lB64' C)/; the Impolicy of Impofing Services upon the Tmantry. 149 



<lo\vn tho corii3 of their landlord, when their own crops may 

 Iband in the fields, liable to be lliaken by wind, or rotted by rain ? 

 Would not any perfon who had not heard of the fact before, 

 agree wlrl'i Mr Glover in the character which he g.ive of tlie 

 Scots ; when, being fcnt down to that country about thirty years 

 ago, to inquire hito the aifairs of the famous Ayr Bank, he faid, 

 in his report to the Houfe of Commons, ^ that he found the Scots 

 pofF:lt nil forts of fenfe but common fetjfe ? ' 



Wh:it I would therefore bey; leave to requeil is, that foine of 

 your intelligent uTid refpcctanle correfperiuients would let the 

 uin-eaibnublenefs and abfurdity of all thofe menial fervices, wliich 

 I believe are called, in Scotland, Boon-work^ in tiieir true 'point 

 of view ; and, if polhble, expofe and extirpate fuch baneful and 

 pernicious cufloms from the fyilem of rural ceconomy altogetlier. 

 The bad effedts of thefe need only be mentioned, to be univer- 

 fally acknowledged. And were an honourable gentleman, who 

 fome time a^o luccecded to a very large eftate in Forfarihire, to 

 renew his leafes, with thefe llavlfh conditions annexed to them, 

 it would rivet the cuilom in that part of the country, for per- 

 haps the next twenty years, and fet a very bad example to the 

 whole of Scotland. 



All forts of fervices performed by the tenant to the landlord 

 are bad ; but furely thofe that go under the name of harveil work, 

 and are claimed at the mofl valuable and perilous feafon of the 

 year, are the worll. What avails it for a tenant to enclofe his 

 land ; to put it in good iieart ; to labour it after the moil approv- 

 ed mode, and to be at the expence of good feed wherewith to 

 fow it, when it is perhaps put out of his power to embrace the 

 proper time to reap it ? Finally^ as all fuch practices have their 

 origin in flavery, and their continuance in ignorance ; as they have 

 for their conftant attendants, poverty and dependence, it is high 

 time that they ihould be abolilhed and eradicated 5 and I cannot 

 conceive that a portion of your valuable Magazine can be applied 

 to a more beneficial purpofe, than in endeavouring to bring aoout 

 fo defirable an end. I am, &c. 



Amicus Scotije. 



Londotiy 22d December 1803. 



NOTE BY THE CONDUCTOR. 



We are greatly obliged to Amicus Scotia for the above commu- 

 nication. The obfervations made are, however, of fuch a feri- 

 ous nature, that we would hardly have felt ourfelves jullified in 



K 3 laying 



