is strictly municipal. In many provinces private char- ity is associated with public assistance, administered by the cure, a tew chosen inhabitants, who are called 'Fa- thers of the Poor,' and an officer accountable to the
• •on me. This s\ Btem is called the • Poor's institutes ;'
and their funds are principally derived from private sources; i,ni they receive a third part ofthe property
of ecclesiastics who die intestate, and certain tines, etc.
Applicants are subjected to minute inquiry as to the
cause of poverty, and a weekly allowance is made on a scale according to age and necessity. The infirm poor, who have no relatives to reside with, are taken into
hospitals established in almost every commune, where
they receive, besides lodging, lire and light, clothing.
20 beggars more on account of national distress
at that time than at other times— but never less, be affirms, than 100,000. Various severe acts had been passed from time to time, and cruel punishments threat- ened Such as BCOurging and branding with a hot iron.
The famous act of 1579, in enumerating the various classes of beggars condemned, has the following: -All minstrelles, sangsters, and tale-tellers, not avowed in Bpecial Bervice, by Borne of the lords of Parliament or great burrowes, or by the head burrowes and cities, tor their commoun minstrelles; .-ill comra i lal n rs, be- ing persones abill in bodie, living idle, and tiding la- bour: all i nterfaicters of licences to beg, or using the
same, knowing them to be counti rfaicted : all vaga-
POOR
403
POPE
bound schollers of the universities of Saint Andrewes, Glasgow, and Abirdene, not licensed by the rector and deane of facultie of the universitie to ask almes; all schipmen and mariners, alledging themselves to be schipbroken, without they have sufficient testimonials." The fines levied for ecclesiastical offences were often given to the poor, as may be seen in the notes to prin- cipal Lee's second volume of Church History. In Kilo, 1644, and 1645, the general session of Edinburgh gives the following to the poor :
" 1643.
Feb. 10.— Penalties and sifts for the use of the poor:
Given by Dr. Pont as ;i voluntary gift 100 merits.
Penalty for Neill Turner and his partie. . . 10 merits. Feb. 15.— Given in by Geo. Stuart, advocat, for
not coming to the ile 20 merits.
Given by Col. Hume's lady for private mar- riage with young Craig'ie 20 merks.
Given by Sir John Smyth as a yearlie vol- untary gift 100 merks.
Given by Mr. Robt. Smyth for private
marriage 20 merks.
"1644.
The six sessions ordain the ordiuarpoor enrolled to be threatened if they learn not the grounds of re- ligion, and to be deprived of their weeklie pensione if they can nut answer to the Cathechise.
May 9 By' Mr. Luis Stuart and Isbell
Geddes, for fornication 21 lib. 6s. Sd.
By Robert Martin, for his private mar- riage 20 merks.
" 1645.
March 13— Given for Wm, Salmon d, relapse
in fornication 531. Cs. Sd."
See Pauperism.
In the United States, the poor who are members of any ecclesiastical organization are usually provided for by that body. Besides, the churches voluntarily as- sume very frequently the care of non-believers. In the Protestant Episcopal and in the Methodist Episcopal churches collections for the poor are taken on commun- ion Sundays. Many churches make it the practice to take the poor collection every first Sabbath in the month.
Poor, Daniel, D.D., a Congregational minister and missionary to India, was born June 27, 1789, in Danvers, Mass. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1812; was ordained June 21, 1815, with the intention of be- coming a missionary, and sailed Oct. 23 for Ceylon, which he reached March 22, 1816. He commenced to labor at Tillipally, Jaffna, and remained until July, 1823, when he went to Batticotta, to superintend the missionary seminary. In 1836 he went to Madras, on the mainland, and returned to Ceylon in 1841. He came home in 1848, and spent about two years in the service of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, visiting various parts of the country, delivering addresses, and otherwise stimulating mission- ary enterprise. He sailed again to Ceylon in 1850, and took his station at Mampy, where he died of cholera, Feb. 2, 1855. He is the author of various publications in the Tamil and English languages. See Sprague, Annals of the A mer. Pulpit, ii, 617.^ (J. II. W.)
Poor Catholics. See Waldenses.
Pooree is the name of the little town situated near the temples where the Juggernaut worship is performed by the Hindus. It is situated in the province of Orissa (q. v.), in the south-eastern part of India, and is a dirty little town, with a district of about ten miles of like name, within which the temples are located. It con- stitutes a part of the endowment of the temple, nobody being allowed to enter the territory without paying a prescribed fee. The population of the town is about seventy-five thousand, there being among the number about four thousand priests, who attend daily upon the temple. Here is found probably one of the greatest strongholds of superstition in India, and it might be called the greatest seat of Brahminieal power. The stone wall enclosing the great temples is about thirty feet high, and the area forms a rectangle of six hundred and fifty feet by six hundred and sixty. Within this