to those of large fortune and great influence in the country: and great, indeed, will be their merit and reward, if they devote those talents with which Providence has bleffed them, to ferve the common cause, and their own, in the most effen, tial manner, by rendering the situation of the labouring poor more comfortable, and promoting population. "A civic crown was formerly decreed to him who faved the life of a citizen. What adequate recompenfe fhall be adjudged to him who fhall be the means of thus adding thousands to the number?"

SECT. II.-Rent.

In this county, there is very little land let by the acre. But fuch gentlemen as have got their estates surveyed, have alfo got the different farms and fields valued, for their own. private information. The quality of the foil is extremely dif- ̧ ferent; fo that fuch valuations differ, fometimes on the fame farm, from 2s. to 15s. the acre of arable ground. The pafture too, being partly green hill, but mostly heath, differs no lefs in its quality than the arable land. Some of it is valued below 4d. and fome above 4s. the acre. hood of Campbelton, a few spots of arable land let from 21. to 31. the acre. But this price may be faid to be put, not altogether upon the land, but partly upon the accommodation *.

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What proportion the rent of a farm fhould bear to its produce, depends fo much on foil, climate, fituation, and other circumftances, that no general rule can be laid down on the subject. On the rent of sheep-lands, as occupied with us at prefent, fome observations may be seen in Chap. XIII. Sect. 2. In regard to arable lands more particularly, it is a common, though perhaps not a juft remark, that 1-3d of the produce fhould go for rent, 1-3d for expence of management, and 1-3d for the farmer's profit, intereft, &c. The oldest obfervation extant on this fubject is in Gen. xlvii. 24.; where 1-5th is allow

There is very little arable land in the county, but what is capable of higher cultivation; besides the great quantity of wafte ground that may be improved in almost every farm. The land is therefore capable of being made to yield a much higher rent when better cultivated; though not a great deal of it, as is generally thought, can bear much more, in the present stage of improvement, than what is laid on already, unless it be under a different management *.

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That high rents are a fpur to improvement and exertion, a common, and, to a certain extent, a juft maxim. No doubt there may be fome, who, if they had the land for nothing, would be ruined by their indolence. But the morecommon cafe is, that, when a tenant fees that all his exertion will not do, he becomes difpirited and desperate, and allows himself to be carried along by the ftream which he cannot stem. The land fuffers, the tenant fails, the farm gets a bad name, and the rent must be lowered. Thus the landlord, as well as the tenant, fuffers, by raising the rent higher or fafter than the improvement of the land will bear.

A fubftantial tenant is generally cautious of engaging to pay a rent that is exorbitant. He fees the fuccefs of those who invest their money in other branches of business; and he follows their example, if he has not the prospect of a farm's yielding him full intereft for his money, and an adequate return for his diligence and labour. Whereas he who has least to lofe, is often the most forward to offer; and the landlord is often tempted to accept the offer, without confidering that a fufficient capital is neceflary for paying the rent, and improving the land. Inftances of ruin to the tenant, and

ed for rent, 1-5th for feed, 1-5th for food, 1-5th for fervants, and 1-5th to lay by for provifion to children.

Sheep-lands would be more productive, by introducing a better-woolled breed; arable lands, by adopting a better system of husbandry. See Chap. VII. Sect. 3.

lofs to the landlord, from too high rents, are not unfrequent, efpecially on fome of the fmailer eftates. Most of the farmers toil hard, live poorly; and for one who has a trifle for his pains, perhaps two give their pains for nothing. Many who have old leafes, obtained before the late rife in land, and in its produce, took place, are very well; as are also many of those who have sheep ftocks; as their poffeffions are managed with lefs expence, and the value of fome of them was not well known till they were tried under the sheep syftem. But even bad bargains are become good, by the late rife on every article of produce; and most of those who have leases are at present at their ease.

The occupiers of land, whether in pafturage or tillage, ought certainly to be able, like labourers or tradesmen, to live by their occupation, and to fupport their families by their daily care and labour. The interest of the money invested in their stock, with the proper allowance for tear, wear, and risk, they should be able to save as a provision for their families, and for old age; as the money fo invested would give this return, if laid out on interest, without any trouble whatever. It cannot be confidered as any part of the produce of the ground; and therefore no part of it ought, in equity, to enter into the payment of the rent: and yet not one in ten, perhaps, is able to fave it; nor do they commonly advert that fo much ought to be faved in juftice. They are generally fatisfied, if they can keep their stock undiminished; fo that the bufinefs, in general, returns much less to thofe engaged in it, than almost any other. A happy predilection in favour of the occupation in which they were brought up, is what induces fo many to follow it. Perhaps it may be also said, that there is implanted in the human mind, for wife purposes, a certain innate difpofition, or inftinct, which leads it to delight in rural occupations.

The rents in general, efpecially upon the larger eftates

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are paid in money: but tenants on the leffer eftates, and near their landlord, often pay fome of the rent in kind, and are almost always fubject to fervitudes*. Peats must be made and led; fo must the hay: affistance muft, perhaps, be given in feed-time and harveft. So many wedders, fowls, eggs, butter and cheese, lint, wool, oats, meal: so much spinning from the wives, or perhaps fo much yarn; and fometimes they must pay the weaver, and give it in fheets and blankets. In short, fo many hundred things are required by the laird, and fo many hundred things by the lady, that it is impoffible to pay them. It is fometimes expected, over and above all this, that the poor wretches fhall come with prefents, when they themselves are almoft objects of charity! And to keep them in perfect dependence, they have often no leases. The miserable creatures on lands under this management, have neither meat, nor clothes, nor habitations; and a stranger would know them and their lands in passing, as eafily as Solomon did the garden of the fluggard. Such practices cannot be reprobated in too strong terms. They are the ruin of the tenant first; and, in the end, they will ruin the landlord.

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All fervices, whether paid to the mafter, or to any under him, fhould be entirely abolished, and all rents formed into one fum of money, including public burdens, fuch as minifter's ftipend, schoolmaster's falary, road-money, &c. Thus the tenant would always have a clear view of the amount of his rent; and fave time, trouble, and perhaps expence, by having to fettle only with one, inftead of many. His time is

* Besides giving their time and labour, they must fometimes find their own provifions! See Stat. Acc. of Lifmore and Appin.

† A lady, who, in her wisdom, took this course, and laid up woollen treafures for many years, found, from experience, that the lived in a world where moths corrupt; and that blankets, like their owners, when laid up in cheits, be come the food of worms,

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precious, and ought never to be thrown away without neceffity.

SECT. III.-Tithes.

As no tithes are paid in Scotland, landlords can improvè their grounds with much more advantage than can be done in England. In 1629, an account of the teinds in this coun ́ty was taken, as they were then paid; and the amount of them at that time, in every parish, is the fund out of which 'the minister of that parish is maintained, by a fstipend modified by the court of teinds, and proportioned among the different heritors, according to the valued rent of their respective properties*.

This measure had the happy effect of removing every ground of dispute between the clergyman and his people, on the fcore of tithes; and tended to produce that harmony and cordiality between them, which are so neceffary to make the labours of the clergy useful. But the evil is, that this fund, fufficient as it may then have been, is now in many places become altogether inadequate for the maintenance of the clergyman. The vast rise in the value of lands, and in all the neceffaries of life, with the great influx of money, arifing from the extenfion of trade, commerce, and manufactures, with all the confequent changes in the mode of living, in the courfe of almost two centuries, must have reduced a fund, which has been all that time stationary, to lefs, perhaps, than a tenth part of its original value +.

On this fubjec, fee Erfkine's Inftitutes.

+ Profeffor Hutchison, in a pamphlet which is little more than 50 years old, ftates the clergyman in the generality of the parishes in Scotland to be the fecond man in point of income: now he is not generally the 20th, often not the 50th. On the continent of Argyle, the average proportion of the stipend to the rent is nearly as 1 to 30. In the county of Effex (Agr. Rep.), the