FEOM THE EAELIEST TIMES. 9 



during the period from the eleventh down to the seventeenth 

 century. During the Scoto-Saxon times, it may 1 te inferred that a 

 system similar to that obtaining in England and on the Continent 

 prevailed. Craig considers that bondsmen were always rare in 

 Scotland ; but contemporaneous evidence, along with that of the 

 Chartularies, proves that the nativi servi or cumerlachs (so called 

 from their wail of distress) were numerous. There were also 

 free farmers, who gave a portion of the prodvice as rent ; and at 

 least, shortly after, a portion who farmed under the steelbow 

 system. The inauguration of the feudal system caused charters 

 to become common, this form being used by the Churchmen in 

 letting their lands for a term. Leases, after the Eoman model 

 conventio, were also used up to 1342, when from feudal notions 

 all such contracts partook of the unilateral nature of a grant. 

 In the early days of feudal vigour, agriculture — principally 

 through the exertions of the monks — was in a state so prosper- 

 ous, that several writers could mark no improvement from the 

 death of Alexander III. till the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century. But in the fourteenth century, internal dissen- 

 sions caused such a feeling of insecurity that agriculture 

 declined, and it was found necessary to enjom by statute 

 the country people to labour the ground. In the fifteenth 

 century there was little improvement except by way of legisla- 

 tion, the famous statute 1449 marking an era from which the 

 improvement in the condition of the lessee of land can be 

 definitely traced. By this time it may be deemed that slavery 

 had Ijeen abolished, although the tenants — undoubtedly steelbow 

 — were little less degraded than if they had been in actual 

 slavery. The statutes 1457, 1469, and 1491 all tended in the 

 direction of mitigating the conchtion of tlie tenant and rendering 

 him more secure in his possession. Leases, formerly in Latin, 

 now began to be framecl in Scotch ; but still a great many 

 bargains were made by local custom — in the Western Isles, " to 

 wet thumbs and rap them" being the symbol of mutual obliga- 

 tion and a concluded bargain ; while in other districts the 

 giving and returnuig a " stick and some straw," and resembling 

 formal infeftment, seems to have been the practice, and almost 

 leads to a conclusion that during those centuries in which agri- 

 culture was so much depressed, written contracts were even 

 rarer than formerly. In 1548, the "Complaint of Scotland" 

 showed that the law was little attended to, and that notliing but 

 adversity and oppression fell to the lot of the tenant. Lord 

 Burning's complaint as to iuternal feuds among the chieftains, 

 barons, and magistrates proved that insecurity and uncertainty 

 still attended tlie possession of land. The union of the two 

 Crowns, but in a greater degree that of the countries, and at a 

 later date the abolition of military service, caused the urban 



