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About the Author

Dr. Jonathan Gruber is a professor of economics at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has
taught since 1992. He is also the director of the Health Care
Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, where
he is a research associate, and former president of the

8
American Society of Health Economists. He is also a member of
the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, and the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Dr. Gruber received his B.S. in economics from MIT and his
Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. Dr. Gruber’s
research focuses on the areas of public finance and health
economics. He has published more than 170 research articles,
has edited six research volumes, and is the author of Health
Care Reform, a graphic novel, and Jump-Starting America (with
Simon Johnson). In 2006, he received the American Society of
Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health
economist in the nation aged 40 and under.

During the 1997–1998 academic year, Dr. Gruber was on

leave as deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the
Treasury Department. From 2003 to 2006, he was a key architect
of the ambitious health reform effort in Massachusetts and in
2006 became an inaugural member of the Health Connector
Board, the main implementing body for that effort. In 2009–
2010, he served as a technical consultant to the Obama
administration and worked with both the administration and
Congress to help craft the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act. In 2011, he was named “One of the Top 25 Most
Innovative and Practical Thinkers of Our Time” by the online
magazine Slate. In both 2006 and 2012, he was rated one of the
top 100 most powerful people in health care in the United States
by Modern Healthcare magazine.

9
BRIEF CONTENTS

Contents
Preface
PART I Introduction and Background
1 Why Study Public Finance?
2 Theoretical Tools of Public Finance
3 Empirical Tools of Public Finance
4 Budget Analysis and Deficit Financing
PART II Externalities and Public Goods
5 Externalities: Problems and Solutions
6 Externalities in Action: Environmental and Health
Externalities
7 Public Goods
8 Cost-Benefit Analysis
9 Political Economy
10 State and Local Government Expenditures
11 Education
PART III Social Insurance and Redistribution
12 Social Insurance: The New Function of Government
13 Social Security
14 Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, and

10
 Workers’ Compensation
15 Health Insurance I: Health Economics and Private
Health Insurance
16 Health Insurance II: Medicare, Medicaid, and Health
Care Reform
17 Income Distribution and Welfare Programs
PART IV Taxation in Theory and Practice
18 Taxation: How It Works and What It Means
19 The Equity Implications of Taxation: Tax Incidence
20 Tax Inefficiencies and Their Implications for
Optimal Taxation
21 Taxes on Labor Supply
22 Taxes on Savings
23 Taxes on Risk Taking and Wealth
24 Taxation of Business Income
25 Fundamental Tax Reform and Consumption
Taxation
Glossary
References
Index

11
CONTENTS

Preface
PART I
Introduction and Background
CHAPTER 1 Why Study Public Finance?
1.1 The Four Questions of Public Finance
When Should the Government Intervene in the
Economy?
APPLICATION Modern Measles Epidemics
How Might the Government Intervene?
What Is the Effect of Those Interventions on
Economic Outcomes?
APPLICATION The CBO: Government Scorekeepers
Why Do Governments Choose to Intervene in the Way
That They Do?
1.2 Why Study Public Finance? Facts on Government in
the United States and Around the World
The Size and Growth of Government
Decentralization
Spending, Taxes, Deficits, and Debts
Distribution of Spending
Distribution of Revenue Sources

12
 Regulatory Role of the Government
1.3 The Questions of Public Finance Are Front and
Center in Health Care Debates
When Should the Government Intervene?
How Should the Government Intervene?
What Are the Effects of Interventions?
Why Governments Do What They Do
1.4 Conclusion
Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions

CHAPTER 2 Theoretical Tools of Public Finance

2.1 Constrained Utility Maximization
Preferences and Indifference Curves
Utility Mapping of Preferences
Budget Constraints
Putting It All Together: Constrained Choice
The Effects of Price Changes: Substitution and Income
Effects
2.2 Putting the Tools to Work: TANF and Labor Supply
Among Single Mothers
Identifying the Budget Constraint
The Effect of TANF on the Budget Constraint
2.3 Equilibrium and Social Welfare
Demand Curves

13
 Supply Curves
Equilibrium
Social Efficiency
Competitive Equilibrium Maximizes Social Efficiency
From Social Efficiency to Social Welfare: The Role of
Equity
Choosing an Equity Criterion
2.4 Welfare Implications of Benefit Reductions: The
TANF Example Continued
2.5 Conclusion
Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions
APPENDIX The Mathematics of Utility Maximization
CHAPTER 3 Empirical Tools of Public Finance
3.1 The Important Distinction Between Correlation and
Causality
The Problem
3.2 Measuring Causation with Data We’d Like to Have:
Randomized Trials
Randomized Trials as a Solution
The Problem of Bias
Randomized Trials of ERT
Randomized Trials in the TANF Context
APPLICATION The Rise of Randomized Trials in

14
 Developing Economies
Why We Need to Go Beyond Randomized Trials
3.3 Estimating Causation with Data We Actually Get:
Observational Data
Time Series Analysis
Cross-Sectional Regression Analysis
Quasi-Experiments
Structural Modeling
3.4 Conclusion
Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions
APPENDIX Cross-Sectional Regression Analysis
CHAPTER 4 Budget Analysis and Deficit Financing
4.1 Government Budgeting
The Budget Deficit in Recent Years
The Budget Process
APPLICATION Efforts to Control the Deficit
State and International Deficit Rules
4.2 Measuring the Budgetary Position of the
Government: Alternative Approaches
Real Versus Nominal
Economic Conditions
Cash Versus Capital Accounting
Static Versus Dynamic Scoring

15
 4.3 Do Current Debts and Deficits Mean Anything? A
Long-Run Perspective
Background: Present Discounted Value
APPLICATION Present Discounted Value and
Interpreting Sports Contracts
Why Current Labels May Be Meaningless
Measuring Long-Run Government Budgets
What Does the U.S. Government Do?
APPLICATION The Financial Shenanigans of 2001 and
2018
4.4 Why Do We Care About the Government’s Fiscal
Position?
Short-Run Versus Long-Run Effects of the
Government on the Macroeconomy
Background: Savings and Economic Growth
The Federal Budget, Interest Rates, and Economic
Growth
Intergenerational Equity
4.5 Conclusion
Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions

PART II
Externalities and Public Goods
CHAPTER 5 Externalities: Problems and Solutions

16
 5.1 Externality Theory
Economics of Negative Production Externalities
Negative Consumption Externalities
APPLICATION The Externality of SUVs
Positive Externalities
5.2 Private-Sector Solutions to Negative Externalities
The Solution
The Problems with Coasian Solutions
5.3 Public-Sector Remedies for Externalities
Corrective Taxation
APPLICATION Congestion Pricing
Subsidies
Regulation
5.4 Distinctions Between Price and Quantity
Approaches to Addressing Externalities
Basic Model
Price Regulation (Taxes) Versus Quantity Regulation
in This Model
Multiple Plants with Different Reduction Costs
Uncertainty About Costs of Reduction
5.5 Conclusion
Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions

CHAPTER 6 Externalities in Action: Environmental and

17
Health Externalities
6.1 The Role of Economics in Environmental
Regulation: The Case of Particulates
History of Particulate Regulation
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Estimating the Adverse Health
Effects of Particulates
Has the CAA Been a Success?
6.2 Climate Change
APPLICATION The Montreal Protocol
The Kyoto Treaty
Can Trading Make Environmental Agreements More
Cost-Effective?
APPLICATION Congress Takes On Climate Change
and Fails
The Paris Agreement and the Future
6.3 The Economics of Smoking
The Externalities of Smoking
6.4 The Economics of Other Addictive Behaviors
Drinking
Illicit Drugs
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE The Effect of Legal Drinking
at Age 21
APPLICATION Public Policy Toward Obesity
Summary
6.5 Conclusion

18
 Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions

CHAPTER 7 Public Goods

7.1 Optimal Provision of Public Goods
Optimal Provision of Private Goods
Optimal Provision of Public Goods
7.2 Private Provision of Public Goods
Private-Sector Underprovision
APPLICATION The Free Rider Problem in Practice
Can Private Providers Overcome the Free Rider
Problem?
APPLICATION Business Improvement Districts
When Is Private Provision Likely to Overcome the
Free Rider Problem?
7.3 Public Provision of Public Goods
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Measuring Crowd-Out
The Right Mix of Public and Private
APPLICATION The Good and Bad Sides of Contracting
Out
Measuring the Costs and Benefits of Public Goods
How Can We Measure Preferences for Public Goods?
7.4 Conclusion
Highlights
Questions and Problems

19
 Advanced Questions
APPENDIX The Mathematics of Public Goods Provision
CHAPTER 8 Cost-Benefit Analysis
8.1 Measuring the Costs of Public Projects
The Example
Measuring Current Costs
8.2 Measuring the Benefits of Public Projects
Valuing Driving Time Saved
APPLICATION The Problems of Contingent Valuation
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Valuing Time Savings
Valuing Saved Lives
APPLICATION Valuing Life
Discounting Future Benefits
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE How Much Does It Cost to
Avoid a Traffic Fatality?
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
8.3 Putting It All Together
Other Issues in Cost-Benefit Analysis
8.4 Conclusion
Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions

CHAPTER 9 Political Economy

9.1 Unanimous Consent on Public Goods Levels

20
 Lindahl Pricing
Problems with Lindahl Pricing
9.2 Mechanisms for Aggregating Individual Preferences
APPLICATION Direct Democracy in the United States
Majority Voting: When It Works
Majority Voting: When It Doesn’t Work
Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem
Restricting Preferences to Solve the Impossibility
Problem
Median Voter Theory
The Potential Inefficiency of the Median Voter
Outcome
Summary
9.3 Representative Democracy
Vote-Maximizing Politicians Represent the Median
Voter
Assumptions of the Median Voter Model
Lobbying
APPLICATION Farm Policy in the United States
Evidence on the Median Voter Model for
Representative Democracy
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Testing the Median Voter
Model
Increasing Polarization in American Politics
9.4 Public Choice Theory: The Foundations of

21
 Government Failure
Size-Maximizing Bureaucracy
Leviathan Theory
Corruption
APPLICATION Government Corruption
The Implications of Government Failure
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Government Failures and
Economic Growth
9.5 Conclusion
Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions

CHAPTER 10 State and Local Government Expenditures

10.1 Fiscal Federalism in the United States and Abroad
Spending and Revenue of State and Local
Governments
Fiscal Federalism Abroad
10.2 Optimal Fiscal Federalism
The Tiebout Model
Problems with the Tiebout Model
Evidence on the Tiebout Model
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Evidence for Capitalization
from California’s Proposition 13
Optimal Fiscal Federalism
10.3 Redistribution Across Communities

22
 Should We Care?
APPLICATION Barriers to Tiebout and the “Great
Divergence”
Tools of Redistribution: Grants
Redistribution in Action: School Finance Equalization
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE The Flypaper Effect: Here,
Gone, and Back Again?
APPLICATION School Finance Equalization and
Property Tax Limitations in California
10.4 Conclusion
Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions

CHAPTER 11 Education
11.1 Why Should the Government Be Involved in
Education?
Productivity
Citizenship
Credit Market Failures
Failure to Maximize Family Utility
Redistribution
11.2 How Is the Government Involved in Education?
Free Public Education and Crowding Out
Solving the Crowd-Out Problem: Vouchers
Problems with Educational Vouchers

23
 Vouchers May Increase School Segregation
Vouchers May Be an Inefficient and Inequitable Use
of Public Resources
11.3 Evidence on Competition in Education Markets
Direct Experience with Vouchers
Experience with Public School Choice
Experience with Public School Incentives
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Estimating the Effects of
Voucher Programs
Bottom Line on Vouchers and School Choice
11.4 Measuring the Returns to Education
Effects of Education Levels on Productivity
Effects of Education Levels on Other Outcomes
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Estimating the Return to
Education
The Impact of School Quality
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Estimating the Effects of
School Quality
11.5 The Role of the Government in Higher Education
Current Government Role
What Is the Market Failure, and How Should It Be
Addressed?
APPLICATION Addressing Student Loan Debt in the
United States
11.6 Conclusion

24
 Highlights
Questions and Problems
Advanced Questions

PART III
Social Insurance and Redistribution
CHAPTER 12 Social Insurance: The New Function of
Government
12.1 What Is Insurance and Why Do Individuals Value
It?
What Is Insurance?
Why Do Individuals Value Insurance?
Formalizing This Intuition: Expected Utility Model
12.2 Why Have Social Insurance? Asymmetric
Information and Adverse Selection
Asymmetric Information
Example with Full Information
Example with Asymmetric Information
The Problem of Adverse Selection
Does Asymmetric Information Necessarily Lead to
Market Failure?
APPLICATION Adverse Selection and Health
Insurance “Death Spirals”
How Does the Government Address Adverse
Selection?
12.3 Other Reasons for Government Intervention in
Insurance Markets

25
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bits from
Blinkbonny; or, Bell o' the Manse
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
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Title: Bits from Blinkbonny; or, Bell o' the Manse

a tale of Scottish village life between 1841 and 1851

Author: John Strathesk

Release date: November 27, 2023 [eBook #72243]

Language: English

Original publication: Toronto: William Briggs, 1885

Credits: Susan Skinner, Quentin Campbell, and the Online

Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BITS FROM

BLINKBONNY; OR, BELL O' THE MANSE ***
 Transcriber’s Note

The cover image was restored by Thiers Halliwell and is placed in the
public domain.

Click any image to see a larger version.

See end of this transcript for details of corrections and other changes.
BITS FROM BLINKBONNY.
The Artists Bit.
BITS FROM BLINKBONNY
OR

BELL O’ THE MANSE

A TALE OF SCOTTISH VILLAGE LIFE BETWEEN

1841 AND 1851

BY

JOHN STRATHESK

With Six Original Illustrations

TORONTO
WILLIAM BRIGGS, 78 & 80 KING ST. EAST

C. W. COATES, Montreal, Que. S. F. HUESTIS, Halifax, N.S.

——
1885
Entered, according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and
eighty-five, by William Briggs, agent for John Tod, St. Leonard’s, Scotland, in the Office of the Minister
of Agriculture, at Ottawa.
 PREFACE.
——◆——

T HESE “Bits from Blinkbonny” were grouped together by the

Author to beguile the tedium of a protracted period of domestic
quarantine. They are not only his first attempt at sustained
literary work, but they were commenced without any concerted plan.
Blinkbonny was selected as a pretty name for a Scottish village, but
the Author himself cannot fix the precise locality; and all the names
he has used are supposititious, excepting those of such public
characters as Dr. Duff, Dr. Guthrie, etc.
Owing to his having adopted the autobiographical form, the Author
has experienced more difficulty in writing the preface than any other
part of the book, as, although most of the incidents are founded on
fact, a good deal of imported matter has been required to form a
connected narrative. He also knows that in bringing together the
varieties of character and incident that an ordinary Scotch village
affords, he has passed “from grave to gay, from lively to severe,” in
some instances with injudicious abruptness, and that there are other
defects for which he needs to apologize; but as even his readers will
probably differ as to where these occur, it is not desirable for him to
dwell on them.
The Author is not in any way connected with the Free Church of
Scotland, and at the outset he had no intention of treating so largely
as he has done of the “Disruption” of 1843; if, however, he induces
the rising generation to study the past and the present of that great
movement, neither they nor he will regret the prominence given to it
in this volume.
The illustrations with which the book is embellished are
“composition” sketches; but the Author confidently leaves these to
introduce themselves.
The idiom of the Scottish language—the dear old Doric—has been to
the Author a difficult matter to render, so as to be at once intelligible
to ordinary readers and fairly representative of the everyday mother
tongue of the common people of Scotland. He hopes that he has
succeeded in doing this, as well as in preserving a few of the floating
traditions of the passing generation which are so rapidly being swept
away by the absorbing whirlpool of these bustling times, and that his
readers will follow with kindly interest these homely records of the
various subjects he has tried to portray in these “Bits from
Blinkbonny.”
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The author is delighted to find you so hurriedly called for, that he has
only time to express the hope that you will receive as kindly a
welcome as your precursor has done.
February 1882.
 PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
The author gladly avails himself of the opportunity you afford him, to
express his gratification at the warm reception which Bell and her
friends at Blinkbonny have met with on both sides of the Atlantic, as
well as to make a few verbal corrections.

“The cleanest corn that e’er was dicht

May ha’e some pyles o’ caff in.”

July 1882.
 CONTENTS.
——◆——

CHAPTER I.
THE MANSE.
PAGE

The Artist and his Bits—Blinkbonny—The Author and his

Relations—The Good Folks at Greenknowe—The
Manse—Once thinking of getting married—The
Interrupted Call—Mr. and Mrs. Barrie—Bell of the
Manse—Wee Nellie—Her Illness, Death, and Grave
—“A Butterfly on a Grave” (Mrs. Sigourney), 1

CHAPTER II.
A QUIET EVENING AT THE MANSE.
Bell’s Sliding Scale—Her Pattens—The Hospitality of the
Manse—Be judeecious—James and his Skates—
Mrs. Barrie’s Experiences—Mr. Barrie’s Illness—The
Good Samaritan—A Startling Proposal, 22

CHAPTER III.
THE MARRIAGE AND THE HOME-COMING.
“The Books”—P.P.C.—Marriage Presents—“The
Confession of Faith”—Toasts—“The Frostit
Corn”—“The Country Rockin’”—Auntie Mattie—“The
Farmer’s Ingle”—Peggy Ritchie on the Churchyard—
A Lamb Leg and a Berry Tart—Mathieson’s Heid, 41

CHAPTER IV.
THE TWO SIDES OF THE CHURCH QUESTION.
Coming Events—Bell and the Seed Potatoes—Her Idea 58
of the Government—Knowe Park—Spunks—The
 Town-Clerk of Ephesus—Bell’s summing up—Daisy
—The Eve of Battle—Sir John McLelland’s Opinions
on the “Evangelicals”—Patronage—Preaching
Competitions—Little Gab—Non-Intrusion and Voting,

CHAPTER V.
BLINKBONNY AND THE DISRUPTION.
Bell’s Opinion of Knowe Park—Mr. Barrie’s Return—The
Deputation’s Visit to the Manse—Mr. Barrie’s
Statement—Mr. Taylor’s Views—George Brown on
the Crisis—His Covenanting Relics, 85

CHAPTER VI.
THE DISRUPTION AND BLINKBONNY.
The Meeting in Beltane Hall—The End of the Ten Years’
Conflict—George Brown’s Exercises—The Bellman’s
Difficulty—Sabbath Services at the Annie Green
—“Thae Cath’lics”—The Secession Church—Mr.
Barrie’s Successor—Bell and Smoking—“Hillend” on
Doctors and Ministers—A Man amang Sheep, 99

CHAPTER VII.
OUT OF THE OLD HOME AND INTO THE NEW.
Leaving the Manse—Dr. Guthrie and the Children—
Nellie’s Tibby—Well settled—Bell’s Experiment with
the Hens—Dan Corbett—Braid Nebs—Babbie’s Mill, 126

CHAPTER VIII.
BLINKBONNY FREE CHURCH.
The Disruption of 1843—Hardships—Scotch Villages and
Church Matters—The New Church—The Session
and Deacons—The Beadle, Walter Dalgleish—The
Precentorship—Psalms and Hymns—Mr. Barrie’s
New Life—Foreign Missions—The Assembly’s
Decision—The Living Child—Saxpence—“Gude Siller
gaun oot o’ the Country”—Reminiscences of Dr. Duff, 154
 CHAPTER IX.
BELL AT HOME IN KNOWE PARK.
The Three Ministers of Blinkbonny—Mr. Walker—The Ten
Virgins—The finest o’ the Wheat—Bell’s Fee—Alloa
Yarn—Bell’s Cooking—Sheep’s-head—Mr. Kirkwood
and the Potato-Soup—Dan in the Kitchen—Mr.
Gordon o’ the Granaries and the Smugglers—Dan at
Nellie’s Grave—Mr. Barrie’s Visit to Dan, 177

CHAPTER X.
INCIDENTS IN BLINKBONNY.
Miss Park on Dan—The Sweep’s dead—Mrs. Gray’s
Elegy on her Husband—The Coffin for naething—The
New School-master—The Roast Beef in the Lobby—
The Examination Committee—“Hoo’ to get there”—
George Brown’s Death—Scripture References—Mrs.
Barrie and Mr. Corbett—Dan and the Pictures—Dan’s
Bath—His Dream—Dan at Church—His Visit to
Babbie’s Mill—Colonel Gordon’s First Visit—Sir John
McLelland at the Soiree—“The Angel’s Whisper”
(Samuel Lover), 205

CHAPTER XI.
CHANGES AT KNOWE PARK.
The Dorcas Society—The Morisonian Controversy—
Colonel Gordon’s Second Visit—A Real Scotch
Dinner—Champagne—Dan an’ the Duke o’ Gordon—
The Smuggler’s Log-book—Colonel Gordon’s Will—
Dan’s Bank—The Call to Edinburgh—No-Popery
Agitation—David Tait o’ Blackbrae—The Sow and the
Corinthians—Bell woo’d—Mrs. Barrie breaks the Ice
—Bell won—Found out and congratulated, 230

CHAPTER XII.
ANOTHER MARRIAGE AND HOME-COMING.
The Forms of Procedure—Reception of the News of Bell’s 259
Marriage by Mr. Taylor, and by Sir John McLelland
—“Her Weight in Gold”—Bell’s Presents—“Hook ma
 Back”—Mr. Walker’s Violin—Bell’s Marriage and
Home-coming—The Infar Cake—Creeling—Dan,
“Burke,” and the Noisy Convoy—The Vexing Pig—
The “Kirkin’,”

CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION.
The Packing at Knowe Park—The Bachelor Umbrella—
Nellie’s Box—Dan and Rosie—Dan on Evangelical
Effort—On “The Angel’s Whisper”—Bell in Edinburgh
—Home to Blackbrae—Andrew Taylor’s Criticisms, 284
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
——◆——

The Artist’s Bit, Frontispiece.

Blinkbonny, Page 6
Bell and “Daisy,” ” 70
Babbie’s Mill, ” 152
Dumbarton Castle, ” 197
Bell’s “Hoose o’ her Ain”—Blackbrae, ” 250
BITS FROM BLINKBONNY.
BITS FROM BLINKBONNY.
——◆——