cutive crops on the same field has been abolished, by the cultivation of turnips, clover, drilled beans or pease and potatoes; and the order in which the crops succeed one another, is varied by the diversity of the soil, climate, and situation. It is the alternation of white and green crops with fallow, and the advantage of tillage and pasturage, which peculiarly distinguish the improved husbandry of Scotland; the fertility of the soil is neither locked up by permanent pasture, nor dissipated by perpetual aration.

A corresponding improvement has taken place in the application of lime, and the preparation and management of farm-yard dung.

It has been doubted whether the skill of the Scottish farmer in the management of live stock, has kept pace with the improvements in tillage husbandry; though, during the last fifty years, the different species of domesticated animals have been greatly improved, both in form and size. The Western counties have been long famous for an excellent breed of draught-horses and of cattle for the dairy. The recently imported Merinos have already travelled as far as the Orkney Islands; and it is probable they will soon be widely spread over the best pastures of the Highlands. Both the carcass and the wool of the Cheviot flocks have long been the objects of skilful and systematic improvement.

One of the most valuable improvements in the agricultural machinery of Scotland, was that made upon the plough in 1763, by James Small, an ingenious mechanic; whose improvement had the effect of diminishing the power required about two fifths, and of executing the work with much greater accuracy. The two-horse plough, nearly such as Small left it, is now almost the only one used in the best cultivated counties. By this single improvement, a sum equivalent to one pound Sterling per acre must be saved to the farmer, besides as much more as will be equal to his profit on the wasteful employment of his capital.

The thrashing-mill, an instrument more recently invented, has had a powerful effect, not only in diminishing the charges, but in augmenting the marketable produce of land. Mr Mickle, an ingenious millwright in East Lothian, first completed the thrashingmill, about the year 1786; but it has since been considerably improved by him and others. It may be worked by water, wind, animal power, or steam; and the saving of labour by this machine, If driven by water, is so great, that every kind of grain is thrashed

and dressed for market at an expense equal to only that of dressing when the flail was employed. A thrashing-mill, worked by water, is supposed to save at least five shillings per acre under corn, on all farms of a moderate size. Fanners, or winnowing-machines, were introduced from Holland in the early part of the last century, and they are now universally used in Scotland. The skilful construction of farm-buildings and farms has such an effect in abridging labour, that the advantage of a central position alone is estimated to be equal to 100%. Sterling yearly on extensive farms.

The liberal application of capital to agriculture in Scotland happened soon after the French Revolution, which interrupted our intercourse with the corn-exporting countries. Several unfavourable seasons occasioned so enormous an advance in the price of corn, as to furnish in abundance to many of our farmers both the means and the motives to extend cultivation; and there can be no doubt that the aid afforded by our banking establishments has encouraged a spirit of enterprise very favourable to agricul

ture.

The almost universal practice of holding on leases for a term of years, has likewise promoted the rural economy of Scotland. A tenant at will is scarcely known in the Lowlands. In the best cultivated districts, it is common for a tenant to expend so large a sum in the improvement of his land, that more than half the term elapses before he is indemnified by his increase of produce.

Without the security of a lease, no tenant would invest his capital in the costly improvements of another man's property. Leases for at least nineteen years are therefore considered essential to all spirited improvements. And if our soil shall ever be brought to the highest profitable state of improvement, it must be by encouraging the farmer to invest his capital with the same security as the manufacturing and mercantile classes.

Although the extent and structure of entails appear to be ob structions to the cultivation of the soil, the act of 1770 has in a great measure obviated the injudicious restriction. That act was intended to modify that clause in the act of the Scottish Parliament in 1685, by which many possessors of entailed estates were prohibited from granting leases beyond their own lives. Such a law being in effect an obstacle to all agricultural improvement, it was altered so far as to permit the possessors of estates so entailed to give leases for fourteen years and one existing life; for two exist

ing lives, and the life of the survivor; or for

not exceeding thirty-one.

The total extent of Scotland, in English acres, is................................18,944,000

The total land produce is supposed to be worth.........................L. 23,261,156

FOR

PROGRESS OF MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE DURING THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

OR many years, the union was unproductive of those advantages which had been anticipated. Commerce languished; the jealousy of the English excluded the Scots from any participation in the colonial trade. During the interval between the two rebellions, Scotland was disregarded by the Legislature, or treated like a conquered province. It was ten years after the last rebellion that the benefits of the union began to be universally felt, and the national spirit burst forth in various directions.

The following is a brief account of the most remarkable facts illustrative of the progress of manufactures and commerce during the last century.

A. D.

The British Parliament passed an act, impowering the 1727. S crown to appoint commissioners for managing certain funds for the encouragement of the Scottish fisheries and commerce. For a considerable period, little benefit resulted from this

*measure.

A. D. To encourage the linen manufacture of Great Britain and 1742. § Ireland, an additional duty was laid upon foreign cambrics imported; and a bounty was allowed for British and Irish linens exported.

A. D. 2 The abolition of the feudal system is a remarkable æra 1747, § in the history of Scotland. The British Legislature enact ed, what should have been made an essential preliminary of the union of the kingdoms, that all the people of Scotland should enjoy the same rational liberty and equitable security of property as

their fellow subjects in England. This excellent statute hus been judiciously named the Scottish Magna Charta: It abolished the heritable jurisdictions, which were purchased and assumed by the

crown.

The influence of liberty in promoting industry and commerce was remarkable. Emancipated from their oppressive servitude, the people gradually imbibed a spirit of independence; the purchase-money acquired by the nobles for their heritable jurisdictions, powers, authorities, and privileges, relieved them from comparative indigence, softened their manners, and insensibly changed their habits. The troops stationed in the country to prevent insurrection, enriched with their pay the mechanics who supplied% them with necessaries, and excited the industry and emulation of a considerable portion of the idle and untutored natives. Even the gentry began to breed their sons to mechanical arts; and their example produced a powerful effect upon the peasantry.

The annual premiums, liberally bestowed by the com

1751.} missioners since 1727, for the best manufactured linens,

gradually increased a spirit of industry over all Scotland. Nor should the exertions of the British Linen Company, established in 1746, be unnoticed. That body was greatly instrumental in promoting industry, by advancing sums of money to the poorer manufacturers for their goods..

During the five years succeeding the appointment of the trustees, there were stamped for sale, 17,441,161 yards, valued at 662,9387. in the four years prior to 1752, there were 30,172,300, valued at 1,234,8147.

A. D. For the better civilizing and improving of the Highlands, 1752. S and for the promoting of industry and manufactures in that district, the Government appropriated the annual proceeds of the estates forfeited by the rebellion, to be distributed in bounties, for the establishment of schools, the encouragement of agricul ture, manufactures, and the fisheries,

A.D.

1753.

To encourage the spirit of industry still farther, the Government granted the annual sum of 30001. Sterling for nine years for the same benevolent purpose. So great was the spirit of industry excited, that in 1760 there were stamped upwards of 11,000,000 yards of linen.

Paisley was distinguished for the ingenuity of its manufactures before the year 1759. Threads, lawns, and imitations of striped

muslins, had been manufactured there; but now silk gauzes were woven. As soon as they appeared in London, they attracted the public attention. Some gentlemen of that city established a ma nufactory of silk gauzes in Paisley, upon a larger scale than had been previously attempted; and so great was their success, that they soon supplied the London and foreign markets. Muslins and other articles of cotton manufacture were subsequently introduced. The exports from Scotland, in the year 1760, amount

ed to........

L.1,086,205

850,792

There belonged to Scotland 976 trading vessels, measuring 52,818 tons. The geographical position of Scotland, surrounded nearly by the sea, indented with bays and rivers well stored with fish, presents a favourable opportunity for prosecuting the fisheries. To the Northern and Western coasts, where the herring fishery is principally carried on, and which are intersected by arms of the sea called sea-lochs, the herrings principally resort during the seasons in which they visit those seas. The herring fishery was originally carried on in small boats, before busses or small-decked vessels from sixty to eighty tons were employed. The number of fishermen engaged, as well as their success, was very considerable.

In 1750, the British Legislature passed an act, intended for the encouragement of the white herring fishery; by which a bounty of thirty shillings a ton was offered to the owners of fishing-vessels or busses from twenty to eighty tons burden. Yet, during the nine succeeding years, not more than eight vessels were employed in any season. By the same act, a joint stock company was erected, with a capital of half a million Sterling,

Besides the tonnage bounty, and an exportation bounty of 2s. 8d. per barrel, with the delivery of both British and foreign salt duty-free, the subscribers were entitled, during the first fourteen years, to three per cent. for the money paid into the joint stock, to be paid them by the receiver-general of the customs, in half-yearly payments. The same annuity and the same encouragement were given to a number of fishing companies which had a subscribed capital of 10,000l. Sterling. Notwithstanding these encouragements, scarcely a vestige now remains of those different companies; and the white herring fishery has been for many years carried on by private individuals.

The bounty was augmented, in 1757, to 50s. per ton; which