i8o4» Reviezvers RevicivciL 8^ 



for any thing of a geiieiai an J coniprchcnsive nature. It is in- 

 deed but of very late, tliat agriculture has bceu invcsriirated 

 in t'iC same points of view as trade, manufacture, and other 

 connected subjects of political economy; or that any attempt 

 has been uiade to discover the proper moral excitements of its 

 industry, as constituted in the fixed principles of human na- 

 ture. 



I at length thou[;l t I had obtained my object, in ob- 

 serving the Survey, as an article in the cciilents cf the 

 Monthly Review of Septcir.ber last. In turning to the ar- 

 ticle, 1 was, however, most miserably dijappointed ; for, ex- 

 cepting merelv an observation of the propriety oi adop'ting on 

 our side the I'wced, the maxim (as Mr Findlater has stated 

 it) of the §cots law regarding the division of commonties, viz, 

 that cm obligation to enclose is not ipse facto, itnpliedin the at- 

 tainuient cfdivisio?i, not one of the comprehensive general to- 

 pics is in the smallest degree adverted to, which, in m.v opinion, 

 Mr Findlater has so ably and satisfactorily discussed; nor is 

 the least hint even given of his having discussed them at all. 

 Were the merit of the work to be juv.iged of by the m^eagre- 

 ness of the criticism, it must appear to be indeed but a verv 

 poor performance. The critic, as a specimen of the merit of 

 the work, satisfies himself v.^ith a few extracts of the detail of 

 facts as to the provision of the clergy, the unpropitiousness of 

 the climate, the barrenness of the soil, and the economical state 

 of house accommodation and maintenance of the Scots cottapers ; 

 and having indulged a little in a sort of Cockney triumph, in 

 crowing over the poverty of Peebles-shire in her frost biting 

 climate, want of orchards, and eating of traik, he concludes bv 

 observing, that ' the want of richness of soil, and benignity of 



* climate must diminish the interest vvhich the public would 



* otherwise take in tliis survey,' £^c. 



Though the criticism is in general commendatory ; thousjh 

 the author is allowed to have manifested knowledge and inves- 

 tigation, and given much important and curious information, 

 it is, nevertheless, thus calculated (whether insidious- 

 ly or inadvertently) to consign the work decently to obli- 

 vion, by attaching to it a littleness of interest, proportionate 

 to the smallness of magnitude, and other natural disadvantages, 

 ■which lessen the importance of the county described. 



I might, by the way, observe, as to tlie county described in 

 this survey, that the disadvantages of soil and climate, so far 

 from diminishing, ought in reason to encreasc our interest in 

 the relation of its practices, in as mucji as the success fu] com- 

 bating of disadvantages by superior industry and contrivance, 

 shews that much more might be cfTccted through their means, 



under 



