>8o4. On the Augmentation of Stipends in Grain. 4** 



of Mafons and Carpenters, tliinkin? it unfriendly- to rural im- 

 provement, as new erections of every kind mufl tliercbjhe imped- 

 ed and difcourap;ed. If that rife can be (lievvn to i)roceed from 

 illegal combinations among the work ])eoplc, it might eafdy be 

 flopped by putting the law in execution ; but we fufpccl that: 

 this is not its fource. Perhaps the evil arifes out of the cir-- 

 cumftances under which the country is plwxid, and cannot be re- 

 moved fo long as thefe continue to opeiate. 



Our correfpondent, when mentioning the increafed expencc ol' 

 buildings, might alfo have noticed the very great rife wiiich, in 

 confequenc* of the war, has taken place in the price of wood. 

 This we believe, has occafioned as much advance upon the ex- 

 pence of new ereilions, as the increafed value of th.e workman'ti 

 labouT. A year's rent of an eftate ia a very moderate allowance 

 for farm buildings, when new houfes and offices over the whole 

 are necelTary ; but this charge is feldom repeated, feeing that 

 the talk of fupporting ihem, at leail in Scotland, is uniformly 

 born by the tenant. 



We (hall be happy to lend our aid in bringing furward a cor- 

 rect rl-ate of the value of labour in every didricf, and requeft 

 that our reporters will kindly favour us with the neceflary ma- 

 terial=. At the fame time we mufl hint that our idens are hof- 

 tile to every reftritlion upon the value of labour, from a convic- 

 tion tliat perfect freedom ihould fubiill: in every thing of that 

 kind ; and that, like trade, labour ought to be left to find its own 

 kvel. N. 



On Augmentation of Stipends in Victual 



Sir, 



Till the decision of the House of Peers, in the case of Mil- 

 figan of Kirkden, about 30 years ago, it had been held as an 

 opinion by the Court of Session, as commissioners for plantation 

 of Kirks, and valuation of tiends, that an augmentation of sti- 

 pend could not be given, unless a century had elapsed from the 

 former one ; and that of Kirkden being refused on this ground, 

 the judgment was reversed on appeal, linding fliis objection a- 

 lone not sufficient. But the house of peers certainly never 

 dreamed that tliis judgment was to give a handle for asking 

 augmentations so often as has been dor.e since ; for example,- 

 twice in an incumbency, often at no great distance, one from a- 

 uother, and before the incumbent could be said to be old. 



Before the 1748, when Scotland was freed from the vassal- 

 age she was under to her military barons, there ^vas little mo- 

 ney 



