THE 



FARMER'S MAGAZINE: 



MONDAY, 7. MAY 1804. 

 (N^ XVIII.) 



BRANCH I. 

 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



FOR THE farmer's MAGAZINE. 



MEMOIRS of JOHN COCKBURN Esq^ of Ormiston 

 {jiuith a portrait), including a Short Sketch of the Various Im-. 

 provements introduced by him. 



" No father can have more fatisfac^ion in the profperity of his chUdren, than I 

 have in the welfare of perfons fitiiated upon my eftatc. ! hate tyranny in 

 every fnape ; and Ihalt always ihow greater plcafore in feeing my tenants 

 making lomething under mc, they can call thsir own, than in getting a lit-» 

 tic more money myfelf, by fqueezing a hundred poor families, till their nc- 

 ccffities make them" my flavcs. " 



Letter, Mr Cockhitrn to Alexander Wight, en: of his 

 tenants , iZth Auguji l]^S' 



1 HE {late of Scotland, at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, was abje<Sl and mifcrable. From the important cera of the 

 Reformation to that time, a period of one hundred and fifty years, 

 the country had been diftracted by civil and religious broils, car- 

 ried on with a keennefs and animofity that totally engroifed the 

 minds of the inhabitants, and left no room for a fingle thought 

 about internal improvement. During the minority of James 

 VL, parties were formed, which refolutely oppofed the mesfure^; 

 of each other in a hoftile manner. Under his fon's reign, thefe 

 broils broke out into open warfare ; and diiTcrent clans, nay even 

 different families, met in the field, and fought with equal zeal 

 and alacrity as they would have done 2fr;ain{l a foreign foe. 

 The horrid and unreieiiting perf^'cution^ v/hich fucceeded the Re- 

 voL, V. NO- I'S. I (loration, 



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