siderably exceed the plane of its base, as measured for the construction of a map.

The climate in such northerly latitude and high elevation must be late: corn harvest seldom commences before the second week in September, or closes before the latter end of October. The winters are rigorous, and the turnip crop is often lost, unless consumed by christ mas or new year's day! We recommend Ir. Findlater to attempt the introduction of the Rev. Mr. Munning's excellent method of preserving the turnip crop Mr. M. published a small pamphlet about two years ago, in which he has given very ample instructions on this subject.

By far the greater part of the soil of Tweeddale never was, nor probably ever will be, turned up by the plough: of the lands under culture, there is a great variety of soil, such as moss, clay, sand; moss and clay, moss and sand, clay and sand; and these mixtures, which Mr. F. considers as purely artificial, are in every variety of proportion. Though tradition reports that a great variety of wood once grew in the county, few ves tiges of it remain, and those are mise rably dwarfish: the only specimens of the wood of former times are stinted trees found in mosses. Mr. Findlater has the following note upon this subject. "The wood most commonly found in our peat mosses is birch or hazel. Oak is sometimes, though rarely found; black, hea vy, and hard, like ebony. Single trees of oak, of considerable size, have been found in mosses near the top of high hills.

Fir

red freestone, whinstone, slate, coal, and limestone. Chap. III. As we do not feel our selves shackled by the prescribed forms of the board of agriculture, it will not be necessary to follow Mr. Findlater chapter by chapter, and section by section; we shall content ourselves with stopping now and then to notice any thing interesting, curious, or useful. It is interesting to learn, in consequence of the increasing sentiments of liberality among the landed gentry, of security among the tenantry, and of wealth in both; that the comfort, accommodation, and style, of farm-houses throughout Scotland have of late years been much improved. "In consequence of the firm establishment of monarchy, and the dissolution of aristocracy; of the abolition of heritable jurisdictions, and the substitution of independent judges, unconnected with the subjects of their own jurisdiction, and having no personal interest in their own decisions; the security of the tenantry as well as of all the lower orders in society is confirmed: general industry has kept pace with growing security, and the situation of every rank is altered greatly for the better."

A high character is given of the Tweeddale farmers, who are represented as industrious, enterprising, and wellinformed; we cannot join in compli menting their tardiness to adopt modes of improvement introduced by gentle. men farmers. That they should have resisted for forty years, in contempt of positive rewards and obvious advantage, the improved system of husbandry, as it is called, the ameliorating rotation of corn, green-crop fallow, and artificial grasses, is a strong symptom of obstinate and stupid adherence to old practices.

Among the subterranean riches of the County are to be enumerated white and

likely to acquire; confidence between merchants scarcely knows a limit. The fact, perhaps, is too notorious to require evidence, but an instance or two occur and we shall give them: The richest traffic on the face of the earth, perhaps,

was carried on in Porto Bello during forty days in the year, when the wealth of America was exchanged for the manufactures of Europe. No bale of goods, says Robertson in describing it, is ever opened, no chest of treasure is examined; both are received on the credit of the persons to whom they belong, and only one instance of fraud is recorded during the long period in which trade was carried on with this liberal confidence. All the coined silver which was brought from Peru to Perto Bello in the year 1654 was adulterated with a fifth part of base metal. The Spanish merchants, with sentiments suitable to their usual integrity, sustained the whole loss, and indemnified the foreigners by whom they were employed. The fraud was detected, and the treasurer of the revenue in Peru, the author of it, was publicly burnt. Sir George Staunton tells us, that the goods of the English East India Company, both as to quantity and quality, are taken by the Chinese at Canton for what they are declared in the invoice; and the bales, with their mark, pass in trade without examination throughout the empire.

There is something whimsical and ludicrous enough, to be sure, in putting one leg of the compass on a Chinese or Porto Bello merchant, and the other on the humble head of a Peebleshire farmer; but really according to Mr. Findlater si parva licet componere maguis-the same principle prevails here. The sheep farms being the most extensive, and requiring the largest capital, the storemasters, as they are called, constitute the most opulent class and are the best informed: between these farmers and their wool-buyers, the system of intercourse is so liberal, that the goods are often bought without been seen, and sold and delivered without fixing the price. The prevailing characters of the lower order in this county are sobriety, industry, and a sense of religion; a spirit of independence is kept alive, which revolts against the idea of subsisting upon charity. Mr. F. assures us, that most of them contrive by their own industry and frugality alone, not merely to feed and clothe their children, but to give them an education, so far as learning to read;

very frequently they are also taught writing and a little arithmetic, though more commonly the young people themselves obtain instruction in these last branches from their first earnings of wages, by attending night schools in winter after their working hours. In return for this parental care, children are rarely deficient in their filial duties; they support their aged parents according to their abilities, and there are not wanting instances of day labourers supporting aged parents, past their labour, without being indebted to any charity whatsoever. This corroborates the truth of the remark which President Washington made in his address to the senate and house of representatives, at Philadelphia, ten years ago, that "knowledge, while it makes us sensible of our rights as men, enforces our obligations as members of society." In conformity with this wellgrounded opinion, that great man recommended in the speech_alluded to,* the senate "to provide by law, as soon as conveniently may be, for the establish. ment of schools throughout the state, in such a manner that the poor may be taught gratis." It is with unaffected concern that we have lately heard accounts, too well authenticated, of the declension of parochial schools in Scotland; after long experience has completely proved the various moral and political advantages resulting from a general diffusion of knowledge among the lower classes of society, it is to the last degree disgraceful that the channels by means of which it used to be distributed should be choaked up and the current impeded. Mr. Chrisiston, one of the masters of the high school of Edinburgh, in a pamphlet published about two years ago gives this melancholy statement; he says that the wretched income of some established teachers, particularly parish schoolmasters, is becoming every day worse. Many of them do not earn half so much as a journeyman mason. The unhappy old men who are in the profes sion must continue in it, as they are too old to learn any other; but many of them, unless the income be rectified, will have no successors. This event has taken place already; there are many parish schools vacant, because no man will

he is entitled to go elsewhere for service. The thirled tenant is subjected to many occasional services, from which the free tenant is exempted; such as the upholding of the water dam dike; the upholding, frequently, of mill fanners and mill sieves, and the carriage of millstones, when needed; he furnishes fuel for drying his grain; he transports his grain to and from the mill-furnishings provided for him by the miller at free mills; he attends also at the drying process, sifis his own meal, and performs the greater part of the most laborious work; in all of which, his time and labour (in reality, or at least in probable imagination) are not well husbanded,"

TYTHES. The clergy of Scotland are supported upon fixed stipends or salaries, modified out of the tythes of the lands by the court of session: These stipends are estimated to average 1001. a year, besides the dwelling house and glebe, consisting of about 10 acres. The Scots clergyman is bound to residence; and his charge can be declared vacant upon six weeks absence without leave to that effect, obtained from his presbytery: he can hold only one benefice. A degree of exception, however, is very properly admitted, as an excitement to literary ef. fort, in regard to holding professorships in universities, when these are removed at such a small distance as not to obstruct, in any great degree, the performance of parochial duties.

Chap. XIV. Rural Economy. Justices of the peace have powers vested in them for the regulation of wages! "They, however, very wisely refrain from interfering in matters which can alone be properly regulated by the price of the market." The rate of wages for hired indoor servants was lowered by almost one-half from the deficiency of funds for he employment of labour through the scarcity of crops in 1799 and 1800: they are now rising, but have not yet attained, by perhaps a fourth says Mr. F. the existing rate previous to the years of scarcity. Day labour in this part of Scot land is very low a stout labourer, workig by the picce, will earn from sixteen to twenty-pence a day, without victuals: a woman shearer, hired through harvest, gets from 20 to 25 shillings with board; a man from 25 to 30.

Provisions. In sheep farms THE SHEEP DYING OF DISEASE ARE USED AS FLESH MEAT under the designation of traik!! Manufactures. A woollen manufactory was established at Inverlaithan by Mr. Brodie, well-known for his Shropshire

iron-works: the iron-works have of late been so much more profitable a concern that the woollen has been less attended to. There are a few stocking looms in Peebles, and one or two manufactories of coarse cloths (Mr. F. recommends the establishment of one at the village of Linton, where there is water to drive machinery of a considerable weight) abundance of lime, freestone, coal, and peat, and a turnpike road of only 16 miles to Edinburgh.

From long disuetude the Scots poor be considered as obsolete.

lars

may "The evil of sturdy begging has, in a great degree, ceased-having been consigned to the remedies of starving, or the gallows; and the real poor have been left to depend, chiefly, upon voluntary charity, without any legal provision-probably the best footing on which the matter can rest, both as to the poor and their providers. From the enormous extent to which poor's rates have arisen will be used in attempting to organize this in England, it is probable, that great caution subject, as to Scotland, into any very strictly defined legal system."

Of course there are no officers in Scotland known by the name of overseers and churchwardens; the poor having been generally throughout Scotland supported by voluntary contributions.

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Though the statute poor's laws in Scotland may be considered as obsolete, from dis

use; there is, nevertheless, a consuetudina ry law for poor's rates, though seldom, and never generally acted upon; and it would be well, if the necessity of acting upon it could employed in productive labour, which reproaltogether be superseded. Unlike to funds funds, employed, in support of the poor, are duce themselves, together with a profit, altogether annihilated. If an individual, or a society are possessed of funds sufficient to maintain an hundred persons for a twelvemonth; supposing these hundred supported, idle-the fund perishes in the use, and is no longer in existence: if, however, it had been applied to the support of an hundred, culture, trade, or manufacture, it is equally as the wages of productive labour, in agrievident, that such labour would, at the end of twelve months, have replaced the fund, with a profit that might be added to it, which might enable it for the ensuing twelve months, to support an hundred and ten or twentyaffording, thus, additional subsistence for funds of society devoted to alms, and conan increasing population. Were the whole sumed in idleness, mankind would soon revert to the savage state, having nothing for subsistence but natural produce; and the one half might repeatedly eat up the other, before population was reduced to that limited