Occasionally also, as in Elizabethan England, the burgesses of particular towns saw that the poor could not live on the relief granted by the church officials, and made great efforts to raise additional funds so that they might be able to free their town from beggars. But, as the convention of Scotch boroughs stated in 1579, it was difficult to grant relief in one town only, because there were so many beggars from other parts. In Scotland, as in England under Elizabeth, the town systems of poor relief ceased to be successful after a few years. The efforts in this direction made in Aberdeen are probably fairly typical of those attempted by more philanthropic burgesses. Even in 1595 the inhabitants of Aberdeen had distributed the destitute "babis" and had levied voluntary contributions for the other poor[690]. Early in the seventeenth century, however, beggars existed who were licensed by the town[691], and in 1619 the "haill towne" was again convened, and it was agreed that all the beggars should be sustained in their homes and prevented from begging. It was estimated that the cost would amount to 2,600 marks, and £1,000 of this was to be raised "by way of taxatioun," while eleven hundred marks was to be obtained from the contributions at communion or collections at the church doors[692]. Two years later, in April 1621, we are told that "the wark hes hed a gude and happie succes so that the haill poor peopill within this burght that were then beggaris have beine now almost these thrie yeiris past interteained and keiped from begging." It was therefore then agreed that the same methods should "stand and continew" always, and that the town should continue to contribute its thousand pounds a year, that the poor might be relieved at home[693]. Why the plan failed does not appear, but it did fail, since in 1650 tickets were given to the town beggars of Aberdeen to distinguish them from those of other districts[694]. [690] See note above. [691] _Selections from Ecclesiastical Records of Aberdeen_, p. 83. [692] _Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Aberdeen_, I. p. 360. [693] _Ib._, p. 372. The distribution of relief was apparently still arranged by deacons appointed by the kirk sessions. [694] _Ib._, p. 112, Vol. II. _Scottish Burgh Records Society_. In Aberdeen, therefore, we can see that the money raised by the kirk sessions was only about half the amount which the town rulers considered necessary for the adequate support of the poor, and that when the town was kept free from beggars resort had to be made to a compulsory tax. [Sidenote: 7 _d_. Infrequency of assessment in Scotland before 1818.]