sheep not being then well understood, they only formed a secondary object. During the summer months the herds were driven to the shealings, or patches of pasture along the margins of the mountain streams. Temporary huts were erected to shelter those who tended the herds and flocks and managed the dairy, the produce of which, and the cattle, the goats, and the few sheep which they could dispose of, formed the only sources of their wealth,—the produce of the arable land being seldom sufficient to supply the wants of a family. Latterly grazing appears to have almost superseded agriculture. When a farmer could afford to enlarge his possession, he usually did so by adding to the number of his live stock, and neglecting cultivation, which at an early period was greatly more extensive. *

While this continued to be the prevailing practice among the farmers of the Highlands, the improvements in agriculture in England, which had their origin in the reign of Elizabeth and James I., were matured and reduced to system in the reign of his son Charles I. The extension of these to the northward seems, however, to have been gradual. But from the reign of James I. of England, so slow was the march of improvement, that it did not extend to Scotland till 140 years thereafter. Potatoes, which were known in England in the time of Sir Walter Raleigh, were not introduced into Scotland, except as a garden vegetable of rarity, till after the commencement of the present reign. † In East Lothian, as late as the year 1740, few carts were to be seen, and none adapted for heavy and distant conveyances. Fifty years ago field turnips were in very limited

• See Appendix, Z.

In the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, it is stated that Mr Prentice, in the neighbourhood of Kilsyth, was the first person who planted potatoes in the open field in Scotland: He died in 1792.

It was not till after the year 1770, that my father planted potatoes, which were the first raised in the field in his district; and it required some time and persuasion to induce his servants to eat them. This vegetable, which is now the principal food of the Highland peasantry, was then considered as incapable of supporting a man employed in active labour.

ase, and it is not many years since they were generally cultivated; yet field-turnips, potatoes, and sown grass, were quite common in England a century before. In the year 1760 the Lothian farmers were as backward in adopting modern improvements as the most uncultivated of the Highlanders. One of the most opulent, extensive, and enlightened farmers in the county of Perth, was twenty years a cultivator before he could overcome his prejudices so far as to enter upon the new system; and it was not till after the year 1770 that Mr John White, at Kirkton of Mailler, in Strathearn, first introduced the green crop system into Perthshire. The farmer who first commenced the system of dry fallow in East Lothian only died in the late reign. This new mode of agriculture was considered so extraordinary, that for some time it was looked upon as the result of a disordered intellect, even in the now highly cultivated district of the Lothians. +

*So backward was agriculture in the Carse of Gowrie, in the year 1756, that, as a gentleman who, by his abilities, had risen to the highest dignity in the law, when walking with a friend through his fields, where his servants were weeding the corn, expressed great gratitude to Provi. dence for raising such a quantity of thistles; " as otherwise," said the Lord President," how could we, in this district, where we cannot allow our good corn land to be in pasture, find summer food for our working horses ?"

+Had the Lothian gentlemen of that period ejected the bulk of the ancient inhabitants, as ignorant, prejudiced, indolent, and without capital, placing those allowed to remain, on barren and detached patches of land; and had they invited strangers from England, France or Flanders, would there not have been the same senseless clamour, (as the expression of the indignant feelings, roused by various measures pursued in the Highlands, is called,) although in the fertile soil of the Lothians, near the consump tion of great cities, with the command of manure and water carriage, large establishments, and farms of one or two hundred arable acres, are suitable to the circumstances and situation of the country? At the same time, it may be observed, that, even in that fertile country, people are so scarce, that, without assistance from other countries, their field labour and harvest could not be accomplished. It may indeed be a query,—if the whole kingdom were in similar circumstances, and had as few inhabitants comparatively as the Lothians, where part of the autumn labour is done by Highlanders, (principally women, who travel southward upwards

Whilst agriculture in Scotland was thus slowly advancing, it was suddenly accelerated by the spirit of enterprise which burst forth after the Seven Years' War. In the Lowlands, however, the people were allowed time to overcome old habits, and to acquire a gradual knowledge of the new improvements. But many Highland landlords, in their intercourse with the south, seeing the advantages of these improvements, and the consequent increase of rents, commenced operations in the north with a precipitation which has proved ruinous to their ancient tenants, and not always productive of advantage to themselves; and, as expressed by Mr Pennant, in his Tour through the Highlands, "they attempted to empty the bag before it was filled."

The people, unwilling to change old institutions and habits, as if by word of command, and unable, or perhaps averse, to pay the new rents, without being allowed time to prepare for the demand, and seeing, as it often happened, their offers of a rent equal to that of the strangers rejected, were rendered desperate. Irritated by the preference thus given, and by threats of expulsion, their despondency and discontent cease to astonish. The natural consequence is, a check to exertion, or to any attempt to improve. When this seeming indolence shows itself, gentlemen, and those by whom they often allow themselves to be influenced, and to whom they frequently yield their better judgment and kindlier feelings, declare, that so long as

of 100, and numbers 200 miles,)—whence a supply could be obtained? If, then, large farms cause a deficiency of necessary labourers, even in the fertile lands of the Lothians, how unsuitable and ruinous to the barren Highlands must a system be, which leaves not a sufficiency of hands, in a country with such narrow stripes of arable land, that a farm of 300 acres would stretch along the whole side of a district? From the uncertainty of the climate, the want of an immediate and efficient supply of hands would be ruinous. The North having no towns or villages whence assistance can be obtained, if the arable lands in the Highlands contained as few inhabitants as the Lothians, the whole must be kept in pasture, and one-half of what the soil would produce lost; for, even in the Highlands, where the cultivation of the valleys is well managed, and the supply of labourers sufficient, it is beyond all proportion the most profitable.

such a lazy incorrigible race remains, they cannot enjoy the value of their lands. In this opinion they are confirmed by persons who argue, that the prosperity of the state calls for such measures, at the same time that they acknowledge the harshness of these measures in themselves, and profess their sympathy with the people, as if it could ever be for the well-being of any state to deteriorate the character of, or wholly to extirpate a brave, loyal, and moral people;-its best supporters in war, and the most orderly, contented, and economical in peace. These reasoners found their arguments on general principles; and, without taking into consideration, or perhaps unacquainted with the peculiar circumstances of the case, with the nature of the country, its uncertain humid climate, or the hardihood and capability of the inhabitants, if properly managed,-and keeping entirely out of view, also, the reduced condition of the people, an omission not to be expected in an enlightened age; they endeavour to prove, that if one family can manage a tract of country,* it is an useless waste of labour to

• If it were probable that machinery could be invented to carry on manufactures of every description without the intervention of human labour, and that corn could be imported for the consumption of our people, the soil turned to pasture, and little manual, manufacturing, or agricultural labour left for the working population, which would thus be thrown idle; would such a sacrifice of productive labour be proper, and would the welfare of the state be promoted by the diminution of the population, which must be the necessary consequence of a want of employment? The question is as applicable to the northern portion as to the whole empire; and as it would be ruinous to the lower orders to put an end to all agricultural labour in the south, so it must be to the people of the north, if the whole country be converted into pasture and large farms. In this case, the people must be sent to the colonies, as the Lowlands offer no encou ragement for extensive emigration from the Highlands. If allowed to remain in their native country, without any support but daily labour, in a country where, under such management, all, except a few men of capital, must be day-labourers, and under a system which yields but little employment; where even that little fails, as from the natural course of events it must often do, poor-rates must be established, and the lower orders in the Highlands become paupers, as is the case with one-seventh of the population of England; a state of degradation unparalleled in the Christian world.

allow it, as was formerly, and is still the case in many parts of the Highlands, to be occupied by many families possessing much economy and industry, though with little capital. But whatever be the capital of farmers, or the size of farms, rents must be according to the value of the produce. While the staple and only article of export from the Highlands was so low that the price of an ox did not exceed thirty shillings, and a sheep half-a-crown, the rents were in proportion to, but not lower than, those in the most fertile districts of Scotland at the same period. But when a great demand and increased prices led to the prosperity of the tenants, it was natural for proprietors to raise their rents, and to attempt those improvements and changes which the progress of agricultural knowledge and the wealth of the country suggested. This was the just and natural progress of events, and would of itself have been the cause of many changes in the manners and condition of the Highlanders; and, judging from numerous examples, might have been effected without injury to the original tenants, and to the great and permanent advantage of the proprietors. Rents might have been gradually increased with the increasing value of produce, and improved modes. of cultivation introduced, without subverting the characteristic dispositions of a race of men who inherited from

• In the year 1785, some of the best lands on Lord Kinnaird's estate in the Carse of Gowrie were rented on old leases of fifty-nine years, at four pounds Scots, or six shillings and eightpence the acre. The present rent is L.6 Sterling per acre. The difference of the present tents and of those paid seventy years ago, on the estates of Lords Kinnoull, Gray, and others in the Lowlands, are similar: in those days they were equally low with the rents in the Highlands, which were of more value to the proprietors than they would seem, by merely looking to the money rent, as much was paid in kind, and in personal services. It is said that Stewart of Appin received as rent an ox or cow for every week, and a goat or wether for every day in the year, with fowls and smaller articles innumerable. When the money rent and personal service for warlike and domestic purposes are added, the provisions gave the laird abundance, the money independence, and the personal services dignity and security in turbulent ages, when the laws were too weak to afford protection.