Thomas Mackay
Encyclopedia
Thomas Mackay was a British
wine
merchant and classical liberal.
Mackay, the son of a colonel, was born in Edinburgh
and educated at Glenalmond
and New College, Oxford
. He was called to the bar in 1879 but left to enter the wine trade because he felt that he was not earning enough to support his wife and family. He retired ten years later in order to campaign for liberalism.
He criticised old age pensions
because he believed they would harm character and advocated reducing "the encouragement to pauperism
held out by our present system of out-door relief" by restoring independence. Also, Mackay did not favour a compromise between individualism and socialism: "Those who talk of compromise seem not to realize that the knell of the period of compromise has sounded...We are falling under a tyranny more absolute and unrelenting than anything the world has ever seen".
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
merchant and classical liberal.
Mackay, the son of a colonel, was born in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and educated at Glenalmond
Glenalmond
Glenalmond or Glen Almond is a glen which stretches for several miles to the west of the city of Perth in Perth and Kinross, Scotland and down which the River Almond flows. The upper half of the glen runs through mountainous country and is virtually uninhabited whilst the lower, easterly section...
and New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
. He was called to the bar in 1879 but left to enter the wine trade because he felt that he was not earning enough to support his wife and family. He retired ten years later in order to campaign for liberalism.
He criticised old age pensions
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
because he believed they would harm character and advocated reducing "the encouragement to pauperism
Pauperism
Pauperism is a term meaning poverty or generally the state of being poor, but in English usage particularly the condition of being a "pauper", i.e. in receipt of relief administered under the poor law...
held out by our present system of out-door relief" by restoring independence. Also, Mackay did not favour a compromise between individualism and socialism: "Those who talk of compromise seem not to realize that the knell of the period of compromise has sounded...We are falling under a tyranny more absolute and unrelenting than anything the world has ever seen".
Publications
- The English Poor (1889).
- (editor), A Plea for Liberty (1891).
- "The Joining of Issues", Economic Review, 1 (1891), pp. 194-202.
- "People's Banks", National Review, 22 (1894), pp. 634-47.
- "Empiricism in Politics", National Review, 25 (1895), pp. 790-803.
- "Old Age Pensions", Quarterly Review, 182 (1895), pp. 254-80.
- "Politicians and the Poor Law", Fortnightly Review, 57 (1895), p. 408.
- Methods of Social Reform: Essays Critical and Constructive (1896).
- The State and Charity (1898).
- Public Relief of the Poor Law: Six Letters (1901).
- 'The Mandible' (1902)
Further reading
- J. W. Mason, "Thomas Mackay: The Anti-Socialist Philosophy of the Charity Organisation Society," in Kenneth D. Brown (ed.), Essays in Anti-Labour History: Responses to the Rise of Labour in Britain (London: Macmillan, 1974), pp. 290-316.