 horse-power, capable of dredging 
 down to 34 feet; two single machines of 75 horse-power, working down 
 to 32 feet 6 inches; and the "Cairndhu," a powerful single machine of 
 90 horse-power, which, as mentioned, can excavate to a depth of 40 feet. 
 The "Cairndhu" is fitted with 35 buckets of 22 feet capacity each, and 
 is capable of raising 600 tons of dredged material per hour. A floating 
 steam digger barge, with a 10 ton steam crane, capable of working 
 to a depth of 40 feet, is also employed. For service with these dredg- 
 ing machines there are employed twenty-one hopper barges, fifteen 
 of them being iron-hulled vessels, with engines having a nominal horse- 
 power ranging from thirty-five to sixty-five, and a carrying capacity 
 equal to from 240 to 300 cubic yards of material. The more recently 
 constructed hopper barges have steel and iron hulls, twin screws, and 160 
 nominal horse-power engines, two have a carrying capacity of 1000 tons, 
 and the remaining four carry 1200 tons each. In addition, the plant of 
 the Trust includes 200 punts for transporting dredgings, etc.
 
 THE CLYDE NAVIGATION 
 
 313 
 
 Up to 1862 the whole of the dredged material was deposited on the 
 low-lying lands adjacent to the river and on the foreshores, greatly to 
 the benefit of the landlords, who, however, claimed rents and compensations 
 for the operations by which their properties were improved and they them- 
 selves enriched. In August, 1862, the trustees began dropping dredged 
 materials from the hopper barges into the depths of Loch Long, and for 
 more than thirty years that loch continued to be the depository of harbour 
 and river dredgings, upwards of 30,000,000 of cubic yards having been in 
 that period dropped there within a defined area measuring 428 acres. In 
 the later years of these operations, complaints of pollution of the foreshores 
 were made by the population resident on the banks of the loch, and, as 
 the result of lengthened and exhaustive investigations into the condition 
 of the water and the shores, the Clyde Trustees were in March, 1893, 
 prohibited by the Board of Trade from further depositing river -and harbour 
 dredgings on Loch Long. Since that time all the river silt has been 
 dropped into the sea about 3 miles S.S.W. of Garroch Head, 46 miles 
 distant from Glasgow harbour. The privilege of depositing the innocuous 
 material dredged out in forming docks was continued to the trustees, and 
 the excavated solids from Cessnock Dock has been the only material which 
 Loch Long received since 1893. 
 
 An account of the quantities of material raised by dredging and carried 
 away since the year 1844-45 has been kept. In the half-century ended 
 1894-95 the total amount dredged and disposed of amounted to a little 
 more than 46,000,000 cubic yards, at a total cost of a little more than 
 ;^ 1, 7 2 5,000, in which amount is included the cost of providing and keeping 
 in repair the dredgers, hopper barges, punts, tug boats, etc. These figures 
 bring out the cost of each cubic yard of material removed to have been 
 ninepence. In earlier years, when dredgings were spread out from punts, 
 the cost per cubic yard was considerably greater, having averaged up till 
 1862 a shilling and sixpence halfpenny per cubic yard. 
 
 With the improvement of the channel and the expansion of trade the 
 quay accommodation in the harbour of Glasgow was bound to keep pace. 
 At the beginning of the century the entire quay space extended only to 
 382 lineal yards at the Broomielaw, on the north side of the river, between 
 Glasgow Bridge and what is now the lower end of York Street. At that 
 time the river there was not more than 145 feet in width, and all along 
 the opposite side, as well as lower down on the same side, were grassy 
 banks and green fields. In 1831 the quay accommodation had increased 
 to nearly a mile — 1543 yards — the whole being still along the north bank 
 of the river. In 1837 a beginning was made in the running of a quay 
 wall along the south bank from Glasgow Bridge downwards, and in that 
 connection the width of the channel was increased to 400 feet. By all 
 engineers consulted, from the time of Rennic downwards, the formation of
 
 314 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 wet docks had been advocated, and parliamentary powers for their construction 
 were obtained as early as in 1840. In 1845 land was secured at Stobcross 
 with a view to the provision of such accommodation. Notwithstanding such 
 advice and action, the trustees continued to cling to the river banks, and 
 so long as quay extension could be secured along the side of the stream 
 the formation of wet docks was deferred. In 1861 the extent of quayage 
 along the river face on both sides equalled 4376 yards, about 2| miles. 
 It was not till 1867 that the first modest wet dock — the Kingston Dock — 
 was opened on the south side of the river. It has a water area of 51 
 acres, and affords 830 yards of quay frontage. At low tide there is a 
 depth of water equal to 14 feet in the centre of the dock, and at the 
 wharf face the depth at low tide is 10 feet. 
 
 In 1 846 the trustees obtained the sanction of Parliament for a dock 
 at Stobcross, on land which had already been acquired, with the in- 
 tention of there planting such an extension of the harbour. The powers 
 obtained under that Act were permitted to slumber, and it was not again 
 till 1869 that the project of a dock at Stobcross was revived, on a joint 
 report from Mr. J. F. Bateman, C.E., and Mr. James Deas, the engineer 
 to the trustees. An opportunity then occurred of getting a valuable 
 railway connection to the north side of the river, by means of a branch 
 from the Helensburgh line of the North British Railway Company, for which 
 the company, in 1864, had obtained parliamentary authority, but which in 
 1869 they proposed to abandon. In consideration of the promise on 
 the part of the Clyde Trustees to contribute a loan of ;^ 150,000 towards 
 the construction of the line, the Railway Company agreed to proceed 
 with a scheme modified to suit the proposals of the trustees, and in 1870 
 Acts were obtained for the formation of the Stobcross Dock, and for the 
 railway connecting it primarily with the North British system, but through 
 that also with the other railways converging on the City. In this way 
 a much needed railway connection with the north side of the harbour 
 was secured, and the line thus obtained has, it may be remarked, formed 
 the basis upon which much of the subsequent development of railway 
 accommodation within the City has been evolved. It was taken advantage 
 of by the North British Company to complete their city circle, and to 
 connect several outlying lines ; and to gain direct access to Stobcross was 
 one of the ruling motives which impelled the Caledonian Company to carry 
 out their great Central Railway scheme with its numerous feeders in 
 Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire. 
 
 Active measures for the construction of the Stobcross — now called the 
 Queen's — Dock were proceeded with immediately on obtaining parliamentary 
 powers, and in 1871 the work was begun by diverting a public road from the 
 river side to beyond the limits of the projected dock. The first contract 
 for the dock wall was given out in August, 1872, the dock in an unfinished
 
 THE CLYDE NAVIGATION 315 
 
 condition was opened in September, 1877, in March, 1880, the last copestone 
 of the quay walls was laid, and in 1881 the solid contents within the 
 quay walls were entirely scooped out to the required depth and the dock 
 finished. The Queen's Dock has a water area of 335 acres, it is 20 feet 
 deep at low- water, and the length of quay line is 3334 yards within the 
 dock and 494 yards on the outer or river face — in all 3828 yards, equal 
 to 2 miles and 308 yards. 
 
 The Queen's Dock is tidal ; at its entrance it is crossed by a swing 
 bridge capable of bearing a load of 60 tons at any part of its roadway, 
 and by a central quay, 195 feet broad, it is divided into three basins, the 
 north 1898 feet long by 270 feet in width, the south 1675 f^et by 230 feet, 
 and the outer rooo feet long, and at its widest part 695 feet wide. 
 
 The Queen's Dock was no sooner completed than it was discovered 
 that additional harbour accommodation had again become an urgent 
 necessity. This time it was the south side of the river to which the attention 
 of the trustees was directed, and in 1883 an Act of Parliament was 
 obtained for providing a wet dock at Cessnock outside Plantation quay 
 on the river, and directly opposite the Queen's Dock. The work connected 
 with the formation of the dock was begun in 1886, and instead of being 
 let out to contractors, it was undertaken by the trustees themselves, under 
 the superintendence of their engineer, Mr. James Deas. Cessnock Dock 
 has a water area of 345- acres, it is 20 feet deep at low- water, with 
 a quayage measuring 365 acres, and a length of quay face equal to 3737 
 yards or 2"i2 miles. It is divided by two projecting quays into north, 
 centre, and south basins, with an outer or canting basin giving access to 
 these. With the Cessnock Dock fully completed there is about 8 
 miles of available quay face within the harbour of Glasgow. 
 
 On an equally ample and spacious scale with the wet docks are the 
 graving docks which have been provided, and are in the course of construc- 
 tion by the Clyde Trustees. An Act of Parliament authorizing the trustees 
 to construct a graving dock was obtained in 1868. Previous to that time 
 the only public graving dock on the Clyde was that at Greenock, which 
 was designed by James Watt, and opened in 1762, but there were others 
 in the river the property of shipbuilding firms. The first graving dock of 
 the Clyde Trust, the entrance to which faces the entrance to Cessnock 
 Dock, was opened in 1875. When formed it ranked as one of the most 
 commodious in the United Kingdom, being 551 feet in length, 72 feet wide, 
 with 22 feet 10 inches of water on the sill at high-water of ordinary spring 
 tides. It was built under contract, and cost, exclusive of land, ;^i 34,800. 
 A second similar graving dock, built alongside of and parallel with the first, 
 was sanctioned by Parliament in 1873. Graving Dock No. 2, opened in 
 1886 at a cost of ;^io8,ooo, exclusive of land, was formed by labour hired 
 by the trustees, the designs and working drawings were prepared by Mr.
 
 3i6 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Deas, and the whole undertaking was carried out under his supervision. 
 It measures 575 feet in length, is 92 feet wide at the top, and at the bottom 
 52 feet 4 inches in width, with a depth of water equal to 22 feet 10 inches 
 at high tide. Alongside of, and parallel with the other two, a third graving 
 dock of still greater dimensions is at present in course of formation. It 
 will provide a length of no less than 885 feet, and by a pair of gates 
 will be divided into an outer length of 460 feet and an inner length of 420 
 feet. The entrance is 8 3 feet wide, the dock will be i 1 5 feet wide at the 
 top, narrowing to 8 1 feet 8 inches at the bottom, and it will have a 
 depth of 26 feet 6 inches at high-water of average spring tides. 
 
 To deal with the other appliances and conveniences for the navigation 
 of the Clyde, and for the handling of imports and exports at the harbour 
 of Glasgow, would lead us into details too minute and too numerous for 
 our purposes. We should require to speak of the lighthouses, buoys, and 
 beacons by which the navigable channel is marked off, and rendered available 
 by night as well as by day. The numerous cranes in the harbour operated 
 by steam or by hydraulic agency, with lifting power ranging from 30 cwts. 
 to 130 tons, might also be dwelt on. The harbour at Bowling, in which 
 many of the river steamers that ply during the summer season, are laid up 
 in the winter, and the work of the Clyde Trust at Dalmuir would also deserve 
 description in any work dealing fully with the activities of the Clyde Trust. 
 In and immediately below Glasgow harbour the Clyde Trustees conduct 
 a huge business in carrying vehicles and passengers across the river at many 
 points, and carrying passengers up and down the river, from and to various 
 landing stations. For these services they possess two passenger and carriage 
 steam ferry-boats at Govan Ferry, an elevating platform steam ferry-vessel 
 at Finnieston, i o steam ferry-boats for passengers, and 1 2 Cluthas — 
 passenger steamers for up and down harbour service. From these services 
 they derived a revenue of more than ^^3 3,000 in the year ended 30th 
 June, 1896. 
 
 From the year 1770 till 30th June, 1896, there has been expended 
 in all on the navigation of the Clyde from Port-Glasgow to Glasgow Bridge 
 and on the harbour of Glasgow the sum of ^15,810,000. By far the 
 largest item in this expenditure has been the payment of interest on bor- 
 rowed money, the amount of which is ^5,035,000. On dredging and 
 dredging machinery nearly two millions — ^^1,972,000 — was expended. Land 
 purchased for the extension of the harbour and for the widening of the 
 river has cost the Clyde Trustees i^ 1,448,000. The formation and digging 
 out of the docks — Kingston, Queen's, and Cessnock, so far as yet completed 
 — cost ;^i, 629,000; and for the three graving docks, the third being only 
 in progress, there has been paid ^^346,000. On the construction of works 
 in the harbour and the river there has been expended i^ 1,7 5 2,000. Under 
 the head of general expenditure on the repair and upkeep of works and
 
 THE CLYDE NAVIGATION 
 
 317 
 
 damage to fishings the sum of -i^967,ooo has been paid ; general manage- 
 ment and salaries cost ^525,000; ground annuals and feu duties have been 
 paid to the extent of ^{^4 7 7,000 ; and for taxes the trustees have been 
 called on to pay ;^383,ooo. The ferries, ferry-steamers, and river steamers, 
 with their landing-stages, etc., represent an expenditure of ;i^47 3,000 ; and for 
 law, parliamentary expenses, and Acts of Parliament the trustees have paid 
 ;^i98,ooo. These sums together represent the major part of the ;^i 5,8 10,000 
 which has been spent on the river during a century and a quarter. The sum is 
 large, but the property against which it stands is a magnificent one, and 
 the assets to be placed against the vast expenditure are correspondingly 
 substantial in their nature. The Clyde Navigation looked at as a 
 commercial undertaking alone has been a great success ; and while it 
 has paid, from that narrow point of view, how incalculable are the 
 benefits it has showered on the City of Glasgow and all Scotland. 
 
 The total indebtedness of the Clyde Trust at 30th June, 1896, 
 amounted to ;^5,543,ooo, and the charge for interest was .1^192,000 per 
 annum. The ordinary expenditure for the year ended at that date was 
 ;i^ 1 52,000, and for feu duties and ground annuals there was a charge of 
 ;^i 2,200. The revenue for the year was ^^40 5, 500, and, after all ordinary 
 expenditure was summed up, there remained a surplus revenue of almost 
 ;iC50,ooo. The income of the year was the largest total recorded, 
 exceeding that of the previous year by more than ;i^ 5 0,000. While a 
 steady and rapid progression has marked the revenue accounts of the Trust in 
 general, it has, throughout the hundred and twenty-five years with which we 
 have dealt, been marked by many minor fluctuations ; but if we sum up the 
 receipts in decennial periods, we shall see with what remarkable and steady 
 growth the income has progressed. 
 
 The figures are given in the following table : 
 
 REVENUE OF 
 
 THE CLYDE TRUST IN TEN 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 1771-1780, - 
 
 ^•3,785 
 
 1831-1840, - 
 
 - - ^328,178 
 
 1781-1790, - 
 
 19,383 
 
 1841-1850, - 
 
 514,917 
 
 1791-1800, 
 
 31,113 
 
 1851-1860, - 
 
 808,773 
 
 1801-1810, 
 
 47,241 
 
 1861-1870, - 
 
 - 1,294,063 
 
 1811-1820, 
 
 60,019 
 
 1871-1880, - 
 
 - 1,969,320 
 
 1821-1830, 
 
 130,039 
 
 1881-1890, - 
 
 - 2,949,486 
 
 and for the five years from 1891 till 1895 the amount collected was 
 ^ 1,8 1 8,095. Thus, as works expanded and indebtedness increased, so 
 grew the traffic, and so swelled the income. No work was undertaken for 
 which there was not justifying necessity, and as the obligations of the 
 trustees increased, in full proportion grew their capacity for meeting them.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 PUBLIC HALLS AND ENTERTAINMENTS. 
 
 Uses of public halls: 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. 
 
 The provision of a hall or halls in which general public meetings of citizens 
 can be held is a fundamental necessity of modern municipal organization. 
 Numerous occasions arise on which, according to statute, it becomes necessary 
 to hold a meeting of ratepayers or householders, and it frequently occurs, 
 in connection with events domestic or international, that the Lord Provost 
 is called on, by requisition, to summon a public meeting of citizens. So 
 it comes that a town hall or halls must be provided for strictly statutory 
 and official purposes, but the use of such institutions is by no means restricted 
 to these rather severe and formal functions. They exist for all grades and 
 classes of citizens, and they are available for all the diverse functions which 
 go to make up the social life of a large community. Under proper regula- 
 tion and for a sufficient payment they can be used for the preaching of the 
 Gospel, for the holding of political meetings, for popular lectures, for concerts, 
 for all kinds of popular entertainments, for the conversazioni of the classes, 
 and for the triple delight — soirees, concerts, and balls — of the masses. For 
 these and for endless other purposes the halls, large and small which in 
 Glasgow are owned by the Corporation, are used ; but it is only for certain 
 restricted objects that the Magistrates and Council become directly connected 
 with, and responsible for, the use of their halls in other than statutory and 
 official connection. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that any city can provide hall accommodation 
 for even a tithe of its adult population, and any community must be held
 
 PUBLIC HALLS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 
 
 319 
 
 to have discharged its duty fairly well when it provides one capacious hall 
 not greater than can be commanded by the voice of a speaker, and the 
 eyes of a spectator. The provision of other halls for the purposes of popular 
 instruction, recreation, and amusement may be regarded as a commercial 
 enterprise, and not necessarily a municipal duty. Till quite recently Glasgow 
 owned only one great public hall, and it is due to the misfortunes of a 
 spirited public company that the City now is proprietor of two such insti- 
 tutions. The absorption of the suburban burghs also brought into the 
 possession of the City several minor halls that had already been provided 
 for these districts; and by the terms of the Annexation Act of 1891 the 
 Corporation became bound to maintain these for the convenience of the 
 localities ; and the statute even imposed the duty of providing halls for 
 districts not already served with such social conveniences. Under the same 
 Act also general powers were conferred on the Corporation to provide and 
 maintain halls required for the purposes of the City ; and there is a specific 
 instruction to erect, within five years of the commencement of the Act, a 
 public hall for the accommodation of the districts of Mount Florida, Langside, 
 and Shawlands. 
 
 In early days Glasgow had no public hall suitable for a meeting of 
 the community. In the sixteenth century stated courts of the community 
 were held ; and at that of Whitsunday, after the transaction of certain busi- 
 ness, the marches of the City and burgh were perambulated. These public 
 assemblies were held at Symmerhill, and sometimes in another open 
 place : Craigmak and the Mylnedam being localities mentioned. At other 
 times, when a convention of the people was held, the meeting took place 
 in the kirk " sometime pertaining to the Blackfriers." No doubt these 
 meetings of the community at an early period had a real business meaning 
 and interest ; but as they gradually became merely nominal assemblies, 
 for a show of public consultation, the interest in and attendance on them 
 died out, and in 1578, according to the Council records, it was complained 
 that " on Whitsontysdaye last thair come nane or at leist ane small nwmber 
 of honest men to accompany the provest and baillies for visiesing of 
 thair merchis," and to encourage attendance they resolved to inflict a fine 
 of Bs. Scots on every honest man who failed to appear at the meeting and 
 the riding of the marches " as use wes." That enactment stands yet 
 unrepealed, but its terrors do not appear to have been sufficient to keep 
 up the ancient meeting and custom, and we hear nothing of meetings of 
 the " haill Communitie " throughout the seventeenth century. 
 
 In the Tolbooth, erected 1626-67, there was a large apartment 44 feet 
 by 24 feet — the King's Hall — which for a century was the only public hall 
 in Glasgow. It was not till 1734 that a separate Town Hall was erected 
 by the Council as an annexe to and communicating with the Tolbooth. 
 I'hat hall was the recognized centre of civic entertainment and social
 
 320 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 intercourse in Glasgow for more than a century ; its career ending with 
 a civic banquet in 1854, on the occasion of the inauguration of the 
 equestrian statue of the Queen, and now it forms part of a drapery 
 warehouse. 
 
 The City Hall, which supplanted the old Town Hall, was erected from 
 plans of George Murray, and opened in 1841. The grand hall is carried 
 on iron columns and immense stone lintels over the Bazaar, and it has 
 spacious street entrances from both Candleriggs and South Albion Street. 
 The principal entrance is in Candleriggs, and the facade there was recon- 
 structed by the City Architect, Mr. John Carrick, in 1885, who at the 
 same time so remodelled the entrance hall and staircases that the hall, 
 though packed full of human beings, can with ease be emptied in less 
 than ten minutes. The hall is a plain erection with fine accoustic pro- 
 perties ; it is admirably lighted by day, and for artificial light it has an 
 electric installation with powerful incandescent lamps. It contains an organ 
 which has seen better days, and had at one time some reputation among 
 such instruments. The area of the great hall measures 94 feet by 60 
 feet ; the platform is at the east or Albion Street end ; a gallery runs around 
 south, north, and west sides — the whole giving accommodation for a maximum 
 of 3500 persons. The hall has been the scene of many memorable meetings 
 and civic functions. It is in great demand in the winter season for 
 concerts, social tea meetings, for balls and dances, for entertainments, 
 lectures, etc., and on Sundays it is generally used for religious services. 
 On the Candleriggs side there are two smaller halls on the street level, 
 one passing to the left from the main entrance hall, the north saloon 
 has floor space of 59 feet 10 inches by 3 1 feet 9 inches, and accom- 
 modates 450 persons; the other going to the right, the south saloon, is 
 85 feet 10 inches by 29 feet 7 inches, equal to holding 600 persons. At 
 the Albion Street end, two stairs up, is the Lesser City Hall, 42 feet by 
 37 feet, giving room for 400 persons ; and contiguous to it the Mid 
 Hall, over which is the Upper Hall, both 41 feet by 38 feet 3 inches, 
 seating 350 persons. Attached to all these halls there are ample retiring 
 accommodation, committee rooms, cloak-rooms, store-rooms, kitchens, etc., 
 and while they thus give conveniences for social functions of many 
 varieties and sizes, single rooms are also available for small meetings of 
 clubs, debating societies, and like purposes. The capital expenditure on 
 the City Hall buildings is mixed up with that on the Bazaar generally, 
 and the annual receipts range from ;^i6oo to i^iSoo; but when per contra 
 the expenditure is deducted, the balance which goes to swell the Common 
 Good is very small. 
 
 The City Hall has undoubtedly a central situation ; but it is nevertheless 
 far removed from the residential parts of the City, and the accesses to it 
 are through streets of secondary attractions, The want of suitable halls
 
 PUBLIC HALLS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 
 
 321 
 
 for high-class concerts and for social functions generally was long severely- 
 felt, especially in the west-end district ; and to supply that void a number 
 of citizens interested in musical culture formed a company to erect the 
 block now known as St. Andrew's Halls. The halls, designed by Messrs. 
 Campbell Douglas & Sellars, were inaugurated in 1877, ^"^ from the be- 
 ginning to end the buildings, with their decorations and fittings, cost the 
 company upwards of ^101,000. The structure occupies a block in the 
 western division of the City facing Granville Street, Berkeley Street, and 
 Kent Road, from each of which it has entrances ; but the principal fagade 
 and entrances are in Granville Street. Both externally and internally St. 
 Andrew's Halls are much more pretentious, elaborate, and spacious than 
 the City Hall. In length from Berkeley Street to the Kent Road, parallel 
 with Granville Street, the building is divided into two equal halves, and the 
 inner half is devoted entirely to the Grand Hall with its accesses, galleries, 
 platform, and platform room. The floor area of the Grand Hall is 108 
 feet by 7 5 feet, and with its balconies and back gallery it gives accommodation 
 for a maximum of 4500 persons. In the front division, next Granville 
 Street, in addition to the principal entrance wnth ample cloak rooms, waiting- 
 rooms, platform rooms, etc., there are two minor halls — Berkeley Hall, 
 72 feet by 39 feet, which, with a gallery, seats about 1000 persons; and 
 Kent Hall, 51 feet by 39 feet, accommodating up to 500. In the entresol 
 there is a mid hall, 50 feet by 29, suitable for a company up to 400, and 
 three large apartments with space for 70 to 150. The upper floor is 
 devoted to a luxurious ball-room suite containing a ball-room 72 feet by 
 50 feet, and an upper room or supper room 56 feet by 51 feet, a spacious 
 lounge, a refreshment room, ladies' room, and promenade, etc. 
 
 Had the promoters of St. Andrew's Halls been impelled to their under- 
 taking by the hope of large dividends their expectations would have been 
 grievously disappointed ; but they did not look on the scheme in the light 
 of a pecuniary investment. Unfortunately the halls were inaugurated at 
 a time when Glasgow was entering on a long period of severe commercial 
 depression ; and in the hands of the company the revenue of the halls 
 did not even cover current expenses. After struggling on for a number 
 of years, during which the responsibilities of the shareholders only increased, 
 negotiations were opened with the Corporation which resulted in the 
 transference of the property to the City as at Whitsunday, 1890, for the 
 very moderate payment of ^^3 7,000. Thereafter about iJ^6ooo was expended 
 on alterations, repairs, and redecoration, and in October of that year the 
 halls were reopened under the auspices of the Magistrates and Town Council. 
 Since that time they have realized a gradually increasing revenue rising from 
 ^^^2510 in season 1890-91 to ^3150 in 1893-94, and in 1894-95 falling 
 slightly to a total of ^^2900. After allowing for expenditure there remains 
 a balance sufficient to make the halls a fair investment of Common Good 
 
 X
 
 322 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 funds. The acquisition and holding of the halls was sanctioned by the 
 City of Glasgow Act, 1891. 
 
 The remaining public halls in the City are the propert}' of the Police 
 Department, and several of them have been acquired and are held in terms 
 of the City of Glasgow Act, 1891, they having been the propert}' of the 
 Commissioners of the several suburban burghs annexed under that statute. 
 The Mar)-hill Public Hall has, with its gallery, accommodation for 800 
 persons. The Dixon Hall in Govanhill, a fine structure presented by William 
 Dixon, iron master, to the Burgh of Govanhill, was taken over by the police 
 at a cost of ^^7000. The hall accommodates 800 persons, and there are 
 besides two minor apartments each sufficient for about 100. Pollokshields 
 Public Hall is a handsome structure erected by the Commissioners of Pollok- 
 shields (West), which stands in the books of the Police Department at a 
 cost of ^5000. It gives accommodation for seating 360 persons, and has 
 several side rooms and other accessories. Connected with the burgh buildings 
 in Hillhead is a hall giving space for 360 persons, besides other accom- 
 modation. The Eastern Police Station in Tobago Street, and the Western 
 Police Office in Cranstonhill, have each attached to them a hall seated for 
 400 persons. In addition to these existing halls the Police Department has 
 become responsible for the erection of a suitable hall for Langside, Shawlands, 
 and Mount Florida, and the provision of similar accommodation for the 
 Springburn district is under consideration. 
 
 These various halls are let for all manner of public meetings and enter- 
 tainments, and they also serve for many uses official and semi-official. In 
 the district halls Ward Committees hold their meetings, candidates for 
 municipal office woo the constituencies, polling for the several boards — Town 
 Council, Parish Council, and School Board — take place within them, and in 
 many other ways they are useful in the social organization. 
 
 The limitations of the responsibilities of the Town Council in connection 
 with public entertainments, amusements, and recreation have never yet been 
 defined. In relation to theatres and places of public entertainment the 
 Magistrates Committee form the licensing authority ; but their supervision 
 has to do only with the safety of life and limb and with order and propriety, 
 and they are nowise concerned with the quality of the entertainment. There 
 is some evidence that in the seventeenth century the Council habituall}- 
 patronized horse-racing, and that they encouraged foot-races and other ath- 
 letic sports. That on the occasion of public holidays the magistrates took 
 an active part in providing amusement and recreation for the people may 
 be gathered from the earliest records. Fasternse'en (Shrove Tuesday), it 
 appears, was celebrated with a football tournament, a public function towards 
 which the Council supplied, at least, the balls. In the Council minutes of 
 31st January, 1589-90, it is recorded that "in presense of the baillies and 
 counsall, Johnne Neill, cordiner, is maid burges and frieman, . . . quhais
 
 PUBLIC HALLS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 323 
 
 fienes ar remittit to him for furnei'ssing yeirlie during his lyftyme vpoune 
 Fastreinisewin of sex guid and sufficient fut ballis, or ellis tuentie schilHngis 
 as the price thairof, conforme to ane supplication gevin in be the said Johnne 
 befoir the saidis baillies and counsall for that effect." At earHer dates 
 there are frequent entries in the treasurer's accounts of payments for foot- 
 balls, six of which cost 12s. Scots — that is about twopence each. Golf we 
 know they at least permitted to be played on Glasgow Green, from 1780 
 till 1830 or thereby, and in Alexandra Park since the resuscitation of the 
 Glasgow Golf Club. Only in the year 1896 did the Parks Trustees obtain 
 statutory powers to regulate and make a charge for the playing of games 
 in the public parks, and now golf is pla}'ed in the Alexandra Park under 
 the direct supervision of the Parks Committee. In the period from ist June, 
 when public playing under the Parks Committee began, till 24th August 
 following, 128 season tickets at 7s. 6d. each were issued, and 8219 day 
 tickets at twopence each purchased. The Parks Committee have also, at 
 considerable expense, formed artificial ponds in several of the parks for the 
 sailing of model yachts, and space has been given off to private associations 
 for bowling greens. The question of forming public bowling greens and 
 tennis lawns is under consideration of the Parks Committee. 
 
 The connection of -the Corporation with musical matters stretches back 
 into the remotest antiquity. In the earliest Council records extant we find 
 that among the annual official appointments was the election of two 
 " menestralis." These functionaries were in the sixteenth century appointed 
 by vote of the " haill communitie," and it was enacted that each freeman 
 burgher should pay them yearly 2s. Scots (about 2d.) or more if he chose. 
 Where or how the functions of the minstrels were performed we know not ; 
 but it is pleasing to think that our forefathers were, by their aid, able to forget 
 their cares, and betimes to soothe their savage breasts. 
 
 That as became their gay calling the minstrels were bravely decked we 
 may judge from the treasurer's accounts, which, under i6th October, 1574, 
 have this entry : " Gevin to the toune menstralles samekill blew clayth as to 
 by tua coittis, and for crammasy to be the townes armes to be putt thairon, 
 and for makyng thairof," and again on 2nd June, 1599, in preparation for a 
 great public holiday due provision for bright official garb was made. The 
 minute of the Council reads : " Item, it is statute be the provest, bailleis, and 
 counsale that, according to the proclamatioune and preparatione to the playe 
 and pastyme on Thurisdaye nixt, that ilk persone absent sail paye ^yve lib. 
 of penalte. The Provest, bailleis, and counsale has condiscendit and grantit 
 to ilkanc of the aucht officeris and tua menstrallis to have sameikill reid 
 stamyng as wilbe ikane of thame ane mantill, with stringis in the syde, and 
 the townes armes on the schoulder thairoff, in the best fassone thai can be 
 hade, and ordanes thame to reparrell and mak the same reddy agane Thuirs- 
 daye nixt, onder the pane of deprivatioune ; and ordanes Mathow Merschell,
 
 324 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 thesaurer, to paye for the said stamyng, quhilk salbe allowit to him in his 
 comptis, and he to gif in compt thairof, and als ordanit him to gif John 
 Tempilltoune fyve elHs hardin, and to Thomas Walker vther fyve ellis hardin." 
 In the seventeenth century, as we shall see, the Council gave direct encourage- 
 ment and patronage to the maintenance of " Sang Scoles," and to the provision 
 of such musical culture as was at that period available. 
 
 Popular music is at the present day provided by municipal enterprise for 
 the people on quite a lavish scale. The Corporation seek not to interfere with 
 the catering of the numerous organizations which, self-supporting and as a 
 commercial speculation, provide music of various grades, for the different 
 degrees of musical culture and appreciation in the City. They do not oppose 
 the music hall at one end nor the orchestral concert at the other ; but they 
 find a vast mass of people living grey and sunless lives under our grey skies, 
 and to these they seek to offer some relief from the monotony of their toil, and 
 some of the inspiritment derivable from musical performances. So when the 
 winter days are short and cheerless the Magistrates and Council provide, in 
 comfortable halls, Saturday afternoon concerts for the people ; and in the long 
 summer evenings bands enliven in turn every park of the City. 
 
 The beginning of these musical entertainments was humble and un- 
 pretentious ; but they have grown to a place of no mean importance in 
 the social fabric. Till quite recently Glasgow had among its officials a 
 City organist; and about 1879 he, Mr. H. A. Lambeth, began giving 
 Saturday afternoon organ recitals in the City Hall free during the winter 
 season, under the auspices of the Bazaar Committee, which were attended 
 by crowded audiences. About 1882 greater variety was introduced into 
 these entertainments, and in the end regular concerts of popular vocal 
 and instrumental music, interspersed with elocutionary readings, etc., were 
 provided for the vast audiences, who paid one penny for admission to 
 the area, and threepence for the balconies. Since 1893 the National Halls, 
 in the Gorbals, have been hired for Saturday afternoon concerts for the 
 working population of the south side, and under the same management as the 
 City Hall these became equally popular and successful. The provision of 
 these entertainments entails no loss on the part of the Corporation ; for, after 
 paying all expenses, there generally remains a sufficient balance to form a 
 moderate rent for the halls. It is interesting to note that the increasing 
 experience of the Corporation Concerts has been attended with a remarkable 
 development of true musical taste and appreciation, for while the concerts 
 have increased in variety, even more distinctly they have risen in ambition 
 of programme and quality of execution. The penny audiences have become 
 half-crown critics. 
 
 The open-air performances of bands in the public parks, and in open 
 squares, etc., which take place from May till the end of August yearly, 
 began in a similar tentative and experimental manner. They are under
 
 PUBLIC HALLS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 325 
 
 the charge of the Parks Committee, who have, however, no statutory powers 
 to provide and pay for such entertainments. At first, about the year 1873, 
 only a few performances were given, principally by local volunteer bands, 
 in the principal parks, and the expenditure in the form of actual outlay 
 and gratuities to performers was very modest. But the demand for such 
 performances increased ; the appreciation of public music grew apace, and 
 the service was organized on a scale adequate to the requirements of the 
 City. Now varied performances are given almost nightly in one or other 
 of the parks ; and on Saturdays in them all ; and during the season bands of 
 the highest reputation are occasionally brought from London and other 
 centres. The support given to band music has had a marked influence on 
 the quality of the local Volunteer and other bands, and the Parks Committee 
 expend nearly ;i^2000 yearly in providing music, which is highly appreciated 
 by vast crowds amid the pleasant surroundings of the Parks and Botanic 
 Gardens, and the various open spaces and pleasure grounds of Glasgow.
 
 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: Parlia- 
 mentary powers to alienate : Original use as a washing green : Prohibition of manu- 
 facturers bleaching : Old washing-house : Cattle grazings : Rents therefrom : Improve- 
 ment of Green : Glasgow Fair shows : Preachings and debates : Mineral wealth : 
 Proposals to work coal. 
 
 The bishops and archbishops who ruled Glasgow in its day of small 
 things treated their vassal city in a right royal manner. By them was 
 erected the noble cathedral, which remains to this day a pride to the nation 
 as well as to the City, to them we owe the foundation of the University 
 which gives Glasgow a claim to some higher distinction than is based on 
 mere commercial activity and industrial success ; and in many other ways 
 they promoted the welfare of their small city with splendid generosity. 
 Following royal example they endowed their burgesses with extensive and 
 valuable tracts of common land around the City, which in early times 
 afforded not only pasturage and fodder to the cows of the citizens, but also 
 were the source from which much fuel, in the form of peats, was obtained. 
 What the precise limits of the ancient common lands of the City were 
 cannot now be ascertained, but sufficient is known to make it certain that 
 Glasgow in them possessed an extensive and rich property, which must now 
 be yielding a princely revenue to those who obtained possession of it, we 
 know not how. In the sixteenth century common lands spread wide away, 
 in almost every direction, from the modest city ; in the eighteenth century 
 where were they? 
 
 There exists a popular delusion to the effect that Glasgow Green is a 
 remnant of the ancient common lands of the City ; a delusion bred possibly 
 by the fact that the original Glasgow Green really was a portion of that 
 public property. But towards the end of the seventeenth century the Green 
 we now have, then little more than half its present size, was known as the
 
 THE PARKS. GLASGOW GREEN 
 
 327 
 
 New Green, and it had been in process of acquisition and formation only 
 since the j^ear 1662. The original Green, at that time existing and in 
 public use, lay on the west side of the Briggate, and extended along the 
 river bank to St. Enoch's Burn, which then ran from what is now Buchanan 
 Street through St. Enoch's Square into the Clyde. It was apparently because 
 that ancient Green was being gradually swallowed up by the westward march 
 of population that the Council resolved to provide the new and more 
 spacious Green on the east and farther up the river. 
 
 The formation of the Green began with the acquisition in 1662 and 
 1664 of the lands of Linningshaugh, extending to twelve Scots acres. 
 In purchasing the ground the Council began at the western extremity 
 and worked gradually eastward, and Linningshaugh, which is the western 
 portion, known as the " Laigh Green," included also the site on which 
 the jail and court-houses and some adjoining property now stand, which 
 portion was detached from the Green early in the century, in connection 
 with the erection of Hutchesontown Bridge. Linningshaugh had been an 
 episcopal property, feued out at an early date, for behoof of St. Nicholas 
 Hospital, founded by Bishop Muirhead in 1460; and the feu duty on that, 
 as well as on other portions of the Green held of St. Nicholas Hospital, 
 is now paid from the Common Good to the Lord Provost and Magistrates 
 as administrators of that most ancient of our charities. There is, indeed, 
 reason to believe that the entire area of the Green was, at one time, part 
 of the vast landed property of the diocese of Glasgow. Lying in the east of 
 Linningshaugh, the lands of Milldamhead, Peitboig, and Dassie Green were 
 soon thereafter acquired, all of which about a century before had belonged 
 to the common lands of the City, and had been alienated by the Council in 
 1588-89, "for releveing of thair necessitie." Here we have an occurrence, 
 not infrequent in later municipal experience, of lands lightly parted with 
 and reacquired at heavy expense by heirs and successors who ought to 
 have entered unburdened on the enjoyment of the property. The lands 
 of Kinclaith, some part of which was acquired at the same time, doubtless 
 formed part of the Conclut or Conclud enumerated in the church possessions 
 in the early twelfth century by Prince David. These lands, like Linningshaugh, 
 had been feued by the bishop, and the feu duties still continue payable 
 to the administrators of St. Nicholas Hospital. Bit by bit onward till 1690 
 the Council continued by purchase to add to the Green, the dispositions 
 in favour of the Council generally bearing that the subjects acquired were 
 to remain " perpetuallie in all tyme coming as ane pairt of ther commone 
 grcine newlic erected be them." According to a plan prepared in 1730 
 the area of the Green then embraced a little more than 59 acres Scots, 
 and at that size it remained till, in 1770, upwards of 28 Scots acres of 
 the lands of Broomlands and Kinclaith were acquired from Colin Rae, and 
 in 1792 the Green was rounded off by the purchase of Provosthaugh,
 
 328 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 now known as Flesher's Haugh, which, measuring 24 Scots acres, now 
 forms the eastern extremity of the property. 
 
 These later purchases more than doubled the area of the Green, and 
 the Magistrates and Council appear to have come to the conclusion that 
 in spaciousness it was more than equal to the requirements of the City. 
 On 1st June, 1792, the Lord Provost informed the Magistrates and Council 
 that " proposals by different people had been made for purchasing the upper 
 part of the Calton Green for building ground, by which a very large sum 
 of money could be raised, and many people were of opinion that a row 
 of houses upon the high ground of the Green, fronting towards Clyde and 
 built according to an elegant plan and elevation, would be a great ornament 
 to the City and to the Green, whilst by the additions which can be made to 
 it by the purchase of Provosthaugh, and throwing it into the field at present 
 possessed by John King, there would be a much greater quantity of pasture 
 ground for the cows belonging to the inhabitants of the City, after the Calton 
 Green was disposed of for building ground, than there is at present. His 
 Lordship therefore proposed that the magistrates should be empowered to 
 employ an architect of eminence in his profession to make a plan for laying 
 off the Calton Green in lots for building ground, and to draw plans and 
 elevations of the buildings to be erected thereon, which the Magistrates 
 and Council might afterwards take into consideration, and determine how 
 far it was proper or expedient to dispose of the said Calton Green, or part 
 of it, in the manner before mentioned ; which, being considered, the Magis- 
 trates and Council empower the Lord Provost and Magistrates for the time 
 being to employ an architect to make such a plan as is before described, 
 and to lay the same when finished before the Council, with their own opinion 
 as to the propriety of the measure before specified, and the price which ought 
 to be asked for the said Green in case it shall be resolved to sell it for 
 building ground ; recommend it also to the magistrates, for the time being, 
 to employ some fit person to make a plan of the whole Green of Glasgow, 
 with such improvements and alterations on the walks and planting in it as 
 he may suggest for making it more commodious for the purposes for which 
 it is intended, and at the same time more beautiful." 
 
 Following this resolution an Act of Parliament was obtained in 1793, 
 which, among other objects, empowered the Magistrates and Council to 
 sell for building lots the part of the High or Calton Green lying next 
 the road to Rutherglen ; but the strip to be disposed of was not to exceed 
 70 yards in breadth. The Act further sanctioned the appropriation of a 
 portion of the Laigh Green for the formation of a street from the Saltmarket 
 to a bridge to be built under powers granted in the same Act ; and to sell 
 or appropriate for building purposes the ground on both sides of that street ; 
 but the ground to be taken on the east side of the street, it was stipulated, 
 should not exceed 100 yards in breath.
 
 THE PARKS. GLASGOW GREEN 329 
 
 It was under the powers embodied in this Act that the Laigh Green 
 was cut up b\- a street leading to the Hutchesontown Bridge, that the jail, 
 court-houses, and municipal buildings were erected on the west side of that 
 street in 18 10, and that Monteith Row and the neighbouring properties 
 were feued out from the High or Calton Green from 1 8 1 2 onwards. The 
 powers conferred on the Council to feu 100 yards eastward from the 
 road in front of the court-houses, it may be observed, have not been 
 exercised. After these slices were taken off the Green, and after subsequent 
 very minor alterations, the surface it covers remains at this day equal to 
 136 imperial acres. 
 
 In acquiring the Green our seventeenth century ancestors had no thought 
 merely of providing an open space, a lung, or a pleasure ground for their 
 little city. These purposes were little understood, nor did great necessity 
 for them exist at that time. The place was primarily in the Scottish sense, 
 a green, a grassy sward on which the population could wash and dry their 
 clothes, in accordance with the practice of the country. Accordingly, we 
 find that when the small original section of the Green was let to a grazing 
 tenant it was under reservation to the inhabitants of " libertie to wash and 
 dry their clothes, but not to bleach them thereon, as they were in use to 
 doe on the old grein," The prohibition of bleaching must have been 
 temporary only, on account of the then very limited area available, for in 
 1745 we find that the manufacturing bleachers were using the Green for 
 the bleaching of their yarns, and they applied to the Council to have the 
 dues payable for the service fixed, so that they might not be imposed on 
 by the Clerk of the Green. This use of the Green for manufacturers' 
 purposes thereafter attained the proportions of a public nuisance, and on 
 30th Jul}', 1759, the Council, "considering that many complaints have lately 
 been made against sundry persons who occupy and take up great part 
 of the new Green in bleaching and washing of yarn and other goods, and 
 thereby not only destroy the grass, but if allowed, in time coming, will deprive 
 the inhabitants of the use of the Green for washing of their clothes, and of 
 walking thereon, are of opinion that after this present season all bleaching 
 and washing of yarn, or other goods, in the New Green be discharged, 
 excepting the clothes of the inhabitants when washing, and desire the 
 magistrates to cause the clerk make out a proper Act for that purpose to 
 be passed at next Council." 
 
 For the convenience of the population a washing-house was, at an early 
 date, erected by the Council on a site near where the Nelson Monument 
 now stands. The establishment was much used, and towards the end of 
 last century it was a source of considerable revenue, having, it is said, been 
 at one time let for as much as ^600 per annum. In 1803 water was led 
 into the washing-house from the Clyde by means of wooden pipes. The 
 structure was, in 1822, abandoned for a new building erected at the foot
 
 330 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 of William Street, and there it continued till, in 1878, it was taken over by 
 the Baths and Wash-Houses Sub-Committee, who pay the Common Good 
 £6"] I OS. yearly of rent for the site. On it a handsome range of washing- 
 houses, swimming and other baths have been erected, and the William Street 
 establishment is the lineal descendant and representative of the ancient 
 public washing-place of Glasgow, 
 
 Of not less importance was the Green in the estimation of the Council 
 as a field in which to graze milch cows for the citizens. Transport of milk 
 in bulk, and to any distance beyond which it could be carried by hand, was 
 impracticable till the nineteenth century provided good roads and railways ; 
 and the local pasturage of cattle was in early times an indispensable con- 
 dition of social life. In centuries byegone the extensive commons provided 
 ample space for the summer grazing of the burgesses' stock ; but these lands 
 had been alienated through prodigal and reckless expenditure. As a grazing 
 subject the value of the New Green quickly expanded as the surface improved 
 in quality. In 1665, when it comprehended Linningshaugh alone, it realized 
 not more than £^ 6s. 8d. Sterling; in 1671 it brought ^23 6s. 8d., and in 
 1 68 1 the rent it yielded was ^i i i Sterling. Thereafter, with considerable 
 fluctuations, the grazing was let yearly till 1732 at rents which ranged 
 from ;^ioo to -£^120, although on occasions it reached ^^170 and once it 
 came as low as £^^. In 171 5 the tacksman obtained a rebate of 50 merks 
 {£2 15s. 6d. Sterling), on a statement which set forth "That because of the 
 irruptions and disorders of the Kingdom by the late rebellion, which occasioned 
 the inhabitants of the City many tymes to go out in arms and muster in 
 the said Green, he sustained considerable loss and damage by the grass being 
 trampled upon and abused." 
 
 On 6th March, 1733, the Council adopted a resolution to the following 
 effect : " Considering that the grass of the new Green falls now to be 
 rouped for the ensuing season, and that in former years the grass was set 
 for horses and cows promiscuously, whereby the cows had little or no 
 benefit of the grass, the horse being preferred by the tacksman to the best of 
 the grass, and the inhabitants had no encouragement to keep cows for the 
 service of their family, do enact and ordain that for the ensuing season 
 the grass of the new Green be allenarly applied for the grazing of milk 
 cows of such of the inhabitants as have familys, and for the use of the family, 
 and statute the price of each cow to be twenty merks Scots money, and 
 that no horses be allowed to grass in the Green, except so many as shall 
 be needfull for eating the cows' teathing ; and remit to the magistrates to 
 cause make publick intimation hereof throw the City, that the inhabitants 
 may provide themselves with cows against the time when the Green falls 
 to be opened ; and that betwixt and the next they cause 
 
 themselves to be booked for a cow to be grazed in the Green in a book 
 to be kept in the Clerk's Chamber for that purpose, and become bound
 
 THE PARKS. GLASGOW GREEN 
 
 331 
 
 for the payment of 20 merks for each cow ; and remitt to the magistrats 
 to take advice and inform themselves how many cows the Green may grass 
 the ensuing season, and give the necessary directions of making divisions in 
 the Green to be eaten by turns, and to agree with a fitt person for taking the 
 charge of the cows while in grazing, and what he should have." 
 
 In 1735 the grazing was restricted to 80 milch cows at the maill or rent 
 of 20s. sterling per animal, and for many years thereafter the grazing rent 
 did not reach i^ioo. Towards the end of the century the grass increased 
 greatly in value, and we judge that the limit both of number of cows and 
 the charge per head must have been considerably increased. In 1790 the 
 rent was ^^^141 ; in 1798 an enclosure was provided in which cowfeeders 
 milked their cows; in 1800 the rent was ;^249 ; in 1808 the grass maill 
 was increased to L'X^ 3s. per cow, and in 181 5 it was again raised to 
 £Af 4s. The rent realized reached its maximum, ^^399, in 1810; in 1820 
 it was ^^187; in 1830,^228; and from that it declined till, in 1870, the 
 last year of cow grazing, the amount realized was only £^2. Since that year 
 a small rent is obtained for the sheep grazing of certain enclosed portions. 
 
 Bit by bit the ancient idea of a green was abandoned, and Glasgow 
 Green gradually assumed the appearance of a public park. Towards the 
 end of the eighteenth century the Glasgow Golf Club obtained the privi- 
 lege of playing over the Green, and there the royal and ancient game con- 
 tinued to be practised till the club expired about 1832, In the meantime, 
 from 1813, the indefatigable Dr. Cleland had done much to improve the 
 surface of the Green and its accesses ; and presumably to make the playing 
 of golf an exercise too tame for our fathers. In 1806 the Council granted 
 a site on the Green near the herd's house for the erection of a monument 
 to Viscount Nelson, and the column thereupon erected has since been a 
 prominent feature and rallying point in the Green. In 1826, partly by 
 private subscription and partly at the expense of the Corporation which con- 
 tributed i^400, a carriage drive 2\ miles long was formed around the Green 
 at the total cost of ^2050. The work was undertaken to provide employ- 
 ment to weavers and others during one of the too frequently recurring periods 
 of distress. In the following year, 1827, the Council were authorized to 
 complete the carriage way and to levy tolls to provide funds to meet the 
 cost; but subscribers of ;^io and upwards to the original fund were exempt 
 from the impost. The roadway was opened for vehicles in May, 1828, but 
 the amount collected for tolls from that time till December, 1830, was 
 only ;^95, while the expense of collection was £66, the net produce re- 
 presenting less than £\ per month. The toll rate was reduced thereafter, 
 but it never was a profitable impost, and in April, 1857, it was finally 
 abandoned. From time to time onwards from 1828 considerable sums 
 were spent out of the Common Good in improving and beautifying the 
 Green; till in 1878, under the Glasgow Public Parks Act, responsibility
 
 332 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 for its condition and the cost of maintenance were transferred to the Council 
 acting in the capacity of Parks and Galleries Trustees. Since that time, 
 in respect of laying out, the maintenance of flower beds, the planting of 
 trees, the formation and upkeep of roads, the Green has been treated as 
 one of the ordinary parks of the City. 
 
 By the early part of the nineteenth century the Fair of Glasgow, which 
 at one time had been an extensive annual market, had degenerated into 
 little more than an annual holiday and festival, the chief features of which 
 were the shows and booths of a somewhat vulgar and rude character. These 
 extended down the Saltmarket, and came to occupy ground in front of the 
 court-houses which belonged to the Green, and as they increased in number 
 they spread inwards over the Green reaching to near the Nelson monument. 
 At first they were allowed to occupy stances without payment ; but in 
 1 8 1 5 a charge was instituted for such as were pitched on the Green, and 
 the receipts from that source gradually increased till in 1870 they amounted 
 to ;^590. In 1 87 1 the further occupation of the Green by shows was 
 prohibited, and Glasgow Fair had to seek a site in other quarters. During 
 the fifty-three years, 18 19-71, in which the receipts from the shows are 
 recorded, they yielded to the City no less a sum than ^14,828, an average 
 of ;^2 8o yearly. 
 
 But there are other shows which have long characterized the space between 
 the court-houses and Nelson's Monument, and which still continue in unabated 
 vigour. From time immemorial it has been classical ground to the east-end 
 controversialists ; there Orangemen and Romanists have fought bloodless battles 
 by the thousand, and there that great handbook of small controversialists, 
 the HaDunersmith Discussion, has been more referred to and quoted than on 
 any other spot on the face of the earth. There the eager Radical with 
 never-wearied energy confutes the stupid Tory, and the lofty-souled Socialist, 
 conscious of his superiority, annihilates with ease all shades of orthodox 
 political opinion. On the Green the atheist readily confutes the arguments 
 of the earnest but little disciplined recruit of the Salvation Army, while the 
 total abstainer has it all his own way in preaching the mission and forcing 
 home the lesson of temperance. Every enthusiast, every crank, and every 
 quack can have his stance and his audience on the Green, and on Saturday 
 afternoons and Sunday evenings the sights and the sounds are full of interest 
 and suggestiveness. Let it not be thought that the whole matter is mere 
 bubble and froth ; the phenomenon represents a vast aggregate of serious 
 purpose if not of deep thought, and it forms a most efficient safety-valve 
 for blowing off social, political, and religious sentiments which otherwise might 
 attain explosive force. 
 
 The mineral wealth which is stored in the Green is a subject to which 
 attention has very often been drawn, and many proposals have been put 
 forward to have it worked for the benefit of the City. As early as 1821
 
 THE PARKS. GLASGOW GREEN 333 
 
 Dr. Cleland submitted a report to the Town Council on the subject, showing 
 what profits might reasonably be expected from working the coal. Later, 
 in 1822, Mr. Robert Simpson reported ; he was followed by Mr. John Grieve 
 in 1825, and by Mr. William Dixon of Govan Colliery in 1828, Mr. Dixon 
 estimated the quantity of coal obtainable as 1,500,000 tons, an estimate borne 
 out by later reports. It is also known that there exist valuable seams of fire- 
 clay which could be worked along with the coal. At periodical intervals 
 throughout the century reports have been obtained and the question of working 
 the minerals has been discussed, the latest discussion on the subject having 
 taken place in 1888. In 1858 the Council came the length of sanctioning 
 a resolution to let the working of the minerals by public auction ; but the 
 proposal roused to activity the jealous watchfulness of the east end, and in 
 public meeting assembled the inhabitants declared that the working of the 
 minerals would injure the surface and the river banks, dry up the public 
 wells in the Green, and destroy the roads, paths, and trees. Therefore they 
 protested against the invasion of their rights, and, by deputations and other- 
 wise, so wrought on the Council that the proposal was withdrawn, and never 
 since has the question attained such maturity. The Council meantime have 
 the satisfaction of knowing that in the depths of the Green they have a 
 property of great value which will keep in good condition for an indefinite 
 time, and which in all probability will become more precious with the lapse 
 of time. 
 
 The opposition of the inhabitants of the eastern district to the working 
 of the coal in the Green is not an isolated phenomenon. For many years 
 they have shown themselves peculiarly jealous of any encroachment on or 
 interference with what they proudly regard as the people's park, and coun- 
 cillors recognize the fact that they must be wary indeed in dealing with 
 questions which affect that property. In 1868 a proposal was brought 
 before the Council for improving the roadway between William Street and 
 John Street, in carrying out which about 2200 yards of the Green would 
 be thrown into the street. Immediately the east end w^as in a ferment 
 over the project, a deputation appeared at a Council meeting to protest 
 against it, and as the Council in face of the protest resolved by a majority 
 to proceed with the work, a petition for suspension and interdict was 
 presented in the Court of Session. Interim interdict was refused by the 
 Outer House, but on appeal to the Inner House interim interdict was 
 granted, and thereafter proceedings were suspended, and a compromise 
 was effected between parties under which the interdict was recalled, and 
 a modified footpath arrangement was agreed to. Before and since that 
 time many similar incidents have occurred which show the watchfulness 
 of the inhabitants of the cast over what they mistakenly consider their 
 ancient patrimony. 
 
 For, strangely, of all the public parks in Glasgow the Green is pre-
 
 334 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 cisely that in which the east-end can be shown to have the most slender 
 hereditary and proprietary rights. We have seen it was acquired from 
 the ordinary funds of the Corporation between the years 1662 and 1792; 
 but at the latest of these dates, and for more than half-a-century afterwards, 
 the east end did not belong to the City, and consequently it contributed 
 neither to the purchase nor the maintenance of the Green. Calton and 
 the adjacent districts abutting on the Green were not absorbed by Glasgow 
 till 1 846, and even for thirty years thereafter the inhabitants of all that 
 great district paid nothing towards the maintenance of the Green. Till 
 1878 all expenditure in its maintenance came from the Common Good, 
 the patrimony of the ancient royalty ; and it was only in that year, by 
 the passing of the Parks Act, that the Green was placed under the charge 
 of the Parks and Galleries Trustees, and for the first time became a charge 
 on the ratepayers. In the case of every other public park acquired by 
 purchase, on the other hand, the whole of the east end, in common with 
 the rest of the City, bore their fair share of the burden from the very 
 first ; and thus in truth the Green of Glasgow was the purchased property 
 of the ancient royalty, which acquired no revenue from the east end, nor 
 had any responsibility in connection with that district.
 
 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. 
 
 Kelvingrove Park. For a period of sixty years, from 1792 till 1852, 
 nothing was done by the Town Council in the way of adding to the pleasure- 
 grounds and open spaces of Glasgow, and the Green remained the only 
 public park of the City. In the meantime the population had increased 
 from 66,000 to 330,000, and a more densely packed hive of human industry 
 than Glasgow nowhere existed in the United Kingdom. In the fifties the 
 population was continuing to increase rapidly, the lands within easy reach 
 of the centre of the City were being quickly covered with buildings, and 
 it was evident that if the evils of overcrowding were to be checked, if natural 
 city lungs were to be preserved, and if any space in which the populace 
 could look on green grass, growing trees and shrubs, and which they could 
 call their own was to be secured, the time had arrived for taking action. 
 
 Lying to the west of the City, as yet unbuilt on, but being rapidly 
 approached by the tide of population, was the romantic valley through which 
 the river Kelvin reaches the Clyde. Still little desecrated by the hand of 
 speculative builder or the dealer in unrestricted ground, the whole valley 
 frrun Mar)'hill to the Clyde, with the many windings of the stream through
 
 336 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 its steep wooded banks, offered scenes of singular charm and variety. Nature 
 had laid out the valley for a park or parks, and it had interposed obstacles 
 which impeded its diversion to less lovely ends. Along its course the valley 
 was dotted with the mansions of wealthy citizens who, by the cultivation of 
 fine trees within their grounds, had added to the natural attractions of the 
 scene. Situated most convenient for the City, immediately to the north 
 of the Dumbarton Road, were the lands of Kelvingrove, a romantic spot, and 
 a name rendered classic in Scottish poetry by Lyle's fine song, " Let us 
 haste to Kelvingrove." The mazes of Kelvingrove were already a favourite 
 resort of the citizens of Glasgow, and it was a fortunate conjunction of 
 circumstances which enabled the Town Council to secure that romantic and 
 popular expanse as a perpetual property for the citizens. The lands of 
 Kelvingrove and Woodlands, with some adjoining portions of Clairmont, 
 Woodside, and Blythswood, extending to 66 acres, were purchased in 1852 
 for the sum of £'77,99S- Certain portions, embracing the crest of the hill 
 and the slopes towards Woodlands, were reserved for feuing, and are now 
 covered by the dwelling-houses of Park Terrace, Park Quadrant, Park Circus, 
 and Park Gardens, etc. The right was reserved also to feu a strip 120 
 feet in depth fronting Royal Terrace and Park Grove Terrace, but the 
 remainder was dedicated in perpetuity to park purposes. The park contained 
 a fine mansion house in the Adams style, built by Provost Colquhoun in 
 the last quarter of the eighteenth century, which ultimately served to house 
 the nucleus of the Kelvingrove Museum. 
 
 From time to time the area of Kelvingrove Park has been added to, 
 and the acquisition of the contiguous Gilmorehill on the opposite bank of 
 the Kelvin, and later, of Donaldshill still farther west as a site for the 
 Western Infirmary also largely increased the open space of the district. In 
 1864 the Glasgow and South-Western and the North British Railway 
 Companies obtained parliamentary powers to acquire the old College and 
 its grounds in the High Street. Thereupon the University authorities 
 immediately purchased the lands of Gilmorehill and Donaldshill, grounds 
 much in excess of their requirements, and in connection with that purchase 
 the question of extension of the park to the farther bank of the Kelvin 
 arose. After a good deal of negotiation an understanding was arrived at 
 under which the Corporation relieved the University of Donaldshill, and 
 acquired the unappropriated portion of Gilmorehill, 20 i acres in extent, at 
 a price of ;^ 19,000 to be thrown into Kelvingrove Park. By a subsequent 
 contract of excambion nearly the whole of Donaldshill was reconveyed to 
 the University in exchange for the lands of Clayslaps which had been 
 acquired for a hospital, and the Western Infirmary was erected on Donalds- 
 hill. On the Clayslaps' side the park was rounded off by a complicated 
 series of purchases, including part of Overnewton from the Improvement 
 Trust, a portion of Kelvinbank indirectly from the Trades' House, Clayslaps'
 
 MODERN PARKS AND RECREATION GROUNDS 
 
 337 
 
 Mill, etc., from the Bakers' Incorporation, and other minor purchases. In 
 all, these added to the park 19 acres of ground at a cost which works 
 out to about ^^65,000. 
 
 In 1888 the Glasgow International Exhibition was held within the 
 Clayslaps and Gilmorehill portions of Kelvingrove Park. Previous to that 
 time the Clayslaps lands had been principally appropriated by the youth 
 of the western district as a playground, and to compensate them for the 
 loss of their recreation ground an open space on the opposite side of the 
 Dumbarton Road was rented from the Bakers' Incorporation and formed 
 into a public playground. After the exhibition buildings had been removed 
 it was decided by the Town Council to devote the central portion of the 
 Clayslaps lands to the purposes of the new Art Galleries and Museum then 
 in contemplation, so that there was no prospect of a playground again being 
 obtained within the park. In these circumstances the Parks Committee 
 agreed with the Bakers' Incorporation to acquire their Bunhouse ground, 
 6 J acres in extent, for a public recreation ground, and in 1895, at a cost 
 of ;^30,ooo, the bargain was concluded. 
 
 Including this recreation ground the whole area of Kelvingrove Park now 
 equals 91 1 acres. It has been acquired at a cost of iJ^i 75,000, but with 
 added capital expenditure the cost has been increased till now it stands in 
 the books of the trustees at ^270,000. 
 
 Queeris Park. With the Green to serve the eastern district of the City, 
 and Kelvingrove Park provided for the west end, the Town Council next 
 turned their attention to the wants of the south side, where a vast 
 residential population had gradually accumulated, chiefly on land feued 
 from the Trades' House, the Hutchesons' Hospital, and the City, out of 
 their joint purchase of the Gorbals estate in the seventeenth century. In 
 1857 the property which now forms the major portion of Queen's Park 
 was acquired from Mr. Neale Thomson of Camphill. It then consisted 
 of a farm, Pathhead, which had been a portion of Pollok estate, and 
 had been acquired by Mr. Thomson from Sir John Maxwell. Pathhead 
 embraced about 143 acres, and Mr. Thomson parted with it to the City 
 at the price (;{5^30,ooo) he had himself paid for the land. A slice of the 
 ground, amounting to 53 acres, was dedicated for feuing purposes, 33 acres 
 were set apart as a recreation ground, and the area retained for a public park 
 did not exceed 57 acres. A plan for the laying out of the park was obtained 
 from Sir Joseph Paxton. 
 
 The acquisition of a park at that time well outside the City boundaries, 
 and far removed from the people even of the south side, was strongly 
 resented and opposed. The park, it was true, was within a short distance 
 of the Coplawhill property of the Corporation, and of the southern limits 
 of the Hutchesons' IIos[)ital property ; but the southward extension of these 
 grounds was still unoccupied. But when the Victoria Road, leading in a 
 
 Y
 
 338 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 straight line from Eglinton Street up to the main gate of the park, was 
 formed, much of the ground around the park was quickly occupied with 
 houses, and a community grew up between the municipal limits and the 
 park purchased at the expense of the City. By-and-by that aggregation 
 of building became a populous place, and, after due formalities, it was 
 constituted a Police Burgh under the name of Crossbill, independent of, and 
 in some ways opposed to the City by which it had been created, fostered, 
 watered, and lighted. Afterwards a second Police Burgh — Govanhill — was 
 instituted, and Glasgow citizens thereupon found themselves in the position 
 of being barred from direct access to their own park, without passing 
 through a suburban burgh. This anomalous condition of affairs continued 
 till, by the passing of the City of Glasgow Act of 1891, not only were 
 these burghs absorbed, but the limits of the City were extended consider- 
 ably beyond the farthest boundary of the park. Then the wisdom of 
 the purchase of 1857 was triumphantly demonstrated: it had created a 
 fine residential suburb, and it had secured for the growing City a magnificent 
 park, which, at a later period, would either have been unattainable, or 
 purchasable only at an enormous cost. 
 
 In 1857 Queen's Park was purchased for ^210 per acre; in 1894 
 Camphill grounds were added to the park at a cost of ^1086 per acre, more 
 than five times the rate paid for the original ground. Camphill, with its fine 
 garden and mansion-house, had been acquired by the Hutchesons' Hospital in 
 1866 from Neale Thomson's Trustees with the view of holding and disposing 
 of it as a feuing subject. In extent the ground measured 58 acres, and it 
 cost the hospital ^24,000. For many years an intermittent negotiation was 
 carried on between the City and the hospital authorities for an excambion by 
 which a certain amount of building ground would be obtained by the hospital 
 for park ground to be added to Queen's Park. On the passing of the City 
 of Glasgow Act in 1891 larger views possessed the City authorities. The 
 inclusion of a vastly increased area within municipal bounds warranted an 
 increase in the number and the size of the parks of Glasgow, and in the 
 course of 1894 an agreement was concluded for the purchase of Camphill at 
 the price of ;^6 3,000, being the amount of the original cost to the hospital 
 governors, plus 4 per cent, per annum of compound interest. Queen's Park 
 and recreation ground with this addition now measure 148 acres. 
 
 The capital expenditure on Queen's Park is written down in the books of 
 the trustees at ^58,500, against which there remains in their hands feuing 
 ground estimated as worth ^40,000. Camphill capital account has reached 
 the sum of ^73,000, in which expenditure is included a sum of more than 
 ;^6ooo laid out in the formation of nursery gardens, and in the erection of a 
 spacious range of green-houses, which are open as a show-place to public 
 inspection. Whether any of the ground of Camphill shall be feued is a 
 question which yet awaits determination.
 
 MODERN PARKS AND RECREATION GROUNDS 339 
 
 Alexandra Park, the fourth of the great public parks of Glasgow, is 
 situated on the north-east bounds of the City, lying between the Cumbernauld 
 Road and the Monkland Canal. Along its western extremity passes the City 
 Union Railway, which has a passenger station at the corner of the park, while 
 a branch of the Caledonian Railway passes through its eastern side. It serves 
 the large population of Dennistoun, Bellgrove, and Whitevale, and the tide of 
 population in this district has just surged up to the margin of the park. 
 The park was acquired in 1866 under powers conferred on the City Improve- 
 ment Trustees, who, by their Act of Parliament, were authorized to expend 
 the sum of ^40,000 on the purchase of a park for this district. Under these 
 powers 80 acres of land were purchased from Mr. Walter Stewart, of Haghill, 
 for the sum of ^25,664, and to this was added, by gift from Mr. Alexander 
 Dennistoun, of Golfhill, 5 acres more, which served to connect the park with 
 the Alexandra Parade, which runs through the Golfhill property to the south- 
 western extremity of the park. The balance, up to the authorized ;!^40,ooo, 
 was expended by the Improvement Trustees in the enclosing and laying out 
 of the park, in forming roads and paths, planting trees, and generally in 
 transforming a bare and bleak rising ground into such a pleasantly blossoming 
 and attractive park as the conditions and surroundings admit. For, in truth, 
 the difficulties in the way of rendering Alexandra Park bright and thriving are 
 considerable. It lies directly in the line in which prevailing winds drive the 
 great smoke canopy of the City, and on its north-west boundary Blochairn 
 Steel Works belch forth huge volumes of dense black smoke unceasingly. 
 These conditions, and the stiff cold clay which forms the soil of certain portions, 
 make it difficult to keep a decent growth of grass on the northern slopes of 
 the park. 
 
 In 1 89 1 the area of the park was much increased by the purchase 
 of the lands of Easter Kennj'hill, which bounded the original park on 
 the east. These lands, extending to 40 acres, were purchased by the Parks 
 Trustees for ;^8ooo ; but as considerable marginal strips of the original 
 purchase, as well as of Kennyhill, have been reserved for feuing, the area 
 of Alexandra Park may be put down at 90 acres. 
 
 No thoroughfare passes through Alexandra Park, and the population 
 on its further side is but sparse. It is, partly on that account, the least 
 frequented of the larger public parks, and therefore without undue risk it 
 can be used as a golf course, to which purposes part of it has been devoted. 
 For many years the resuscitated Glasgow Golf Club had their modest 
 club-house within the park, and they possessed no other course till the growing 
 strength of the club and the popularity of the game warranted them in 
 acquiring the sea-side links of Gailes near Irvine. At a later period the 
 club took from the Corporation a lease of the lands of Blackhill 
 contiguous to Alexandra Park, but the club-house they continued to 
 occupy till 1896. In 1895, under an omnibus Act of Parliament, the
 
 340 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Parks Trustees obtained powers for regulating and making a charge for 
 games played in the public parks, and acting on these powers the Parks 
 Committee have taken the supervision of the golfing into their own hands, 
 and numerous Glasgow clubs which are not in a position to afford the 
 luxury of a private green, can, as at Musselburgh, enjoy their pastime 
 for the modest expenditure of 7 s. 6d. for a yearly ticket, or for the payment 
 of twopence a day, 
 
 A disused quarry in the north-west corner of the park is enclosed, 
 filled with water, and under proper supervision is in extensive use during 
 the summer months as a public bathing place. In the lower part of the 
 park, near the Cumbernauld Road, a pretty miniature islanded lake has 
 been formed, which is enlivened with a stock of water fowl ; and adjoining 
 it is another considerable sheet of water laid out as a model yacht pond, 
 on which the tiny craft of many budding naval architects show their sailing 
 qualities. 
 
 Cathkin Braes Park lies to the south-east of Glasgow, about 2 miles from 
 its nearest boundary, and i \ miles beyond the ancient Burgh of Rutherglen. 
 It forms part of the picturesque ridge of Cathkin Hill, separating the 
 Clyde valley from the subsidiary valley of the Cart. The park, in alternate 
 gentle slopes, rugged escarpments, and level plateaus, rises till it attains a 
 heigh of about 600 feet above sea-level, from which elevation a glorious 
 expanse of valley and mountain, field, wood, river, village, and city lies 
 under the eye of the spectator. The park presents several peculiarities 
 which might be commented on. It is the first public park which has come 
 to the citizens as a free gift ; it is so remote from the City as to be more 
 of the nature of a holiday resort than a park for daily use ; and it remains 
 as nearly as possible an expanse of primitive hillside, with its crags and 
 knolls, its natural grass, and its hap-hazard clumps of trees, brushwood, and 
 bushes, untouched by the formal hand of the landscape gardener. It is a spot 
 of old and established reputation among the pedestrians and picnic parties 
 of Glasgow ; its traditional connection with Queen Mary and the disastrous 
 day of Langside — as well founded as such traditions usually are — gives it 
 a touch of historical interest and romance, and the panorama from the 
 huge travelled boulder. Queen Mary's Seat, in the upper part of the park 
 might be without equal in broad Scotland. " Might be," we are unfortunately 
 bound to say, for the great Clyde valley, which lies all before us, should 
 show the Clyde flowing with many leisurely bends and windings onwards 
 to the wide firth which carries the wealth of nations to and from Glasgow. 
 The valley itself should spread out like a map with meadow, cornfield, and 
 forest stretching to the far-away Ochils, the Campsie Fells, to Ben Lomond, 
 and the Argyllshire hills, to the braes of Gleniffer, and to the distant 
 peaks of Arran. And most suggestive of all the vast hive of human 
 industry, the dwelling-place of three-quarters of a million of human beings,
 
 MODERN PARKS AND RECREATION GROUNDS 34 1 
 
 occupies the middle distance, shooting up its innumberable factory stalks 
 into the sk}^, dominated at one extreme by the University, and appropriately 
 near the other by the ancient Cathedral. These and much more might 
 be, and under favourable circumstances are, seen : but the pall of smoke 
 which fills the valley but seldom lifts, and it is only by snatches that the 
 landscape is revealed, and the imagination has to contend with the 
 aggravating gloom in conceiving the glory which would be revealed under 
 a lucent atmosphere. 
 
 The local attractions and fame of Cathkin Braes being great, it was 
 with peculiar pleasure that the citizens, in 1886, received the news that a 
 park there, in which was included the celebrated Queen Mary's view, had 
 been secured to them in perpetuity. It was the gift of Mr. James Dick, 
 of Messrs. R. & J. Dick, two of the most successful of modern captains 
 of industry. Mr. Dick purchased the ground, 49 acres in extent, from 
 Mr. John Miller, of Fernhill, and at once transferred it to the Corporation 
 to be held " in perpetuity as a place of resort for the community and 
 inhabitants of the City of Glasgow." In making the transfer Mr. Dick wisely 
 stipulated that the natural features and configuration of the ground should 
 as far as possible be preserved, and that the lands should " not be used 
 for football, cricket, and other similar games and sports." 
 
 It is needless to say that the conditions of gift imposed by Mr. Dick — 
 conditions which enhance the benefaction, have been most loyally observed 
 by the Parks Committee, and the humblest citizen of Glasgow has the means 
 of appreciating a hillside — his own property — as it might have existed almost 
 before mankind trod this earth. Saturday afternoons, Sundays, and holidays 
 see the park crowded with excursionists, who thoroughly enjoy the unfettered 
 freedom of roaming where they will, amid surroundings that the roughest 
 can do little to mar. 
 
 Maxwell Park became a possession of Glasgow under the provisions of 
 the City of Glasgow Act, which among other things incorporated the Police 
 Burgh of West Pollokshields with the City. To the feuars of that burgh 
 there had been presented, in 1888, by Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, their 
 superior, for a public park, a piece of ground 2 1 acres in extent ; and by 
 the Commissioners the ground was sufficiently drained and top-dressed, laid 
 off with walks, trees, clumps of bushes, and flower beds, and an ornamental 
 pond was formed which gives convenience for the mild recreation of model 
 yacht sailing. On the eastern boundary of the park, moreover, the Burgh 
 Commissioners erected for themselves, at a cost of about ;^5000, a spacious 
 and elegant burgh hall with various attached offices and apartments. The 
 park so laid out and improved came, in 1891, into the charge of the Parks 
 Committee, whilst the burgh hall became a property of the Police Department. 
 
 Maxwell Park, lying to the south-west of the City in the residential 
 district of West Pollokshields, is in a villa region where air space is abundant.
 
 342 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 But it is a pleasant recreation ground for the district, it is not out of the 
 reach of the less privileged inhabitants of Kinning Park, and the ground 
 which lies between it and the Queen's Park is being rapidly covered by 
 tenement buildings. Its value therefore is bound to increase as time rolls 
 on, and the fact that a station of the Cathcart District Railway is on its 
 borders makes the place accessible to a vast and ever-growing population. 
 
 Springburn Park is a creation of our own day, but so also is the inhabited 
 region it serves. The district to the north of the City is that of great rail- 
 way works and depots, and of engineering establishments. There, the vast 
 workshops of the Caledonian system are concentrated ; there, is the principal 
 goods depot of the North British Railway ; and the Hydepark Locomotive 
 Works, and the locomotive works of Sharp, Stewart & Co. are also in the 
 district. For the use of this great industrial population, Springburn Park, 
 53^ acres in extent, was acquired by the Parks Committee in 1892 at a 
 cost of ^20,710. The ground rises to a height of 310 feet, and, standing 
 clear of the surrounding country, it commands a magnificent view through 
 the Kelvin valley eastward to the Ochil Hills, the Kilsyth and Campsie Hills, 
 with distant peaks towering over them ; then farther west it takes in Ben 
 Lomond and the rugged peaks of Argyllshire, and sometimes on the western 
 horizon a glimpse of Goatfell in Arran may be obtained. 
 
 In laying out the park, strips of ground around its margin have been 
 reserved for feuing. Springburn, like the other parks, has been provided 
 with a bandstand, and the inevitable model yacht pond — without which no 
 modern Glasgow park is complete — has been duly attended to. The cost 
 of enclosing, draining, trenching, forming roads, plots planting, erecting 
 buildings, and other operations, has increased the capital expenditure on the 
 park to about ^33,000. 
 
 Ruchill Park has several features in common with its northern neighbour 
 of Springburn, from which it is distant in a westerly direction about two 
 miles. It was purchased in the same year, it occupies a similar commanding 
 elevation and overlooks the same general distant features of the landscape, 
 and it serves the same industrial class of the community from Possilpark 
 on the east, Maryhill on the west, and the Cowcaddens on the south. Ruchill 
 was a joint purchase on behalf of the Health Committee for hospital purposes, 
 and the Parks Trustees for a public park for the district. The eastern 
 portion, 34 acres in extent, was appropriated for a fever hospital, and the 
 larger slice lying to the west, extending to 5 3 acres, became Ruchill Park 
 at a cost of ;^3 5,700. The name of the park gives some indication of its 
 nature, for it was a comparatively rough hill ; and to give the attractions 
 of a public park to its cold clayey soil necessitates much labour and ex- 
 penditure. It is therefore no matter of wonder that the expenditure on this 
 park has already raised its capital cost to about ^^48,500, while much yet re- 
 mains to do ere it can be looked on as in the normal condition of a public park.
 
 MODERN PARKS AND RECREATION GROUNDS 
 
 343 
 
 Bellahouston Park. The latest and what will be the largest of the parks 
 of Glasgow was purchased in August, 1895, from the Trustees of the 
 Bellahouston Bequest Fund. The Bellahouston Trust was constituted 
 under a settlement executed in 1871 by Misses Elizabeth and Grace 
 Steven, who, in conformity with the wish of their brother Moses Steven, 
 then recently dead, dedicated for charitable, religious, and educational pur- 
 poses within the City, property equal to about half a million sterling. In 
 dealing with and distributing the property large discretionary powers were 
 left to the trustees, who had to act only in accordance with general instruc- 
 tions. The property of Bellahouston came into the family by the marriage 
 of the testators' father to Janet, daughter of William Rowan, of Bellahouston. 
 The trust became operative on the death of Elizabeth, the eldest of the family, 
 who at the advanced age of eighty-nine died in 1892. After some negotia- 
 tions the trustees agreed to sell the lands, extending to 176 acres or thereby, 
 for ^50,000, for the purpose of a public park to the City. From the 
 magnificent situation of the ground and the fact that building operations 
 are rapidly extending in that direction, there is no doubt that the trustees 
 could have realized a much higher price for their property ; but the dedication 
 of the estate to public use was not inconsistent with the purposes of the 
 trust ; and they were warranted in concluding a bargain which at once 
 conferred a great boon on the City and secured a permanent memorial of 
 the benevolent ladies. 
 
 The conditions of the sale were that " the property should be held 
 and used exclusively, and in all time coming as a public park for, and 
 on behalf of, and for the use of the citizens of Glasgow, and that no 
 part of the ground should be feued, sold, gifted or used for the erection 
 of buildings of any kind, save and except such buildings as may be 
 necessary for a lodge-keeper's, caretaker's, or gardener's house, or other 
 buildings directly and strictly connected with the said park." It was also 
 stipulated that in all time coming the park should be designated the 
 Bellahouston Park. 
 
 Bellahouston Park lies to the south-west of the City, its northern boundary 
 being formed by the Glasgow and Paisley Road, on which side also, close 
 by, is the Ibrox Station of the Glasgow and Paisley joint line. At the 
 time of its acquisition Bellahouston Park lay just outside the municipal 
 boundary; but by the Further Powers Act of 1896 the part of Lanarkshire 
 which includes the park and the ground lying between it and the Glasgow 
 and Paisley Railway, in all about 450 acres, has been annexed to the 
 City. The situation of Bellahouston is such as to render it an ideal public 
 park. It slopes upward on every side to form an elongated knoll or ridge 
 with its long axis running cast and west ; attaining at the highest point 
 an elevation of 165 feet. A magnificent hilly panorama to the west 
 is within unobstructed view from its well wooded summit, and to the
 
 344 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 north and east stretches out the great City, prominent features of which 
 are the University and the bold outhne of Park Terrace dominating the 
 Kelvingrove Park. In every direction the view is full of charm, variety, 
 and historical interest, while the almost untainted south-western breezes 
 encourage a vigorous life in tree, flower, and shrub, a grace which unfortunately 
 cannot be realized in most of the other parks. 
 
 Entry to certain grass parks having an area of about 34 acres was 
 obtained at Martinmas, 1895, ^'"^d the mansion-house, offices, policies and 
 garden, loi acres, were handed over at Whitsunday, 1896, and on 30th 
 May these portions were thrown open to the public. It will not be till 
 the expiry of certain agricultural leases, and the sufficient hardening of 
 grass on presently cultivated land that the whole of this magnificent property 
 will be fully available for its dedicated purpose of " a public park in all 
 time coming for the use of the citizens of Glasgow." 
 
 Recreation Grounds, Open Spaces, ajid Disused Graveyards. While the 
 City is thus engirdled with a ring of public parks which, were Elder Park 
 of Govan and the Victoria Park of Partick included, would number twelve 
 and measure almost a thousand acres, there are other provisions made for 
 public recreation and City lung space less imposing but scarcely less important 
 than these spacious grounds. As has been repeatedly pointed out in these 
 pages, Glasgow was a closely built and densely packed City ; but operating 
 towards one common end, several public departments have succeeded in 
 securing numerous open spaces, small squares, playgrounds, etc., of incalculable 
 value for the teeming population, and a perpetual delight to children, who 
 otherwise would have made the public streets their playground. Through 
 the agency of the Improvement Trust, several of these valuable open spaces 
 have been secured; under the City of Glasgow Act, 1891, certain of the 
 districts annexed to the City became entitled to receive small parks and open 
 spaces ; the Health Committee have with a generous hand exercised their 
 wide powers in providing recreation grounds for children in the more needy 
 districts ; and finally the Parks Committee obtained powers under their Act 
 of 1878 to take over and maintain, as open spaces, certain disused graveyards 
 within the City. Most of these small parks, recreation grounds, and play- 
 grounds have been put under the care of the Parks Committee, who also 
 have taken over the supervision of a number of the older public squares ; 
 but for the supervision of several small playgrounds and for the provision 
 within them of gymnastic appliances the Health Committee are responsible. 
 
 Certain of these minor spaces attain the dimensions of small parks. The 
 Maryhill recreation ground, situated at the north extremity of that suburb, 
 extends to 5| acres, and was acquired, in terms of the 1891 Act, by the 
 Parks Trustees at a cost of upwards of ;^2000. Similarly the Govanhill 
 recreation ground, consisting of 4 acres of Gorbals feuing ground purchased 
 from Hutchesons' Hospital, cost the Parks Trustees ;^i 2,200, in addition to
 
 MODERN PARKS AND RECREATION GROUNDS 
 
 345 
 
 the expense involved in enclosing and laying out. Of the recreation and 
 playgrounds provided by the Health Committee, the most important and by 
 far the most costly is the Phoenix recreation ground in the Garscube Road 
 and Port-Dundas industrial district. It is the site of what was formerly 
 the Phoenix Foundry, and for it, with an area of 2 acres i rood 24 poles, 
 ;f 2 5,000, in addition to a ground annual of ^84, was paid by the Health 
 Committee. At the expense of that body the ground was enclosed, laid 
 out, planted with shrubs and flowers, and two gymnasia — one for each sex 
 of youngsters — and a bandstand were provided. Messrs. Buchanan Brothers, 
 local employers of labour, added a handsome fountain to the attractions of 
 this fine pleasure ground. To enter into further detail regarding other play- 
 grounds, etc., would occupy too much space, and here only can be given a 
 list of the several areas now in charge of the Parks Committee. 
 
 I. 
 
 George Square. 
 
 
 8. 
 
 Blythsvvood Drive. 
 
 2. 
 
 Oatlands Square. 
 
 
 9- 
 
 Pollok Street. 
 
 
 Hutcheson Square. 
 
 
 10. 
 
 Titwood, the gift of Sir John Stirling 
 
 4- 
 
 Overnewton Square. 
 
 
 
 Maxwell. 
 
 5- 
 
 Maxwell Square. 
 
 
 II. 
 
 Nithsdale Road. 
 
 6. 
 
 Cathedral Square. 
 
 
 12. 
 
 Phoenix Recreation Ground. 
 
 7- 
 
 Wishart Street. 
 
 
 IB- 
 
 Oatlands Riverside Ground. 
 
 
 
 GRAVEYARDS. 
 
 
 I. 
 
 St. David's. 
 
 
 S' 
 
 High Church (Cathedral). 
 
 2. 
 
 Gorbals. 
 
 
 6. 
 
 John Street, Calton. 
 
 3- 
 
 North Street. 
 
 
 7- 
 
 St. Mark's. 
 
 4- 
 
 Clyde Street, Calton. 
 
 
 
 
 The five graveyards first enumerated are open to the public ; the other 
 two, although kept by the Parks Committee, are not open. 
 
 These spaces, in permanent charge of the Parks Committee, are being 
 constantly added to, and wherever the Health Committee can find in a 
 necessitous district a suitable small area for a children's playground it is 
 freely acquired, asphalted over, and furnished with the swings, see-saws, and 
 vaulting beams which are a perpetual delight to the otherwise neglected 
 rising population. 
 
 The Botanic Garden. At the beginning of the nineteenth century 
 there existed in connection with the College in the High Street a small 
 patch of ground which, under the name of the Physic Garden, was devoted 
 to the cultivation of medicinal plants. At that time the study of scientific 
 botany was but poorly encouraged in Glasgow University, as may be 
 judged from the fact that it was conjoined with anatomy under one pro- 
 fessor ; and it was not till 18 18 that a separate chair of botany was 
 instituted, the first professor being William Hooker — afterwards Sir William 
 Hooker, director of Kcw Gardens. But even for the requirements of the
 
 346 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 science, such as they were, the Physic Garden was quite inadequate, and 
 after years of effort Mr. Thomas Hopkirk, of Dalbeth, succeeded in 1816 
 in forming a society for the estabhshment of a botanic garden in Glasgow. 
 Mr. Hopkirk was an enthusiastic botanist, and had himself formed a collection 
 of 3000 plants, which he presented to the institution. He secured the 
 co-operation of numerous wealthy citizens, and from the University there 
 was obtained a grant of i^20OO, under the conditions that the garden and 
 scientific collection should always be available for the teaching purposes 
 of the College. So supported, about 8 acres of ground were purchased at 
 the west end of Sauchiehall Road, over which Fitzroy Place, Royal Crescent, 
 etc., now are built; and the garden was in 18 17 laid out under the charge 
 of Mr. Stewart Murray. In 18 19 the society was incorporated under the 
 name of the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow, with Sir Islay Campbell, 
 of Succoth, as president, and Mr. Hopkirk in the position of vice-president. 
 
 On its original site the garden was a successful and popular institution, 
 and a really valuable collection of plants was brought together, chiefly through 
 the energy and influence of Professor Hooker. But within twenty years 
 the westward tide of population rendered a removal compulsory, and in 1838 
 the area was disposed of to a company of building speculators. In 1839 
 the directors secured the larger portion of the space on which the garden 
 now is planted, and the work of laying off the ground, and removing and 
 replanting the collections, was sufficiently advanced to enable the institution 
 to be reopened in 1842. The new garden embraced 22 acres lying between 
 the Great Western Road and the south bank of the Kelvin on a fine rising 
 ground, at that time well removed from all population, and in an untainted 
 atmosphere. 
 
 The laying out and maintenance of the more ambitious garden, with 
 its various houses, etc., proved a burden too heavy for the directors, and 
 in spite of much generous help, debt and difficulties accumulated on the 
 institution. In 1863, as the result of a special effort to free the garden from 
 its encumbrances, about ^8000 was collected ; but this relief only postponed 
 the evil day. Notwithstanding the receipt of other substantial individual 
 subscriptions, especially from Mr. William Campbell, of Tulliechewan, and 
 Mr. William Euing, the financial difficulties of the directors increased, and 
 in the end they were obliged to appeal to the Town Council of Glasgow 
 for help to keep the gates open and the garden in proper condition and 
 repair. 
 
 In the year 1871 the directors entered into an agreement with Mr. 
 John Kibble, under which that gentleman undertook to remove from his 
 grounds at Coulport, and re-erect in the garden, a vast glass conservatory 
 then known as the Kibble Palace. The agreement provided that for 
 twenty-one years Mr. Kibble was to have a free lease of the erection for 
 public meetings, concerts, and " entertainments of an elevating character."
 
 MODERN PARKS A\D RECREATION GROUNDS 
 
 347 
 
 The arrangement was not favourable to the garden, nor was it satisfactory 
 to those interested in the lease, and in the end the directors were obliged 
 to buy up the outside interest, which left them deeper in debt to the Cor- 
 poration, but also in possession of a magnificent glass conservatory, which 
 thereafter was formed into a winter garden. At a later period the entire 
 reconstruction of the glass houses in the garden, under the supervision of 
 Professor Bayley Balfour, served to render the burden of debt hopeless. The 
 question of the maintenance of the garden came to be a principal factor 
 in the schemes of annexation of Hillhead and Kelvinside, w^iich from time 
 to time were under discussion, and rival proposals for its future maintenance 
 were put forward by the City on one side and by Hillhead and Partick on 
 the other. In the meantime the City, as bondholder, had acquired practical 
 control over the fate of the institution ; and in 1887, to save the collections 
 from ruin, the Town Council were invited to enter into possession, and under 
 the City of Glasgow Act of 1891, which annexed Hillhead and Kelvinside, 
 the property was formally conveyed to the Parks Trustees as a public park. 
 At that time the indebtedness of the institution amounted to ij^59,5 3i which 
 represents the cost of the garden to the public. Since the garden was 
 acquired by the Corporation about 8| acres on the northern banks of the 
 Kelvin, formerly known as Montgomerie Woods, have been added to it 
 at a cost of ^^3800. From the Caledonian Railway ^12,660 has been 
 received for way-leave and station room within the garden, and after de- 
 ducting that amount the capital cost of the garden with its magnificent 
 houses and collections of plants, etc., stands at the modest figure of ;^64,400 
 — a very moderate payment for such a fine park and so rich a botanical 
 collection as it is now the pride of the City to possess. 
 
 Near the entrance to the Garden is an ornamental piece of water 
 containing a number of rare aquatic plants, and adjoining that is a 
 rockery clothed with alpine plants. The belt of plantation extending from 
 the gate westward contains numerous species of willows, poplar, birch, 
 oak, beech, hornbeam, plane, and other timber trees. On the rising ground 
 to the west is laid out the collection of herbaceous plants, arranged according 
 to Hooker and Bentham's Genera Plantaruvi, which, under their Charter, 
 the directors became obliged to maintain for scientific puposes. The 
 Kibble Conservatory at the east end of the garden, constructed entirely of 
 glass and iron, and covering nearly two acres of ground, is one of the 
 finest glass-houses in Europe. The fagade is 150 feet in length, and is 
 composed of entrance hall, 50 feet wide, terminating on either side by 
 transepts 50 by 28 feet. The main feature of the Conservatory is a circular 
 structure, 47 1 feet in circumference, the roof of which is supported by 
 36 elegant iron pillars, connected by spandrils of fret-work. The green- 
 houses arc ribbed entirely with teak wood, and are admirably adapted 
 for the growing of plants and flowers. The range in sequence contains a
 
 348 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 collection of Indian azaleas, next orchids and ferns, followed by green- 
 house ferns, then epacris and heaths of temperate latitudes. In the 
 Conservatory, properly so called, is a fine collection of succulents, the 
 American aloe, night-flowing cactus, epiphyllums and Haworthias, etc. The 
 palm house contains in addition to the date palm, the dwarf palm, the 
 great fan palm, etc., a collection of cycads, zamias, and encephalartos, 
 and lastly comes a miscellaneous collection of economic plants — tea, coffee, 
 pepper, cinnamon, India-rubber, sugar, etc., etc. 
 
 The Botanic Garden has a popular as well as a scientific side, and 
 especially during the summer months it is the favourite resort and promenade 
 place of vast crowds. Musical performances are given on Saturday after- 
 noons and on stated evenings during the season ; and occasionally during 
 the winter the vast covered area of the Kibble Palace is also utilized for 
 band performances to the great gratification of the public. And while 
 the healthful recreation of the masses is thus catered for, it is not done 
 by sacrificing the scientific value of the institution, for at no period in 
 its existence has the Botanic Garden of Glasgow been a more efficient 
 instrument of scientific instruction than at the present day.
 
 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 : Kelvin- 
 grove 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. 
 
 It is only in our own day that municipalities have come to recognize as part 
 of their duties the provision and maintenance of museums and art galleries, 
 and that circumstance itself is full of interest and suggestiveness. The facts 
 of history show that the ruling powers have, in all times, been the collectors 
 of rare and costly things, of the treasures of art, the triumphs of human 
 ingenuity and skill, and the wonders of science. But the aim of these ruling 
 collectors in earlier times was entirely different from the purposes for which 
 the modern municipal authorities form their museums. Among ancient 
 potentates the collection and hoarding of treasures were the principal means 
 of storing and preserving accumulated wealth. When in mediaeval times the 
 churches became rich storehouses of venerated relics, of the most cunningly 
 wrought and embroidered textures, of the marvels of the goldsmith and 
 enameller, of unperishing mosaics, and of the supreme conceptions of artists in 
 fresco and oil painting, the object of the churchmen collectors, beyond personal 
 ostentation and aggrandisement, was the increase of the power and domination 
 of the Church. And so it was with the emperors and kings, with the ruling 
 families, the Medicis and other Italian tyrants ; their patronage of art and 
 science and their magnificent collections were not for the people, but for 
 their own selfish gratification and for the ostentatious display of their wealth and 
 power. Now that it is the tiu-n of the municipalities to exercise democratic
 
 350 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 rule and authority over the people, they, in their turn, have become collectors; 
 but their modest museums, as become strictly democratic times, are for the 
 instruction and the gratification of the people at large. The modern ratepayer 
 has the satisfaction of knowing that, while he pays for the support of museum 
 and art gallery, the institutions are his property and dedicated to his service; 
 his ancestor equally paid for the collections of the potentates of his time ; but 
 the gathered treasures were neither his nor for him. 
 
 No municipal museum in the United Kingdom can lay claim to an age 
 which carries it out of the range of living memory. Certainly the circum- 
 stances connected with the origin of the museum of Glasgow are still fresh 
 in the memory of men little passed middle life. The beginning of the 
 municipal connection with museum undertakings was made when, on the 
 15th May, 1856, the Town Council resolved to acquire the block of buildings 
 and exhibition galleries, and collection of pictures, sculpture, etc., then known 
 as the M'Lellan Galleries. The pictures had been collected and the buildings 
 erected by Mr. Archibald M'Lellan, coachbuilder in Glasgow, and to that 
 gentleman is due the honour and credit of being the real founder of the 
 Art Galleries of Glasgow. Mr. M'Lellan was a man of enlightened public 
 spirit, a town councillor and magistrate, who interested himself in all move- 
 ments for the beautification of his native city, and for the promotion of art 
 and culture in the community. He was possessed of wide knowledge, catholic 
 sympathies, and keen critical discrimination in art ; and the best part of his 
 life, as well as of his means, he devoted to the accumulation of the remarkable 
 collection of pictures and other works of art he left behind him. The 
 M'Lellan collection was formed during the second quarter of the present 
 century, at a time when the value and permanent importance of the pro- 
 ductions of the great masters were recognized by very few, when it was 
 not yet the fashion to patronize Rembrandt, Rubens, and Raphael, and when 
 it was quite unnecessary for the reputation of culture to talk glibly of Botticelli 
 and the Bellini. Pictures of permanent value could at that time be acquired 
 by persons of moderate means, and it is to the credit of M'Lellan that he 
 could recognize the true value and the enduring charms of works of art 
 though they were neglected by dealers and scorned by the crowd. 
 
 It was the ambition of Mr. M'Lellan to establish in Glasgow a gallery 
 of art for the benefit of his fellow-citizens, and to bequeath and dedicate 
 it for public use at the time of his death. With this view, in connection 
 with the erection of the block of shops and dwelling-houses facing Sauchiehall 
 Street, he had three exhibition saloons or galleries thrown out into the 
 court behind. While these buildings were in progress in November, 1853, 
 Mr. M'Lellan, being yet under sixty years of age, executed a deed of 
 settlement, the introductory clauses of which express the purpose of the 
 testator. It proceeds : " I, Archibald M'Lellan, coachbuilder in Glasgow, 
 considering that I have, for thirty years, spent much of my spare time
 
 SCIENCE AND ART. ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS 
 
 351 
 
 in making a collection of pictures, illustrative of the characteristics and 
 progress of the various schools of painting in Italy, Germany, Spain, the 
 Low Countries, and France, since the revival of Art in the fifteenth century; 
 and believing that, imperfect as any such collection formed by a private 
 individual must necessarily be, it still may be of some use to those who 
 are desirous of stud)-ing the progress of Art ; and also believing that it 
 may be made to form the foundation for a more extensive and complete 
 collection, through contributions from those who have more means and better 
 judgment to select fine examples of the respective schools, and being im- 
 pressed \\'\Xh the belief that the study of what are called the ' Fine Arts,' 
 is eminently conducive to the elevation and refinement of all classes, as well 
 as intimately connected with the manufacturing and mercantile prosperity of 
 the community, from these various motives, and on account of my long 
 connection with Glasgow and its various public bodies, and as a humble 
 testimony of my attachment to its citizens, and my desire for their welfare 
 and elevation, so far as it is in my power to aid in the promotion of these, 
 I have resolved to devote my said collection to public use and exhibition, 
 and to make the same over, for that purpose to trustees, who shall have 
 the sole control and management thereof" He then proceeds specifically to 
 bequeath his collection " for behoof of the citizens of Glasgow in all time 
 coming " to the Lord Provost, the Dean of Guild, the Deacon Convener, and 
 to other holders of office with three nominated trustees ; and he enters into 
 minute details as to the conservation and treatment of works, the maintenance 
 of a pure atmosphere and equable temperature around them, the number of 
 visitors to be admitted at any one time to the saloons, the conditions under 
 which further gifts to the gallery may be accepted, and other points. The 
 bequest, further, included the three saloons specially erected for receiving the 
 pictures, and the trustees were empowered, should the rooms become from 
 any cause unsuitable, to sell the structure and remove the collection to another 
 and more advantageous situation. 
 
 The document is obviously the work of a man of delicate and refined 
 taste, imbued with a high appreciation of the mission of Art, modestly 
 proud of his achievements, and not without some suspicion as to the 
 possibility that his treasures might not be so carefully guarded by their 
 future custodiers as by himself Mr. M'Lellan's life labour and his testa- 
 mentary deed afford another illustration of life's little ironies. On his 
 premature death, within a year after executing the deed, it was found that 
 his affairs, through his building scheme, and probably also his passion for 
 pictures, were so involved that it was impossible at once to satisfy his 
 creditors, and carry into effect the purposes of his trust. Under the 
 circumstances the Town Council, after much negotiation, and amid a storm 
 of opposition, agreed to purchase the entire block of buildings, with the 
 three saloons and the collection of pictures, for the sum of ;^44,5oo, being
 
 352 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 ^^29,500 for the buildings and ;^i 5,000 for the pictures. A single picture 
 might now be selected from the M' Lei Ian collection which, exposed for 
 sale, would nearly, if not altogether, realize the sum paid for the entire 
 collection. 
 
 In this way the Town Council, in May, 1856, became somewhat 
 reluctant patrons of art, and the owners of an art gallery rather against 
 their will. The circumstances associated with the transference were not 
 without their compensations. Had M'Lellan's Will been carried into effect 
 the Town Council would have had little concern with, and no responsibility 
 for, the gallery he bequeathed to the City, which would have been, in the 
 hands of a semi-private but shifting body of trustees, without endowments for 
 its adequate administration ; and probably, after a brief spasmodic burst of 
 public gratitude and admiration, it would have declined into a mouldy and 
 melancholy condition of neglect, visited chiefly by spiders and their unwary 
 victims. 
 
 As it was, the Council were by the purchase left with an entirely free 
 hand and unfettered control of the property. They had the right to sell 
 the pictures if they so willed, and they were also entitled to use the halls 
 and buildings for any purpose they deemed proper. Of both these rights 
 they subsequently took advantage : more than once sales were made of 
 pictures weeded out of the M'Lellan collection, while for many years the 
 galleries were used for all manner of revenue-yielding objects other than 
 art gallery uses. But the important fact remained that the structure and 
 collections were public property, and a time did come when both Council 
 and public fully realized the high responsibility of the charge they had 
 undertaken, and the incalculable value of the collection they had 
 acquired. 
 
 Within a month after the purchase of the collection an enlightened 
 citizen, Mr. William Euing, in redemption of a pledge he had given, 
 conditional on the completion of the acquisition, presented thirty works 
 selected from his own gallery to the collection. Many years later, in 1874, 
 the remainder of Mr, Euing's collection was added by bequest, and now 
 the Euing pictures form a notable feature in the collection. Mr. Euing 
 bequeathed at the same time an extensive and unique collection of editions 
 of the Holy Bible to the University of Glasgow, and a most valuable 
 musical library and collection of musical instruments to the Anderson's 
 College, in which also he founded a chair of music. 
 
 About the year 1867 private tenants, excepting the occupiers of shops, 
 were displaced from the M'Lellan property, and a certain amount of recon- 
 struction was undertaken to adapt the upper floors to public purposes. The 
 whole of the eastern section over the shops was appropriated to the School 
 of Art. In the western section the upper floor was transformed into galleries 
 and exhibition halls ; and on the first floor was found accommodation for
 
 SCIENCE AND ART. ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS 
 
 353 
 
 the libraries and committee rooms of the Philosophical Society and the 
 Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, with a lecture room en suite. 
 These alterations were undertaken principally on the recommendation of 
 Mr. C. Heath Wilson, and while the changes still left a large proportion 
 of the property rent-yielding subjects, they added greatly to the accommodation 
 for the exhibition of pictures. The whole cost of the structural alterations 
 was less than ^^4000, so that the capital expenditure on both pictures and 
 buildings remained under iJ^5 0,000. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the original galleries, and their extensions 
 also, were equally regarded by the Council as rent producers, and from the 
 first the halls were let to private applicants for a great variety of purposes, 
 such as public lectures, balls, concerts, bazaars, and other similar entertain- 
 ments. These applications of a gallery of art were manifestly inconsistent 
 with its proper use of a public institution ; but the whole matter was looked 
 at, in the early days, merely as a question of investment, and in that sense 
 it was not a success. From 1862 onwards the Glasgow Institute of Fine 
 Arts was a tenant for its annual exhibitions, and for many years these ex- 
 hibitions were the only real artistic use to which the galleries were devoted. 
 
 At the time the extension of the galleries was undertaken a spasmodic 
 effort was made to place the collections and the public relation to them on 
 an improved footing. The new galleries were inaugurated with an exhibition 
 of local historical portraits, and a collection of extreme importance for the 
 illustration of the history of Glasgow and the West of Scotland was brought 
 together, of which a most valuable catalogue was prepared by Mr. Heath 
 Wilson. The exhibition, however, was a pecuniary failure, and on Mr. 
 Wilson resigning the curatorship of the galleries — an office he held for a 
 short period only — a decreasing interest was manifested in the institution, 
 and it gradually fell into the most regrettable and detrimental condition 
 of public neglect. The landlord attitude of the Town Council came indeed 
 to overshadow and crush out all other relations and responsibilities, and the 
 M'Lellan pictures and other art property which had been added by gift and 
 bequest were regarded as mere ornamental adjuncts — sometimes, it is to be 
 feared, as unwelcome incumbrances — to balls, concerts, bazaars, and dinners 
 for which the halls were hired and used. It can scarcely be wondered that 
 under such a course of treatment the pictures fell into disrepute, people 
 began to doubt whether they were even ornamental, and their presence was 
 regarded as a hindrance to the free use of the halls for miscellaneous purposes. 
 
 In the face of these very untoward conditions the institution continued 
 to receive from time to time bequests and donations of important pictures 
 and of collections of great value. In April, 1877, there was submitted to 
 the Town Council an excerpt from the will of Mrs. Graham Gilbert of 
 Yorkhill in the following terms : " I direct my trustees to deliver over the 
 following specific legacies, and that within six months after my decease, free 
 
 Z
 
 354 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 of legacy duty or expense of discharge, viz., to deliver over to the Lord 
 Provost, Bailies and Council of the City of Glasgow for the time, such of 
 the paintings in oil, under the exceptions after mentioned, as may be in 
 Yorkhill House at the time of my death, and as they may select, under 
 an obligation to preserve the same in trust for the Corporation of the said 
 City, and for being exhibited to the inhabitants thereof, also the marble 
 statue of my late husband by Brodie of Edinburgh, and which paintings in 
 oil and statue shall be preserved and placed by themselves in one room in 
 the M'Lellan or any other gallery belonging to the said Corporation, and 
 bear the name of John Graham-Gilbert, and also at the same time to pay 
 to the said Lord Provost, Bailies, and Council of the City of Glasgow for 
 the time, the sum of two hundred pounds sterling for the purpose of framing 
 or otherwise putting in order the paintings which they may select as afore- 
 said . . . specially excepting from the said paintings in oil from which 
 selection may be made as aforesaid for the City of Glasgow, the portraits 
 of my uncle, my mother, my sister, and myself, all which shall remain at 
 Yorkhill House, and be the property of the heir of entail for the time being 
 of the estate of Yorkhill." 
 
 Mr. John Graham-Gilbert, R.S.A., originally John Graham, who assumed 
 the surname Gilbert when his wife succeeded to the estate of Yorkhill, in 
 the City of Glasgow, was a much and deservedly esteemed artist, who 
 devoted himself chiefly to portrait painting. He had throughout his whole 
 career taken a keen interest in the promotion of art in the West of Scotland, 
 and he had an unfailing belief in the value and importance of the Cor- 
 poration collection. Possessed of ample means, Mr. Graham-Gilbert followed 
 the example of M'Lellan in forming a cabinet of works of the old masters, 
 and he was fortunate in securing several pictures which are now esteemed 
 among the chief treasures of the Glasgow Gallery. Mr. Graham-Gilbert 
 died in 1866, but, with commendable propriety, he left it to his wife, 
 through whom his wealth came, to deal with his art accumulations according 
 to her own will. The Graham-Gilbert bequest, as selected and handed 
 over to the Corporation, included seventy original works, principally by 
 Dutch and Italian masters, forty pictures by himself, and twenty-seven 
 copies and studies he had made from well-known pictures by old masters. 
 
 The reception of the Graham-Gilbert bequest was an epoch and turning- 
 point in the history of the galleries. A new and proper view of the 
 functions of the institution was taken by the Council ; and the duty they 
 owed at once to the public, and to the generous donors of works of 
 incalculable value was now recognized. Thenceforward the resolute policy of 
 the committee was to render the collections properly available and useful 
 to the community, and to rehabilitate the sadly tarnished reputation of the 
 works of art which, for more than twenty years, had been neglected and 
 contemned. But the reputation of a picture is more easily tarnished than
 
 SCIENCE AND ART. ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS 
 
 355 
 
 restored ; and in matters of art, as well as in questions of theology, the 
 public take their opinions from their masters, heaping, in unsparing measure, 
 buffets and insults on what they find neglected and depreciated by their 
 leaders. The greatest triumphs of Raphael or Rembrandt would come very 
 badly out of twenty years' obloquy, and a few well-directed and persistent 
 sneers would work havoc with the reputation of the most famous collection. 
 The Town Council of Glasgow had to repair the injuries of many years. 
 Not only had they the arduous task of re-establishing a lost reputation, 
 but they had also to reckon with the material injuries which result from a 
 long course of ignorant and careless treatment, from alternate exposure 
 on walls, and storing in closets, from all the variations of heat and cold, 
 damp and dry air, light and darkness ; from the very evils against which poor 
 M'Lellan had warned his trustees, and sought to guard his beloved works. 
 
 How the task was faced and accomplished it would take too much 
 space to narrate, but in the end a large measure of success attended the 
 various efforts to popularize and to win public respect for the collections. 
 First there was a careful weeding out and separation of pictures which from 
 any cause had become unworthy of the collections ; then a catalogue was 
 prepared and published, in which only the works selected as worthy of per- 
 manent retention were entered. To make Glasgow people believe in the 
 value of their own property, the opinion of experts of standing from a distance 
 was obtained and published to them. The galleries were strictly reserved 
 for their legitimate uses, the public bodies who had acquired a settlement 
 within the walls were gently but firmly dislodged, and all miscellaneous 
 banquets and balls were prohibited. The pictures were treated with due 
 respect, they were freed from accumulated dirt and discoloured varnish, their 
 frames were repaired, and the more important were glazed over to preserve 
 them from the evil influences of our acid-laden atmosphere. Some of the 
 rarer and more precious works were from time to time lent to the winter 
 exhibition of the Royal Academy, and to other special exhibitions in London 
 and elsewhere, and thereby they obtained a reputation as wide as it is 
 enduring. The Corporation, out of the rates, as occasion offered, purchased 
 modern and other works of an attractive nature, which served to enrich the 
 galleries and to add new interest to the whole. Courses of popular lectures 
 were organized, mainly with the view of increasing the general knowledge 
 and appreciation of the art collections ; these proved a most gratifying success, 
 and they are now one of the most valuable features of the work of the 
 supervising committee. 
 
 It may be claimed that the efforts of the Corporation to rehabilitate the 
 collections and re-establish their fair fame have been completely successful. 
 Much remains yet to do, but the Glasgow gallery now takes its place in 
 the front rank of such institutions, and the Glasgow collection has to be 
 taken into account in estimating the art heritage and wealth of mankind,
 
 356 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 No better testimony to the esteem and confidence in which the galleries 
 are now held can be cited than the fact that, early in 1896, there was given 
 to the collection a gift of ten modern pictures, which within the last few years 
 cost their original purchaser almost ;^2 3,000. Bequests to that extent are 
 of exceptional occurrence ; but a free gift — and that from young men — of 
 property so valuable is rare enough to be a phenomenon, and the fact that 
 the Messrs. Reid of Hydepark Locomotive Works took this way of honouring 
 the memory of their father, Mr. James Reid, of Auchterarder, is a noble 
 testimony to their filial piety, their splendid generosity, and their local 
 patriotism. 
 
 The next phase of the municipal enterprise of Glasgow in relation to 
 exhibitional institutions has to do with the foundation of Kelvingrove 
 Museum, and the developments which have arisen out of that modest under- 
 taking. The small museum was begun in 1870 under the name of the City 
 Industrial Museum, within the mansion-house of Kelvingrove, after that 
 building had undergone such structural alterations as exhibitional purposes 
 demanded. It was a humble enough affair to begin with ; it received little 
 attention at first from the Council, but it became wonderfully well liked by 
 the people, and its collections grew apace. In 1874, with the sanction 
 of the Council, a public subscription was organized, by means of which 
 nearly ^8000 was received for building an addition to the tiny museum ; 
 to which sum the Council added a contribution of £yoo. That this total 
 was spent largely on attaching a wing to Kelvingrove House may be a 
 matter for regret, for the site was not well chosen, the necessities of the 
 building were not considered, and the amount was altogether inadequate 
 for providing the museum space required for a City like Glasgow. But the 
 building was proceeded with, and in 1876 the extension was ready for 
 occupation. 
 
 The City Industrial Museum was, from the very first, not an Industrial 
 Museum, if by that name is meant an institution purely technological in 
 character. It was more a Natural History Museum or an ornithological 
 collection, for its first curator was an enthusiastic lover of birds. But indeed 
 it was all embracing and indiscriminating in its receptivity, and accepted 
 with equal gratitude all classes of objects — industrial, artistic, natural history, 
 archaeological and ethnological. 
 
 With this omnivorous appetite for museum specimens there was nothing 
 wrong, but an ambitious programme demands a spacious field in which to 
 display its details. It was painfully obvious, from the very day the exten- 
 sion was opened, how inadequate were its limits for illustrating the circle 
 of the sciences and the activities of the human race. The temporary and 
 makeshift nature of the provision made for the museum was immediately 
 perceived and acknowledged ; for no sooner was the added space available 
 than it was fully occupied.
 
 SCIENCE AND ART. ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS 
 
 357 
 
 Till this time the Town Council had little real responsibility in connection 
 with the museum undertaking. The Parks Act passed in 1 859, constituting 
 the Parks and Galleries Trustees, recognized the existence of the art collection 
 purchased from M'Lellan's executors, and sanctioned its maintenance ; but 
 that statute made no provision for extensions nor for the acquisition and 
 maintenance of any further museum institution; and it was not until 1878 
 that the construction and maintenance of museums by the Council out of 
 the parks rates were rendered legal and statutory. In the Glasgow Public 
 Parks Acts of that year full powers were given to the Lord Provost, 
 Magistrates, and Council, in their capacity of Parks and Galleries Trustees, 
 to maintain already existing museums, and " from time to time to erect, fit 
 up, furnish and maintain such new and additional buildings for Museums, 
 and Collections of Natural History, Science, and Art, as they may deem 
 expedient." By this enactment the Town Council, for the first time, definitely 
 acknowledged their responsibility for the museum interests of the City, and 
 by implication they undertook their adequate development. 
 
 The Council, with power " from time to time to erect and fit up " museum 
 buildings, had from time to time various schemes under their consideration 
 without arriving at any final decision ; but all these, more or less matured and 
 advanced, were only serving to educate public opinion and to keep the question 
 well before the community. Meanwhile the Kelvingrove Museum, steadily in 
 the receipt of varied and valuable additions by gift and otherwise, became 
 more and more a storehouse in which classification was necessarily disregarded, 
 and it became impossible to do much more than keep the collections under 
 inspection. A certain amount of relief was obtained by transferring to the 
 Corporation Galleries such portions of the accumulations as had a distinctly 
 artistic side — the art pottery, the glass, metal work, and such ; but that did 
 not diminish the confusion, while to some extent it interfered with the proper 
 display of pictures around the gallery walls. 
 
 The occurrence, more than once, of outbreaks of fire in connection with 
 the shops and other premises in the galleries' buildings had a powerful influence 
 in stimulating the energies of the Corporation in the direction of acquiring 
 a safer and more fitting home for their art treasures. Early in 1886 the 
 suggestion was made that at least the nucleus of a building might be obtained 
 by the organization of a great temporary exhibition in Kelvingrove Park ; 
 and, with the sanction of the Town Council, the Museum and Galleries 
 Sub-Committee set themselves earnestly to outline the conditions of such 
 an undertaking. How the work of organizing that exhibition was carried 
 forward, and what success attended it, are questions which do not concern us. 
 The object the Museum Committee had in view is thus concisely stated 
 in their annual report for 1886: "Among the motives which impelled the 
 committee to take action in the matter was the expectation that the exhibition 
 might prove a financial success, and leave at the close a large balance of profit
 
 358 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 which could be most fittingly disposed of by being devoted towards providing 
 permanent buildings for the municipal collections of science and art. In 
 that view the Executive Council of the exhibition have coincided, and in 
 the Articles of Association it is provided that any surplus which may arise 
 in connection with the exhibition shall be applied in or towards erecting, 
 equipping, and maintaining a Gallery of Art or a Museum of Science and 
 Art, or otherwise in promoting science and art in Glasgow in such way 
 and manner as shall be determined by the members of the Exhibition Associa- 
 tion, at or before the time of dissolution thereof, or, in default thereof, by the 
 Magistrates and Council of Glasgow." 
 
 The exhibition was held during the summer of 1888, and its financial 
 success far exceeded the expectations of its original promoters. When all 
 accounts had been adjusted, it was found that there remained on the hands 
 of the Exhibition Association a clear surplus of ^^^46,000, a fat carcase around 
 which many hungry vultures immediately began to scream. The sum, how- 
 ever, was both well secured and well defended, and the association, instead 
 of resting content with the gratifying outcome of their labours, in a most 
 patriotic manner offered to undertake the task of at least doubling the 
 amount by public subscription. In agreement with the Town Council it 
 was stipulated that should the Exhibition Association be successful in raising 
 the available fund to not less than i^9 2,000, the Corporation should grant 
 a sufficient site free of cost in Kelvingrove Park, on which to erect a Museum 
 and Art Gallery Building ; and that the administration of the fund, the 
 adjusting of the scheme of building, the selection of an architect, and the 
 execution of the work should devolve on an executive committee elected 
 in the proportion of two-thirds from the Corporation, and one-third from 
 the Exhibition Association. On the completion of their task the Executive 
 Committee were pledged to transfer the buildings simpliciter to the Cor- 
 poration. 
 
 These and other conditions of minor importance being agreed to, the 
 Exhibition Association under a new name — " The Association for the Promotion 
 of Art and Music in the City of Glasgow " — proceeded with vigour to carry 
 out the first part of their undertaking — the raising of subscriptions for the 
 building fund. Within the prescribed time — twelve months — they had gathered 
 considerably more than the minimum ^^46,000 to which they were pledged. 
 In consequence they were now in a position to claim a site in Kelvingrove 
 Park, and to proceed with the structure. As the result of a public competition 
 the plans submitted by Messrs. Simpson and Milner Allen, of London, were, 
 in June, 1892, on the advice of Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., selected. The 
 architect's estimate for the completed building was i^i 54,398, or, leaving two 
 quadrangles uncovered, .^119,775; the less sanguine local surveyors put these 
 figures at ^170,320 and iS^i 30,450, and we shall find that even these larger 
 amounts were far within the sums asked by the lowest offers for the work.
 
 SCIENCE AND ART. ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS 359 
 
 But with ;^ii3,ooo in hand and subscriptions still coming in, the Executive 
 Committee considered themselves well entitled to go on with an erection which 
 they were assured would cost only ^120,000; and accordingly contracts for 
 the basement were issued. No doubt the Executive were a little staggered 
 when they found that the estimate for this preliminary section, accepted in 
 June, 1893, amounted to ;^22,225, and in the end it cost somewhat 
 more. Tenders for the superstructure were invited in June, 1895, when it was 
 found that the whole cost of the structure, including basement, would be 
 iJ^i 98,420, if finished with oak and internal stone-work, or omitting the two 
 courts and finishing in pine and plaster the expenditure would amount to 
 i^ I 54,000. The whole sum, from beginning to end, at the disposal of the 
 Executive Committee did not exceed ^129,600, made up of exhibition surplus 
 with interest ^^54,600, and subscriptions with interest ^75,000. The com- 
 mittee found themselves in the awkward position of having spent almost 
 iJ^2 8,000 in connection with a building which, to carry forward and leave only 
 partly finished in a second-rate manner, would cost nearly ;C2 5,000 more than 
 they were possessed of, while to complete the structure in a worthy manner 
 would demand the expenditure of nearly i^7 0,000 beyond their resources. 
 The flow of subscriptions, as is the habit of such flows, dwindled from the 
 very first, and had long ceased — public charity had been directed into new 
 channels, which are always being dug in a great city for the capturing of that 
 coveted stream, and new enthusiasms had taken possession of the giving 
 community. In their dilemma the only course open to the Executive Com- 
 mittee was to lay their case simply before the Town Council, asking that body 
 either to guarantee the funds necessary for the completion of the buildings, or 
 to take over the work done, the funds on hand, and the obligations, and deal 
 with the building themselves. The latter alternative the Town Council 
 accepted, and, having resolved to complete the building in the best manner, 
 the work is again in progress. 
 
 Among the multifarious activities of the Museums Committee during 
 the past fifteen years the holding of special, and of local or district 
 exhibitions has occupied a prominent place. From time to time special 
 exhibitions were held in the Corporation Galleries, in which Oriental art, 
 Italian art, and French art, besides other sectional phases of artistic activity, 
 were specially illustrated. District exhibitions were also organized by the 
 Museums Committee, and these offer certain phases of interest, and had an 
 outcome which merits attention. In all towns there is a show quarter in 
 which the public offices, the great buildings, and monuments, and the attrac- 
 tions generally are more or less concentrated. And away from these, in 
 the case of great cities, sometimes very far away, there are interminable 
 rows of monotonous dwelling-houses, relieved only by dull-looking churches, 
 which struggle, not quite successfully, with the rival whisky shops at the 
 street corners. Moreover in a town like Glasgow there is a tendency for
 
 36o MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 the population to segment itself ; for the east end to distinguish itself 
 from and in some measure to be opposed to the west end, and for the 
 south side to look on the north side as unduly favoured by both Providence 
 and the Town Council. The people dwell in their own quarters, and not- 
 withstanding the facilities of communication, many in one extremity or suburb 
 are as little acquainted with the opposite extreme as they are with the capital 
 of Thibet. They demand institutions for themselves ; there are reasonable 
 grounds for their claims, and these have been sympathetically treated by 
 the Museums Committee. In 1883 they organized a local exhibition of 
 pictures and miscellaneous art objects in a small hall attached to the 
 Police Buildings in the eastern district of the City. The novelty and the 
 unexpectedness of the undertaking rendered it a great success with the local 
 population ; and during the time it was open, three months from February 
 till ^lay, it was visited by 63,500 persons. Following on this at the end 
 of the succeeding year a similar exhibition, on a much more extensive scale, 
 was organized in two large halls, also the property of the Police Com- 
 missioners, in Main Street, Gorbals, on the south side. This exhibition, 
 which was in three months visited by 153,000 persons, was the first of a 
 long series continued at intervals till 1891, after which the hall was let by 
 the Commissioners for manufacturing purposes. In that year (1891) it 
 was the desire of the committee again to provide an exhibition for the 
 eastern district ; and a sub-committee was appointed to look out for a 
 suitable hall or building. A survey of the whole district failed to discover 
 any sufficient place, and, on making report to this effect, a special com- 
 mittee was constituted to consider the question of providing an exhibitional 
 building in the eastern district with such adjuncts as might properly come 
 within the scope of the Parks and Galleries Trust. For the cost of the 
 erection of such a building it was found that several small funds were in 
 existence, on which the east end had a special claim, which altogether might 
 amount to something over ;6^2 0,000 ; but it was not at first contemplated to 
 expend such an amount. A considerable time was spent in arriving at an 
 understanding as to the precise scope of the institution suited for, and satisfying 
 to, the district ; but in the end it was agreed that the People's Palace should 
 be planted on Glasgow Green, and that it should take the form of a Museum 
 and Art Gallery building, with a capacious Winter Garden of glass attached, 
 the whole to cost a little more than i^2 0,000, and that project is now in the 
 way of realization. 
 
 And now we come to the latest of the undertakings of this active and 
 enterprising committee. The letting of the halls in the Gorbals had deprived 
 them of the use of that structure for district exhibition purposes, and appeared 
 to bar them from continued activity on the south side. But in 1894 the 
 Corporation acquired the grounds of Camphill as an addition to the Queen's 
 Park, and included in that purchase was a fine mansion-house, which was
 
 SCIENCE AND ART. ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS 361 
 
 vacated in the early part of July, 1895. From the very first the Museum 
 Committee had their eyes on the house for the purposes of a district gallery; 
 and when it was found that the public rooms could be adapted for such use 
 at a trifling cost, they had no difficulty in obtaining the consent of the 
 Corporation for its appropriation. And so Camphill was taken in hand, the 
 few structural alterations required were carried out, a special photographic 
 exhibition was organized for the inauguration of the institution, and Camphill 
 Gallery was opened to the public early in the summer of 1896. 
 
 In undertaking the supervision of museums and art galleries the Town 
 Council of Glasgow have made, from the merely commercial point of view, a 
 remarkably good investment. Up to the present time their total expenditure 
 on buildings, fittings, purchase of pictures, art objects, and museum specimens 
 and maintenance cannot have much exceeded i^ 100,000. As against that 
 expenditure they possess pictures and sculpture, which on a modest estimate 
 are worth at least ^^250,000, other art objects and museum specimens repre- 
 sent a value of ^^"60,000 more ; from the exhibition surplus and public 
 subscriptions for the new galleries they have received almost ;i^ 130,000, 
 the buildings in connection with the galleries in Sauchiehall Street may be 
 valued at i^5 0,000, and the Kelvingrove Museum building, with its cases and 
 fittings, and the fittings, etc., in Camphill, may represent ;^ 10,000 more. 
 The total property thus reaches half a million sterling, and this takes no 
 account of the fact that in the meantime from seven to eight millions of 
 persons have enjo}'ed such instruction, such recreation, and such pure enjoy- 
 ment as these institutions are fitted to communicate.
 
 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. 
 
 Among the large cities of the United Kingdom, Glasgow occupies a unique 
 position in relation to the Public Libraries Act. It is the only community 
 of all having a population of more than 100,000 in which these Acts have 
 not been adopted. In its relationship to public libraries the attitude of 
 Glasgow is at once deplorable and anomalous. The enactments under which 
 free public libraries may be instituted, in addition to providing for libraries, 
 give powers to equip and maintain museums and art galleries. In Glasgow 
 these latter institutions are supported under special local enactments — the 
 Parks and Galleries Acts — which provide also ample means for the main- 
 tenance of the most spacious range of public parks dedicated to the service 
 of any community in the kingdom. But these local Acts do not sanction 
 the establishment and maintenance of libraries, and thus it happens that 
 though one-half of the organization provided for under the Public Libraries 
 Acts has been secured, the other and primary section has not been attained, 
 and Glasgow is still without any rate-supported library. Communities, large 
 and small, around it have, one after another, taken advantage of the legis- 
 lation ; their libraries have become popular and leading centres of the social 
 life of the people ; without exception their resources are fully appreciated ; 
 once instituted they are ungrudgingly supported, and regarded with proud 
 satisfaction by all classes. But Glasgow has remained unmoved, and on 
 three separate occasions she has deliberately declined to take advantage of 
 the provisions of the Public Libraries Acts.
 
 EDUCATION. LIBRARIES 363 
 
 The citizens of Glasgow cannot be held to have the excuse that they are 
 already well supplied with public libraries. In earlier days, indeed, the City 
 was lamentably deficient in literary institutions and in books, and the fact that 
 there was scant opportunity for cultivating the reading habit among a large 
 proportion of the population must account for the active and violent opposition 
 of a small section to library planting, and for the deplorable inertness of the 
 majority of the ratepayers, Reading, like every habit good and bad, grows by 
 cultivation. To a large proportion of the population the opportunity for reading 
 was denied ; and they do not know the solace and delight from which they 
 have been cut off. From being a modest University town the City suddenly 
 burst into a great commercial and industrial community ; institutions did not 
 keep pace with the growth of population, and among the most neglected were 
 such as minister to the educational and mental necessities of the masses. The 
 School Board of Glasgow have with splendid effect filled up the educational 
 void; the elementary schools of Glasgow are now models of efficiency and 
 spacious organization ; the art of reading is communicated to every child, but 
 still we are in want of the Board which shall supply to these children the 
 healthful and elevating material on which to exercise their reading faculty. 
 
 For the first three quarters of the nineteenth century the only general 
 libraries in Glasgow of any importance to which the public had access were 
 the Glasgow Public Library, supported by subscribers, and the Stirling's Library, 
 founded and endowed in 1791 under the settlement of Mr. Walter Stirling, 
 merchant in Glasgow. Mr. Stirling bequeathed to the Lord Provost of 
 Glasgow his library, the sum of one thousand pounds, a tenement in Miller 
 Street, and his interest in the Glasgow Tontine Society, for the purpose of 
 establishing and maintaining a public library in the City, to be vested in 
 and managed by the Lord Provost and twelve other directors elected from 
 the Town Council, the Merchants' House, the Presbytery of Glasgow, and 
 the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons — three from each. A direction of 
 Mr. Stirling's will was that the librarian should " allow all proper persons 
 to consult and read the books three hours each lawful day," but no book 
 was to be lent out without the written sanction of the directors. He further 
 recommended that in building up the library " rare and curious books " should 
 be selected rather than common and ordinary kinds. 
 
 In its early career Stirling's Library suffered much from poverty and 
 insufficient premises, and it is not clear that its policy was directed with 
 such prudence as conduced to the success of the institution. The distinct 
 instruction of Walter Stirling to allow all " proper persons to consult and 
 read the books " three hours daily was ignored, and to secure funds the con- 
 stitution of the library was further altered so as to admit life subscribers to 
 the privilege of borrowing books. At a later period, but not till 1848, 
 subscribers for a year, and for even shorter periods, were admitted to the 
 same privilege. It was not till i 849 that the directors bethought themselves
 
 364 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 of the three hours a day free reading provided for by Walter StirHng, and 
 from the beginning of that year the institution has been available as a free 
 consulting library. These changes infused a much needed element of activity 
 into the Stirling's Library, and since 1871, when the languishing Glasgow- 
 Public Library was amalgamated with it and the institution took the name 
 of the Stirling's and Glasgow Public Library, it has entered on a new lease 
 of life, and at no time has it been more energetic and potent for good than 
 at the present moment. 
 
 For a population of half a million of souls, the resources of a single 
 library, with fewer than 40,000 volumes — many not readers' books — are singu- 
 larly meagre fare. But that was practically the state of matters in Glasgow 
 into the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century, and by thoughtful citizens 
 the poverty of the land was sincerely deplored. In 1874 the Philosophical 
 Society of Glasgow — itself possessed of an admirable library of scientific and 
 technical works — appointed a committee, presided over by Mr. J. Cleland 
 Burns, to initiate a movement for the adoption of the Public Libraries Acts. 
 Under the guidance of this committee a statutory meeting of qualified house- 
 holders was held in the City Hall on 17th April, 1876, when amid a not 
 strictly dignified display the issue was rejected by 1779 votes against, to 
 993 votes for, the adoption of the Acts. Again in 1884 an influential com- 
 mittee was appointed at a public meeting, with the view of securing the 
 adoption of the Acts. In the meantime, as we shall see, the Mitchell Library 
 had been opened, and as a free reference library it had attained a quite 
 marvellous success and popularity. Library legislation also had been amended, 
 so that instead of the unsatisfactory appeal to a public meeting, the promoters 
 had the alternative of obtaining the opinion of the ratepayers by means of 
 a plebiscite. Ward committees favourable to the scheme were organized 
 throughout the City, most painstaking efforts were put forth to disseminate 
 information as to the working and benefits of public libraries, and a crowded 
 and enthusiastic meeting favoured the reference of the question to the votes 
 of the ratepayers. When the battle ended it was officially announced on 
 9th May, 1885, that 52,701 ratepayers — less than one-half of the con- 
 stituency — had returned their voting cards, 29,946 voting against and 22,755 
 voting for the adoption of the Acts. In 1888 public opinion in Glasgow 
 for the third time was tested through the agency of the Public Libraries 
 Association, a body formed immediately after the adverse decision of 1885. 
 To that body was also principally due the initiation of an important modifi- 
 cation of the public libraries legislation, under which the statutory meeting 
 of householders was abolished, and it was enacted that by voting papers 
 alone the will of the constituency could be declared. The third appeal had 
 not the proverbial success which in Scotland is held to attend a thrice-repeated 
 effort. On 27th April, 1888, the result was declared, and showed that 
 36,537 voting papers were returned — of which 22,987 were against and
 
 EDUCATION. LIBRARIES 365 
 
 I 3)5 50 in favour of the Acts — while about two-thirds of the voters did not 
 take the trouble of returning their papers. 
 
 No further attempt has been made to reverse the thrice-repeated rejection 
 of the Acts ; but, in the meantime, another fundamental modification in public 
 libraries legislation has been enacted. By an Act passed in i 894 the necessity 
 for a direct appeal to the ratepayers in burghs has been abolished, and now 
 the Act may be adopted by a resolution of the Magistrates and Council of 
 the bureh, and such resolution shall be substituted for a determination of the 
 householders of the burgh in any case where such determination is required 
 under the Consolidation Act of 1887. Special notice of the proposal to 
 submit such a resolution must be given at least one month before the 
 meeting of the Council at which it is to be dealt with. 
 
 The Town Council of Glasgow have now the power to adopt the Libraries 
 Acts; and although that right has not yet been exercised, there is no doubt 
 that the majority are, and have always been, favourable to the establishment of 
 public libraries in the City. But across their path lies the thrice-interposed 
 rejection of the Acts by their constituents ; and a wave of new enthusiasm 
 is required to sweep away such a barrier. It is true that on no occasion 
 did quite one-half of the qualified voters intimate their will, and though the 
 statute did not sanction the assumption that " silence gives consent," it may 
 be fairly inferred that those who made no sign were lukewarm supporters 
 rather than active opponents of public libraries. Interested opposition ever 
 expresses itself with decision, eagerness, and emphasis ; its forces are easily 
 organized, and it delivers its stroke direct and undivided. The opponents 
 of the Acts, it is not unfair to say, occupied the stronger strategical position, 
 and polled a large proportion of their forces ; while the promoters had to 
 deal with a vast amount of indifference and distressing inertness. But the 
 facts which lie behind us put a strong weapon into the hands of the opponents 
 of the Acts within the Council, and they offer a serious stumbling-block to the 
 timid and irresolute. Prudence dictates a not too hasty forcing on of the 
 question, time and the trend of public opinion are strongly in favour of 
 libraries, and there cannot be a doubt that, once the decision is arrived at, 
 the public libraries of Glasgow will take their position among the most useful 
 and popular of our municipal institutions. 
 
 In the meantime, however, the duties of the Town Council in relation to 
 libraries and reading are confined to the Mitchell Library, an institution 
 which, under many disadvantageous conditions, has attained a quite pheno- 
 menal success, popularity, and usefulness. Instituted with a capital fund of 
 only ^^70,000, opened in temporary premises of a homely and insufficient 
 character and in an unattractive neighbourhood, the library from the very 
 first flourished with remarkable vigour ; its resources were utilized with 
 avidity, and these resources developed and expanded with marvellous rapidity. 
 Within two or three years after its opening the library was spoken of in
 
 366 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Scotland as bidding " fair to be the most important public library outside 
 Edinburgh," and by the same authorities, Tedder and Thomas in the Encyclo- 
 paedia Britannica, it was stated that " the number of readers during the first 
 three years in which the library has been opened is believed to be without 
 precedent." 
 
 An admirable concise guide to the Mitchell Library has been compiled 
 and issued by Mr. F. T. Barrett, the librarian, from which the following 
 facts are mainly extracted : 
 
 The Mitchell Library was founded by a bequest of the late Mr. Stephen 
 Mitchell, tobacco manufacturer, of Glasgow, who died 21st April, 1874, in 
 the eighty-fifth year of his age. The bequest was intimated to the Town 
 Council on the 6th May, and was accepted by them i6th July, 1874. The 
 net sum paid over to the Town Council by the founder's representatives was 
 ^66,998 I OS. 6d., which, it was directed, was to be allowed to increase to 
 ^70,000. 
 
 A constitution and rules having been drawn up, the work of organizing 
 the library was proceeded with, the following being the leading principles 
 observed. It must be one large public library, be accessible to the public 
 for purposes of reference and consultation, be general and comprehensive 
 in character, so as to be of value to readers of every class and occupation ; 
 and it should aim at representing every phase of human thought and every 
 variety of human opinion. It should acquire such books as from their 
 rarity and value cannot generally be procured by private persons, and no 
 book was to be refused merely because it controverted present views on 
 religion or politics. 
 
 The library was opened in temporary premises in Ingram Street, in 
 November, 1877, with 14,432 volumes, and remained there till May, 1890. 
 The intervening period witnessed a remarkable development both in the 
 library itself, and in the use made of it by the public. The 1 4,000 volumes 
 at the opening had increased to 89,000 ; and the number of volumes con- 
 sulted by readers amounted to 4,680,000, a number, it is believed, much 
 greater than had ever been issued during the first twelve and a half years 
 in any other reference library. 
 
 The rooms had long become hopelessly inadeqate to the work of the 
 library. Books were necessarily stored in inconvenient positions. The 
 overcrowding of readers, which reached a maximum in 1885, had produced 
 so much discomfort that in successive years following there had been some 
 diminution in numbers, although to the end the attendance was such as 
 to overtax the accommodation it was possible to provide. 
 
 The long-looked-for opportunity of securing a more suitable home for 
 the library was found when the various municipal trusts were removed to 
 the new Municipal Buildings in George Square. After consideration, the 
 Library Committee resolved that of the available buildings the one best suited
 
 EDUCATION. LIBRARIES 
 
 367 
 
 for their requirements was that formerly occupied by the Water Commissioners, 
 in Miller Street ; and the sanction of the Town Council was obtained for 
 its purchase. The building as reconstructed for the use of the library consists 
 of a front portion, 120 by 33 feet, and a back portion, 80 by 47 feet. The 
 front buildincr has basement and three stories. The basement contains the 
 newspaper files ; the ground floor, that portion of the library in most constant 
 use ; the first floor, the magazine room, the students' room, and the ladies' 
 room. The second floor contains a large part of the reserve space for the 
 growth of the library, together with rooms for the staff, etc. The back 
 portion consists of a basement floor and a large general reading hall, a hand- 
 some apartment of 80 by 47 feet, lighted from the roof, and having its 
 walls covered with bookcases, the upper ones being carried on a gallery, 
 with tables and seats for 200 readers. 
 
 While, generally, the aim has been to make the library in the widest 
 sense representative of every department of literature, Scottish books have 
 naturally received special attention, and early in the history of the library 
 three special collections were commenced. These were the Poet's Corner, 
 the Glasgow collection, and the collection of early Glasgow Printed Books. 
 
 The object aimed at in the Poet's Corner is the acquirement of (i) copies 
 of the works of Burns and all Scottish Poets and Verse Writers in their 
 different editions; (2) selections and collections of Scottish Poetry; (3) historical 
 and critical dissertations on the Poetry of Scotland ; (4) biographies of the 
 Scottish Poets ; together constituting a treasury of the national poetical 
 literature. This has, to a large extent, been accomplished. The number 
 of volumes now in the Poet's Corner is about 6000, of which those specially 
 relating to Burns number over 1200. 
 
 In forming the Glasgow collection, the Committee, following the example 
 of other important provincial libraries, resolved that the library " ought to 
 contain copies of all books, pamphlets, periodical publications, maps, plans, 
 pictorial illustrations, and generally all papers which in any way illustrate 
 the City's growth and life ; that, with respect to past publications, care 
 should be taken to secure any which may from time to time be obtainable ; 
 that all local newspapers and periodical publications should be filed for 
 preservation, and that Glasgow books and pamphlets should be purchased 
 as issued when not presented." This policy has been steadih' maintained, 
 and the library is now in possession of one of the most complete of the 
 collections of local literature. It numbers about 5000 volumes, great and 
 small, and includes some 200 different periodical publications, which have 
 at various times been issued within the City. 
 
 The third collection commenced in the earl)' days of the library is 
 " Early Glasgow Printing." In this it is hoped to bring together copies of 
 every book and pamphlet printed in Glasgow before 1801. As in the cases 
 ahead)' mentioned, great progress has been made. The librar)- has a copy
 
 368 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 of the first piece of printing executed in the City, 1638. From this down 
 to 1800 the productions of the Glasgow press are represented in the Hbrary 
 by more than 1300 books and tracts. 
 
 The rapid development of the library is due in no small degree to the 
 many and generous donations and bequests which have been received, and 
 which have been acknowledged with appreciation in successive annual reports. 
 Of the total number of books and pamphlets, considerably more than a third 
 have been presented, or bought with money bequeathed for the purpose. 
 Among these benefactions much the most important is the bequest of the 
 late Bailie James Moir, who was for some years a member of the Library 
 Committee. Bailie Moir left to the library his own large and well selected 
 collection of books, and the residue of his estate, amounting to i^i 1,500, 
 which, after providing an annuity to his sister, is to be applied in the purchase 
 of books. The number of books in the Moir Collection is now about 20,000. 
 Another member of the committee, the late Councillor Logan, bequeathed 
 iJ^500, also to be devoted to additions to the library, and that sum has been 
 expended in the purchase of a number of works of great importance and 
 value. 
 
 Testimony equally gratifying and substantial to the appreciation of the 
 library on the part of readers was rendered in 1895, by the receipt of 
 two bequests of the whole estates of two gentlemen, who had been regular 
 readers within its walls. Under the will of Mr. Louis Edward Campbell, a 
 sum of ^3100, in addition to house property valued at ;^iooo, was received, 
 and the estate of Mr. Donald M'Pherson, bequeathed to the library, yielded 
 a little more than ^500. The Trustees under the Bellahouston Bequest 
 Fund in 1896 divided the library of Mr. Moses Steven of Bellahouston 
 equally between the Mitchell and the Stirling Library, and thereby each 
 institution was enriched with about a thousand volumes, principally of good 
 editions of standard authors ; but also with some rare works. The scientific 
 side of the library has also been largely augmented by an arrangement 
 under which the transactions of foreign scientific societies received by the 
 Glasgow Natural History Society and the Geological Society have been 
 handed over; and theological literature received in 1894 a notable addition 
 through the acquisition, on very favourable terms, of the library of the eminent 
 theologian and scholar, Dr. James Morison. Under the head of benefactions 
 it is also proper to mention that Mr. John Morgan of Bishopbriggs, whose 
 entire estate was bequeathed for charitable purposes to the Merchants' House, 
 had shortly before his death expressed his intention of bequeathing his books 
 to the Mitchell Library. Under the circumstances the Merchants' House 
 resolved to hand over Mr. Morgan's collection to the library for the nominal 
 sum of i^200, and thereby the library has been enriched with an extensive 
 collection, in which science, and specially mathematical works is the leading 
 feature,
 
 EDUCA TION. LIBRARIES 
 
 369 
 
 Among other valuable donations may be named : 2000 volumes from 
 the Senate of the University of Glasgow ; the bequest of Mr. Richard 
 Chalmers of his library of 1000 volumes ; and a large collection of 
 Scottish literature, mainly poetical, amounting to 2250 volumes, from the 
 late Mr. Alexander Gardyne. 
 
 From the shelves of the Mitchell Library there are now yearly given 
 out about half a million of volumes, a number exceeded among provincial 
 reference libraries only by that of Liverpool. In this computation no account 
 is taken of the magazine room, an important element or feature in the 
 institution. The number of periodicals on view in that department has 
 gradually increased to four hundred, of which the majority are selected as 
 representing some department of knowledge or literature, or some school or 
 opinion, or some trade or other interest. There are exceedingly few of the 
 trivial or ephemeral magazines of the day admitted to the tables. The 
 reading in this room is nearly equal in amount to that in the reading hall, 
 so that taking books and periodicals together, the use is not less than a 
 million annually. 
 
 In November, 1877, the library opened its doors with a collection of 
 14,000 volumes; when in 1890 the books were removed from their first 
 home in Ingram Street they numbered 89,000, and in August, 1896, the 
 number of volumes in the library was about 120,000. The payments 
 made for books, magazines, etc., out of the Mitchell fund have been upwards 
 of ;^2 1,000, and while the entire expenditure has exceeded ;^8 8,000, the 
 Mitchell fund, including the Logan, Campbell, and M'Pherson bequests, still 
 exceeds ^43,000. In 1891 the Town Council voted i^2000 out of the 
 surplus revenue of the Gas Trust for behoof of the library, and since that 
 year an annual grant of a like amount has been made from the moneys 
 received from Government under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) 
 Act, Scotland, 1 890. The revenue from the Mitchell Library fund is now 
 about ;^I200, and these two sums just about balance the expenditure. 
 There is, besides, the Moir fund (about ;^ 10,500) available for the purchase 
 of special books, from which, after payment of an annuity, about ;6^ioo a 
 year is received. 
 
 The chief want of the library is an adequate and assured revenue. At 
 present many works of importance are left unpurchased for want of funds, 
 while the continuance of the annual grant of ;i^2000 out of the local taxation 
 payment is uncertain. 
 
 The library premises cannot be regarded as other than temporary and 
 insufficient for the requirements of a vast city. The position, though fairly 
 central, is incapable of expansion ; it is closely built up to with extensive 
 warehouse properties, which offer a constant menace of destruction by fire. 
 Already there is a feeling of cramped accommodation ; there is much over- 
 crowding through winter months, while space for books is approaching 
 
 2 A
 
 370 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 exhaustion, and it is obvious that provision of larger and more secure 
 buildings will soon become an urgent need. 
 
 The whole subject of public libraries for the City is one which calls for 
 the most careful consideration of all who, whether in public or private station, 
 desire the best welfare of the community. It is in this department of 
 municipal administration that Glasgow compares most unfavourably with 
 other leading centres of population. Indeed, it may be affirmed that the 
 most serious reproach to which the intelligence and culture of the population 
 are subject would be removed were the City put in possession of a well- 
 considered and fully equipped system of public libraries and reading rooms, 
 such as is possible under the operation of the Acts to that end provided. 
 To the many advantages the citizens now enjoy from a bold yet sagacious 
 development of municipal activities would be added the advantages and com- 
 forts of a reading room and the inestimable benefits of a well-stocked library 
 within easy access of every household within the wide bounds of Glasgow.
 
 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 En- 
 dowments Board : Unity of educational administration : Endowments yet in charge of 
 Council : Imperial grants. 
 
 The Grammar School of Glasgow, in these days known as the High 
 School, is said to have been founded at a period so remote as the early- 
 part of the twelfth century, and could that antiquity be established it might 
 claim to be the oldest institution, having a continuous history, we have in 
 our midst. It is unnecessary to speculate on the conditions under which 
 the school may have been founded and governed at that nebulous period 
 in the history of Glasgow, That the school is of high antiquity is certain, 
 for previous to the foundation of the University in 1450, the doctor — using 
 the term in its classical sense — of the Grammar School is in contemporary 
 records honourably mentioned. 
 
 That the school was more or less directly under the control of the 
 ecclesiastical authorities up till the period of the Reformation is more than 
 probable. Indeed, till that memorable period, everything in Glasgow was 
 under priestly domination ; and something of the civil power of the priests 
 continued for more than a century after their ecclesiastical sway had come 
 to an end. But that the Grammar School of Glasgow came under the 
 control of the General Kirk Session and Presbytery of Glasgow is not the 
 case. From the Reformation period onward the Town Council of Glasgow 
 had sole control not only over the Grammar School, but over all education
 
 372 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 in Glasgow, the University only excepted. They appointed and dismissed 
 the masters, they framed regulations and tables of fees, they paid such 
 supplementary stipends as, in their eyes, seemed good, they maintained the 
 Grammar School buildings, and they gave free premises to certain other 
 teachers. In the case of what we may call adventure schools, they reserved 
 the power to license teachers, and to dictate to them the streets and quarters 
 in which they should exercise their calling. 
 
 The earliest preserved record of the connection of the Town Council with 
 the Grammar School occurs in the Treasurer's accounts, where, under date of 
 October, 1577, is an entry for " xij threif of quheit straye to theik the 
 grammer scole" 48s. (Scots). Here we have the vision of a low thatched erection, 
 situated in the Greyfriars or Grammar School Wynd, nearly opposite the site 
 subsequently occupied by the College in the High Street, the roof of which could 
 be covered with twelve threaves of wheaten straw. That it was in a ruinous 
 condition, and therefore probably an ancient erection, we learn from the 
 Council Minutes a month later, when, on i6th November, 1577, the Master 
 of Works was ordained " to mak the grammer scole watterfast, and at the 
 Spring of the year to mend the west parts thairof " The repairs if carried 
 out staved off more radical action till 1600, when, on 28th May, the 
 Council resolved to " visie the Schole and to sie quhat will repair the same 
 sufficiently." Repairs only were thought of at that time, and in July also, 
 when certain penalties against heritors and occupiers in Garngadhill were 
 impounded for the repairs ; but on 23rd August the policy of patching was 
 abandoned, and the Council resolved " that in respect thai think na thing 
 mair profitabill, first to the glory of God, nixt the weill of the towne, to 
 have ane Grammer Schole, and that the same is altogidder rwinus and man 
 be of new biggit, and that thai have promesit sindry supportis thairto of 
 befor, quhilk as yet is nocht perfyitit, thairfor thai have ordanit every counsale 
 daye that the same salbe first proponit be maister John Blakburne, schole- 
 maister, quhill the work be perfyitit. And als be woit thai have ordanit 
 the haill stanes of the rwinus dekayit fallin dovne bak almoushous pertenyng 
 to the towne to be dedicat to the bigging and reparatioune of the Grammer 
 Schole." Later in the year the Council gave instructions to have the building 
 proceeded with under the directions of the master, Mr. John Blackburne, 
 and another, who were to get the work done " as gud chaipe as they can." 
 The erection was completed in 1601, and in it was built a memorial stone 
 with the legend: 1601. SCHOLA GrammaticoR. A Senatu CIVIBUSQUE 
 GLASCUANIS BONAR. LiTERAR. PATRONIS CONDITA. 
 
 Mr. John Blackburne, at this time master of the Grammar School, was 
 a man of great influence and eminence ; and from many circumstances it is 
 evident that his worth was appreciated by the Town Council. He had 
 been Lord Rector of the University in 1592 and 1594; and when, in 1601, 
 it was reported that he was to be called " furth of the towne to sum
 
 EDUCATION. SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS 373 
 
 ministrie," a deputation was appointed to appear before the presbytery 
 " requeisting thame in the townes name to help and furder him with ony 
 benefeit about the towne for his support quhen it sail happin to wark, 
 quhairby he may be retenit within the towne to be master of the grammer 
 schole." The joint efforts of Council and Presbytery were successful, and 
 the appreciated services of Blackburne were retained. In the previous year 
 he had conferred on him by the Council a chaplainry which had fallen 
 vacant, and they had agreed to increase the fees charged by him for the 
 augmentation of his income to 5 s. Scots per quarter for himself and 20 pence 
 for his Doctor. By other entries in the Council records, we find that Black- 
 burne had also been granted the right to nominate, or to receive the fees 
 paid on the entry of, two burgesses yearly, which right was ultimately com- 
 muted by a money payment of 40 merks. Further, he received from the 
 Council one half of the feu duties created over ground attached to the 
 School, and altogether he appears to have been an exceptionally honoured 
 citizen. 
 
 Nevertheless, his dignities and his learning did not exempt him from the 
 careful supervision and criticism of the Council. The Council's sanction to 
 the augmentation of fees was accompanied by the conditions (ist) that he 
 should " furness ane sufficient doctor as salbe presentit to the provest, bailleis 
 and counsale to be agreit on be thame," and (2nd) " the maister sail compeir 
 the first Setterdaye every monethe in the yeir in the counsalehous, and thair, 
 in presens of the provest, baillies and counsale, offer him ready to abyde 
 tryall of his instructing and of his doctoris, vtherwyis the augmentatioune 
 to be dischargeit." 
 
 Mr. Blackburne, we have seen, came under obligation to nominate a 
 sufficient doctor as his assistant in the Grammar School, and it would appear 
 that these two constituted the entire school staff At the same time there 
 was a teacher, John Buchan, not under Blackburne, who prepared pupils to 
 be passed on to the Grammar School, for the Council on the day they fixed 
 Blackburne's augmentation of fees, etc., also ordained John Buchquhane to 
 have "of every scholler quarterle 5s. and 20 pence to the doctor, and ordanit 
 Mr. John Blackburne nocht to resave ony of his scolleris but his testimoniall 
 quhair thai have payit thair scollege, and the provest promseit to gif him 
 ;^20 of the maltmen's compositioune to be sum support presentle." Black- 
 burne's connection with the Grammar School ceased in 161 5 on his presentation 
 to the Church and Parish of Barony. 
 
 In 1649 the school staff consisted of a master and two doctors, and in 
 respect that no settled stipend had hitherto been set apart for the doctors, 
 the Council agreed that " the first doctor sail have ane yeirlie stipend of 
 ane hundrethe pundis ; and the second ane hundrethc merkis yeirlie " ; but 
 in the same year an upper doctor was appointed with an annual salary of 
 200 merks. The doctors of the Grammar School appear all to have been
 
 374 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 licentiates of the Church, and they added to their incomes by pulpit services, 
 for which they received fees sometimes from the Council. Their educational 
 duties were strictly limited to the teaching of Latin in the school ; and the 
 Shorter Catechism, when it came into use, was taught and recited on Sundays, 
 on which day masters had also the charge of their scholars at church morning 
 and afternoon. 
 
 But the paternal care and supervision of the Town Council were extended 
 to, and exercised also over the more elementary educational interests of the 
 City. Schools were numerous in Glasgow towards the middle of the sixteenth 
 century, and while it was obvious that grades were recognized, it is not 
 easy to define their distinctions. The most numerous class of schools were 
 known as Scots schools, in which reading in the vernacular was probably 
 the principal exercise. In the English schools a higher grade of education 
 was given, and more subjects were probably taught. Great attention was 
 devoted to music, and teachers were encouraged to settle in the town for 
 giving instruction in special subjects. In July, 1626, the Town Council 
 agreed with James Sanderis to give him exclusive right of teaching music 
 within the burgh, he to receive los. quarterly for himself and 4od. for his 
 man. The arrangement does not appear to have been successful, and twelve 
 years later the following Minute was agreed to by the Town Council : 
 
 " Foirsameikle as of befoir thair was ane act sett doun in favouris of 
 James Sanderis, reidder, that na maner of persone sould be permittit to teitche 
 musik within this burgh, or keip ane schooll to that effect, except himself 
 allenerlie, as the act in the selff beiris ; and now seing that the musik schooll 
 is altogidder dekayit within this burgh, to the grait discredit of this citie 
 and discontentment of sindrie honest men within the same, who hes bairnes 
 whom they would have instructit in that art, and that Duncane Birnet, who 
 sumtyme of befoir teatchit musik within this brughe, is desyrous to tak vp 
 the said schooll againe and teitche musik thairin, quhairpon the saidis provest, 
 bailyeis, and counsall convenit the said James Sanderis befoir thame, and 
 efter deliberatioun thairanent they, with consent of the said James Sanderis 
 (in respect of the former act sett doun in his favouris), hes grantit licence to 
 the said Duncane Birnett to tak vp ane musik school within this brugh during 
 thair will and pleasouris, he taking fra the toun barnes suche skollegis as is 
 contenit in the act sett doun of befoir in favouris of the said James Sanderis." 
 
 In 1639 the subject of English schools came under the consideration of 
 the Council, and the following minute was agreed to : 
 
 " For certaine guid consideratiounes moveing the saidis provest, bailyies, 
 and counsall, it is statut and ordanit be them that nae mae Inglisch scoolles 
 be keipit or haldin within this brughe heirefter bot four only, with ane 
 wrytting schooll, and the maisteris thairof to be admitit be this place and 
 receave injunctiouns thairfra anent the place of thair duelling, and vtheris 
 neidfull, and ordanis this to be intimat be sound of drum." The keepers
 
 EDUCATION. SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS 
 
 375 
 
 of Scots schools were under obligation to teach the children of the poor 
 free of charge, and such amount of popular education as was at that time 
 within the reach of the masses was obtained in these institutions. Their 
 supervision gave the Town Council no small amount of concern, as un- 
 authorized, and probably poorly qualified, instructors had frequently to be 
 dealt with. A minute dated 25th March, 1654, throws some light on the 
 organization, number, and management of these popular institutions : 
 
 " Forasmuche as be ane former ordour of the counsell the magistratis and 
 sundrie members thairof did visit the haill Scottis scoolles, and they finding 
 efter tryell that sundrie persounes had takine vpe scoolles no wayes being 
 authoreizit be the magistratis and counsell, quhilk is against all reasone or 
 forme ever heirtofoir observit in the lyk, and the saidis Scottis scoolemasters 
 haveing this day compeirit according to ane warning maid to them, and 
 sundrie of them haveing givine in thair supplicatiounes most humblie requeist- 
 ing warrand to continow in the keiping of thair scooles and vthers to tak 
 vpe Scottis who never had of befoir ; efter consideratioune thairanent 
 
 takin be the saids magistratis and counsell, they did as they doe heirby 
 warrand thir persounes, viz., Mr. Thomas Smeittoune, Mr. Thomas Muir, 
 Mr. William Forrest, Johne M'Clae, James Clerk, younger, William Bogle, 
 Johne Patersoune, and Mr. Gilbert Wilsoune to continow in holding and 
 keiping of thair scooles as formerlie ; and grants warrand to thir persones 
 wha never had warrand to keipe scooles of befoir, to wit, Robert Forrest 
 and James Selkrig, to tak vpe and hold scooles for instructioune of youthe. 
 But the haill foirnamed persones ar admittit to the foirsaid charge wpon 
 thir speciall conditions fallowing, and no otherwayes, to wit, that they carie 
 themselfis religiouslie and honestlie as becomethe, without any kynd of 
 open scandell, and that they keipe morning and evening prayers in thair 
 respective scooles and vther disciplie thairin as becomethe, and that they 
 tak no mor scolledge nor quarter payment frae towne bairnes bot ten 
 schilling quarterlie and double fra straingers, except it will be the will of 
 the parentis and freinds to whom they belong to bestow the samyne wpon 
 them, and that they teache and instruct all poore children whomsomevir 
 wha, or thair parentis or freinds shall requyre the samyne of them frilie, 
 without any kynd of payment or scolledge quhatsomevir ; and that they 
 subscryve thir presentis for the better keiping ordour thairanent. And becaus 
 James Porter lies formerlie vsurpit the priviledge of holding and keiping of 
 ane scoole, for the quhilk he could produce no warrand of the magistratis 
 and counsell as aucht and sould be, and he being warnit to have givin in 
 his petitioun in maner foresaid, according as the rest of the foirnamed 
 persones wer, and seeing he hes slichted and neglectit the ingiveing thairof 
 in the maner as the rest hes done, the forsaids magistratis and counsell hes 
 discharget and does heirby discharge the said James Porter from keiping 
 or holding of any scoole within this brugh quhill he first be warrantid
 
 lye MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 and authoreizit be the magistratis and counsell thairof as he aucht to 
 be." 
 
 That science subjects were but poorly esteemed in the educational system 
 of the seventeenth century is evident from the warrant given in August, 1660, 
 to James Corss, mathematician, to set up a school within the City. Corss 
 in his supplication stated " that he was borne within this burgh and educat 
 therintill, and having studied the knouledge of the mathematicks and obteined 
 ane competent knouledge therin and wther sciences therto belonging, being 
 naturallie adictit thereto from his infancie, and that he resolves to tak wp 
 ane schoole heir for teaching of theis artes and sciences in the vulgar native 
 tongue, quhilk hes not bein done formerlie in this kingdome for want of 
 incuragmentis thereto, and the tyes of birth and educatioune pressis him 
 to mak the first proposelles therof to this his native toune." The Council, 
 taking these circumstances into consideration, granted a license to Corss to 
 take up a school in the City, and promised him their best encouragement in 
 his efforts to spread the knowledge of mathematical science. 
 
 In 1652 occurred the great fire in Glasgow, which in more senses than 
 one burned the heart out of the City. Whether the conflagration affected 
 the Grammar School in the Greyfriars Wynd does not appear ; but it is 
 remarkable that in 1656, just as the town was recovering from the catastrophe, 
 a necessity arose for reconstructing the building, then only 50 years old. It 
 surely cannot be that the modern art of Jerry building was practised at that 
 remote date so adroitly that a public building would become useless within 
 a period so brief, nor was the increase of population such as to render in- 
 creased accommodation essential. From whatever cause arising the fact remains 
 that, in February, 1656, the Master of Work was instructed to have the 
 building taken down with all diligence and to have the slates taken off " as 
 saiflie as may be." " The manner and form " of the new building was soon 
 thereafter settled by the Council, and the Master of Work was instructed 
 to agree with " ane measoune " for the work. In August it was agreed 
 that " sume littill thing be raisit on the wastmost gavill of the grammar 
 schoole, now in building, for the hingin of ane bell thairin quhen the toune 
 sail think it convenient." The " littill thing " is subsequently spoken of as 
 a steeple, and the town provided a bell for it in 1663, a fragment of which, 
 with the City Arms and Latin legend, is preserved to this day in Kelvin- 
 grove Museum. 
 
 In 1685, after the annual visitation of the school by the Council, the 
 principal and masters of the College, and the ministers of the City, a report 
 was obtained from the University authorities and the ministers on the 
 organization and teaching in the institution. The report recommended a five 
 years' course of training in Latin to prepare pupils for entry in the Humanity 
 class in the College, and it prescribed the books and course of study for each 
 year. During that period special care was to be taken to see that the scholars,
 
 EDUCATION. SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS 377 
 
 not only to their masters, but also among themselves, spoke nothing but 
 Latin ; and for Sunday exercise, it was recommended that the boys assemble 
 in school, go to church with the masters forenoon and afternoon ; that about 
 four o'clock they again meet, give an account of the sermons and be instructed 
 and examined in the Shorter Catechism and Confession of Faith in English. 
 
 Disputes between the master and doctors of the school were of frequent 
 occurrence, and they occasionally became so exacerbated that the Council 
 had to adjudicate on them, a task which generally led to the dismissal of 
 the subordinate. In 1738, after a series of such disorders, the Council issued 
 a minute distinctly setting forth the supreme authority of the rector or head- 
 master, and enjoining the doctors, as under masters, to submit to him as 
 their superior, and in no way to contradict him in the exercise of his power. 
 In addition to his own fees and salary, the rector was then entitled to one- 
 fourth part of the fees of the doctors or under masters. In 1740 the rector's 
 salary was ^25 lis. i Jd., that of the doctors was ;>^io, and the quarter's 
 fee per scholar was 3 s. 6d. ; but to add to these meagre incomes a Candlemas 
 offering was yearly given to the masters, under conditions which would disgrace 
 a modern tavern waiter. Anything under 5 s. offered by a pupil on that 
 occasion was received with chilling silence, for that sum he was rewarded 
 with a vivat and cheers, ten shillings evoked a hearty floreat, and a guinea 
 and upwards was rewarded with a gloreat and great applause. 
 
 In 1782 a committee of the Town Council reported in favour of numerous 
 changes in the working of the Grammar School, the most important being 
 the abolition of the office of rector and the conducting of the school by 
 four masters of equal rank, authority, and salary, each of whom should in 
 turn begin a rudiment class and carry it on for four years. Further, the 
 report pointed out that the school-house in Greyfriars Wynd had neither 
 free air nor good light, and that it was without any convenience for the 
 innocent diversion of the boys, and therefore it recommended the erection 
 of a new school-house " in a convenient situation, with all the necessary 
 requisites." The abolition of the rectorship was agreed to by the Town 
 Council, and a committee was appointed to look out for ground fit for 
 building a new Grammar School, with rooms for teaching French, arithmetic, 
 and book-keeping. 
 
 In 1789 the school left its ancient premises in Greyfriars Wynd or 
 Grammar School Wynd for ever, and began its career in buildings in George 
 Street erected from the plans of Mr. George Craig. The front elevation 
 of these buildings is still preserved as the central portion of and main 
 entrance to the Technical College, formerly the Andersonian University. 
 Towards the cost of the building the Council contributed the site and the 
 proceeds of the sale of the vacated property and ground ; the balance of 
 the cost was subscribed by citizens under the express conditions that the 
 new property should belong to the community and be directed and managed,
 
 378 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 as of yore, by the Magistrates and Council alone. Behind the school there 
 was a playground, which extended to m }, square yards, provided for the boys. 
 
 In I 815 the teacher of a fifth class or form was appointed, who, under 
 the name of rector, took charge of boys who had already passed four years 
 under one of the ordinary masters. To the rector was also assigned the 
 duty of teaching the elements of Greek and geography ; but he had neither 
 authority nor control over the other teachers. In 18 16 a teacher of writing 
 and arithmetic was appointed; and so modernized, the school flourished and 
 increased till it outgrew the accommodation in George Street, and another 
 removal was decided upon. The site selected was the slope immediately 
 to the north of the position then occupied, with entry from John Street, 
 and there in 1820 the new school was erected from the designs of Mr. 
 James Cleland, Master of Works. For a time thereafter the school languished, 
 and in 1834 a thorough remodelling of the institution was resolved on. The 
 name was changed from Grammar School to that of High School of Glasgow; 
 the number of classical masters was reduced to two ; special masters were 
 appointed for modern foreign languages, for mathematics, arithmetic and 
 geography, and for drawing ; and the master who formerly taught arithmetic 
 and writing was limited to the latter subject only. In 1836 a teacher of 
 chemistry was appointed, and in the following year his duties were extended 
 to science generally. Under these conditions the school became again a 
 flourishing and popular institution. 
 
 Further reforms and modifications of rule were introduced in i 866, when 
 the school was again brought under the general control of a rector ; a third 
 classical master was appointed, a teacher of German was provided, and 
 gymnastics and fencing were introduced as school subjects. In this state 
 matters continued till, in 1872, the institution, under the provisions of the 
 Education (Scotland) Act was handed over to the control of the Glasgow 
 School Board, a body elected in March of the following year, and there- 
 after the Town Council ceased to have direct connection with the school 
 they had fostered and cared for over a period of several centuries. The 
 contribution which fell to be made from the Common Good of the City, 
 according to clause 46 of that celebrated statute, was fixed by mutual agree- 
 ment of Town Council and School Board at ;^570 per annum, that being 
 the average expended on teaching and erections during the ten previous 
 years. The duty of the Council is now limited to the payment of that 
 amount yearly towards the support of the school they so long maintained. 
 Under the School Board the institution thrives, expands, and keeps abreast 
 of the times. By that body the buildings in John Street were abandoned 
 and the modern premises in Elmbank Street, erected for Glasgow Academy, 
 were, at a cost of ;^3 2,000, secured for the High School. To these premises 
 extensive additions have since been made, but a record of the recent ex- 
 periences of the High School would lead us beyond the direct sphere of
 
 EDUCATION. SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS 379 
 
 the municipality and into a field too wide and attractive to be trenched 
 on in this record. 
 
 In process of time, through bequests, mortifications, and gifts, the Town 
 Council of Glasgow became the administrator, or concerned in the adminis- 
 tration, of a large revenue destined for varied educational objects. While the 
 management of certain of these funds was vested solely in the Council, in others 
 they were associated with official representatives of public bodies, such as the 
 Presbytery, Kirk Sessions, Merchants' House, Trades' House, etc., and in certain 
 cases nominated trustees were associated in the trusts. In some of the trusts 
 the position of the Council representatives was subordinate, and while the 
 funds might be in the keeping of the Corporation, the administrative power 
 rested chiefly in the hands of outsiders. The purposes and conditions of 
 the trusts were varied, and the specific instructions of the testators rendered 
 it impossible to concentrate the benefits of the funds on one common 
 educational object, and thus in isolated effort much labour and supervision 
 were entailed without commensurate benefit to the vast population of the 
 City. Several of the educational endowments of Glasgow were dealt with 
 under the provisions of the Endowed Institutions (Scotland) Act of 1 869 ; 
 and for the regulation of the wealthiest of all — the Hutchesons' Hospital — 
 a special Act of Parliament was obtained in 1872. That important endow- 
 ment will, however, be dealt with in a separate chapter. 
 
 In 1879 the Town Council, in conjunction with other representatives of 
 educational endowments of Glasgow, appointed a committee to consider what 
 action could be taken to secure a more beneficial and systematic application 
 of the funds in their charge. It was remitted to the Town Clerk of Glasgow 
 to prepare a report showing the nature of the various endowments, the parties 
 entrusted with their administration, and the funds available; and a valuable and 
 exhaustive statement was thereupon drawn up by Sir James Marwick. While 
 that report was in preparation, the Educational Endowments (Scotland) Act of 
 1882 was passing through Parliament, and under its provisions Commissioners 
 were appointed with full powers to frame the very schemes for altering the 
 provisions and conditions of endowments which were desired by the adminis- 
 trators of the diverse Glasgow trusts. 
 
 After due inquiry, two schemes were elaborated by the Commissioners 
 under which several scattered educational endowments in charge partly of the 
 Town Council and partly of other official and private trustees were unified 
 and directed for a common educational purpose, as nearly consistent with 
 the intent of the pious donors as was practicable under altered educational 
 conditions. Under one of these schemes the City Educational Endowments 
 Board was constituted, and in its charge were placed Anderson's School, Dr. 
 Andrew Bell's Bequest, Coulter's Mortification, Scotstarvit Mortification, 
 Murdoch's School, Hood's School, Maxwell's School, Alexander's Endow- 
 ment, M'Grigor's Bequest, Macfarlane's School, and M'Millan's Bequest.
 
 38o 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 The governing body was constituted of twenty-one members, eleven 
 elected by the Town Council, the others being from the School Board, 
 the City Ministers, the Senate of the University, the Merchants' House, 
 and the Trades' House. Power was given to the Board to discontinue 
 schools, to apply one-sixth of the annual free income for free scholarships in 
 elementary schools, and to expend ^loo yearly on clothing for necessitous free 
 scholars; they were instructed to give ^1500 yearly in the form of school 
 bursaries of a value of not less than i^5, not more than £\o\ to apply i^/oo 
 yearly in providing technical and secondary education; and to devote ;^500 
 towards establishing university bursaries. It was also a condition of the 
 scheme that the Board should contribute an annual sum of not less than 
 ;i^i400 to the governing body of the Technical College. In the allocation 
 of bursaries and free scholarships power was given to co-operate with other 
 governing bodies controlling endowments similarly destined, and they were 
 empowered to allocate bursaries and scholarships among groups of schools of a 
 similar class. The Board were also authorized to establish and maintain a 
 higher class school for boys within the buildings occupied by Alexander's 
 Charity, and to expend on the support of such school up to £7^0 per annum. 
 
 The City Educational Endowments Board at 31st December, 1894, had 
 at the credit of their capital account ;^ 15 8,440, invested principally in feu 
 duties, in stocks, and lent on heritable bonds. The annual income of the 
 Board amounted to about ^6540, and the expenditure under the scheme on 
 educational purposes was ^^4541. After defraying the expense of admin- 
 istration and expenses on property, etc., there remained a balance of surplus 
 revenue equal to ^^850, which went to swell the capital account. 
 
 The Educational Endowments dealt with under the second scheme, 
 which constituted the Glasgow General Educational Endowments Board, 
 comprised Muir's School Fund, Millar and Peadie's School, Wilson's School, 
 Gardner's School, M'Lachlan's School, and Graham's School. The governing 
 body under this scheme consists of seventeen persons, of whom three only 
 are nominated by the Town Council, and the general powers conferred on 
 the Board are similar to those under which the City Endowments Board 
 act. The Governors were instructed to discontinue the several schools 
 existing at the date of framing the scheme, and to sell or let the premises 
 and compensate dismissed teachers. They were instructed to apply not 
 more than one-third of the free annual income in providing free scholarships 
 in elementary schools; they were authorized to expend ;^ioo yearly on 
 clothing for necessitous free scholars ; one-fourth of the income was to be 
 devoted to establishing school bursaries of from L"^ to ;^io yearly; not less 
 than ^500 yearly falls to be spent on technical and secondary school 
 bursaries, and not more than ^500 was to be applied in providing bursaries 
 in evening classes for higher or technical education. The Governors were 
 further empowered to give, should they see fit, an annual subsidy, not
 
 EDUCATION. SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS 38 1 
 
 exceeding ^^^400, to any school or schools of domestic economy established 
 in Glasgow; and they were bound to institute two bursaries of £2^ annual 
 value to be called the Muir Divinity Bursaries, tenable at the Divinity Hall 
 of Glasgow University. 
 
 At the close of 1 894 the capital account of the General Endowments 
 Board stood at ^^77,450; and the annual income was about ^^3000, derived 
 from rents and feu duties, interest on heritable bonds, dividends on stocks, etc. 
 The educational expenditure amounted to ^^1766, and after defraying expense 
 of administration and expenditure on properties, a surplus revenue of ^.-700 
 fell to be added to the capital stock of the Board. 
 
 It is of advantage that these schemes, in common with the scheme 
 under which the Hutchesons' Educational Trust is constituted, have hitherto 
 been carried on under one secretary and administrative staff In this way 
 all conflict is avoided, unity of purpose is secured, the educational benefits 
 of the three schemes are spread over the population in a manner which would 
 be impossible under isolated and separate administration. The economy 
 also of the arrangement is not the least advantageous condition ; the bursary 
 examinations are simultaneously held, the papers are set and examined by 
 official experts, and the competition itself, extending over the whole field of 
 local elementary education, must have a highly stimulating effect. 
 
 Since these schemes were formulated in 1885 a great change has come 
 over the elementary education of the country; and now that payment of fees 
 in elementary schools has practically ceased, free scholarships in elementary 
 schools are no longer required, and the assistance meantime afforded under 
 that head is confined to supplying books and stationery to the children selected 
 for such aid. Hence, there is already an urgent necessity for an amendment 
 of the schemes under which the endowments are administered. Elementary 
 education being free and compulsory, the fields in which endowments can 
 be profitably employed are in encouraging the continuance of instruction 
 beyond the meagre compulsory limit, in widening the avenues to higher 
 education, and in developing and promoting technical and scientific instruc- 
 tion, in which Scotland yet lags behind. 
 
 The Commissioners, under the Educational Endowment Act of 1882, 
 were precluded from interfering with endowments (ist) gifted after the passing 
 of the 1872 Education Act, (2nd) belonging to or administered by the Uni- 
 versities, and (3rd) those applicable to theological instruction. In consequence 
 there remain, under the direct administration of the Town Council, University 
 bursary funds having a capital value of about ^4000 ; they are trustees for 
 several small funds for providing medals at the High School ; and they have 
 in their hands ^^500 mortified by Dr. Thomas Chalmers and the Kirk Session 
 of St. John's Church in 1822, with the object of making a good education 
 accessible to the poorer families in St. John's Parish. Under the trust of 
 Lieutenant Colonel Maclean, the Council administer a capital sum of ^26,000
 
 382 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 in providing education of poor and deserving boys named Maclean throughout 
 Scotland, and this they do by giving about thirty school bursaries of £1 
 yearly, and three university bursaries of £2^ each. 
 
 In the exercise of their discretionary power in dealing with the variable 
 residue grant received under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act 
 of 1890, the Town Council, while allocating a proportion to the relief of the 
 police rates and making a contribution to the support of the Mitchell Library, 
 have given liberal grants for strictly educational purposes. In the year 
 1894-95 the City received as its share of the residue grant ^9150, out of 
 which there was paid to the Technical College ;6^2 500, to the Weaving School 
 ^150, and to the School of Art, £l^o. 
 
 When it is added that the Town Council have a voice in the distribution 
 of Glasgow's share of the i^6o,ooo allocated for secondary education in 
 Scotland under the Education and Local Taxation Account (Scotland) Act 
 of 1892, we have come to the latest of the educational functions of the 
 Corporation, and the last which falls to be here recorded.
 
 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 : Anministration : Number 
 of Hospital pensioners : How qualified and selected : Gradual growth of revenues : The 
 patrons and their committees. 
 
 The great charitable and educational foundation, the Royal Incorporation 
 of Hutchesons' Hospital, was instituted in 1641. It may be looked on as 
 an indirect outcome of the Reformation, as a proof of the growing power 
 and influence of municipal authority in the seventeenth century, and as an 
 evidence that care for the helpless and needy at the two extremes of human 
 life had come to be regarded as a pious and praiseworthy duty. George 
 Heriot in Scotland set the example of confiding to the municipal authorities 
 the trusteeship of his wealth devoted to the upbringing and secular education 
 of poor children ; and his example, worthily followed by the brothers 
 Hutcheson, was fruitful of vast educational and charitable benefits through- 
 out the country. In pre- Reformation times these endowments would un- 
 doubtedly have been entrusted to the clergy, largely they would have been 
 devoted to the glorification of the Church and to the extension of its power 
 and influence. It is obvious that vast sums were during the centuries of 
 Roman domination mortified to the Church in Scotland, for otherwise whence 
 the great estates it possessed at the time of the Reformation, whence the 
 vast and magnificent buildings which were scattered over the length and 
 breadth of the poor and thinly peopled land? Most of the wealth which 
 pious souls had for the glory of God and the good of their souls dedicated
 
 384 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 to the Church passed into the hands of rapacious and unscrupulous nobles, 
 a fact which could not fail to shock and stagger prudent men on benevolent 
 deeds intent. Then, from the Reformation onwards throughout the seventeenth 
 century, ecclesiastical authority was feeble and wavering, and order had given 
 place to perpetual conflict and change. So it happened that municipal 
 authority took the place in the confidence and regard of the " pious donor " 
 which in earlier days had been exclusively the sphere of the dignitaries of 
 the Church. 
 
 The founders of Hutchesons' Hospital were the brothers George and 
 Thomas Hutcheson, George Hutcheson, the elder brother and the founder of 
 the Hospital as distinguished from the school, was a man of substance in 
 Glasgow, a landowner, a lawyer in important practice, and a money lender. 
 He was a man of much force of character and independence of spirit ; he 
 lived to a ripe old age — probably he was between eighty and ninety years 
 old at the time of his death ; and, predeceased by his wife and daughter, 
 he left no family. He died in December, 1639, and lies buried in the 
 family tomb at the east side of the Cathedral of Glasgow. Thomas, the 
 younger brother, was a notary, and received the appointment of Registrar 
 of Sasines for the Barony and Regality of Glasgow and the County of 
 Renfrew. He also was a married man, and he died in 1641, aged 
 fifty-two years, surviv^ed by his childless wife. Thus he lived not quite 
 two years after the death of his elder brother, to whose estates he succeeded 
 as heir-at-law. 
 
 In the year of his death, 1639, George Hutcheson executed a deed of 
 mortification conveying to the Provost, Bailies, Dean of Guild, Deacon-Convener, 
 and the three Ministers of the City, a sum of 20,000 merks — £\ i 1 1 2s. 2d. — 
 with a tenement of land in the Hie Street — Trongate — " to be edified and made 
 ane perfyte Hospital for entertainment of the poor, aged, decrepit men to be 
 placed therein," these men being " merchants, craftsmen, or any other trade, 
 without distinction." The donor contemplated that after building the Hospital 
 there would remain funds sufficient for the support of eleven old men who were 
 to receive specific allowances for food and clothes. Within ten days after the 
 execution of this deed George Hutcheson died, and his younger brother Thomas 
 succeeded to his estates as heir-at-law. The interval between the execution of 
 the deed and his death was too short to give legal validity to the mortification 
 by George Hutcheson, and therefore it was competent for Thomas to disregard 
 his brother's purpose. But Thomas had a higher conception of his duty than 
 mere regard to legal obligations. Without loss of time he ratified and con- 
 firmed his dead brother's deed of mortification, and in so doing he assigned to 
 the patrons an amount of byegone interest due on the sum mortified by George, 
 and " having good mind and will that the said Hospital should be built large 
 and in a comely form," he further conveyed to the patrons, for hospital pur- 
 poses, a barn and barnyard adjoining the tenement gifted by his brother. This
 
 EDUCATION AND CHARITY. HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL 385 
 
 contract was executed in June, 1 640, and in March next year, " following the 
 pious and memorable example " of his worthy brother, he mortified to the 
 Patrons of the Hospital a third tenement of land adjoining the site on which the 
 Hospital was then building, and 20,200 merks Scots money — ;^ii22 4s. — for 
 the purpose of building " in a whole continuous work with the Hospital, and 
 nevertheless to be made a commodious and distinct house of itself, for educating 
 and harbouring twelve male children, indigent orphans, and others of like con- 
 dition and quality." The deed contains numerous specific directions as to the 
 boys, who, it declares, " shall be all burgesses' sons of the Burgh of Glasgow 
 who either want parents or whose parents are not able to maintain them, and 
 a preference to be given to the names of Hutcheson and Herbertson." The 
 patronage of the mortification was conferred on the Town Council of Glasgow, 
 and the Provost, Bailies, and Council were directed yearly to elect from among 
 themselves a " Master of the Hospital," who, with four others and four ministers 
 of the town were to be entrusted with the administration of the institution. 
 
 That Thomas Hutcheson contemplated the establishment of a single in- 
 stitution having unity of government, but two distinct sides and objects, is 
 obvious from the terms of his mortification, which specifies that the building for 
 boys " shall be in a whole continuous work with the Hospital." His subsequent 
 gifts still further emphasize the purpose of having one institution with two sides 
 — charitable for the aged and charitable and educational for the young. On 
 the 3rd July, 1 64 1, Thomas further mortified, by way of codicil or " eik," an 
 additional 10,000 merks — iJ^SSS lis. stg. — for the further help of the twelve 
 founded orphans and supply to the twelve old men — eleven it was his brother 
 mentioned. And finally, a few days later, on the i6th July, 1641, he executed 
 another deed assigning to the Provost, Bailies, and Council, as Patrons of the 
 Hospital " now building within the City of Glasgow," the further sum of 10,500 
 merks — ^^583 6s. 8d. — "for the better help and supply of the said eleven 
 founded persons." Thus, in addition to three tenements of land and certain 
 overdue interest, the sums mortified by the brothers, principally by Thomas, 
 and in law entirely by him, were : 
 
 For aged men, 20,000 merks ^1,1 11 2 2 
 
 For boys,- .--.-. 20,200 merks 1,122 4 o 
 
 Common to both, 20,500 merks 1,138 17 10 
 
 60,700 merks ^3o72 4 o 
 
 But to this amount there probably also ought to be added a .sum of 8000 
 merks, which, according to the minute book of the patrons, was received 
 from a wadset upon the lands of Cardonald, mortified for the use of the 
 Hospital, and an advance of 3620 for the erection of the building, 3000 of 
 which was to be repaid, but apparently that sum was never claimed. These 
 sums, amounting to £6^^^ lis. id. stg., bring up the total money endow- 
 
 2 p
 
 386 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 ments of the Hutcheson brothers to upwards of ;^4000, a very large amount 
 of money for the middle of the seventeenth century. 
 
 Thomas Hutcheson died on ist September, 1641, like his brother, too 
 soon after the execution of certain of his deeds to render them legally unassail- 
 able, and therefore it became necessary that they should be ratified and 
 confirmed by his three surviving sisters, which was accordingly done. 
 
 Some progress had been made with the erection of the original Hospital 
 buildings during the lifetime of Thomas Hutcheson. They were begun on 
 1st March, 1641. Hutcheson himself laid the foundation stone on the 19th 
 of that month, but the work was not completed till 1650, and the whole 
 cost was ^26,194 8s. 8d. Scots — ;^2i82 los. 8d. stg. In the meantime 
 Colin Campbell, a bailie of the City, had during the lifetime of Hutcheson 
 been appointed first master and collector of the Hospital, the first pensioner 
 was elected on 13th November, 1643 ; on the same date an orphan boy 
 was elected to the educational side of the institution, and from that day to 
 this the benefit of Hutchesons' Hospital has been dispensed to the weak and 
 helpless among the citizens, and the charity has grown from a small rill to 
 a broad flowing river. 
 
 While the capital accumulations have been largely due to fortunate invest- 
 ments and natural growth — unearned increment of our later days — numerous 
 additions have been made to the funds by gifts, bequests, and mortifications. 
 Of these one of the most considerable is Blair's Mortification of 17 10, by 
 which 10,000 merks were assigned to the Patrons of the Hospital, out of 
 the revenues of which pensions were to be paid to three old indigent men, 
 and the balance was to be applied for the education of four boys between 
 six and twelve years of age. Under a deed of mortification and codicil, 
 dated 1776 and 1779 respectively, Daniel Baxter mortified half his estate 
 if survived by his widow, or the whole if she predeceased him, to the Patrons 
 of the Hospital with complex directions, first for lending it out in small 
 sums without interest to struggling craftsmen and burgesses, and next for 
 the support of three poor burgesses, three poor women, widows or daughters 
 of respectable burgesses, and to six children of such burgesses for their 
 education for four years. The pensions were to be ;^ioo Scots — £Z 6s. 8d. 
 stg. — each for the elders, and £^0 Scots for each child. The loan scheme 
 was soon found to be unworkable, and the proceeds of the mortification, the 
 capital amount of which is ;^3000 stg., are expended on pensions as directed, 
 and for education as will be hereafter noticed. Under his will, dated 14th 
 October, 1818, William Scott bequeathed to the patrons ;^i 2,500, the revenue 
 of which he directed should be applied for the support of old men and old 
 women, and for the clothing and education of boys in accordance with the 
 regulations of the Hospital. The income was to be allocated, one-fourth for 
 men, one-fourth for women, and a half for boys, and Mr. Scott desired 
 the pensions for men should be not less than ^20, and for women ;^i 5
 
 EDUCATION AND CHARITY. HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL 387 
 
 yearly. The names of Scott and Anderson were to be preferred to these 
 benefits. 
 
 The Trustees, under the settlement of Miss Mary Hood in 1827, con- 
 veyed to the Patrons of the Hospital i^6ooo, the interest of which was to be 
 applied in providing pensions for unmarried women of irreproachable character 
 and in needy circumstances dwelling in the Barony or the City Parishes 
 of Glasgow. The name of Hood gets preference under this charity, and it 
 was directed that relatives of Miss Hood should be preferred, even should 
 they not comply with the conditions of residence, character, social condition, 
 etc., applicable to others. The Hood fund is administered as directed 
 in providing pensions ranging from ;f5 to ^10 yearly to women who are 
 qualified according to the above conditions. 
 
 But the marvellous increase in the wealth and prosperity of the institution 
 is not to be traced to these and other additional endowments, substantial as 
 they are. It was a direction of the Hutchesons' that their funds should be 
 invested in heritable property, and they were empowered " to lend furth and 
 bestow the samyn upon the cheapest and best haldin, arrabill lands they can 
 gett to buy therewith, near to the said burgh." In pursuance of this policy 
 the patrons acquired the lands of Ramshorn and Meadowflat, which belonged 
 at the time of their death to the brothers Hutcheson, and in which the 
 widow of Thomas had been liferented. In 1694 they were the property 
 of Ninian Hill, a grand-nephew of the founders, and from him they were 
 acquired by the patrons for 20,300 merks. These lands, with some outlying 
 pieces subsequently acquired, extended to upwards of 46 acres, and cover 
 what is now the most central, busiest, and most valuable area of the City, 
 and had they till recent times remained the property of the Hospital they 
 would now have yielded an enormous annual revenue. They form an oblong 
 compact block, practically including all the ground from the Ramshorn 
 Churchyard along the north of Ingram Street to West Nile Street, the 
 northern boundary being the Rottenrow, Cathedral Street, and the central 
 portion of Queen Street Station, to the corner of West Regent Street and 
 West Nile Street. It will be seen that in this area is included the best 
 part of Buchanan Street, all George Square, the General Post Office, the 
 Municipal Buildings, the north side of Ingram Street, a slice of Queen 
 Street Station, the Inland Revenue Offices, Anderson's College, and numerous 
 other important public buildings. With it also the original Hospital garden 
 bounded, which, running down Hutcheson Street, ended in the first Hospital 
 buildings which faced the Trongate. But in 1772 these lands were con- 
 veyed to the Town Council, and being soon thereafter built over, the first 
 profit accrued to the City rather than to the Hospital. 
 
 The most important and earliest purchase, however, made on behalf of 
 the Hospital was the half interest in the Gorbals lands acquired, as already 
 stated, in 1650 by the town on behalf of the Hospital to the extent of one
 
 388 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 half, the remainder being equally divided between the Trades' House and 
 the City itself. The remarkable outcome of this purchase has already been 
 noticed in dealing with the affairs of the Trades' House, and here it may 
 only be repeated that the purchase money paid on behalf of the Hospital 
 for the half share amounted to ;^3388, and at the present day that half 
 share yields to the Hospital an annual income of i^i 7,500, and that there 
 yet remain 34 acres of unfeued Gorbals lands, the property of the Hospital, 
 valued, according to an estimate made so long ago as 1843, ^t ^^16,930, 
 a sum far below their present market value, seeing that portions have been 
 feued at a rate equal to £y26 yearly per acre of yearly feu duty. 
 
 In 1 86 1 the patrons, having sold a large slice of Gorbals lands to the 
 Glasgow and South-Western Railway, invested surplus funds to the amount 
 of ;^24,ooo in the purchase of Camphill, contiguous to the Queen's Park and 
 not far removed from the southern boundaries of the Gorbals lands. This 
 property covers an area of about 58 acres, and after holding it for 24 
 years, it also was acquired by the City in 1894 at a price of ^^63,000. 
 In 1 87 1 the patrons purchased a small property, Westends, ten acres in ex- 
 tent, bounding with the Gorbals estate and lying between it and Camphill, 
 It forms a compact addition to the Gorbals feuing property, and served almost 
 to connect these with the Camphill grounds. 
 
 The early experiences of the Hospital as a working institution were not 
 encouraging. Scarcely was the house finished and open in 1650 ere it was 
 found that the revenues, crippled by the investment in Gorbals lands, were 
 insufficient to meet obligations already contracted, and the patrons were con- 
 strained to dismiss their schoolmaster, shut up the boys' school, to board out 
 such as they had in their hands in the best manner they could, and to re- 
 duce the number of and curtail the pension allowances to old men. It was 
 not till 1667 that the returning tide of prosperity enabled the patrons once 
 more to harbour the full complement of twelve men and twelve boys con- 
 templated under the original foundation. 
 
 At a very early date indeed — poverty and retrenchment notwithstanding 
 — the letter of the Hutcheson mortifications was departed from in important 
 respects. It will be observed that the foundations were expressly for men 
 and boys — "eleven aged men," says George Hutcheson, "twelve male children" 
 are specified by Thomas. These directions notwithstanding, almost from the 
 very beginning there is evidence direct and indirect that women were ad- 
 mitted to share in the benefits of the bequest. In 1648 a female pensioner 
 — Christina Herbertson — was enrolled nominally to wash clothes and to have 
 ten pounds quarterly in respect " she is a near kinswoman of the foundators." 
 Probably she was a cousin of the Hutchesons, whose mother was named 
 Helen Herbertson. Other females were indirectly benefited by being allowed 
 to dwell in family with their husbands, pensioners on and lodged in the 
 Hospital. More female relations of the founders were subsequently admitted.
 
 EDUCATION AND CHARITY. HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL 389 
 
 and the way being thus opened up the patrons did not hesitate, having, as 
 they deemed, fulfilled the conditions of the mortifications, to share the surplus 
 funds among poor women whose husbands or male relatives would have been 
 entitled to the privileges. In 1737 a formal minute was passed by the 
 patrons, which ordained that after paying the pensions of twelve old men and 
 twelve boys, whose support was looked on as a first charge on the fund, the 
 surplus revenues might be applied for the benefit of the widows and daughters 
 of persons who would themselves have been eligible. From that time onwards 
 women as well as men were regularly admitted pensioners on the revenues, 
 and in 1760 there were 22 women to 16 men and 17 boys. Ever since 
 the number of female pensioners has exceeded, and now very greatly exceeds, 
 the number of male beneficiaries. The term " old woman " is one of very 
 elastic signification, and it must have been so regarded by the patrons, for 
 in 1 740 an " old woman," Betty Stark, was admitted a pensioner, and 66 
 years afterwards her funeral expenses fell to be paid by the Hospital. 
 
 It was an obvious and distinct purpose of the founders that the men 
 and boy pensioners on the mortifications should reside within the building 
 specially erected for their " entertainment and harbouring," and the old men 
 also were to have yearly " a gown of a convenient colour." The building 
 was indeed the first care of both brothers, and in the early years it was 
 devoted to the purposes for which it was erected. But as early as 1672 
 there is evidence that certain portions of the Hospital building were let to 
 rent-paying tenants, and towards the end of the century considerable inroads 
 had been made on the accommodation of the pensioners by such outsiders. 
 Many years before 1780 the patrons abandoned altogether the idea of 
 continuing to use it as a hospital, and converted the greater part into shops 
 and warehouses, and in the year above mentioned there were only four or 
 five " pauper " women left in the building, paying no rent and occupying 
 rooms in all valued at .i^io per annum. " In short, for many years, there 
 has no such thing existed as a hospital for lodging, clothing, and main- 
 taining the pensioners and schoolboys." It is right to say that by this 
 time, 1780, the aged pensioners on the fund numbered 47 men and 
 63 women, a number far exceeding what could possibly lodge within the 
 building, which was originally devised for at most twelve men and a like 
 number of boys. It does not appear that boys ever again were harboured 
 within the building after 1652, when by pressure of poverty and the Gorbals 
 purchase they were sent home to their relatives a brief two years after the 
 Hospital building was finished. 
 
 In 1821 a Royal Charter was obtained, erecting the Hospital into an 
 incorporation under the title of the Royal Incorporation of Hutchesons' 
 Hospital in the City of Glasgow, the patrons therein nominated being the 
 Preceptor, the Lord Provost, Magistrates and Councillors, and the ministers of 
 the Established Churches in Glasgow, their number being then, as now, ten.
 
 390 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 The charter in no way varied the duties of patrons, and it cannot be said 
 that due legislative sanction was given to their departure from the letter 
 of the mortifications till the passing of the Hutchesons' Hospital Act of 
 1872. Under that enactment the body of patrons is increased, and now 
 includes the Preceptor, elected annually from their own number, the Lord 
 Provost, Magistrates, Dean of Guild, Deacon-Convener, and Councillors, the 
 ten ministers of the City parishes, three representatives from the Merchants' 
 House, three from the Trades' House, and six members elected by the patrons 
 from among the dissenting ministers in Glasgow. The several mortifications, 
 bequests, and gifts added to the Hospital after the time of the Hutchesons' 
 are dealt with under the Act, and it is provided that the proportion of 
 general revenue to be expended on pensions shall not exceed two-thirds, 
 nor be less than one-half The whole of Hood's Mortification is to be 
 expended in pensions to unmarried females, and Scott's to be equally divided 
 between pensions and education. Large powers are conferred on the patrons 
 for dealing with public education, but these powers were again enlarged 
 and modified by the Educational Endowments (1882) Act Commissioners, 
 by whom two-fifths of the annual revenues of the Hospital were allotted 
 to education and placed under the management of a special board, the 
 Hutchesons' Educational Trust ; and the remaining three-fifths alone continue 
 under the Hospital authorities to be administered as a charity. 
 
 The governing body of Hutchesons' Educational Trust, constituted under 
 the scheme of the Commissioners, consist of twenty-one members, eleven 
 elected by the Town Council, three by the School Board, two by the City 
 Ministers, two by the Patrons of Hutchesons' Hospital, and one by each, the 
 University, the Merchants' House, and the Trades' House. They are required 
 to maintain the school for boys and the school for girls which had 
 been instituted by the patrons, and these schools are to continue to bear 
 the name of Hutcheson. The subjects of instruction are prescribed, as are 
 also the fees to be charged from fee-paying children ; and the minimum 
 salary of the headmasters, who must be graduates, is fixed at ^^500 yearly. 
 Foundationers up to the number of 200 may be selected and entered in the 
 schools, these being the children of persons who have been engaged in business 
 or trade in the City, who are needful and deserving in circumstances ; and 
 to these for four years free education in the primary department of the 
 schools or in other public schools, with books and stationery, may be given, 
 and on clothing for such children the governing body are empowered to 
 spend i^50 yearly. They are instructed to institute not fewer than 100 
 free scholarships in the secondary department of the schools, not less than 
 one-third of which they are bound to award to foundationers or to children 
 qualified for the foundation. Not less than ^^^400 yearly is to be spent in 
 school bursaries of from £^ to .^10, which are to be distributed on the same 
 principle as the scholarships. Similarly ;^400 is devoted to the establish-
 
 EDUCATION AND CHARITY. HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL 
 
 391 
 
 ment of university and technical college bursaries, in amounts of from ;^20 
 to £'^0, to be competed for among boys who have attended the Hutchesons' 
 Grammar School at least two sessions. To the Girls' School iJ^200 yearly 
 is allotted for establishing bursaries, not less than ;^I5 nor more than ^^30 
 for higher or professional education, and the governors are empowered to 
 give an annual grant of ;^ioo to any institution in Glasgow for the higher 
 education of women. 
 
 Such are the principal provisions connected with the schools under the 
 Trust. From the remainder of their income the Governors are instructed to 
 pay to the Technical College not less than ;^8oo yearly, to be increased as 
 their funds may permit; and they are to contribute iJ^ioo per annum to 
 the maintenance of the Glasgow School of Art. Surplus revenues the 
 Governors are instructed to invest so soon as they reach .^^500, and these 
 are to be applied towards improving the schools or to building new schools ; 
 and if they choose they may be contributed to the erection or extension of 
 technical schools or the Technical College. With the sanction of the School 
 Board, or failing that, of the Scotch Education Department, they may by 
 themselves or jointly with other Trusts erect and maintain additional higher 
 class schools in the City, and power is given to them to carry out all the 
 purposes of the Trust jointly with the governing bodies of other Educational 
 Trusts in the City. 
 
 For the year ending 31st December, 1894, the income of the Trust 
 was ;^99i2, made up of £>S9^7 from the Hospital funds, ;^2986 from school 
 fees, i^900 from the parliamentary grant for Secondary Education in Scotland, 
 and the balance represented interest on investments, etc. On the Boys' School, 
 with 510 scholars, there was spent ^^400 2, which included expense of 
 foundationers and free scholarships, etc. Similarly for the Girls' School there 
 was spent ^3480. In addition on school bursaries for boys ;^225, and for 
 girls ;!^I25 were expended; university bursaries to the extent of ;^300, and 
 higher education bursaries for girls (^200) were bestowed ; to the Technical 
 College i^8oo was paid ; and the Haldane Trust received a grant of ^100 
 for the School of Art. These sums, with ^^548 for expenses of adminis- 
 tration, nearly equalled the income of the year, and a payment of ^843 
 towards the extension of the Girls' School put the balance for the year on 
 the wrong side. 
 
 Throughout its whole career the charitable side of the Hospital work 
 has been regarded as of the first importance, the number of aged pensioners 
 has always far exceeded the number of enrolled boys, and the proportion 
 of the revenues exj^ended on education, before 1872 especially, was com- 
 paratively small. Of pensioners and beneficiaries there is now a small 
 army numbering in 1895 i 165 persons, 170 men and 995 women, among 
 whom upwards of ;^9000 is divided annually. The selection of beneficiaries 
 from the long list of applications, the personal investigation of the circum-
 
 392 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 stances and antecedents of candidates, and the supervision of those on the 
 roll are tasks which demand the expenditure of much care and labour. The 
 primal qualification of a beneficiary demanded by the Mortification of Thomas 
 Hutcheson was that the recipient should be a decrepit man, over fifty years 
 of age, of " honest life and conversation, known to be destitute and a merchant, 
 craftsman, or any other trade without distinction." The Act of 1872 gives 
 a wide latitude of choice to the patrons, the definition of proper objects of 
 the charity being " persons who, in the estimation of the patrons, may be 
 considered needful and deserving of aid, and who shall have carried on 
 business or trade in Glasgow for some time, and to some extent, on their 
 own account, with credit and reputation, or who shall have been in any way 
 the means of promoting the prosperity of the City, who by misfortune have 
 been reduced in circumstances; and also in favour of the widows and 
 daughters of persons of the above description, whose circumstances the patrons 
 may consider call for such assistance ; and, so far as respects Hood's Mortifica- 
 tion, in favour of unmarried females of irreproachable character, who, if natives 
 of Glasgow, have resided there for at least five years, or who, if not natives, 
 have resided there at least ten years, and who shall be not less than fifty 
 years of age, and shall have been reduced from easy or respectable circum- 
 stances to indigence ; as also in the payment or contribution to the represen- 
 tatives of deceased pensioners, or to such other persons as the patrons may 
 think proper, of an amount equal to one quarter of the annual pension of 
 such pensioners respectively, for or on account of his or her funeral charges 
 or expenses ; Provided always, that none of the foresaid persons, at the time 
 of applying for, or while in the enjoyment of a pension, shall be in the 
 receipt of parochial aid ; and reserving always all and whatever may be 
 the existing rights and, cceteris paribus, preferences of persons enrolled as 
 burgesses of Glasgow previously to the thirteenth day of January, one 
 thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and all other preferences conferred 
 by the hereinbefore recited deeds respectively." 
 
 On the Hutcheson Foundation the name Hutcheson has still a preference; 
 for the Baxter Mortification relatives of the founder, and next the names of 
 Baxter, Barr, Wingate, Cunninghame, and Cameron are preferred; and on the 
 Hood Foundation female relatives and those bearing the name of Hood get 
 preference. Applicants for Hospital pensions are required to fill up a 
 form giving required particulars, and the application must be attested 
 by at least two persons of known respectability as to the previous blame- 
 less life and conversation of the applicants. These applications are 
 submitted to a visiting committee for consideration and investigation. The 
 work of visiting the applicants is allotted to five sub-committees, four for 
 the four quarters of the City and one for non-resident candidates ; and 
 after investigation and comparison a report by the parent committee is 
 submitted to the patrons recommending what are deemed the most worthy
 
 EDUCATION AND CHARITY. HUTCHESONS' HOSPITAL 393 
 
 cases. The enrolment of new pensioners is made yearly in the month 
 of May. 
 
 In all, I 165 persons in the year 1895 received pensions or allowances out 
 of the Hospital revenues, the total amount expended being ^9092. On the 
 Hutcheson Foundation there were 139 male pensioners receiving allowances — 
 seven at ^20, the others at the rates of £\6, £1$, £\2, ;^io, ^8, and one 
 man at £$, while to 15 men "precepts" or temporary aid was granted. Of 
 women there were 882 pensioners with allowances ranging from ten at ;^20 
 down to one woman at ;^5, the greater proportion, 424 receiving £?>, and 299 
 being paid at the rate of ^10, and to 47 "precepts" were granted. On the 
 Blair and Baxter Mortifications there were six men and six women, each of 
 whom received £^ 6s. 8d., or i^ioo Scots. On Scott's Mortification there 
 were 10 men with allowances ranging from £2$ (one) to ^10 (six); and 
 10 women whose pensions ranged from £2/[. (one) to ;^8 (three), 3 getting 
 ^10, 2 ;^i5,and I i^20. Hood's Mortification revenue was divided among 
 50 women in sums from ;^5 to i^i6, i enjoying £\6, i £1^, 6 women being 
 in receipt of ;^io, 20 having £^, 7 receiving £6, and 15 others were paid 
 the minimum £^ each. 
 
 Since the feuing of the Gorbals lands began to make progress in the 
 early part of the nineteenth century, the revenues of Hutchesons' Hospital 
 have increased with steady and gratifying rapidity. In 1750 the income of 
 the Hospital amounted to ^^388, and the capital stock was valued at ;^7i29. 
 In the year 1800 the revenue was equal to ^^1768, and the stock account 
 showed assets ^21,682. In 1820 the revenue amounted to ^3663, and the 
 stock was ^^26,694. In 1840 the income reached ;^6o74, and the stock 
 account had increased to ^^141,131. The year i860 brought in a revenue 
 of ^^"9056, the stock then standing at ^^204,543. In 1880 the revenue rose 
 to ;^i 8,802, and the capital assets were stated at p^395,500. For the year 
 1895 the total revenue of the Hospital amounted to ;i^ 18,2 5 8, and the total 
 assets of the Incorporation were in that year ^431,460, from which deducting 
 the value of the minor mortifications, i^2 1,500, the Whyte Bursary Fund, ^732, 
 and various debts, the balance of assets belonging to the Hospital proper 
 amounted to -^399,245. In the assets it must not be forgotten that the yet 
 unfeued lands of the Hospital, amounting to a little more than 34 acres, are 
 entered according to a valuation made in 1843 ^s being of the value of 
 i^ 1 6,93 I. How far this is under the present market value of the land may be 
 judged by the fact that, in 1894, the patrons were paid for a piece of ground 
 at Govanhill i^ 11,944, which ground stood in the books of the Hospital 
 at ;^I5 52, less than one-seventh of the price obtained. Probably the unfeued 
 ground would, in the open market, at the present moment yield several 
 times the amount at which it is entered in the assets of the Hospital. 
 
 The original conveyance of George Hutcheson was in favour of the 
 Provost, Bailies, Dean of Guild, Deacon-Convener, and the ordinary ministers
 
 394 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 of Glasgow ; that is, six members of the Town Council and three ministers 
 of the Gospel. The subsequent deeds of Thomas Hutcheson were in favour 
 of the Provost, Bailies, and Council, and of the Town of Glasgow, without 
 in either case any mention of ministers ; in fact, from the draft of the 
 Mortification, Thomas expressly deleted " the ordinar mynesteris of Glasgow." 
 When the Trust came into operation the patrons numbered 24, of whom 
 2 1 were of the Town Council and three ministers. The City ministers 
 gradually increased till they numbered ten, all of whom became ex officio 
 patrons. So also has increased the Town Council, which now numbers JT, 
 and thus the relative proportions of these bodies remain almost the same as 
 in 1640. The Act of 1872 added 12 other patrons to the Incorporation, 
 3 each from the Merchants' House and the Trades' House, and 6 dissenting 
 clergymen elected by the patrons themselves. The patrons therefore now 
 number 99, a large body, but the increase is not out of proportion to the 
 growth in the value and importance of the Trust they have to administer. 
 The revenues of Hutchesons' Hospital have grown with the growth of 
 the Town, and substantially it may be said that the ratio of the income 
 available for charity to the population has been uniform throughout the two 
 centuries and a half of Hospital experience. During that long period there 
 has been not less than ;^7 50,ooo divided from Hospital funds for educa- 
 tion and for support of the aged poor, by far the larger share having gone 
 to the latter object. There is no doubt that the charity has been productive 
 of an incalculable aggregate of relief and comfort, and has given serenity 
 to the declining days of thousands of helpless citizens throughout this long 
 period. Pity it is we cannot add that it has reduced the poverty and misery 
 in our midst.
 
 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. 
 
 The care of the poor we have always with us has never been an exclusive 
 function of the Town Council. In pre-Reformation days their support generally 
 was a recognized charge of the Church ; the Merchant Guilds and Trades' 
 Incorporations took care of their own poor brethren, and a large floating 
 population existed by beggary, licensed or unlicensed. When the domination 
 of the Roman Church ceased, its place, so far as regards the oversight of 
 the poor, was taken by Kirk Sessions, and therefore it is that the parish 
 throughout Scotland became the unit for the supervision and the support of 
 the poor. A Kirk Session was first appointed in Glasgow in 1572 ; but in 
 the unsettled state of affairs ecclesiastical, its constitution can only have been 
 feeble, its hold was uncertain, and its power inadequate to deal with the 
 poor of the City. In 1579 an Act of Scots Parliament was passed giving 
 magistrates of burghs and others power to impose, for the relief of the poor, 
 an assessment on the means and property of the population, or alternatively 
 a rate on their rental, a measure rendered necessary by the failure of the 
 ancient source of paupers' support. 
 
 From Council records we are warranted in concluding that begging was 
 an officially recognized means of dealing with the problem of poverty ; and 
 that there were privileged beggars in Glasgow, wearing badges supplied by 
 the magistrates, is clear from the fact that in 1575 the sum of 2s. 3d. Scots 
 money was paid for " row lattoun " (sheet brass) " to be merks for the pure 
 folk." After the great General Assembly of 1638 the Council enacted:
 
 396 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 " The provest, bailyies, and counsall, wnderstanding the guid and comendable 
 ordour that was keipit within this brughe the tyme of last Generall Assemblie 
 be reteining of the poor off the calsay and susteining of them in thair awin 
 houssis, to the great credit of the citie and contentment of all strangeris 
 resorting heir for the tyme, and seing the samein is both godlie and honest, 
 thairfor they have statut and ordanit that the poor be keipit and sustenit in 
 thair houssis as they are now at this present, and the inhabitants of this 
 brughe to be stentit to that effect ; and this day aught dayes ilk counsallour 
 to propone his best overtour what way it can best be accomplisched." 
 
 Thereupon the Council, under powers of the Act of 1579, enacted on 
 I 2th January, 1639, " Efter guid advyse and consideratioun had be the saidis 
 provest and bailyies anent the sustentatioun of the poor, wha is now detenit 
 in thair awin houssis, they have statut and ordanit that thair be advancit 
 to this effect the sowme of sex hundrethe pundis money, and for the bettir 
 inbringing thairof they have ordanit that thair be ane fyft pairt eikit to ilk 
 persounes stent, and the bailyies to collect the samein in with the stent 
 moneyis." 
 
 In 1653, after the occurrence of the great fire in Glasgow, the inhabitants 
 were stented to the extent of ^^300 Scots monthly for the support of the poor ; 
 and for several years thereafter the heavy burden of this impost was felt. 
 With such help the care of the poor, and the administration of the funds 
 collected by both civil and ecclesiastical authorities, devolved on the General 
 Session, a body which consisted of the ministers and elders of the several 
 churches. By the middle of the seventeenth century that body had attained 
 a position of great authority in the City, and it exercised its sway in no 
 meek spirit. 
 
 Throughout the early part of the eighteenth century the funds for the 
 support of the poor were chiefly derived from church-door collections, 
 supplemented by the fees obtained for the proclamation of banns of marriage, 
 and by gifts, donations, and legacies. The collections, fees, and receipts 
 of the several parishes in Glasgow were paid into a common fund under 
 charge of the General Session, to which a return of the poor in the several 
 parishes was made, and each particular kirk session received out of the 
 common fund a sum in proportion to the number of poor on their roll. 
 
 In 1733 the Town's Hospital of Glasgow for the support of the aged 
 and helpless poor was opened, and maintained partly as a charge on the 
 Common Good, partly from contributions from the Merchants' and Trades' 
 Houses, and partly from the assistance of benevolent citizens. In the early 
 years of its working the expenditure was found to so far exceed the revenue 
 that the magistrates were obliged to impose an assessment of ^^250 yearly 
 on the citizens for its maintenance. Notwithstanding the help and relief 
 thus obtained to kirk session funds, the ministers and elders of the City were 
 forced in 1774 to acknowledge that the burden of supporting the poor was more
 
 PUBLIC CHARITY 
 
 397 
 
 than they could bear. Having certified their inability to the Town Council, 
 the magistrates were obliged to fall back on the powers granted to burghs 
 by the 1579 Act; they resolved to assess the inhabitants according to 
 wealth and circumstances, and fifteen assessors were appointed to carry 
 out the delicate duty of apportioning the shares to be paid by each substantial 
 citizen. The proceeds of this grant in aid were paid to the representatives 
 of the General Session, and so, partly by kirk collections, etc., and partly 
 by assessments levied on personal means, the support of the chronic poor 
 was provided for till the passing of the Poor Law Act in 1845. 
 
 But throughout its whole history there have been experienced by Glasgow 
 periods of exceptional distress ; economic storms which necessitated prompt 
 and vigorous action to save a stratum of the population from starvation and 
 death. Failure of employment, dearth, famine prices, severity of weather, 
 and epidemics were among the causes which gave too frequent rise to these 
 appalling calamities ; and fortunately modern conditions of life have removed 
 some of these causes of disaster, they have robbed others of their more 
 terrible features, and generally the symptoms have become more amenable 
 to treatment. Yet still, periods of severe distress occur with painful frequency 
 in a community such as Glasgow, where there are hosts of reckless and 
 improvident people ever on the brink of starvation. From whatever cause 
 exceptional poverty may have arisen, the Town Council have always been 
 looked to as the organization for concerting measures necessary for dealing 
 with the emergency, and they have never in vain called on the citizens for 
 the assistance necessary to combat these dread foes of a great population — 
 famine and starvation. 
 
 To the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Distress in 
 1895 the Lord Provost submitted a statement of the experiences of Glasgow 
 in dealing with periods of exceptional distress since 1848, the substance of 
 which is as follows: 
 
 The distress in 1848 occurred through a depression in the weaving 
 trade; and at that time 5237 individuals, with families numbering 5264, 
 were relieved. In 1857, by the failure of the Western Bank of Scotland, 
 a terrible monetary and commercial crisis existed in Glasgow. Relief works 
 were opened, funds collected, and 10,051 heads of families were assisted. 
 Probably not less than forty or fifty thousand persons altogether participated 
 in the benefits of the fund then collected. In 1862, owing to the suspension 
 of the supply of cotton from the United States through the Civil War then 
 raging in that country the spinning mills and weaving factories in the City 
 were nearly all closed, and great distress in consequence existed. A large 
 sum of money, over ;^36,ooo, in addition to clothing, blankets, coals, etc., 
 was in two years collected and distributed for the alleviation of this distress. 
 A financial statement shows that there was received ;i^36,320 os. 8d. ; 
 expended on relief in the City, ^^26,2 3 2 17s. iid. ; on outlying districts,
 
 398 ' MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 ;^I295; and in assisting emigration to Canada and to Queensland, 
 ^zwj OS. lod. Assistance was given in all to 18,797 persons, and work 
 was found for 1000 girls in a hall in the east end, and for 300 in a hall 
 in one of the central districts of the City. The balance, after paying 
 working expenses, was carried forward for general relief, and £776 was 
 ultimately handed over to the Corporation Relief Fund in 1884. 
 
 " The relief operations above referred to were all carried out by a 
 committee of citizens and members of the Town Council combined ; but in 
 1878 the Corporation took charge of the disbursing of moneys collected, 
 and in opening of relief works, and have continued to do so since that date. 
 
 " Great distress and commercial depression prevailed after the failure of 
 the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878; and relief works were carried on by 
 the Corporation from 25th November, 1878, till 29th March, 1879, and 
 again from 17th September, 1879, till 31st January, 1880. Relief works 
 were opened during the winters 1884-85, and 1885-86, and 1886-87. 
 These were all occasioned by general commercial depression. The com- 
 mercial activity which succeeded these periods obviated the necessity of 
 providing special employment until 1892-93, when again relief works were 
 opened on 8th December, closing on 4th March. The following statements 
 [inserted on page 400], refer to operations prior to the year 1895, which 
 is hereafter more fully dealt with, but for comparison the statistics of that 
 year are added." 
 
 The total number of men to whom relief employment was given from 
 6th December, 1892, till 4th March, 1893, was 2801, representing iio 
 different trades and occupations. Up till the 25th of February, 1893, 
 35,301 breakfasts and 34,131 dinners were supplied. Work began on 8th 
 December with 2>7 men, next day the number leapt up to 358, two days 
 later it reached 838, and on the 17th December the maximum number of 
 870 was reached. Thence it declined till on 26th December the number 
 was 460, and then the New Year holidays obviously influenced the turn 
 out of the men. From 6th January till iith February the men working 
 ranged from about 520 to 620; and thereafter they rapidly melted away 
 till, during the eight days before closing the works on 4th March, the 
 employed numbered fewer than 100 daily. 
 
 " Undue distress " continues the narrative, " had to be dealt with after 
 New Year of 1895, occasioned in Glasgow solely by the extraordinary 
 severity of the weather, and no relief works would have been opened or 
 required had the season been normal. We did not open the relief works 
 until 4th February, and we were enabled to close them on i6th March. 
 The following statement shows the amount of money expended during this 
 period ;
 
 ^2i84 14 
 
 4 
 
 
 1468 13 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 276 5 
 
 4 
 
 
 339 8 
 
 6 
 
 
 523 9 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 51 3 
 
 I 
 
 
 II I 
 
 2 
 
 ^^4854 15 7 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1894 14 II 
 
 - 
 
 ^2960 8 
 
 PUBLIC CHARITY 399 
 
 Wages, 
 
 Whin Metal, 
 
 Erection of Shelters, etc., 
 
 Barrows, Hammers, Hammer Shafts, Planking, etc., 
 Rations (consisting of Breakfast and Dinner), 
 
 Cartages, etc., 
 
 Utensils, - . - 
 
 Value of Whin Metal when broken. 
 
 Leaving a deficiency of - 
 
 "At the close of 1894 I was waited on by a few men, representing that 
 they were out of employment, and that they represented a condition largely 
 existing in the City. I asked them to address me formally by letter, and I 
 promised that I would have inquiry made. They did not do so, and I 
 after\vards ascertained that several of the deputation had got work, while 
 others had only been a week or so out of employment. On loth January 
 we were approached by a few men, representing that they were unable to 
 find employment, and the magistrates caused inquiry to be made through 
 the Chief Constable and his Lieutenants, the Charity Organization Society, 
 the Parochial Boards, the Association for Improving the Condition of the 
 People, the Superintendents of the Model Lodging-houses, the Secretaries of 
 various organized trades, and the large employers of labour in the City. The 
 information received prior to 28th January did not disclose any unusual 
 distress, or exceptional difficulty in obtaining employment. At this date the 
 frost had lasted for a month almost without a break, and outdoor labour was 
 being greatly curtailed. The magistrates thereon resolved to open stone- 
 breaking works, and a committee was appointed to carry out the details. 
 It was decided that applications from men with families whose combined 
 earnings amounted to 15s. per week ought not to be entertained, and at 
 this stage work was given only to those who had resided in Glasgow for 
 the three immediately preceding months. The rate of pay was similar to 
 that adopted on former occasions, viz., is. per day, and is. extra on Saturday 
 to those who had worked the whole week ; and, in addition, the workers 
 got a breakfast of tea and bread and butter, and a dinner of soup and 
 bread. Each applicant had to furnish information, which was duly scheduled, 
 giving his age, domestic circumstances, length of residence in the City, former 
 employment, wages, and other matters. The schedules were handed to the 
 Charity Organization Society for investigation, who reported on them to the 
 committee appointed by the magistrates. On 4th February two stone- 
 breaking yards were opened, on i6th February a third, and on 22nd 
 February a fourth,"
 
 400 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 o 
 00 
 
 I 
 
 CO 
 CO 
 
 Q 
 Z 
 
 D 
 
 W 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 < 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 K 
 W 
 < 
 
 
 
 un 
 
 ir\ 
 
 bJD 
 
 „ 
 
 ro 
 
 _, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ON 
 
 On 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 t-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LT, 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 Stone- 
 breaki: 
 
 HI 
 
 fO 
 
 (— 1 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 <u 
 
 CO 
 
 NO 
 
 „ 
 
 ON 
 
 CO 
 
 1— 1 
 
 
 
 no" 
 
 NO 
 
 CO 
 
 NO 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 ON 
 
 ON 
 
 00_ 
 
 NO 
 
 CO 
 
 nO^ 
 CO 
 
 c 
 
 O 
 
 
 CO 
 
 O^ 
 
 CO 
 
 
 .S b2 
 
 
 ro 
 
 -^'' 
 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ON 
 
 ession 
 •n and 
 buildin 
 
 ON 
 CO 
 
 ON 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 (—1 
 
 nO 
 
 tN 
 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 O 
 
 NO 
 
 O 
 
 1 
 
 ON 
 
 CO 
 
 'f 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 O 
 
 NO 
 ON 
 
 O 
 
 CO^ 
 
 CO 
 
 
 00 
 
 vO 
 
 <— * 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 b/3 
 bo 
 
 CO 
 
 ON 
 
 pr 
 
 pT 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Q J^ 
 
 Q 
 
 'q 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — < cT 
 
 vo" 
 
 rC 
 
 liggerWork 
 
 and 
 tone- 
 breaking. 
 
 00 
 
 O 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rt o 
 
 CO 
 
 oo 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r^ 
 
 'u 'u5 
 
 00 
 
 oo 
 
 On 
 
 UO 
 
 hH 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 oo 
 
 >-, [/) 
 
 •"■ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 ri 
 
 O 
 
 N 
 
 00 
 
 
 tN 
 
 v6 
 
 CO 
 
 
 vO" 
 
 vo" 
 
 
 O 
 
 OO 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 M 
 
 00 
 lO 
 
 M 
 
 nO 
 
 ON 
 
 1 
 
 'Z 
 
 oo 
 
 t— 1 
 
 o ^ 
 
 
 Oh 
 
 "^ 
 
 n 
 
 nO" 
 
 lO 
 
 M 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 Q 
 
 < 
 
 P C/5 
 
 
 V? 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ."2 ° 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 r^ 
 
 IN 
 
 IN 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 oo 
 
 CO 
 
 
 IN. 
 
 o 
 
 On 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 'u 'So 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 ►— t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 in '" 
 
 l-H 
 
 t— 1 
 
 
 Lri 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 NO 
 
 Q 
 
 NO 
 
 •^ 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 <U 4) 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 tN 
 
 NO 
 
 00 
 
 IN 
 
 Q 
 
 tN 
 
 ON 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 *-0 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 
 CJ 
 
 >> 
 
 1 
 
 NO 
 
 00_^ 
 
 C^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 u-1 
 
 
 1 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .2 o 
 
 
 
 bJB 
 
 tN 
 
 r^ 
 
 'l- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LTi 
 
 O "(2 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 tN 
 
 ON 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 h <" 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 ON 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 OJ (U 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 rt 
 
 u-l 
 
 «-« 
 
 On 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ri 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Co mm 
 depr 
 
 1 
 
 ' 
 
 
 O 
 
 1^ 
 
 tN 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 
 
 1 
 
 
 ' 
 
 1 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 o "^ 
 
 rC 
 
 d^ 
 
 HH 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s:? 
 
 ^ 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^-1 "^ 
 
 cf^ 
 
 o" 
 
 b2 
 
 ON 
 
 » 
 
 H. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o « 
 
 r^ 
 
 00 
 
 
 HH 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ;- 
 g 
 
 00 
 
 oo 
 
 .S 
 
 t-^ 
 
 CO 
 
 N 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 >^"Zi 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 NO 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 .ti'rt 
 
 
 rO 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 ON 
 
 CO 
 
 t— 1 
 
 S; 
 
 (-4 
 CO 
 
 M 
 
 LO 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 ^-^ 
 
 
 
 
 s:? 
 
 o 
 
 NO 
 
 00 
 
 lO 
 
 rT 
 
 HI 
 
 
 
 
 
 o" 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 
 C/5 
 
 C/3 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^m 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 - b2 
 
 NO 
 
 nO 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 OO 
 
 On 
 
 ^ c 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 ession 
 lasgow 
 
 r^ 
 
 t>v 
 
 1-1 -^ t.*^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 o/<i be 
 
 o 
 
 ON 
 
 IN 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-4 
 
 ON 
 M 
 
 Digger W 
 Stonebrea 
 Scavengin 
 Oakum, 
 
 CO 
 
 NO 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 lO 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 M 
 
 OO 
 
 ON 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 
 (U 
 
 Q 
 
 > 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 r) 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 , — ■ — , 
 
 ' 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 
 
 ,-_>_.^ 
 
 /— •— N 
 
 ,^.*_^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 <*- 
 
 .2 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 bo 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t3 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 _C 
 
 v 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 (L) 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 1 
 
 
 O 
 
 biO 1 
 
 -3 . 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '5 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 G 
 
 T3 
 
 V- ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 td" 
 
 CJ 
 
 c 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 t3 
 
 en 
 
 IS 
 
 bo 
 
 C 
 
 O 
 
 U5 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 V 
 
 a. 
 
 en 
 
 7B. 
 "> 
 o 
 
 u 
 
 cx 
 
 in 
 
 C 
 
 .2 
 
 Dh 
 
 c 
 
 (U 
 
 a- 
 
 G 
 O 
 
 T3 
 
 O 
 
 4) 
 > 
 
 v2 
 
 O . 
 
 15 ■ 
 
 O 
 
 >- 
 
 .2 
 
 a, 
 
 
 o 
 
 (J 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 t3 
 
 
 ^ 0) 
 
 -ii! 
 
 in 
 
 C 
 
 .2 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 J=t 
 
 lU T3 
 
 3 - 
 
 
 •4-t 
 
 Q 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 0) 
 
 U 
 
 D 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 al Amoun 
 and Wag 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 (U 
 3 
 
 to 
 
 
 best num 
 one day, 
 
 rage numb 
 hole perio 
 
 erent occ 
 employed 
 
 
 3 
 
 r— t 
 
 ^r^ 
 
 C 
 
 3 
 
 4-» 
 
 r— < 
 
 cu 
 
 X! 
 
 T3 
 
 bo 
 
 U^ 
 
 tc 
 
 
 a! 
 
 V 
 
 D 
 
 
 3 
 
 O 
 
 ri 
 
 CL, 
 
 )-■ 
 
 iM 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 C< 
 
 p^ 
 
 S 
 
 PL. 
 
 H 
 
 > 
 * 
 
 < 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 S 
 
 < 
 
 Q 
 
 V 
 a) 
 E 
 
 B 
 
 <u 
 
 C 
 O 
 
 00 
 
 1) 
 3 
 
 13 
 > 
 
 XI 
 
 B 
 3 
 
 3 §1=^ 
 
 ^i« B 
 
 £^ _, 
 
 3 " e 
 12 1., oi 
 ts oi - 
 
 •S go 
 
 c S 2 
 
 01 TO 
 
 ^OZ 
 ■aS </? 
 §8" 
 
 ^ o o 
 
 OJ g B 
 b/ O O 
 
 •^ ni rt 
 
 D S S 
 i_ o o 
 
 oQQ 
 
 IJ MbX)
 
 PUBLIC CHARITY 
 
 401 
 
 " The following table shows the number of men employed on each of 
 the 16 working days during which these yards were open : 
 
 NUMBER OF MEN WORKING IN STONE-BREAKING YARDS, FROM 
 4TH FEBRUARY TILL i6th MARCH, 1895. 
 
 1895- 
 
 
 
 Men. 
 
 
 189s 
 
 
 
 
 Men. 
 
 February — Monday, 
 
 4, 
 
 - 
 
 86 
 
 February- 
 
 —Monday, 
 
 25, 
 
 - 
 
 2164 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 5, 
 
 - 
 
 210 
 
 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 26. 
 
 - 
 
 2102 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 6, 
 
 - 
 
 267 
 
 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 27, 
 
 - 
 
 2017 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 7, 
 
 - 
 
 - 314 
 
 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 28, 
 
 - 
 
 1846 
 
 Friday, 
 
 8, 
 
 - 
 
 - 380 
 
 March 
 
 — 
 
 Friday, 
 
 I, 
 
 - 
 
 1695 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 9, 
 
 - 
 
 560 
 
 
 
 *Saturday, 
 
 2, 
 
 - 
 
 1465 
 
 Monday, 
 
 II, 
 
 - 
 
 - 673 
 
 
 
 t Monday, 
 
 4, 
 
 - 
 
 621 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 12, 
 
 - 
 
 - 805 
 
 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 5, 
 
 - 
 
 605 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 13, 
 
 - 
 
 - 950 
 
 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 6, 
 
 - 
 
 518 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 14, 
 
 - 
 
 - 1 180 
 
 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 7, 
 
 - 
 
 464 
 
 Friday, 
 
 IS, 
 
 - 
 
 - 1270 
 
 
 
 Friday, 
 
 8, 
 
 - 
 
 335 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 16, 
 
 - 
 
 - 1790 
 
 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 9, 
 
 - 
 
 305 
 
 Monday, 
 
 18, 
 
 - 
 
 - 1910 
 
 
 
 Monday, 
 
 ", 
 
 - 
 
 135 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 19, 
 
 - 
 
 - 2040 
 
 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 12, 
 
 - 
 
 102 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 20, 
 
 - 
 
 - 2100 
 
 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 13, 
 
 - 
 
 90 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 21, 
 
 - 
 
 - 2235 
 
 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 14, 
 
 - 
 
 50 
 
 Friday, 
 
 22, 
 
 - 
 
 - 2385 
 
 
 
 Friday, 
 
 15, 
 
 - 
 
 32 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 23, 
 
 - 
 
 - 2543 
 
 
 
 Saturday, 
 
 16, 
 
 - 
 
 32 
 
 Total number of Breakfasts 
 
 up till 1 6th 
 
 March, 
 
 1895. 
 
 . 
 
 38,264 
 
 
 » 
 
 Dinners 
 
 Total 
 
 » 
 
 Rations, 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 36,308 
 
 
 
 74,572 
 
 
 ^ Last day of daily wage. f F'fst day of piece work. 
 
 " Owing to the unprecedented severity of the weather, the rush of applicants 
 was such that it was found impossible to get the investigation properly over- 
 taken ; and ultimately all who applied were allowed to begin work, the 
 circumstances of each worker only being noted. The total number who 
 from first to last sought employment and who had their cases investigated 
 was 3643, following 231 different occupations, 
 
 " The average age of the applicants was about forty ; and they consisted 
 of 12 I 3 single men, without dependents; 477 married men, with no children 
 under sixteen years of age; 106 widowers, with families; 149 single men, 
 supporting relatives ; and 1698 married men, with families under sixteen 
 years of age. 
 
 " The working hours were from 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. on five days of the 
 week, and from 8 till i on Saturdays. When the weather became a little 
 milder, the men who were not eligible under three montlis' residence, 
 
 2 c
 
 402 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 and from other causes, were discharged ; and in many cases they were 
 supplied with boots, stockings, shirts, and trousers on leaving. In all cases 
 men with dependents received orders on the soup kitchens for daily rations 
 of soup and bread according to the number of their families, and in the 
 most needy cases supplies of provisions, fuel, and clothing were also given. 
 By 4th March, when the weather became more genial, numbers of the men 
 were finding employment at their usual occupations, and the committee 
 introduced to the various yards payment by piece-work — the rates paid 
 being the ordinary rates paid for stone-breaking and stone-wheeling — and 
 no man was allowed to earn more than 7s. per week. The rates paid were 
 IS. lod. per cubic yard for stone-breaking, and 2d. per cubic yard for stone- 
 wheeling ; 9d. per day was paid in advance, and the balance on the Saturday, 
 or on the day of leaving. From the experience of former relief works, we 
 were satisfied that 7s. could easily be ea/ned by most of the men in three 
 or four days. Intimation of piece-work greatly reduced the number of 
 men in the yards. On the last day that the daily wage was paid without 
 piece-work 1465 were at work, but on the morning when piece-work was 
 introduced only 621 put in an appearance. A number of those employed 
 were dissatisfied with the new arrangement, and they induced all the willing 
 workers at the two yards then remaining open to strike work. An indigna- 
 tion meeting was held in George Square opposite the Municipal Buildings, 
 and a deputation of eight of their number was sent to interview the com- 
 mittee in charge of the relief stations. After the interview all the men 
 returned to their work, but the numbers diminished so rapidly that on i6th 
 March there were only thirty-two men left. The works were then closed, 
 the men remaining being provided with suitable clothing to enable them 
 more easily to get employment. 
 
 " Were I again on a relief committee I should strongly urge that after 
 the first week all the men engaged should be put on piece-work, even if 
 the ordinary trade rate paid to stone-breakers was exceeded, and the men's 
 earnings limited to whatever sum might be fixed as the maximum by the 
 committee. This would compel a certain amount of diligence, and would 
 give the willing workers an opportunity as soon as they had earned the 
 maximum to find employment at their normal occupations. 
 
 " The preceding information applies entirely to work carried out by the 
 Corporation, and at the expense of the Corporation ; but, in addition to the 
 relief thus given, a Citizens' Fund was subscribed, and I now give particulars 
 of the way in which it was administered. 
 
 " On I I th February, after several days of intense cold — the temperature 
 ranging from 4 to 7 degrees below zero — the magistrates met, and associated 
 with themselves representatives of the Charity Organization Society, the 
 Inspectors of the City, Barony, and Govan Parochial Boards, and a gentle- 
 man who has laboured long in religious and benevolent work amongst the
 
 PUBLIC CHARITY 
 
 403 
 
 poor, and whose experience was felt to be of great value. At my suggestion 
 the police were asked to give their assistance, as it was perfectly evident 
 that no other organization existed which could overtake the distress caused 
 by the sudden severity of the weather. Captain Boyd and his officers and 
 men took up their new duties with the greatest enthusiasm, and discharged 
 their mission of mercy in a way which evoked the blessings of those who 
 were in distress, and won for them the approval and gratitude of the whole 
 community. 
 
 " Soup kitchens were at once opened at the Eastern, Southern, Western, 
 Polmadie, and Maryhill Police Stations, the Charity Organization Society's 
 Shelter at 60 Kyle Street, the Barnhill Poorhouse, the Night Asylum, the 
 Gospel Hall, Saltmarket, and Possil Park — in all, ten soup kitchens. The 
 well-heated muster halls and cells of the police offices were thrown open as 
 shelters for the houseless, and arrangements were made for affording medical 
 relief gratuitously to all necessitous cases. On 12th February I addressed 
 a letter to the newspapers asking the citizens for pecuniary aid to enable 
 us to overtake the clamant distress then existing. By the following day 
 fully ;^2000 had been sent in, and within a week I had to close the fund, 
 having then received ;^9586 is. id. ; and it was evident that a much 
 larger sum could have been got. The following table gives particulars of 
 receipt and expenditure of moneys received ; and it shows the sum of over 
 ^5000 still unexpended : 
 
 CJiarge. 
 Subscriptions, ^95^6 i \\ 
 
 Discharge. 
 Soup Kitchen — 
 
 Materials for Soup and Bread, ..^968 3 11 
 
 Wages, 77 15 .S 
 
 Cooking Apparatus, Boilers, 
 
 Utensils, etc., - - - 34 17 11 
 
 Sundries, 2 11 2 
 
 ^1083 8 5 
 
 Food and Clothing Distributed — 
 
 Provisions, Coal, and Rents, - ^2275 16 3 
 Boots and Clothing, etc., for 
 
 Adults, - - - - 133 19 4 
 Medical Attendance and Medicines, 3 3° 
 Clothing, etc., of Children, - 485 18 10 
 Extra Clerks and Investigators, 50 17 
 
 Stamps for Cheques, - - 150 
 
 2950 19 II
 
 404 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 Relief granted by the hands of the Lord 
 
 Provost and Members of Committee, - j[^t^i o o 
 
 Miscellaneous Expenses — 
 
 Wages of Staff in Relief Office, ^64 14 2 
 
 Fitting up and Furnishing Office, 18 8 9 
 
 Printing and Stationery, - - 25 i i 
 
 Cartages of supplies of Coal gifted, 98 8 o 
 
 Medical Attendance, - - - o 10 o 
 
 Sundries, - - - - - 28511 
 
 235 7 II 
 
 Expenses incurred by City Chamberlain — 
 
 Advertising Subscription Lists (of 
 which p{^95 I OS. refunded as 
 Subscriptions), - - - ;^i62 4 
 
 Postages, Printing, Stationery, 
 
 Clerical Assistance, etc., - 66 17 
 
 229 I s 
 ^4531 17 8 
 
 Leaving a Surplus of - - - - £^^l\ I ^\ 
 
 " In addition to money, we received contributions of coals, clothing, and 
 groceries of all kinds, to the value of ^^1361 17s., which were distributed 
 by the committee. The work of relieving all necessitous cases, except those 
 dependent on the men employed at stone-breaking, was assigned to the 
 police. Every one in need of coals or food was invited to apply either to 
 the police or to the superintendents at the various offices ; particulars were 
 taken down, inquiries were at once made by the policeman on the beat at the 
 address given, and every necessitous case relieved without delay. To prevent 
 imposture, the officers of the Parochial Boards and of the Charity Organization 
 Society regularly visited the police offices and soup kitchens. As long as 
 the kitchens remained open, soup and bread were given to all who applied. 
 Applicants had simply to state that they were in need of food ; and we 
 estimate that over 330,000 meals were so given. 4160 men and 679 
 women and children availed themselves of the shelter of the police offices 
 during the 29 nights the muster halls were kept open. Over 1000 tons of 
 coal, about one-half of which consisted of donations, were delivered to 13,151 
 householders. Groceries to the value of ^1834 4s., in addition to the 
 quantities sent in to the committee in the form of contributions, were supplied 
 to 22,669 applicants. This form of relief was distributed by ticket, which
 
 PUBLIC CHARITY 405 
 
 enabled the holder to get provisions equal to its face value from any grocer 
 in the City. Of these tickets there were issued : 
 
 12,428 at IS. od. 
 
 351 „ IS. 6d. 
 
 7,038 „ 2s. od. 
 
 15 -------- - 5, 2s. 6d. 
 
 1,732 - - - „ 3s. od. 
 
 1,105 „ 4s. od. 
 
 22,669 
 
 Almost no relief was given by the committee in the form of cash ; but 
 where careful investigation showed that persons who earned their living by 
 hawking fish, crockery or smallwares, had parted with their means before 
 asking assistance, arrangements were made to enable them to begin business 
 again, in a small way, with a new stock-in-trade. In a good number of 
 cases rents were paid to save the necessitous and deserving tenants from 
 ejection ; and, in others, arrangements were made with the police authorities 
 to afford some delay in the payment of rates. Through the great kindness 
 of the Charity Organization Society and the Glasgow Needlework Guild, 
 provision was made for the distribution of large quantities of both new and 
 cast-off garments to those insufficiently clad, more especially amongst children. 
 
 " While giving these particulars of the assistance afforded through the 
 means of the Citizens' Fund, it must be kept in mind that very many other 
 channels of relief were open to those in want. At this time of distress, 
 congregations and philanthropic societies greatly enlarged their ordinary 
 helpful work. New organizations were called into existence, and rations 
 of bread and soup, equivalent to very many thousands of meals, must have 
 been provided through these other agencies. 
 
 " No undue distress existed in Glasgow up till the beginning of the 
 year, and its acuteness was occasioned solely by the extreme severity of 
 the weather. At present we have no rating powers enabling us to open 
 any relief works ; and what we have done has been paid, as far as the 
 value of the work was concerned, by a rating body, say Parks or Roads 
 Trustees, and the balance, viz., the difference between what we paid and 
 what we could have got the work done for by contract, fell to be defrayed 
 either by private contributions or from the Common Good. It has never 
 happened in Glasgow that when exceptional distress occurred means have 
 not been found to relieve it. Any national system of relief which could 
 be devised, while not altering the character of the well-doing, would certainly 
 deteriorate weak natures, make the indolent more idle, the careless more 
 indifferent, and the bad-tempered almost unmanageable. The question ought 
 to be left to municipalities and local authorities, to be dealt with by them 
 in times of exceptional distress, and exceptional distress only. Each locality
 
 4o6 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 has its special trade or trades, and each would require special forms of relief, 
 which could be adequately judged of only by persons living in the locality, 
 and cognizant of all details. Imperial assistance or control would, in my 
 opinion, weaken municipal responsibility, which is a responsibility more of 
 a social than an official character, to be called into operation only to avert 
 a calamity. 
 
 " The problem is totally different in large cities from what it is in small 
 towns or villages where everyone is or can be known. Into a large city 
 many men and women flock to hide their sins or their sorrows ; some 
 even come to hide their poverty in a way they cannot do in a country 
 town ; and for these cases it is impossible to provide any general scheme 
 of relief In a city like Glasgow there will always be a normal percentage 
 of unemployed in all trades. This in the aggregate may be considerable; 
 but spread over 200 or 300 different occupations it does not fall heavily 
 on any individual trade. It is one of the ordinary conditions of a large 
 city which we cannot touch. 
 
 " In my opinion the solution of this unemployed question is to make it 
 perfectly clear that no government and no local authority have incumbent 
 on them, in the slightest degree, a responsibility either to procure or to 
 provide employment, or to maintain persons while out of employment. The 
 solution of the question rests with the people themselves, and not with any 
 authority. It must be found in prudence, thrift, industry, and sobriety, and 
 the avoidance of early and improvident marriages. This last I see constantly 
 is a very fruitful source of misery. Until these duties are recognized by 
 those who are often out of work in winter time, and provision made by 
 themselves against the days of idleness, we shall have this question annually 
 before us in a more or less acute form. 
 
 " Those who have had the most intimate acquaintance with this question 
 are aware that respectable men, by the varying conditions of trade, are 
 frequently thrown out of employment ; yet these are not the men who, 
 at the beginning of almost every winter, call for relief and assistance. There 
 is a certain proportion of workers who, from infirmity of person or of temper, 
 are always first to be dismissed. Their infirmities do not amount to dis- 
 ability to work, yet they cause these men to be more often out of employ- 
 ment than the normal condition of their trade warrants, and, having no 
 savings to fall back on, they at once come into evidence when trade becomes 
 dull. We have also the working man who has got beyond his best working 
 days ; others who have never learned to work steadily, and who are nomadic 
 and constantly shifting ; and we have still another class, who are constantly 
 being thrown out of employment through being a day off drunk, and finding 
 their positions filled up when they return. 
 
 " It has been advanced by some, that local authorities in times of undue 
 distress ought to carry out public works. These suggestions can be advanced
 
 PUBLIC CHARITY 
 
 407 
 
 only by those who are not cognizant of the working of municipal institutions. 
 We are constantly carrying out all the work which we think is necessary 
 for the Corporation, and that as speedily as possible, without increasing our 
 rates ; but no work, beyond stone-breaking or digging, which the Corporation 
 can originate or carr)' out, would be of the slightest use to relieve undue 
 distress such as we had last winter. Take the building of a bridge for 
 example. We, first of all, require to get an Act of Parliament ; and the 
 same preliminary applies to any large work or expenditure of money which 
 the Corporation can undertake ; and this would require nearly a year. In 
 the case of a bridge, the granite would likely come from Aberdeen 
 or Cornwall, where there might be no undue distress ; the iron or steel 
 work from a district probably well emplo}'ed ; and, when we had the 
 materials here, we would find the building work possibly interrupted by 
 frost at the very time when we wished to utilize them, for the purposes of 
 giving emplo}^ment. It is the same with other work ; and similar 
 objections can be advanced against any work in which a local authority 
 can engage. 
 
 " Our experience here shows, that stone-breaking or digging best solves the 
 problem, and stone-breaking for preference, as we get a better return for the 
 money expended; yet you will see, that while we spend ;^4854 15s. 7d., 
 the value of the stones broken amounted only to i^ 18 94 14s. iid. During 
 the winter of 1892-93 digger work gave a worse return. In my opinion, 
 relief ought to be given only after a labour test, and payment ought to be 
 partly in money and partly in food. I would strongly deprecate any altera- 
 tion from the present position so far as Glasgow is concerned. We shall 
 always be able, with the assistance of private benevolence and the means at 
 our corporate disposal, to deal with periods of undue distress ; but as smaller 
 cities and local authorities may not be in this position, it seems to me the 
 remedy is to enable local authorities to impose a small rate for the establish- 
 ment of temporary relief works to overtake any season of exceptional distress ; 
 but clearly for no other purpose, the rate being well defined, and, while collected 
 along with the usual burgh rates, shown separately, so that the ratepayers 
 may see what the rate is, and be able emphatically to express their opinion 
 and wishes in regard to its imposition and expenditure. 
 
 " With the assistance of the official staff, police, and others, there would 
 be no difficulty in getting at the character of each applicant for work were 
 it so desired ; but this difficulty at once arises : Is work to be given to 
 the honest, sober, and well-conducted workman who is out of employment 
 through no fault of his own, on the same terms as to the improvident, 
 drunken, or careless, who may be out of work very distinctly through his 
 own fault, and who, perhaps, works simply to earn a shilling or two to spend 
 in drink ? My feeling is, that no relief works ought to be opened until it 
 is clearly demonstrated that they have become so necessary, that we must
 
 4o8 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 take all who apply and who have not family earnings of, say, 15 s. a week, 
 subject, of course, to the provision of three months' residence immediately 
 prior to the application, and at least a month's lack of employment. Where 
 such works are opened the distress will likely be acute, and, alongside of 
 them, some system of relief from private sources of benevolence will have 
 to be carried out."
 
 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 repre- 
 sentative to General Assembly. 
 
 In this narrative of the activities of the municipal rulers of Glasgow an 
 attempt has been made to marshall the details so that we rise from the 
 elementary but fundamental duties of the Council, up to dealings which 
 concern the enjoyment, the culture, and the higher life of the people. The 
 primal duty of the Town Council is watching and warding : care for the 
 security of the life and property of the citizens, a duty discharged through 
 the magistrate, the policeman, and the gaoler. At this first and lowest end 
 of municipal activities we have to take account of the malicious and meaner 
 instincts of our fellows, and through a long range of functions we gradually 
 rise, dealing with health, recreation, education, science, and art, till, in the 
 end we come to the highest of all the relations of humanity, and have to 
 do with man as a spiritual being and in his relations to the things of eternity. 
 And yet we must confess we would fain leave this chapter unwritten ; 
 for were the care and the zeal of the Town Council for that which relates 
 to the religious life of the people to be measured by their official attitude 
 towards, and dealings with, the churches under their charge, it would be 
 necessary to admit that they are but lukewarm and unprofitable servants. 
 In every aspect the present-day relations of the Town Council to the Church 
 of Scotland are unsatisfactory and illogical. The position is full of con- 
 tradictions, the obligations are nominally vast and supremely important, the 
 actual connection is slight and shadowy, the views of the Presbytery of 
 Glasgow diverge widely from the standpoint of the Town Council, and
 
 4IO 
 
 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 countless pitfalls and snares beset the path of any one who would follow 
 the current of the historical connection of the Town Council with the kirks 
 of Glasgow. It is difficult even to define the relationship of the two bodies 
 without stating them in a manner which may be disputed, and probably 
 the safest statement of the case is simply to say that the community are 
 responsible for the maintenance of a certain number of churches and ministers 
 within the City Parish of Glasgow. How that responsibility arose, and how 
 the Council in recent years have sought to end it are the only points that 
 can be here dealt with. 
 
 When the ecclesiastical strife of the Scotttish Reformation came to an 
 end the City of Glasgow was constituted a single parish served by one 
 minister, and the patronage of that church — the Cathedral — was in the hands 
 of the Magistrates and Council. It does not appear that any specific addition 
 to municipal revenues came with the patronage ; and so far as can be 
 discovered all payments of stipend, etc., from the first were made out of 
 the Common Good of the City. In 1587 a second minister was appointed, 
 and again in 1592, owing to the continued increase of population, a third 
 appointment was made, on which occasion the old Collegiate Church of 
 St. Mary and St. Anne, Trongate, was repaired and fitted up as a place 
 of worship. Three years later a fourth minister was nominated ; but about 
 this time the landward portion of the parish was, with the approval of the 
 Presbytery, separated from the City, and under the name of the Barony 
 it was formed into a distinct parish. To that parish the fourth minister 
 was appointed, and the Crypt of the Cathedral, then and later known as 
 the Laigh Kirk, was and continued to be the Barony Church till the beginning 
 of the nineteenth century. The Barony Church thus became a charge 
 on the landward heritors, and the City Parish thenceforward was conterminous 
 with the bounds of the royalty. Such are the bounds of the civil parish 
 to this day, and it is within these bounds that the responsibilities of the 
 Town Council in church matters begin and end. In 1599 the three ministers 
 applied to the Council to have the City divided into two parishes, and 
 thereupon on the 21st July it was resolved: " Anent the suite gevin in be 
 the ministeris desyring divisoun of the towne in tua peirochines, as vtheris 
 townes hes done of befoir, that the ministeris maye acknawlege thair awin 
 flok, efter lang reasouning be the provest, bailleis, and counsale and deikines 
 befor writtin, the provest, bailleis, and maist pairt of the counsale, by the 
 deikines, be thair woittes thocht guid that the towneschip be devyditt in 
 tua parochines, provyding that the towne be nocht burdenit for beitting 
 and bigging of kirkis nor furnishing of ma ministeris nor thai have alreddy ; 
 and as to the deikines all in ane voce takis thame to aduerteisment with 
 the brethrein of thair craftis, and that thai behuiffit to consult with thair 
 brethrein, and thairfor to reporte thair ansuer this daye viij dayes." The 
 crafts having assented to the division under these conditions, the City was
 
 RELIGION 
 
 411 
 
 divided into two parishes quoad sacra — the High Church and the New or 
 Tron Church. Further church accommodation being required, in 1622 the 
 ruinous old Blackfriars Church in the High Street was repaired and fitted 
 up, and a minister appointed to the charge ultimately known as the College 
 or Blackfriars Church. The next extension occurred in 1648, when the 
 Outer High Kirk was formed, and Patrick Gillespie called to be its first 
 minister. A middle wall was built up within the Cathedral, separating the 
 Choir, which now was called the Inner High Kirk, from the outer half which 
 was given over to the new congregation. In that year the City was divided 
 into four parishes, quoad sacra, with five ministers. 
 
 In 1687 the Wynd Church was erected, the modern successor of which 
 is St. George's Church, Buchanan Street, to which building the congregation 
 was translated in 1807. The North-West Church, formed in 1720, is now 
 officially known as St. David's, and popularly as the Ramshorn Church. St. 
 Andrew's Church, which was seventeen years in building, was finished in 
 1756, but it was not till 1763 that a minister was appointed to it. St. Enoch's 
 Church was founded in 1780, and in 1782 a minister was appointed to that 
 charge. The eighteenth century thus ended with eight City ministers and 
 parishes ; but in i 8 i 5 a decision of the Court of Teinds ordained that the 
 stipend of the minister of the Inner High Church should henceforth be paid 
 out of the teinds, and so the Common Good was relieved of that stipend. 
 The church and parish of St. John were formed in 1819 ; to the first charge 
 Dr. Thomas Chalmers was appointed, and within its limits he began his 
 famous experiment in supporting the poor within the parochial bounds entirely 
 by the voluntary efforts of the people. And lastly St. James' Church was 
 built, and the parish carved out in 1820; and therewith the church-planting, 
 energies of the Town Council of Glasgow were exhausted. The City churches, 
 with the Barony and Inner High Kirk, now numbered eleven ; but these two 
 are under the patronage of the Crown, leaving nine under the patronage 
 of the Town Council, and a charge on the Common Good of the City. 
 
 The stipends of the early incumbents of the churches were, even for the 
 times, very limited. When, in 1588, a second minister was appointed in the 
 City, the stipend of the first charge was 500 merks (;i^2 7 15s. 6d. Stg.), and 
 that of the second charge was ^200 Scots {£16 13s. 4d.). In 1638 the 
 uniform stipend was looo merks ; in 1723 the stipends were double that sum 
 (;^i I I 2s. 2d. Stg.), and they were increased to 2500 merks (-^138 17s. pd.) 
 in 1762. In 1788 the stipends were increased to ^165, in 1796 to ;^200, 
 in 1 80 1 they were raised to ;^2 50, in 1808 to ^300, in 18 14 to ;^400, 
 and in 1830 they were fixed at ^^425, at which amount they now stand. 
 In the case of Blackfriars (College) Church the augmentation of £2$ was 
 granted only for the lifetime of the incumbent. Dr. Lockhart, and since his 
 death till the year 1896 the stipend paid to the minister was ;^400. In 
 1830 the Corporation had a restricted interest only in Blackfriars Church,
 
 412 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 the greater proportion of the sittings being then owned by the College and 
 by private owners; but in 1841 the whole of the seats were acquired on 
 behalf of the Corporation at a cost of ^2143. The stipend of Blackfriars 
 Church has now been put on a level with that paid to the ministers of the 
 other City charges. 
 
 The annual charge on the Common Good for the stipends of nine City 
 ministers now amounts to ^3825, and there is further paid in name of com- 
 munion elements, salaries of precentors, bell-ringers, and beadles, etc., upwards 
 of -^400; and for insurance, cleaning, repairs, and miscellaneous expenses, from 
 ^300 to ;^400 ; so that, excluding extraordinary expenditure, the annual 
 cost of the ecclesiastical establishment may be stated at about ;!^45oo. The 
 published accounts of the Corporation do not show any specific grants of 
 land, teinds, or other endowments to set against this expenditure. The only 
 source of revenue is from the rent of sittings in the churches, which, adding 
 a proportion of the pew rents from the Inner High Church (Cathedral) paid 
 to the City, amount to about ;i^i700 yearly. Including the Cathedral, which 
 has 914 sittings, there are provided in the City Churches seats for 10,144 
 persons, of which about one-half are let ; but it is fair to say the St. Enoch's 
 Church, the most capacious in the City, with i 142 sittings, has for some 
 years been unoccupied owing to the operations of the District Subway, which 
 have to some extent affected the structure. 
 
 To tell how the fervour and church planting zeal of the magistrates 
 of the seventeenth century faded away till in the nineteenth century the 
 connection became irksome and mutually irritating, would necessitate a 
 precis of the ecclesiastical history of Scotland for two centuries. That 
 the relationship has become unsatisfactory equally to Church and Council 
 will be freely conceded ; and repeated efforts have been made to mend or 
 to end it ; but these have failed through the usual fault giving too little 
 and asking too much. In session 1878-79 a Bill was promoted in Parlia- 
 ment which provided for the removal of the Tron Church to the New 
 City Road, and for the rearrangement of parish boundaries consequent on 
 that change. It further provided that, with the consent of the Presbytery 
 and Kirk Sessions, the Corporation should have power to take down and 
 remove any of the existing Parish Churches within the City Parish, and 
 out of the proceeds of the sale of materials and site erect " other Parish 
 Churches, in lieu of those so removed, on such sites as may be thought 
 most expedient for the public interests." With clauses so framed the Bill 
 passed the House of Commons ; but while it was depending before the 
 Lords, an influential committee of citizens raised serious objections to the 
 Bill as it stood. By them the measure was regarded as objectionable because 
 the effect would be to transfer a church and an endowment from one parish 
 to another, a course of procedure believed to be without precedent and without 
 warrant. " If," say the Committee, "the existing quoad sacra parishes, through
 
 RELIGION 413 
 
 change of circumstances, no longer need the services of the existing ministers, 
 the proper cause is to adopt competent legal means for the suppression of the 
 charge, and not to transfer the endowment from one parish to another. The 
 original obligations of the City having been undertaken with reference to 
 the spiritual necessities of the present parishes, after these necessities have 
 ceased to require the provision then made for them, it is practically ex- 
 tension of the City's liability to transfer that provision to other parishes or 
 new districts." 
 
 The objection to extending parochial obligations beyond parochial limits 
 was even more strongly urged in a subsequent memorial from the same 
 committee ; and these representations imposed on the Corporation the duty 
 of making it clear that there would be no exceeding the bounds of parochial 
 administration. Accordingly, in committee of the House of Lords, words 
 were inserted limiting any transference of the Tron or other Church to a 
 site within the City Parish. So amended the Bill became law on 3rd 
 July, 1879. 
 
 No action was taken under the provisions of that Act ; but again, in 
 April, 1889, the Council approved of the appointment of a special committee 
 " to confer with the Presbytery of Glasgow with the view of considering 
 whether means can be devised for the purpose of rendering the City Churches 
 more largely useful and beneficial to the community." Although the re- 
 solution of the Council was in these terms, it was evident from the first 
 that the object of the committee was to end the connection of the Church 
 and the municipality rather than to seek the increase of ordinances, of 
 evangelical fervour, and of ministerial efficiency. A scheme was formulated 
 by the Committee under which it was proposed to hand over the City Churches 
 to a body of ecclesiastical commissioners who were to be authorized to 
 suppress two of the existing parishes, and to sell the buildings and sites 
 of the churches. The Corporation, it was suggested, should pay to the 
 ecclesiastical commissioners i^3 5,000 in full discharge of all their obligations, 
 and by a tabular statement it was shown that the yield of seat rents, the 
 sum realized from the sale of the two churches, and the interest on the 
 capital sum of ;i{^3 5,000 would be sufficient to pay the stipends of seven 
 ministers, provide annuities of ^400 for the two ministers of the sup- 
 pressed parishes, and meet the other expenses connected with the seven 
 churches on the scale of current expenditure. In reply to the Com- 
 mittee's proposal and financial scheme the Presbytery Committee produced 
 a statement which showed that the offer of the Corporation would end in 
 an annual loss of ;^8io to the Churches, and they submitted alternative 
 proposals under which the Corporation should contribute ^81,700 to the 
 Endowment Committee of the Church of Scotland, and that the Tron and 
 St. Enoch Churches should be handed over to the Town Council, It is 
 needless to pursue the financial question further, for it is not on that rock
 
 414 MUNICIPAL GLASGOW 
 
 that the conferring committees split. In a further and fuller statement the 
 Town Council Committee laid down as fundamental principles of their 
 negotiations : 
 
 "(i) That whatsoever provision may be made by the Corporation for 
 the clergy and the maintenance of religious ordinances in Glasgow 
 shall be limited exclusively to the area of the existing City 
 parishes. 
 
 "(2) That the property of the churches of these City parishes, and 
 whatever money payment may be made by the Corporation as 
 an endowment fund for the maintenance of religious ordinances 
 in these parishes, shall be vested in a body of ecclesiastical com- 
 missioners, members of the Church of Scotland, and connected 
 with Glasgow." 
 
 To the first of these principles the Presbytery Committee emphatically 
 declined assent. They failed to see why the maintenance of religious 
 ordinances by the Corporation should be limited to citizens who happen 
 to reside in the City Parish ; and they were of opinion that all citizens 
 have equal claim to any advantages, religious or otherwise, conferred by 
 the Corporation. As to the second principle, the appointment of ecclesiastical 
 commissioners, it was shown that the Corporation objected to ecclesiastical 
 property in Glasgow being absorbed in the general funds of the Church of 
 Scotland " because contingencies might arise under which the citizens of 
 Glasgow, as represented by a local body of ecclesiastical commissioners, 
 should surely have the same say as Parliament may, in its wisdom, think 
 proper to give to Edinburgh and other towns with reference to the ecclesiastical 
 property in them." In this delicate and periphrastic way the question of 
 disestablishment was brought by the Town Council under the notice of the 
 Presbytery Committee. Naturally the latter body did not relish this veiled 
 allusion. They pointed out that the Corporation proposals practically 
 amounted to a local measure of disestablishment ; and they objected to 
 the prospect of being twice subjected to that process. A dead-lock having 
 arisen over both fundamental conditions laid down by the Council, it was 
 mutually recognized that no useful end could be gained by prolonging the 
 negotiations. 
 
 The relative positions of the Corporation and the Presbytery are so far 
 apart that there is not the slighest prospect of any radical modification 
 of the connection being effected by mutual consent. The Magistrates and 
 Council resolutely maintain that their responsibility begins and ends with 
 the City Parish ; the Presbytery say : " It can hardly be seriously maintained 
 that it is the duty of the magistrates to provide kirks and ministers for the 
 citizens who live on one side of a street, but that it is not their duty 
 to provide kirks for the citizens who live on the other side of the street."
 
 RELIGION 
 
 415 
 
 It is perhaps a fortunate circumstance that the Presbytery refrain from 
 pressing this large view of magisterial duty to a practical issue. In the 
 words of the presbyterial report, it would indeed be found that " the arrange- 
 ment which the Town Council and the Presbytery entered into in the year 
 1599 in the interests of the citizens has but a slender bearing on the ques- 
 tion " at issue in the later years of the nineteenth century. 
 
 The only remaining bond between the Town Council and the Church 
 of Scotland which may be mentioned consists in the annual appointment 
 of a representative elder as a member of the General Assembly. The nomina- 
 tion generally gives rise to some cavil and objection ; but in Glasgow the 
 appointment has hitherto been made with the consent of the majority of 
 the Council. The form in which the procedure on the occasion is recorded 
 in the minutes reads instructively : " The Corporation being convened in 
 Council betwixt the hours of ten o'clock a.m. and nine o'clock p.m., notice 
 having been duly given on the . . . day of March last, hereby nominate 
 and appoint Councillor . . . , ruling elder, their Commissioner to the next 
 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, indited to meet at Edinburgh 
 the . . . day of May next to come, or when and where it shall happen to 
 sit, willing him to repair thereto, and to attend all the diets of the same, 
 and there to consult, vote, and determine in all matters that come before 
 them, to the glory of God and the good of His Church, according to the 
 Word of God, the Confession of Faith, and agreeably to the constitution of 
 the said Church, as he will be answerable, and that he report his diligence 
 therein at his return therefrom ; and it is hereby testified and declared that 
 the said ... is an elder of the said Church, lawfully ordained, and like- 
 wise that he is an heritor within the said burgh, according to the Acts of 
 Assembly, all which the Corporation have attested on proper information." 
 And so the ancient alliance of the ecclesiastical authority with the civil magis- 
 trate remains continuous and unbroken, but with the progress of time what 
 a reversal of power has been witnessed in the ancient City of Glasgow.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abolition of trade privileges, 40, 41. 
 
 Acreage of City, 55. 
 
 Airdrie district, whinstone for streets from, 129. 
 
 Aitchison, Basil, superintendent of fire-engines, 152. 
 
 Aitken, Dr. John, on early police, 152. 
 
 Albert Bridge, 131. 
 
 Albion Street, police office in, 153. 
 
 Alexander II., charter of, 19. 
 
 Alexandra Park, 339 ; golf in, 323 ; purchase of, 
 
 232. 
 Ambulance work, instruction of constables in, 120. 
 America, discovery of, 4. 
 Analyst, public, 198. 
 Anderson, Ninian, deacon-convener, 34. 
 Anderson, Professor Thomas, 140. 
 Anderson, Sir James, Lord Provost, 244. 
 Anderston, burgh of, 26 ; absorption of, 114. 
 Annals of Glasgotv, 137, 157, 278, 
 Annexation, Act of, 1891, 27, 213. 
 Appeals against assessor's valuation, 58. 
 Aqueducts, building of, 248. 
 Arbroath, flag-stones from, 129, 131. 
 Archbishopric, teinds of the, 92. 
 Area of the municipality, 27. 
 Argentine Republic, importation of cattle from, 290. 
 Arran, Earl of, and Archbishop's temporalities, 20. 
 Art Galleries, site of new, 337; cost of erection, 359. 
 Ash-pits, regulations regarding, 168. 
 Asiatic cholera, epidemics of, 181. 
 Assembly, General, of 1638, 21. 
 Assessor of burgh, duties of, 58, 60. 
 Assessor's valuation, appeals against, 58. 
 Association for the promotion of art and music, 358. 
 
 Bailies, election of, 72. 
 Bailie Nicol Jarvie, 28. 
 Bakers, Incorporation of, 31, 41, 337. 
 
 Balgray, reservoir at, 241. 
 
 Ballot Act, 68. 
 
 Bands in the parks, 324. 
 
 Barlinnie, prison at, 97. 
 
 Barony, burghs of, II, 
 
 Barony parish, formation of, 410. 
 
 Barrett, Mr. F. T., Mitchell Library, 366. 
 
 Bateman, J. F., 140, 244. 
 
 Bath clubs in the City, 174. 
 
 Bath Street, origin of name, 235. 
 
 Baths and Wash-houses, Corporation, 174 ; com- 
 mittee, 175 ; users of, 178 ; capacity of, 177 ; 
 expenditure connected with, 176 ; receipts from, 
 178. 
 
 Baxter, Daniel, Mortification to Hutchesons' Hos- 
 pital, 386. 
 
 Bazaar committee, provision of organ recitals, 324. 
 
 Bazaar, the, 280. 
 
 Bazalgette, J. W., 140. 
 
 Beaton, Archbishop, deserted office, 21. 
 
 Bellahouston Bequest, donation to Mitchell Library 
 and Stirling's Library, 368. 
 
 Bellahouston Park, 343. 
 
 Bell, Henry, and " Comet," 309. 
 
 Belmont Street Bridge, 133. 
 
 Belvidere Hospital, erected, 210; opened, 187. 
 
 Bequests, administration of, by Town Council, loi. 
 
 Berwick-on-Tweed, government of, 13. 
 
 Bibles bequeathed to University by William Euing, 
 352. 
 
 Bird and Dog Market, the, 280, 283. 
 
 Bishop, appointment of first, 3. 
 
 Bishops' Burghs, il. 
 
 Bishop's Castle, 29. 
 
 Blackie, Lord Provost, 220. 
 
 Black, James, Dean of Guild, 80. 
 
 Black, Joseph, chemist, 8. 
 
 Blackfriars Church opened, 411.
 
 INDEX 
 
 417 
 
 Blackhill, lands of, 339 ; purchased, 97. 
 
 Blair's Mortification to Hutchesons' Hospital, 386. 
 
 Blantyre, Lord, 93. 
 
 Bleaching trade and water supply, 245. 
 
 Blythswood, lands of, 26, 336. 
 
 Board of Agriculture, 289, 
 
 Board of Road Trustees appointed, 128. 
 
 Board of Police, its powers, 113. 
 
 Botanic Garden, the, 345. 
 
 Boundary, municipal, of Glasgow, i ; enlargement 
 of, 26. 
 
 Bowling harbour, 316. 
 
 Boyd, Robert, Lord Provost, 24. 
 
 Brereton, Sir William, quoted, 78. 
 
 Bridgeton, included in municipality, 26. 
 
 Bridges, public, 131 ; estimated value of, 134 ; 
 railway, 131. 
 
 Bridge of Sighs, 46. 
 
 British and Foreign Tramways Company, 293. 
 
 British Association, visit to Glasgow, 278. 
 
 Broomielaw, building of quay at, 6, 306. 
 
 Broomlands, lands of, 327. 
 
 Bruce, Robert the, Parliament assembled by, 13. 
 
 Buchanan Bequest, 46. 
 
 Bucket money, 148. 
 
 Building, speculation in, 225. 
 
 Buildings Regulation Act, 1S92, 116, 138, 188, 
 232. 
 
 Bunhouse grounds purchased, 337. 
 
 Burgess and freedom fines, 91. 
 
 Burgesses, honorary, of Glasgow, 100. 
 
 Burghal system of Scotland, 16. 
 
 Burgh of Glasgow, Courts of, 105; Common Good 
 
 of, 36; Free Royal, charter erecting City into, 
 
 21 ; Extension Act, 105. 
 
 Burgh Hall, West Pollokshields, 341. 
 
 Burgh Reform Act, 16, 26, 40, 57. 
 
 Burghs, Convention of Royal, 5, 23, 26. 
 
 Burghs, classes of, 11; of Barony, 11, 15; 
 
 Bishops', II ; of Regality, 11, 15; Royal, 11 ; 
 
 early laws of, 9; Suburban, growth of, 54; 
 
 added to Glasgow, 55 ; trade privileges ceased, 16. 
 Burghs in Scotland at time of Union, 16. 
 Burns' Hterature in Mitchell Library, 367. 
 Burntisland, the plague in, 37, 
 
 " Caimdhu," steam dredger, 312. 
 
 Caithness, flag-stones, 129- 131. 
 
 Caledonian Central Railway, 229 ; Railway Bridge, 
 132. 
 
 Calico-printing, benefits of soft water supply to, 
 245. 
 
 Calton, burgh of, 26; absorption of, 114; Green, 
 328. 
 
 Campbell, Colin, river bailie, 73. 
 
 2T) 
 
 Campbell Douglas & Sellars, architects, 321. 
 
 Campbell, Lord Provost, 82. 
 
 Campbell, Mr. Louis Edward, Bequest to Mitchell 
 Library, 368. 
 
 Campbell, Mr. William, of Tulliechewan, 346. 
 
 Campbell, Sir Islay, of Succoth, 346. 
 
 Camphill grounds purchased by Hutchesons' Trust, 
 
 387; acquired by City, 338, 360; Gallery opened, 
 
 361. 
 Canadian cattle, importation of, 2S9. 
 Canal, Monkland, 133. 
 Carrick, Mr. John, city architect, 84, 320. 
 Casualties of the bridge, 34. 
 Cathcart District Railway, 342. 
 Cathedral, patronage of, in hands of Town Council, 
 
 410 ; two churches in, 411. 
 Cathkin Braes Park, 340. 
 Cattle Market, 278, 280, 284; Canadian and U.S. 
 
 importation of, 289-291. 
 
 Causewaying of streets commenced, 124, 129. 
 
 Central Police Court, 105. 
 
 Central Railway scheme, 133, 314. 
 
 Certificate of election as councillor, 68. 
 
 Cessnock Dock, construction of, 315. 
 
 Chalmers, Mr. Richard, Bequest to Mitchell 
 Library, 369. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr. Thomas, 218, 411. 
 
 Charitable institutions, free water to, 259. 
 
 Charities, administration of, by corporations, 383. 
 
 Charity Organization Society, 404. 
 
 Charles I., charter by, 21, 304. 
 
 Charter, Royal, to Hutchesons' Hospital, 389. 
 
 Charters, Royal, in favour of Glasgow, 19, 21,304. 
 
 Cheese Market, 281, 282. 
 
 Chief Constable, appointment of, 106. 
 
 Chisholm, Bailie, 226, 228. 
 
 Circuit Courts in Glasgow, 83. 
 
 Churches, City, 411. 
 
 Citizens' fund for relief of distress, 402, 403. 
 
 City Chambers, 76. 
 
 City Chamberlain, 72. 
 
 City Churches, maintenance of, 88 ; relation to 
 
 Town Council, 409-415 ; revenue from, 412. 
 City, divisions into wards of, 27. 
 City Educational Endowments Board, 379. 
 City Engineer, appointment of, 73. 
 City, Glasgow entitled to be called, 18. 
 
 City Hall, the erection of, 320 ; revenue of, 320 ; 
 expenditure on, 320. 
 
 City Improvement Act, 1 866, 218. 
 
 City Improvement Trustees, their operations, 223. 
 
 City Industrial Museum, 356. 
 
 City of Glasgow Act, 1891, 27, 73. 
 
 City, parish of Glasgow, 410.
 
 4i8 
 
 INDEX 
 
 City of Glasgow Bank, 225. 
 City Organist, 324. 
 
 City and Suburban Gas Company, 159, 264. 
 
 City Union Railway, 229. 
 
 Civil jurisdiction of magistrates, 105. 
 
 Clairmont, lands of, 336. 
 
 Clarke & Bell, architects, 82. 
 
 Clayslaps, lands of, 336. 
 
 Clayslaps mill, 337- 
 
 Cleaning of streets, a public duty, 165. 
 
 Cleansing Department, 144, 163, 166; operations 
 of, 167-171 ; expenditure of, 172. 
 
 Cleland, Dr., historian of Glasgow, 137, I57. 278, 
 331 ; purchaser of Old Tolbooth by, 80. 
 
 Cluthas, harbour service of, 316. 
 
 Clyde, bridges over, 131 ; condition of the, 140 ; 
 cSservancy Board, 140 ; depth of river bed, 
 ViT early steamboat, 309; Lighthouses 
 Trustees, 3"; Navigation Act, 1759, 3o6 ; 
 1770, 308; J809, 309; 182s, 310; 1840, 310, 
 Srd of Trustees, 310 ; To.^ Council members 
 of, 73 ; expenditure connected with, 316 ; revenue 
 
 of, 317- 
 Clyde Valley, estimated amount of coal in, 7- 
 Clyde water, supplied to manufacturers, 242. 
 Coalfields of Lanarkshire, 6, 7- 
 Coal gas, introduction of, 158. 
 Cokaland, a species of squib or satire, 32. 
 College, Glasgow, in High Street, 345- 
 Collegiate Church of St. Mary and St Anne, 410. 
 Colonial produce imported after the Union, 6. 
 Colquhoune, James, maker of the first fire-engine 
 
 in Glasgow, 150. 
 Colquhoun, Provost, 336. 
 " Comet," the, launching of, 309- 
 Commissioners of Police, 74, "3, H9- 
 Commissioners, the Glasgow Court-house, 82. 
 Commissioners, Water, 74, 257- 
 Commissioners, Gas, 267. 
 Committee of Glasgow gas consumers, 266. 
 Committee on health formed, 187 5 on nuisances, 
 
 185. 
 Common Good of the burgh, the, 35. 279. 299, 
 Si ^27 ^^o, 334, 378, 410, 412; total assets 
 S 88'- liabiSie¥Jf, 89 ; expenditure of 89, 90, 
 91 ; o dinary revenue of, 89, 90, 91 ; Rentable 
 assets of, 89; movable assets of, 89; chanties 
 dispensed out of the, loi. 
 Concerts, Saturday Afternoon, 324. 
 Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 279- 
 Convener of trades, i7- 
 Convention of Royal Burghs, 11, 23, 26 30, 31, 
 
 35, 95, 96 ; gloon^y ^^P°'^ °^ Glasgow by, 5- 
 Cordiners, Incorporation of, 41, 47- 
 Corporation and Police Act (Glasgow), 74, US- 
 Corporations, decay of powers of, 16. 
 
 Corporation Galleries, acquisition of, 350 ; exhibi- 
 tions in, 359; transference of museum collections 
 
 to, 357- 
 Corporation Gas Act, 1869, 269, 272. 
 Corporation lodging-houses, 228. 
 Corporation of Glasgow, charities of, 100 ; a homo- 
 geneous body, 113; property owners, 87; 
 hospitality of, 99. 
 Corporation tramways, inauguration of, 30°; 
 
 progress of, 301 ; financial statements of, 302. 
 Council Chambers, erection of new, 80. 
 Council, constitution of, 13, 25 ; officers, duty of, 
 
 31. 
 Councillors, election of, uniform in Scotland, 67 ; 
 necessary qualifications for office of, 7° ; certi- 
 ficate of election, 68. 
 Common lands of City, early, 326. 
 Common stairs, lighting of, 160. 
 Competition for George Square building, 85. 
 Concerts, Saturday afternoon, provided by Cor- 
 poration, 324. 
 Conclut or Conclud lands in Green, 327. 
 Concrete pavements, 131. 
 Consolidation Act of i887, 365- 
 Constables, average height, age, and service of. 
 
 120; pay and pensions, 121 ; special, 107. 
 Constabulary force in City, II9- 
 Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 289. 
 County councils, payments made to, 134. 
 County, erection of City into, 18. 
 County Roads Trustees, 134, I35- 
 Court of appeal formed by burghs, 10. 
 Court of Dean of Guild, 42. 
 Court-house Commissioners, the Glasgow, 82. 
 Court of Session, power of appeal to, 61. 
 Crafts' hospital, holders of bucket money, I49- 
 Craftsmen, assertion of rights of, 22, 23 ; struggle 
 
 of, for trade privileges, 14. 
 Craigmaddie reservoir, 252. 
 Craigmak, public meetings held at, 3I9- 
 Cranstonhill baths, opening of, 176. 
 Cranstonhill Water Company, 236. 
 Crarae, granite for streets, from, 129. 
 Crawford Street, despatch works at, 169. 
 Criminal jurisdiction, 105. 
 " Croon of the causeway," 126. 
 Cross, the Glasgow, 29, 3°; Hsts of voters dis- 
 
 played at the, 63. 
 Crossmyloof annexed, 55. 
 Cross, R. A., Home Secretary, 97- 
 Crossbill, police burgh of, 338 ; absorption of, 55- 
 Croy, whinstone for streets from, 129. 
 Crum, Walter, 8. 
 Cumbria, Kentigern, bishop of, 3- 
 Customs, petty, or tolls exacted by burghs, 12.
 
 INDEX 
 
 419 
 
 Customs of the Ladles, 33. 
 
 Dair}-, Harley's, 235. 
 
 Dale, David, industrial pioneer, 8. 
 
 Dalmarnock, gas work at, 267 ; bridge, 131 ; 
 manure depot, 167 ; sewage works, constructed 
 at, 98, 141 ; water supply obtained from river 
 at, 235. 
 
 Dalmuir, Kilpatrick, and Bowling Gas Company, 
 
 268. 
 Dalmuir and Mountblow, lands purchased, 98. 
 Dalmuir sewage, works at, 98, 145. 
 Dassie Green, lands of, 327. 
 David I., founder of burghs in Scotland, 10; 
 
 charter of, to Rutherglen, 18. 
 
 Dawsholm, gas works at, 268. 
 
 Deacon-Convener, 23, 47, 70, 71. 
 
 Dead Meat Market, the, 280, 287. 
 
 Dean of Guild, 17, 42, 70, 71, 148, 151 ; election 
 of, 23, 43 ; court, 42, 188. 
 
 Deanside well, 234. 
 
 Deas, James, Engineer, Clyde Navigation, 314. 
 Debt, the City, 33. 
 Deepening of River Clyde, 6, 312. 
 Dennistoun, Mr. Alexander, gift of lands, 339. 
 Depression of trade in Glasgow, 1848-1S95, 397. 
 Diarrhoeal diseases, 216. 
 
 Dick, Mr. James, donor of Cathkin Braes Park, 341, 
 Diphtheria, outbreak of, 139. 
 Disinfecting house established, 186 ; of clothing, 
 206 ; regulations regarding, 204. 
 
 Disinfector, steam, 207. 
 
 Distress in Glasgow, its causes, 398. 
 
 Districts, division of City into, 26. 
 
 Districts, sanitary in City, 190. 
 
 District Police superintendents, 109. 
 
 Disused graveyards, 345. 
 
 Dixon, William, gift of hall, 322. 
 
 Donaldshill, lands of, 336. 
 
 Drain testing, 198. 
 
 Dredging river bed, 312. 
 
 Dr>'gate, the, 29 ; erection of model dwellings in, 
 
 226. 
 Dumbarton Road Bridge, 133. 
 Dumbuck Ford, deepening of river at, 306. 
 Dundee, the plague in, 37. 
 Dunlop, Mr. Henry, 238. 
 
 Dwelling-houses, required measurements of, 195. 
 Dyers, Incorporation of, 47. 
 
 Easter Kennyhill, lands of, 339. 
 
 Eastern Police Station Hall, 322 ; exhibition held 
 
 in, 360. 
 Educational Endowments (Scotland) Act, 1882, 
 
 379- 
 
 2d 
 
 Education and Local Taxation Account (Scotland) 
 
 Act, 1892, 382. 
 Elder representative to General Assembly, 415. 
 Election, free, of magistrates, 22. 
 
 Electric light, consumption of, 275 ; expenditure 
 connected with, 275 ; on streets, 161. 
 
 Electric lighting, 273, 274. 
 
 Elmbank Street, removal of High School to, 378. 
 
 Elphinstoune, Sir George, of Blythswood, 20, 26. 
 
 Elphinstoun, George, bailie, 24. 
 
 Endowed Institutions (Scotland) Act, 1869, 379. 
 
 Endowment Committee of the Church of Scotland, 
 the, 413. 
 
 Epidemics, efforts to check, 182 ; inspectors of, 
 
 201. 
 Episcopacy abolished, 21. 
 
 Euing, Mr. William, 346 ; bequests, 46 ; to Cor- 
 poration Galleries, 352. 
 
 Evolution of the Function of Public Health Ad- 
 ministration, 184. 
 
 Exhibitions of art and industry, 176 ; in Corpora- 
 tion Galleries, 359 ; halls in City, 360 ; Glasgow 
 International, 337. 
 
 Factories and workshops, inspector of, 199. 
 Fair of Glasgow, 332 ; institution of, 19, 278. 
 Family Home, the, 228. 
 Farmed houses, 193. 
 Farms owned by Corporation, 170. 
 Fasternse'en (Shrove Tuesday), 322. 
 Ferries, passenger, 133. 
 Ferries on River Clyde, 316. 
 
 Fever, outbreak of, 139 ; hospitals, temporary, 
 183 ; the first municipal, 186. 
 
 Finnieston Ferry, 316. 
 
 Fire-alarms, electrical, 155. 
 
 Fire Brigade of Glasgow, its antiquity, 146 ; its 
 history, 146, 155 ; a permanent force, 155 ; 
 present organization, 155 ; cost, 156. 
 
 Fire Committee, 153. 
 
 Fire-engine, London-made, obtained for City, 151. 
 
 Fire-engines, manual and steam, 155. 
 
 Fire in Glasgow, 1652, 147, 376; 1677, 150. 
 
 Fire at Gorbals, 1749, 152; Gallovvgate, 16S4, 151; 
 plugs distributed in City, 152; stations in 
 Glasgow, 155. 
 
 Firemen, payment of, 154. 
 
 Fish Market, The, 280, 288. 
 
 Flemyng, James, bailie, 24. 
 
 Flesher's Haugh, the, 328. 
 
 Flitting term in Scotland, 58. 
 
 P'oods and Drugs Adulteration Act, 197. 
 
 Football, early records of game, 323. 
 
 Footpaving made compulsory, 126. 
 
 Foreign cattle, control of traffic in, 279 ; importa- 
 tion of, 289.
 
 420 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Forth and Clyde Canal, 145. 
 
 Free Burghs, 15. 
 
 Fruit and vegetable trade, growth of, 281. 
 
 FuUwood Moss, 170. 
 
 Gairdner, Professor, 186. 
 
 Gale, James Morris, M.Inst.C.E., Water Engineer, 
 
 257- 
 Gallowgate, the, 29; fire in, 151. 
 Gaol, building of, at the Green, 81. 
 
 Gardyne, Mr. Alexander, bequest to Mitchell 
 Library, 369. 
 
 Garroch Head, depository for river dredgings, 313. 
 
 Garscube bridge, 133. 
 
 Gas, its introduction in the City, 263. 
 
 Gas-Light Company, the Glasgow, 263 ; Com- 
 panies' works taken over by Corporation, 159, 
 168 ; finance of, 272 ; manufacturing stations, 
 267 ; cooking stoves, sale and hire of, 270 ; cost 
 of producing, 272; expenditure, 271; capacity 
 of works, 266; consumption of, 270; amount 
 consumed in public streets, 162. 
 
 Gas, price of, in Glasgow, 273. 
 
 General Assembly of 1638, 21, 395. 
 
 General Assembly, appointment of elder to, 415. 
 
 General Session of Glasgow, 103. 
 
 Geological Society, the, 368. 
 
 George Square, 83; resolution to acquire site for 
 City Chambers in, 84. 
 
 Gildry or Guiidry, composition of, 39. 
 
 Gilmorehill, lands of, 336. 
 
 Glasgow and South-Western Railway, 133, 229. 
 
 Glasgow, Bridge erected 1350, 181 ; Central Rail- 
 way, 140 ; collection, Mitchell Library, 367 ; 
 General Education Endowments Board, con- 
 stituted, 381 ; Gas-Light Company, 263 ; Gas 
 Consumers Committee, 266 ; International 
 Exhibition, the, 337 ; Natural History Society, 
 368 ; Needlework Guild, 405 ; Public Library, 
 363 ; Tramway and Omnibus Company, 293 ; 
 Water Company formed, 235. 
 
 Golborne, Mr. John, report on river by, 307. 
 Golf, early records of game, 323 ; on Glasgow 
 
 Green, 331 ; in Alexandra Park, 339. 
 Gorbals, absorption of, 114; baths, opening of, 176. 
 Gorbals, fire at, 152. 
 
 Gorbals Gravitation Water Company, 240. 
 Gorbals Hall, exhibition, 360. 
 
 Gorbals, lands acquired, 47 ; Hutchesons' Trust, 
 
 interest in, 387 ; regality of, 26. 
 Govan Ferry, 316. 
 
 Govanhill, Dixon Hall, 322 ; police burgh of, 338 ; 
 absorption of, 55. 
 
 Graham-Gilbert Bequest, the, 354. 
 
 Graham-Gilbert, John, statue of, 354. 
 
 Graham-Gilbert, Mrs., excerpt from will of, 353. 
 
 Graham, Professor, 220. 
 
 Grammar School of Glasgow, antiquity of, 371 ; 
 first rector of, appointed, 368 ; masters and 
 teachers of, 372, 373 ; rebuilding of, 372 ; new 
 buildings in George Street, 377 ; change of 
 name to High School, 378. 
 
 Graving docks, construction of, 315. 
 
 Great Western Road Bridge, 133. 
 
 Greenock, public graving dock at, 315. 
 
 Greenhead, first baths and wash-houses established 
 at, 175. 
 
 Green, Glasgow, 326 ; purchased, 97 ; early uses 
 of' 329 ; grazing of cows on the, 330 ; erection 
 of washing-house on the, 329 ; golf played on 
 the, 331 ; minerals under the, 333 ; popular 
 meeting-place at the, 332. 
 
 Greyfriars, City gate at, 29. 
 
 Guild, Dean of, elected, 23. 
 
 Guild Court, its functions, 42, 43. 
 
 Guiidry, institution of, 23 ; the letter of, 23. 
 
 Guilds, encroachment of merchant on burghal 
 rights, 14. 
 
 " Hagbutters," mustered by the town, 36. 
 Halls owned by Corporation, 318. 
 Halls, proposed new, 322. 
 Hamilton, David, architect, 80, 81. 
 Hammermen, Incorporation of, 47. 
 Harbour of Glasgow, 133; 311-315. 
 Harley, William, water merchant, 234. 
 Hawkshaw, Sir John, 140. 
 
 Health Committee formed, 187; powers of, 187; 
 
 and children's playgrounds, 344. 
 Helensburgh Railway, 314. 
 Heriot, George, his example, 383. 
 High Church, made a parish quoad sacra, 41. 
 
 High School of Glasgow, name of Grammar 
 School changed to, 378. 
 
 High Street, 29 ; railway depot at, 229. 
 
 Hillhead district, 133; absorption of, 55; burgh 
 hall, 322. 
 
 Hill, Lawrence, 239. 
 
 Hogganfield, special reservoir, 250. 
 
 Hood, Miss Mary, bequest to Hutchesons' Hospital, 
 
 387. 
 Hooker, Sir William, Professor of Botany, 345. 
 
 Hopkirk, Thomas, of Dalbeth and Botanic Institu- 
 tion, 346. 
 
 Horse Bazaar, 285. 
 
 Horses, tramway, 301. 
 
 Hospitals, municipal origin of, 186 ; accommoda- 
 tion of, 187 ; working of, 209-217 ; Belvidere, 
 210; Parliamentary Road, 209; Ruchill, 211; 
 Knightsvvood, 213; expenditure of, 214; cases 
 treated in, 214. 
 
 Hutchesons' Bridge, 132. 
 
 Hutchesons' Educational Trust, administration of, 
 390 J income of, 391.
 
 INDEX 
 
 421 
 
 Hutchesons' Hospital, 94, 95, 126, 379 ; founders 
 of, 384 ; buildings begun, 386 ; early purposes of, 
 3S9 ; increase of wealth of, 393 ; pensions, 392 ; 
 pensioners, 393 ; grounds belonging to, 387. 
 
 Hutchesons' Schools, 390; baths used by, 179. 
 
 Hydepark Locomotive Works, 342. 
 
 Hydraulic Power Supply Works, 255. 
 
 Iceland, importation of sheep from, 290. 
 Improvement Trust, 191, 336 ; origin of, 218 ; Act 
 
 obtained, 220; extent of operations, 221-225; 
 
 lodging-houses erected, 227 ; family home, 228 ; 
 
 houses for poor, 226 ; expenditure of, 231. 
 Improvements Amendment Act, 1880, 225. 
 Incorporated trades, 39 ; antiquity, 48. 
 Incorporations, their character and functions, 42 ; 
 
 admission to, 49; revenue, expenditure, etc., of, 
 
 SO. 
 Industries of the City, 7. 
 
 Infectious Diseases, cases dealt with, 202 ; (Noti- 
 fication) Act, 1S8 ; local authority empowered 
 
 to deal with, 200. 
 
 Ingram Street, Council buildings in, 84. 
 
 Inquisition of Prince David, 3. 
 
 Inspector of cleansing, 166 ; of nuisances, 190 ; 
 of lodging-houses, 193 ; of factories and work- 
 shops, 199; of weights and measures, 106. 
 
 Inspectors, female sanitary, 197. 
 
 Institute of Fine Arts, the Glasgow, 353. 
 
 Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, the, 353. 
 
 Insurance companies, 154. 
 
 Insurance, fire, of the town's property, 152. 
 
 International Exhibition, the Glasgow, 296, 337 ; 
 
 surplus funds of, 358. 
 Iron industry, 7. 
 Isles, revolt in the, 36. 
 Italian Art Exhibition, 359. 
 
 Jamaica Street Bridge, 132. 
 
 James II., charter granted by, 19. 
 
 James II., letter of, 19. 
 
 James III., confirmation of charters, 19. 
 
 James VI., charter by, 20. 
 
 Joceline, Bishop, charter granted to, 18. 
 
 Justiciary Court Hall, second, 83. 
 
 Kelvinbank, lands of, 47, 336. 
 
 Kelvindale Bridge, 133. 
 
 Kelvin, Lord, 8, 274. 
 
 Kelvin Bridge, 133. 
 
 KelvLngrove Park, 133, 335, 337 ; site of new 
 galleries in, 358. 
 
 Kelvingrove Museum, 336. 
 
 Kelvinhaugh, despatch works at, 169. 
 
 Kelvin river, 133, 145. 
 
 Kelvin, valley of the, 335 
 
 Kennedy, Professor A. B. W., and electric lighting, 
 
 274- 
 Kentigern, St., 3, 233. 
 Kibble Palace, erection of the, 346. 
 Kilsyth, paving stones from, 131. 
 Kinclaith, lands of, 327. 
 Kinghorn, the plague in, 37. 
 King"s Hall in Tolbooth, 319. 
 Kingston Dock opened, 314. 
 King William, statue of, 126. 
 Kinning Park, burgh of, 342. 
 Kirk Session and poor, 395. 
 Kirk Session, appointment of first, 395. 
 Kirk Street, Townhead, gas work at, 267. 
 Knightswood, fever hospital at, 213. 
 Kosher Bath at Gorbals, 177. 
 
 Ladles, customs of the, 33, 34. 
 
 Laigh Green, 80, 327. 
 
 Laigh or Tron Kirk, 116, 410. 
 
 Lambeth, H. A., 324. 
 
 Lamps first placed in Trongate, 157. 
 
 Lanark, County Road Trust of, 133. 
 
 Lands Valuation Act, the, 58. 
 
 Langside, battle of, 340. 
 
 " Laws and Customs of the Scottish Burghs," the, 
 10. 
 
 Leasing of tramway lines, 293. 
 
 Lennox, Duke of, made hereditary bailie, 20, 21. 
 
 Lepers in Glasgow, 180. 
 
 Letter of Guildry, 23, 43, 44, 47. 
 
 Licensing powers of Magistrates Committee, 107. 
 
 Lighting Department, 159; staff, 159; of public 
 streets, improvement in, 161 ; expenditure, 162. 
 
 Linget ladle, 34. 
 
 Linningshaugh, lands of, 327. 
 
 Local Government (Scotland) Act, the, 58. 
 
 Loch Arklet, added to water supply, 251. 
 
 Loch Katrine, drainage area of, 247 ; average 
 rainfall of, 247 ; water supply, 155, 184; scheme, 
 239, 247 ; Act obtained, 246 ; increase of works, 
 249 ; water, how distributed, 250; cost of, 249; 
 expenditure in connection with, 257. 
 
 Loch Long, depository for river dredgings, 313. 
 
 Loch Lubnaig, proposal to bring water from, 239. 
 
 Logan, Councillor, Bequest to Mitchell Library 
 by, 36S. 
 
 Lord Provost, election of, 71 ; the first magistrate, 
 71 ; his duties, 71, 72 ; Lord Lieutenant of the 
 County of the City, 71. 
 
 Lodging-houses, definition of, 191 ; regulations 
 regarding, 192; erection of public, 224, 227. 
 
 Magisterial control of City, 103.
 
 422 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Magistrates, free election of, 2i ; election, 13; 
 duties, 104. 
 
 Magistrates Committee, duties of, 106 ; a licensing 
 authority, 322. 
 
 Maintenance of streets, assessment for, 135. 
 
 Malcolm III., charter by, 49. 
 
 Maltmen, Incorporation of, 47 ; visitor of, 23. 
 
 Manure, sale of, 166 ; quantity of, dealt with, 169. 
 
 Margarine Act, 198. 
 
 Markets, institution of, 19 ; under municipal con- 
 trol, 276 ; Commissioners, Town Council, con- 
 stituted, 284 ; revenue of, 289 ; Sub-Committee 
 of Corporation on, 283 ; Commissioners, expendi- 
 ture of, 289. 
 
 Marwick, Sir J. D., 68, 92. 
 
 Maryburgh, 170. 
 
 Maryhill, absorbed by City, 55 ; public hall, 322 ; 
 baths, 176. 
 
 Masons, Incorporation of, 49. 
 
 Master Courts, composition of, 50 ; election of, 51. 
 
 Master of Police, cleansing superintended by, 165 ; 
 salary of, 116, 117. 
 
 Master of Works, 73, 138. 
 
 Maxwell Park, 341. 
 
 M'Clelland, Mr. James, C.A., 265. 
 
 M'Gill, Robert, indictment of, 31. 
 
 M'Intosh, Charles, 8. 
 
 M'Kenzie, Peter, 158. 
 
 M'Lellan, Mr. Archibald, founder of art collec- 
 tion, 350 ; galleries, the, 350 ; collection, deed 
 of gift to town of, 351. 
 
 M'Neil Street Suspension Bridge, 131. 
 
 M'Pherson, Mr. Donald, bequest to Mitchell 
 Library, 368. 
 
 M'Ure, historian of the City, 79. 
 
 Meadowflat, lands of, acquired by Hutchesons' 
 Trust, 387. 
 
 Meal Market, fire-engine stationed at, 152. 
 
 Measles, mortality from, 216. 
 
 Meat inspectors, duties of, 198. 
 
 Medical officer, functions of, 189, 200. 
 
 Merchant Guilds, encroachment of, on burghal 
 rights, 14. 
 
 Merchants' House, 39 ; directorate of, 43 ; bequests 
 to, 46 ; wealth of, 44 ; petition of, against 
 abolishing trade privileges, 41 ; dealings with 
 bucket money, 149. 
 
 Milk supply, source of, 198 ; infection, 203. 
 
 Mill at Partick, 34. 
 
 Mills, a source of revenue, 34 ; Sub-Dean's, the, 
 34 ; on the Molendinar, 34 ; Auld Toune, 34. 
 
 Millbrae Bridge, 134. 
 
 Milldamhead, lands of, 327. 
 
 Minstrels, official appointment of, 323. 
 
 Ministers' stipends, payment of, 411. 
 
 Mitchell Library, donor of, 365, 366; bequests to, 
 
 368 ; distinctive features of, 367 ; books in, 369 ; 
 
 readers in, 369 ; funds of, 369. 
 Moir, Bailie James, bequest to Mitchell Library, 
 
 368. 
 Molendinar Burn, 233. 
 Monkland Canal, 133. 
 Montgomerie Woods, added to Botanic Garden, 
 
 347- 
 Montrose Street, headquarters of Sanitary Depart- 
 ment at, 187. 
 Moore Street, slaughter-house, 287. 
 Morgan, Mr. John, of Bishopbriggs, bequest, 46 ; 
 
 his collection of books given to Mitchell Library, 
 
 368. 
 Morison, Dr. James, books to Mitchell Library, 
 
 368. 
 Mountblow, sewage works at, 145. 
 Mugdock Castle, reservoirs at, 248. 
 Muirhead, Bishop, 327. 
 Municipal Boundary, extension of, 54. 
 Municipal Buildings, the, 76 ; foundation stone, 
 
 laying, 85. 
 Municipal Government in Scotland, 9 ; elections, 
 
 annual, 65 ; elections, date of, 67 ; franchise, 
 
 extension of, 58; voters, qualifications, 58, 61. 
 Murray, George, architect of City Hall, 320. 
 Museums and Galleries Committee, 176, 357; 
 
 estimated value of institutions, 361 ; expenditure 
 
 on, 361. 
 Music in Public Parks, 324. 
 Musical instruments, bequest of, to Anderson's 
 
 College, 352. 
 Music, chair of, founded in Anderson's College, 
 
 352. 
 Music, early teaching of, 374. 
 Mylnedam, public meetings held at, 319. 
 
 National Plalls, concerts in, 324. 
 Natural History Museum, 356. 
 Navigation of Clyde, development of, 5. 
 Neilson, James Beaumont, discovery of hot blast, 7. 
 Necropolis of Glasgow, 45. 
 Nelson Monument, 329. 
 Nether Barrasgett, the, 29. 
 New Kilpatrick, 145. 
 Night patrolling, system of, 113. 
 Night-walkers, prohibition of, 38. 
 North British Railway, 229. 
 North Lanarkshire Prison Board, 97. 
 Notification of Diseases Act, 200. 
 Nuisances Committee, 185 ; discovery of nuisances, 
 190. 
 
 Oatlands, purchase of, 224. 
 
 Ochiltree, Andrew, Lord, 36. 
 
 Officials appointed by Town Council, 74.
 
 INDEX 
 
 423 
 
 Officers of Police, superior, 106. 
 
 Old Clothes' Market, 280. 
 
 Old Kilpatrick, gas-work at, 269. 
 
 Open spaces, 344. 
 
 Order Confirmation Act, 1877, amalgamate Council 
 
 and Police, 115. 
 Organ Recitals, 324. 
 Oriental Art Exhibition, 359. 
 Overcrowding of houses, 219 ; its prevention, 195. 
 Overnewton, purchase of, 224, 236. 
 Ownership of streets, 43. 
 
 Paddy's Market, 284. 
 
 Parishes, early division of City into, 411. 
 
 Parishes, quoad sacra, in City, 411. 
 
 Parks Department of the Corporation, 133. 
 
 Parks and Galleries Acts, 362. 
 
 Parks Committee, expenditure on bands, 325. 
 
 Parks Committee, regulations of games in parks 
 
 by, 323, 340. 
 
 Parliamentary divisions, 27. 
 
 Parliamentary Road, depot of cleansing depart- 
 ment, 167. 
 
 Parliamentary Road, fever hospital at, 210. 
 
 Parliament, held at Perth, 36. 
 
 Parliament, representation in, 20, 27. 
 
 Partick, burgh of, 133 ; bridge, 133 ; gas-work at, 
 267. 
 
 Partick, Hillhead and Maryhill Gas Company, 
 
 267. 
 Paton, Captain, 234. 
 
 Pavements, side, introduced, 126; concrete, 131; 
 wood, 129. 
 
 Paxton, Sir Joseph, plan of Queen's Park made 
 
 by, 337. 
 
 Peitboig, lands of, 327. 
 Penal offences, no. 
 
 Penny, Professor Fredrick, on Loch Katrine water, 
 246. 
 
 People's Palace, erection of, 360. 
 
 Perth, city of, exclusive privileges enjoyed by, 12. 
 
 Perth, the plague in, 37. 
 
 Philosophical Society, the, 353 ; of Glasgow, 364. 
 
 Phoenix Recreation Ground, 345. 
 
 Physic Garden, 345. 
 
 Plague, dread of, 37 ; in Glasgow, 181 ; efforts to 
 prevent spread of, 37 ; of 1646, 164, 
 
 Plainstones, the, 126. 
 
 Poets' Corner, Mitchell Library, 367. 
 
 Police Act of 1800, 113, 114, 126, 127, 158, 165, 
 277; of 1807, 152; of 1837, 128; 1843, 26, 
 114, 129, 138, 166; 1862, 150, 166; 1866, 160, 
 175, 195, 210. 
 
 Police Amendment Act, 1890, 139, 188, 195,231, 
 288. 
 
 Police and Statute Labour Committee, 115. 
 Police Board merged in Town Council, 26. 
 Police Courts' judges, 73 ; assessors in, 108 ; 
 
 commonest charges at, 110 ; number of, in City, 
 
 108. 
 Police Department of Corporation of Glasgow, 
 
 103 ; functions of, 112 ; property of the, 322, 
 
 Police offences, 109. 
 
 Police officers, dwelling-houses and lodgings for, 
 
 120; payment of, 121 ; pensions to, 122. 
 Police offices, 117, 118; rates, in ; revenue 1801, 
 
 117; expenditure, 119. 
 Pollokshaws, gas-work at, 269. 
 Pollokshields, absorption of, 55 ; (West) Public 
 
 Hall, 322 ; burgh, 341. 
 
 Polmadie, included in Glasgow, 55. 
 
 Poor, care of, 395. 
 
 Poor Law Act, 1845, 397. 
 
 Population of Glasgow, 1-3. 
 
 Port-Glasgow, establishment of harbour at, 306 ; 
 founded by charter, 5. 
 
 Portland Street Suspension Bridge, 131. 
 
 Presbytery of Glasgow, the, 230, 409. 
 
 Pretorium, the, 77. 
 
 Prison accommodation, 97- 
 
 Prisoners, number of received in 1815, 81. 
 
 Prisons placed under Imperial Government, 97. 
 
 Privileges of trade enjoyed by burgesses, 12. 
 
 Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, 
 
 226. 
 Procurator-Fiscal of Police, 108. 
 Provan, Bailie of, 73 ; Lordship and Barony of, 
 
 95, 96- 
 Provosthaugh, east portion of Green, 328. 
 
 Publicans' Certificates Acts, 107. 
 
 Public rates in Glasgow, 318. 
 
 Public Health and Sanitary Department con- 
 stituted, 113. 
 
 Public-house licenses, 107. 
 
 Public library, efforts to secure in Glasgow, 364. 
 
 Public Libraries Act, the, not adopted in Glasgow, 
 362. 
 
 Public Libraries Association, the, 364. 
 
 Public Lighting Department, 160. 
 
 Queen Margaret Bridge, 133. 
 
 Queen Mary's Seat, 340. 
 
 Queen's Park, purchase of, 337 ; expenditure on, 
 
 338. 
 Queen's Dock, construction of, 315. 
 Quay space in Glasgow, 313. 
 
 Rae-Arthur, I^ord Provost, 83. 
 
 Rae, Bishop, 132. 
 
 Railway works in City, 229.
 
 424 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ramshorn, lands of, acquired by Hutchesons' 
 Trust, 387. 
 
 Rankine, Professor, 244. 
 
 Recreation grounds, 344. 
 
 Redistribution Act, 27. 
 
 Reform Act of 1832, 16, 27, 44, 54. 
 
 Reform Act, Burgh, 16, 54, S7- 
 
 Reformation, effect of, in Glasgow, 20, 384. 
 
 Refuse Despatch Works, 169 ; collection and re- 
 moval of, 168. 
 
 Regality, burghs of, 11. 
 
 Register of Voters, 58, 62, 63. 
 
 Registration Courts, 61, 63. 
 
 Registrar of Police, appointment of, 106. 
 
 Reid, Mr. James, of Auchterarder, 356. 
 
 Raid, Messrs., gift of pictures by, 356. 
 
 Reid, Robert, architect, 81. 
 
 Relief funds, statistics of, 400 ; operations of, 
 1895. 399, 403- 404- 
 
 Rental Book prepared by Town Council, 93. 
 
 Rentals, increase in, 60. 
 
 Rental as re-arranged, 1896, 63. 
 
 Report of Lord Provost to Committee of House of 
 Commons on Distress, 1895, 397-4o8. 
 
 Report on Municipal Corporations, 71. 
 
 Report on the Comtnon Lands of the City, 92. 
 
 Representation of City in Parliament, 27. 
 
 Reservoirs, capacity of early, 241 ; Craigmaddie, 
 252 ; Mugdock, 248. 
 
 Revenue, sources of, in burghs, 12. 
 
 Revenues of the City, 33. 
 
 River Bailie, his jurisdiction, 72 ; antiquity of 
 office of, 72 ; appointment of, 72. 
 
 Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 128, 134. 
 
 Road Trustees, appointment of, 128. 
 
 Road money, collection of, in Glasgow, 127, 128. 
 
 Roll of the Council, 70. 
 
 Romans, erection of Antonine Wall by, 3. 
 
 Rowan, William, of Bellahouston, 343. 
 
 Royal Burghs, li. 
 
 Royal Burgh, Glasgow created a, 304. 
 
 Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow, 346. 
 
 Royal Infirmary opened, 183. 
 
 Royal Incorporation of Hutchesons' Hospital, 
 institution of, 383 ; funds of, 390 ; patrons of, 
 
 389- 
 
 Rottenrow, the, 29. 
 
 Ruchill Hospital, 187, 211; park, 342; sanitary 
 
 wash-house, 207. 
 Russell, Dr. J. B., 184, 186. 
 Rutherglen Bridge, 131 ; burgh of, 10, 340 ; site 
 
 of Glasgow included in, 18 ; trading privileges 
 
 contested with, 12. 
 Ruskin Society, the, 230. 
 Rydding, property of Cleansing Department, 170. 
 
 St. Andrew's Church erected, 411. 
 
 St. Andrew's Halls, 321. 
 
 St. David's or Ramshorn Church, erected, 411. 
 
 St. Enoch's Burn, 164, 327 ; church erected, 411. 
 
 St. George's Church, site of, 82 ; erected, 411. 
 
 St. James' Church erected, 411. 
 
 St. John's Church erected, 411. 
 
 St. Nicholas Hospital, 327. 
 
 St. Ninian's Hospital for lepers, l8l. 
 
 St. Rollox, 133. 
 
 St. Rollox, despatch works at, 167, 169. 
 
 Salt and linget ladle, 34. 
 
 Saltmarket, 29 ; model dwelling-houses at, 226. 
 
 Salvage Corps, 156. 
 
 Sandyford, lands of, bought, 47. 
 
 Sanitary Committee, court of, 231. 
 
 Sanitary Department, constituted, 113, 185; a 
 
 recent organization, 180; committee formed, 
 
 186; increased powers, 188; districts formed, 
 
 190 ; annual cost of, 213. 
 Sanitary duties, growth of municipal, 173. 
 Sanitary inspector, appointinent of, 138, 187 ; 
 
 functions of, 138, 189; female inspectors, 197. 
 
 Sanitary tests, 139. 
 
 Saturday afternoon concerts, 324. 
 
 Scavenging establishment, early, 166. 
 
 Scarlet fever, outbreaks of, 213. 
 
 Schools, early, in Glasgow, 374 ; English, 374 ; 
 
 Scots, 375 ; payment of teachers in, 377. See 
 
 Grammar School. 
 School Board of Glasgow, 363 ; control of High 
 
 School assumed by, 378. 
 
 School of Art, the, 352. 
 
 School children, prevention of infection among, 201. 
 
 Science taught in early Glasgow schools, 376. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 28. 
 
 Scott, William, Bequest to Hutchesons' Hospital, 
 
 386. 
 Scots Parliament Act, 1579, 395. 
 Scots schools, 375. 
 Scottish Registration Act, 215. 
 See of Glasgow revived, 3. 
 Select Committee of the House of Commons on 
 
 Distress, 1895, report of Lord Provost to, 397. 
 Selkirk, Convention of burghs held at, 30. 
 Senate of the University of Glasgow, donation to 
 
 Mitchell Library, 369. 
 Session, general, of Glasgow, 103. 
 Sewage purification question, 98 ; household, 139; 
 
 from public works, 139; purification works at 
 
 Dalmarnock, 141 ; schemes for dealing with, 
 
 140; statistics concerning, 144. 
 Sewers, classes of, in City, 138. 
 Sewers, public, 136. 
 Sewer main, taken to Dalmarnock, 140.
 
 INDEX 
 
 425 
 
 Shand, Mason & Co., 155. 
 
 Shawlands, added to Glasgow, 55. 
 
 Sheep, trade in foreign, 291. 
 
 Sheriffs Substitute (Scotland) Act, 106. 
 
 Sheriff and Justice of Peace Courts in Wilson 
 Street, 82. 
 
 Shieldhall, foreign cattle landed at, 280. 
 
 Shop Hours Acts, 199. 
 
 Simpson and Milner Allan, architects of Art 
 Galleries, 358. 
 
 Slaughter-houses, 280, 286. 
 
 "Slumming," 230. 
 
 Small-pox Hospital, l8l. 
 
 Small-pox, spread of, 181 ; outbreak of, 213. 
 
 Smeaton, John, report on river, 306. 
 
 Smith, Dr. Robert Angus, on Loch Katrine water, 
 
 245. 
 Smoke-testing of drains, 198. 
 Snowfalls, clearing streets after, 168. 
 
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 
 
 198. 
 Soup kitchens, 403. 
 
 South Albion Street, principal police office at, 117. 
 Special constables, 107. 
 Springburn Park, 342. 
 Springburn, baths in course of erection at, 176 ; 
 
 elevated reservoir necessary at, 250. 
 
 Stable Green Port, the, 29. 
 
 Stair-lighting, regulations regarding, 159. 
 
 Stark, William, architect, 81. 
 
 Siatuta Gilda, standard for Scottish burghs, 13. 
 
 Statute Labour Act (1772), 127; (1807), 137; 
 
 Trust formed, 128. 
 Statute Labour Rates, 128. 
 
 Statute Labour Committee, 129, 130, 131; De- 
 partment, 138; causewaying, 129, 130; pave- 
 ments, 131 ; expenditure of, 134 ; value of 
 bridges, 134. 
 
 Steam disinfector, 207. 
 
 Steam-dredging employed, 312. 
 
 Steam-ferries, 133, 316. 
 
 Steam navigation, the beginning of, 309. 
 
 Stenters, protection of, 36. 
 
 Stenting, imposition of taxes, 35 ; for relief of poor 
 by Council, 396. 
 
 Steven, Misses Elizabeth and Grace, of Bella- 
 
 houston, 343. 
 Stevenson, Bailie, 286. 
 Stevenson, Messrs. D. and T., 311. 
 Stevenson, Mr. Robert, Engineer, 132. 
 Stewart, Sir Ludovic, of Mynto, 45. 
 Stipendiary Police Magistrates, 106. 
 Stirling-Maxwell, Sir John, gift of lands by, 341. 
 Stirling, James, commander of hagbutters, 36. 
 Stirling, Mr. Walter, founder of library, 363. 
 
 Stirling's Library, 363. 
 
 Stirling's and Glasgow Public Library, 364. 
 
 Stobcross Docks begun, 314. 
 
 Stone-breaking yards, unemployed working in, 401 ; 
 payment of men in, 402. 
 
 Strathbungo added to City, 55. 
 
 Streets in Glasgow, 124 ; lighting of, 157 ; owner- 
 ship of, 43. 
 
 Subway under Clyde, 133. 
 
 Sugar houses, special regulations in case of fire, 
 
 151- 
 Sun Fire Office, 152. 
 
 Sweeping of private courts, 168; of streets, 167. 
 Symmerhill, public assemblies held at, 319. 
 Symington, R. S., fire alarms, 155. 
 
 Tailors, Incorporation of, 47. 
 
 Tatlock, R. R. , on sewage, 143. 
 
 Taxation, proportion of, paid by Glasgow, 20. 
 
 Technical College, annual contribution to, 3S0. 
 
 Teinds of the Archbishopric, 92. 
 
 Telford, Thomas, builder of Jamaica Street 
 Bridge, 133 ; reports on Clyde, 309. 
 
 Telephone, growth of use of, 99. 
 
 Telephones, portable, carried on fire-engines, 155. 
 
 Temple Gas- Works, 269. 
 
 Tennant, Charles, 8. 
 
 Thomson, Mr. John, C.E., 244. 
 
 Thomson, Mr. Neale, 337. 
 
 Thomson, Thomas, report on municipal corpora- 
 tions, 71. 
 
 Ticketed houses, 195. 
 
 Tobacco lords, 126. 
 
 Tolbooth, erection of the second, 77 ; site of, 30, 
 77 ; description of the, 78, 79 ; demolition of 
 the, 77 ; public hall in, 319. 
 
 Toll system, 134. 
 
 Town Clerk of Glasgow, 73- 
 
 Town Council of seventeenth century, 28. 
 
 Town Council, the Corporation of Glasgow, 75. 
 
 Town Council, constitution of, 25 ; circumstances 
 affecting seats in, 65 ; number of members of, 
 27 ; roll of, 70 ; modern duties, 53 ; control of 
 Clyde navigation by, 304 ; Finance Committee 
 of, 74 ; Gas and Electric Lighting Committee of, 
 74 ; Mitchell Library Committee of, 74 ; 
 Municipal Buildings Committee of, 74 ; Parks 
 Gardens, Galleries, and Museums Committee of, 
 74 ; Tramways Committee of, 74, 293 ; officials 
 appointed by, 74 ; Road Trustees, 127 ; appoint- 
 ment of representative elder to General Asseml)ly 
 by, 415 ; various boards it appoints members to, 
 73 ; educational funds remaining in hands of, 
 381 ; administration of bequests, loi ; relief of 
 poor by, 397; patronage of Cathedral in hands 
 of, 410. 
 
 Town Halls, 76.
 
 426 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Town Hall, added to Tolbooth, 79, 319. 
 
 Townhead Baths, opening of, 176. 
 
 Town's Hospital of Glasgow founded, 396. 
 
 Trades' House, 39 ; origin of, 47 ; composition of, 
 47 ; sources of revenue of, 47, 48, 49 ; funds of, 
 47 ; its benevolent schemes, 48 ; statement of 
 revenue, expenditure, etc. , of, 50. 
 
 Trades, incorporated, 39. 
 
 Tradeston, property of Trades' House, 95 ; gas 
 work at, 267. 
 
 Tramways, formation of, 292 ; first Act of Parlia- 
 ment, 293 ; Company formed, 294 ; lease, 294 ; 
 building of lines, 295 ; cost, 298 ; negotiations 
 for new lease, 298 ; Council resolve to work 
 lines, 299 ; Corporation Tramway Department, 
 300; growth of traffic, 301 ; financial aspects, 
 302, 303- 
 
 Tramway Company, efforts of, to retain traffic,299. 
 
 Treasurer of the burgh, appointment of, 72. 
 
 Triennial retirement of councillors, 65. 
 
 Trongate, first lamps in, 157. 
 
 Tron Church, made a parish quoad sacra, 411 ; 
 removal of 412. 
 
 Tron Kirk, session house of, 116. 
 
 Trumble, Mathew, Dean of Guild, 20. 
 
 Turnpike roads, 128. 
 
 Typhus fever, epidemics of, 181. 
 
 Uninhabitable Houses Committee, 197. 
 
 Union of the kingdoms unpopular, 6. 
 
 United States, importation of cattle from, 290. 
 
 University, foundation of, 4, 371 ; building, sub- 
 scription from Common Good Fund, loi ; study 
 of botany in, 345 ; gift of books to Mitchell 
 Library, 369. 
 
 Ure, Lord Provost, 85. 
 
 Valuation Appeal Court, 60. 
 Valuation Roll, 58, 62. 
 Value, annual, of City, 55. 
 Victoria Bridge, 131. 
 Victual ladle, 34. 
 Voters, as re-arranged, 1 896, 63. 
 Walter, Bishop, of Glasgow, charter to, 19. 
 Wards of the City, their re-arrangement, 55, 63. 
 Ward Committee, formation of, 66 ; meeting- 
 places of, 322. 
 Wash-houses, 177. 
 
 Washing-house, public, on the Green, 329. 
 
 Water, analysis of, 253. 
 
 Water Bills, rival, 243. 
 
 Water Committee appointed, 247. 
 
 Water Committee, official accounts of, 257. 
 
 Water Department, annual expenditure of, 260 ; 
 revenue of, 260 ; supply, domestic rating for, 
 259 ; consumption, statistics of, 254 ; consump- 
 tion, increase of, 251 ; for trade purposes, 255 ; 
 purity of supply, 216; new works authorized, 
 252 ; rates, early, 236. 
 
 Water-closets, 139; proper provision of, 188. 
 
 Watering of streets, 168. 
 
 Waterloo Street, electric lighting station at, 274. 
 
 Waterhouse, Mr. Alfred, R.A., 358. 
 
 Watt, James, 8, 315 ; survey of river by, 307. 
 
 Weavers, Incorporation of, 47. 
 
 Wells in Glasgow, 234 ; water supply derived 
 from, 139 ; insufficiency of water from, 233. 
 
 Western Infirmary, the, 336. 
 
 Western Police Station Hall, 322. 
 
 West Port, 125 ; well at, 234. 
 
 West of England Insurance Company, 154. 
 
 Whooping-cough, mortality from, 216. 
 
 William the Lion, earliest charters extant date 
 from, 10. 
 
 William the Lion, charter of, 18. 
 
 William and Mary, charter by, 22. 
 
 Willowbank, springs at, 235. 
 
 Wilson, Mr. Heath, 353. 
 
 Wilson Street, erection of courts in, 82. 
 
 Wooden buildings, erection of, prohibited, 151. 
 
 Woodlands, lands of, 336. 
 
 Woodlands Road Bridge, 133. 
 
 Wood pavements, 129. 
 
 Woodside, lands of, 336. 
 
 Woodside Baths, opening of, 176. 
 
 Workmen's Dwellings' Company, Glasgow, 230. 
 
 Wynd Church erected, 411. 
 
 Yorkhill, estate of, 354; wharf, foreign cattle 
 landed at, 280. 
 
 Young, William, architect of new municipal build- 
 ings, 85. 
 
 Zymotic diseases, mortality from, 215.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACI 
 
 AA 000 516 294 6 
 
 ./~.i^>w.i J, 
 
 f , 
 
 'L