feft, perhaps an irreparable loss to the public, is obvious to the most shallow observer. It will perhaps be faid that the numbers banished from the country are not loft to the state (though they are loft to the county), as most of them take refuge in manufacturing towns and large cities. But it is well known that these towns and cities cannot fupport their own numbers without a conftant fupply from the country; and when the country is fo far wafted as to be no longer able to afford that supply, the towns must decay of course.

Large towns and cities have with too much truth been termed the graves of the human fpecies. The inhabitants of fuch are more fickly and delicate, their employments more unhealthy, the air they breathe more impure, and the danger from infectious diseases more unavoidable, in proportion to the numbers thus crowded together. This laft circumstance is peculiarly fatal to children in large towns, and accordingly a much greater proportion of them die there than in the country; and those which survive are more weak and delicate. Hence, as many as can afford it take every opportunity of sending their children to the country, especially after they have been ailing, as the best way to recover their health and vigour.

But if large towns are unfavourable to the health, they are ftill more fo to the morals of a people. The mind is at least as liable to contagion as the body; and wherever a number of people is crowded together, the infection of vice is rapid and alarming. Vice foon spreads its influence from one to many; "from individuals to families, from families to cities, "from cities to the empire; and an empire corrupted is an "empire loft." The state is therefore greatly concerned in taking measures to check an evil which has been rapidly increafing for many years over all the kingdom; and which, if it goes on, may haften its deftruction. Both the ftrength and virtue of a kingdom confift in having its inhabitants

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fpread as equally as may be over its furface, and in a proper balance and proportion being kept between the population of country and cities, and between thofe employed in rural employments, and in trade and manufacture. If this proportion is destroyed, it is easy to see that a state must rapidly decline, however great its wealth, and however numerous its armies.

In fuch a cafe, the army and navy must be chiefly supplied from the lower ranks of large cities, whofe general characteristic is debility of body, and depravity of mind, as it has ever been in all rich and populous cities. How far the defence of our rights and liberties, lives and property, may be fafe in fuch hands, or how far they are fitted for undergoing the dangers and toils of à foldier or failor's life, if these should entirely fall to their fhare, may be justly questioned. It was by men of this description, who had little or nothing at stake, that the state was lately thrown almost into convulfions; while those in rural occupations, ftrangers to riot and cabal, and more under the influence of religious, focial, and moral ties, fhowed themselves loyal to their king, and attached to their conftitution. But if the number of these fhall continue to decrease, their vigour and their virtue may be of fmall avail. The country is the great feed-bed of population and of virtue. The children there are more numerous, more virtuous, and more frugal, than those brought up in large towns and cities; and the inhabitants in.general are more peaceable, orderly, and virtuous.

Nothing can more merit the attention of our wife and enlightened statesmen than to confider what measures ought to be taken for encouraging population in the country, fo as to preferve its balance in refpect to cities; for on this the strength and fecurity of the state must ultimately depend. The degree of preponderance which towns and manufactures have already acquired over agriculture and the population of the country, threatens the kingdom with a scarcity of bread and other

ferious evils, to which the accumulation of small poffeflions into large ones have greatly contributed.

Some have indeed maintained that great farmers bring more to market than small ones from the fame quantity of land, without confidering that the fmall ones maintain for many families at home, as will make up for the difference to the public (if indeed there is a difference), and that these families are employed more innocently and more usefully to the public than those who are fupplied from the market. It is irrational to suppose that one family can improve any space of ground fo well as 10 or 20, having that space divided among them in fhares proportioned to their strength and capital. Even if the one should employ as many hands as the 10 or 20, they will not nearly work as much; for one man working for himself will perform almost as much as two when hired by another: and their hard labour, frugal living, and close attention, will enable them to pay more rent than one man living in a higher style, and employing many servants, can afford.

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The fame will hold with refpect to grazing farms, or sheep poffeffions. The space of 2, 10, or 20 fquare miles, would certainly be of more account to the public and to the landlord in the hands of 2, 10, or 20 families, than in the hands of one. For, in the first place, He who makes the grass to fpring, cannot be supposed more partial to the rich than to the poor, to the one than to the many; fo that the land, if left to itself, would be no lefs productive by being thus divided, and therefore of equal advantage to the public. But, in the fecond place, the many would cultivate and improve the ground; and without going, like the ftoremafter, to market, would not only bring their own frugal living out of it, but also a furplus of food for their cattle, by which the ground could maintain a greater number. All this would be fo much gain to the public, and fo much advantage to the landlord:

for it may be laid down as an indisputable maxim, that the plan which most improves the land, will always prove the moft beneficial to the landlords.

Proprietors are no doubt excufable for adopting any method by which they think to bring their lands, in the speedieft manner, to their highest value. But it may be confidently affirmed, that the way to do this is not by giving large poffeffions to one, and banifhing many. By this means, all competition is in a great measure excluded, and a fort of monopoly, extremely adverse to their own interest, is encouraged by the landlords *. Their lands in this manner can never be improved; and if the lands are not improved, the rents muft foon be at a stand. It is certain that, from comparing the past and present rents of both, fuch lands in this county as have been let in fmall poffeffions, are more advanced in their • rent, and, from their greater improvement, more likely to advance still, than those lands which are let in large poffeffions +.

It is, however, neceffary to obferve, that poffeffions may be too small, as well as too large; and there are too many instances in the county of their being carried to the one extreme as well as to the other; especially when the lands are

* When large eftates are brought to market, they are cut down into moderate lots, in order to excite the greater competition. Would it not be the interest of landlords to follow the fame plan in the letting of large poffeffions? They would let beft by adapting them to the capital of the common run of farmers, which in the Highlands is very moderate.

† Perhaps, even under this system (of large poffeffions), proprietors might have attended more to their own interest and that of the public than they have done; for thefe interefts, when rightly understood, are by no means oppofite. It has been suggested that they might oblige the tenants to keep at least a certain quantity of the lands formerly arable in a state of cultivation, and to improve yearly a certain quantity of wafte ground. This would redound to the intereft of the public, of the poor, of the proprietor, and, as there is reafon to believe, of the tenant also; although the general advantage of it would by no means be equal to that of giving fmall or moderate pof❤ feffions.

let in run-rig. A small poffeffion under this system, and perhaps held without a leafe, could hardly fupport a family without paying any rent at all. Every tenant who has no other bufinefs, fhould have as much land as to give himself and his family.conftant and regular employment*. But how much this fhould be, muft depend upon fuch a variety of circumstances, that no general rule can be given with regard to it. The nature of the foil, wet or dry, cultivated or wild, enclo fed or open; whether it is moft adapted for corn, cattle, or fheep, and a variety of other circumstances, must tend to vary the fize of farms. The general ftate of the fkill and induftry, and the ordinary run of capital poffeffed by farmers in the country, muft alfo be confidered; and much regard muft be had to the boundaries marked out by nature, by which the old divifions of farms were generally regulated. All these circumstances confidered, there must be in every district fome larger and fome smaller farms; but extremes on either fide fhould be avoided, and a middle courfe fhould as much as pof fible be obferved.

Of theep farms, on lands confifting almoft altogether of pafturage, perhaps the most common fize fhould be as much as one perfon could well manage, which is generally fuppofed to be as much as would maintain 600 fheep. In determining the proper fize of arable farms, that which feems to promife best for the improvement of the country and the increase of population, is, that the farm should be as much as a farmer, with one fervant and one plough, can eafily manage and properly cultivate. This cannot be much, where (as with us} the lands are in fuch bad order, and the fields fmall, detached, and diftant. It may be, in general, from 30 to 45 acres of arable land, with whatever pasture may happen to be con

* Every tenant ought also to be in a higher rank than any labourer, tradef man, or country manufacturer, as his care, industry, and exertion, must be equal to their's, and his stock or capital, and risk, much greater.