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 to 22,627 (males 14,448), of whom 10,373 were of Russian nationality, 4051 of Italian, and 3232 of German.

Table IV. shows the nationalities of the people in 1891 and 1901.

Poor Relief.—Before the Reformation, relief of the poor had been the duty of the Church, for early legislation aimed at suppressing rather than aiding poverty. Those, indeed, who were absolutely dependent on alms might receive a licence to beg within the bounds of their own parish, but the able-bodied poor were severely dealt with. The act of 1579 directed the magistrates in towns and the justices in rural parishes to propose a register of the aged and impotent poor and to levy a tax on the inhabitants of every parish for their support. One consequence of the denial of relief to the able-bodied was that the workhouse, so familiar in the English poor-law system, was not established in Scotland, though almshouses are found in many