]j8 On the aT!g??ientation cf Stipends in Victual. Fel\ 



r ey in the country, and rent was generally paid in grain, ser- 

 vices, and casualties : While this was the case, there was some 

 reason for giving "oictual stipend, and when augmentations came 

 '0 seldom about as once in a century, jDroprietors did not think 

 of obtainin-i; decreet j of valuation and sale of tiieir ticnds ; but 

 now when the tieruh of a wliolc parish are valued in money, 

 and all the rents paid in it, I can see no termini htddlcs i^x the 

 court to give victual stipend, but an unanswerable one why 

 they should not. The clergynien, indeed, who, in the case of 

 the augv.icdtation of Kirkden, acted as one body, and consider 

 themselves as such In every case of stipends, or manses, or 

 glebes ; finding that the pro-vcn tiend must ultimately bound 

 their augmentations, have endeavoured to get the better of 

 this, by asking the late augmentations in grain. But if in an 

 year like this, when grain is low, the court should give within 

 a few pounds of the proven tiend of a parish, by the decreets 

 of valuation ; and if years like the i8co, and i8ci, or even a 

 rise of 6d, or is. a-stone of mepJ should take place, the clergy- 

 men would obtain more th?Ji the proven tiend, tliat is, more 

 than the law allows. It is therefore the interest of the heri- 

 tors to oppose every claim of victual stipend in future^ on this 

 account, as grain, on an average of years, must rise progres- 

 sivelv, altliough it may have some ups and dov/ns ; nor, as their 

 tiend is valued in money y which is the fund for taking the stipend 

 out of, can it, ] apprehend, be given in 'virtual, if objected to. 

 That the exhaustiiig the tiend is yet only matter of speculation, 

 is no answer : l:\ New Luce, Wigtonshire, the free tiends of 

 the parish are already exhausted : In Terregles, county of 

 Kirkcudbright, the locality was in agitation about the time of 

 the last riic of grain, and it was found the sum modiiied vvould 

 more than exhaust the tiend, part being in grain, if at the nar 

 conversion, and many others are fast approaching. The advan- 

 tage of the late public scarcity to the clergymen who had vic- 

 tual stipend, was from 45I. to 145I. each, per annum, or 95I. 

 »ach yearly, on an average. This too, oiten came upon te- 

 nants to pay, who had their own meal to buy, in tlie moor 

 country ; whilst every minister has. four acres cf good ground 

 for a glebe, and many of them, where there were Kirklands, 

 obtained a considerable deal more, as grass for a horse and 

 two cows ; or where it could not be said to be arable, four 

 souras pasturage, for each acre of tillage land, and by the im- 

 provement of land, these are m.ostly all made arable, there- 

 fore they cannot be said to be unprovided for victual* As 

 there seems no ground for giving victual augmentations, and 

 ks proprietors and farmers have now tlic facts before them, arrd 

 know the intentions of the clergy, it is their own fault if they 

 allov; tbeiHJclvcs t-o be taken by surprise. Yours, &:c. 



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