racter of a
corporation by a royal charter, the expenses attendant on which were
disbursed by gentlemen named Kinnear, Allen, Ewing, Donaldson, &c.
When they met at the Cross Keys in 'Coven Garden,' they found their
receipts to be L.116, 8s. 5d. The character of the times is seen in
one of their regulations, which imposed a fine of 2s. 6d. for every
oath used in the course of their quarterly business. The institution
was now becoming venerable, and, as usual, members began to exhibit
their affection for it by presents. The Mr Kinnear just mentioned,
conferred upon it an elegant silver cup. James Donaldson presented an
ivory mallet or hammer, to be used by the chairman in calling order.
Among the contributors, we find the name of Gilbert Burnet (afterwards
Bishop) as giving L.1 half-yearly. They had an hospital erected in
Blackfriars Street; but experience soon proved that confinement to a
charity workhouse was altogether uncongenial to the feelings and
habits of the Scottish poor, and they speedily returned to the plan of
assisting them by small outdoor pensions, which has ever since been
adhered to. In those days, no effort was made to secure permanency by
a sunk fund. They distributed each quarter-day all that had been
collected during the preceding interval. The consequence of this not
very Scotsman-like proceeding was that, in one of those periods of
decay which are apt to befall all charitable institutions, the
Scottish Hospital was threatened with extinction; and this would
undoubtedly have been its fate, but for the efforts of a few patriotic
Scotsmen who came to its aid.

Through the help of these gentlemen, a new charter was obtained
(1775), putting the institution upon a new and more liberal footing,
and at the same time providing for the establishment of a permanent
fund. Since then, through the virtue of the national spirit,
considerable sums have been obtained from the wealthier Scotch living
in London, and by the bequests of charitable individuals of the
nation; so that the hospital now distributes about L.2200 per annum,
chiefly in L.10 pensions to old people.[1] At the same time, a special
bequest of large amount (L.76,495) from William Kinloch, Esq., a
native of Kincardineshire, who had realised a fortune in India, allows
of a further distribution through the same channel of about L.1800,
most of it in pensions of L.4 to disabled soldiers and sailors. Thus
many hundreds of the Scotch poor of the metrop