T48 0/7 the Iinpolli^y of Impoftng Services upon the Tenanfi'y. May 



ing ever (etn in Scotland ; and as it was there tlie late Lord 

 Stratiimore exhibited a molt cxtenfive plan of improvement, I 

 little expelled to find complaints of fach a barbarous practice 

 prevailing in that country in the beginning of the 19th century. 

 If fuch prevails in Forfarihire, we may reafonably infer that it 

 prevails, to a much greater extent, in other and lefs imj^roved 

 diilricfts, wh.^re the true principles oi good farming are morj im- 

 perfedlily underilooch 



Tslr Dempfler's character, for zervl, piildic fpivit, and com- 

 prehenfive obfervation, is fo well eftabliihed, that any remark, 

 falling from him, comes with double weight ; and his obfervation, 

 accordingly, flruck me moil forcibly. If the flatement be juft, 

 which tliere is no reafon to difpute, your numerous and intelli^ 

 gent correfpondents may talk in vain about the improved ftate 

 of agriculture in Scotland. Your publication may be honoured 

 and enriched with the correfpondence of Lord Sommerville, Sea- 

 John Sinclair, Mr Demplfer, Sir Archibald Grant, Sir George 

 Mackenzie and many other highly diftinguifhed and patriotic 

 characters ; Mr Findlater may expatiate on the moral incite- 

 ments to farming, with a degree of eloquence and ftrength of 

 reafoning worthy of Adam Smith ; and all this to little pu?- 

 pofe, fo long as the tenantry of Scotland are kept in a ftate of 

 dependence and thraldom fuited to the moil rigorous period of 

 the feudal fyftem. 



I never viewed your Magazine as fo much calculated to in- 

 ftrucl the intelligent and independent farmers in diftrifts already 

 well cultivated, as thofe in more remote di{tri(rts, where the ap- 

 proved fyftems of agriculture were either lefs perfectly under- 

 (lood, or not pradtifed at ail. I confider the chief dcfign of your 

 publication is to expofe, and if poffible to eradicate, bad prac- 

 tices, fanctioned by length of time, and invariable cullom, in 

 whatever part of the country they exiiled 5 and if this view be 

 correct, I am fure there cannot be a more fertile topic for poig- 

 nant ridicule, or a more prominent fubjeiEl for acrimonious cen- 

 fure, than thofe barbarous and Gothic fervices ftill paid by the 

 tenants in many diltri6ts of Scotland, under the name of Boon- 

 ivork. 



Such fervile offices are fo little known in England, that I do not 

 fuppofe their meaning can be properly comprehended there \ or, if 

 underftood, they mvft be hekl in fcorn by the more liberal-mind- 

 ed landlords. Wha: idea would the late Duke of Bedford have 

 formed, or what idea muft Lord Winchelfea, or Lord Egremont, 

 or Mr Coke of Norfolk, and many others of the enlightened 

 farmers in England, form of the (late of agriculture in Scotland, 

 when they fee that the tenants are bouad by their leafe« to cut 



dowa 



