In 1699 the beggars of Stirling also were licensed[702], but the existence of licensed beggars was not the worst of the evil. This method of dealing with the matter, it is true, is very strong evidence that insufficient poor relief was given because it is furnished by the administrators themselves; the beggar must be destitute, or they ought not to have given him a license, and he could hardly have been among those who were too proud to receive relief. But the districts where unlicensed beggary prevailed were in a far worse condition. How great the evil was may be seen from the evidence of Fletcher of Saltoun, who wrote in 1698. His complaints and even his language closely resemble that of Harman when he describes the English beggars under Henry VIII., and that of Hext, concerning those who lived under Elizabeth; they are in strong contrast to the self-satisfied reports of the English justices of the reign of Charles I. "There are," he says, "at this day in Scotland (besides a great number of families very meanly provided for by the church boxes, with others, who, living upon bad food, fall into various diseases) 200,000 people begging from door to door. These are not only no ways advantageous, but a very grievous burden to so poor a country, and though the number of them be perhaps double to what it was formerly, by reason of the present great distress, yet in all times there have been about 100,000 of these vagabonds who have lived without any regard or submission either to the laws of the land or even of those of God and nature.... No magistrate could ever discover or be informed which way any of these wretches died, or that ever they were baptized. Many murders have been discovered among them; and they are not only a most unspeakable oppression to poor tenants (who, if they give not bread or some sort of provision to perhaps forty such villains in one day, are sure to be insulted by them), but they rob many poor people, who live in houses distant from any neighbourhood. In years of plenty many thousands of them meet together in the mountains, where they feast and riot for many days; and at country weddings, markets, burials and other like public occasions, they are to be seen, both men and women, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming and fighting together[703]." [702] 20 May, 1699. "Considering the insuportable number of extraneous and vagrant beggers who daylie frequent this burgh" the elders and baillies are to meet "and take ane exact account of the poor belonging to the samen burgh and order badges for them soe as they may be knoune and distinguished from extraneous beggers." _Extracts from the Records of Stirling_, Vol. II., p. 90. [703] Second Discourse concerning the affairs of Scotland quoted and compared with Hext's letter in Dunlop's _Law of Scotland relating to the Poor_, p. 1.