l804« On Injudklot4S Methods of Setting Land. 159 



manner as to fecurc her power and independence, and tlie hap- 

 pinefs of her people, I contend that legiflative interference is 

 highly neceifary : And that fuch additional legal regulations (re- 

 lative to our tithes and lands) mkight be devlfed, as would be 

 highly advantageous to the kingdom, and profitable to the pro- 

 prietors, appears as capable of dcmonltration, as any propofi- 

 tion in Euclid. Feeling, however, that I have already encroach- 

 ed too much on your time, I fliall not at prefent enlarge on thefe 

 matters. Warmly recommending the fubje£l of this letter to 

 our leading fenators and landholders, I beg leave to fay that, 

 in trufting folel^ to the filent, and I may add, Jl^io operations of 

 felf-intereit, I apprehend much danger. I therefore remain, &c, 



Celerius. 



TO *rHE CONDUCTOR OF THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE. 



Thoughts on the Inji4didous Methods reforted to in Setting Land. 



Sir, 



Having long been of opinion, that the inflltution of the 

 Board of Agriculture was calculated to do infinite fervice in 

 promoting the public good, I was lately confirmed in it, ou 

 reading Dr Thomfon's Agricultural Survey of Fife. From the 

 numerous fads brought under the review of the public, iri 

 ch. 5. § 6. tit. Leafes, and the many abfurdities there noticed and 

 commented upon, both with regard to letting farms, and the 

 conditions inferted in leafes, I concluded that no proprietor, 

 or manager of any eflate, could, without the danger of being 

 marked as a perfon entirely unqualified through ignorance, ven- 

 ture, after reading this chapter on the management of eftates, 

 to perfift in pracStifing the fame abfurdities there fo juftly expof- 

 cd CO merited contempt. 



But how much was I difappointed, upon reading in the E- 

 dinburgh Advertifer, of the ill current, * Far?iis in Fife to let^ 

 and enter to at Mariin?nas 1804 ! ' After defcribing the farms 

 on two confiderable ellates, oflerers for thofe on the one ellate 

 are, with a Oiare of good fenfe, defi> d to give in their pro- 

 pofals on or before the 25th January current ; but ofi^.,rers. 

 for the farms on the other are informed, that they may con- 

 tinue to give in propofals ti/I June ne>cty or within a few- 

 months of the term of entry/ The proprietor cannot be a re- 

 fiding one, or he would haye known his own intereil better than 

 to be guiity of fuch an abfurdity. The managers cannot be 

 fuch as the Do<f^er dafrrjbes ; otheiwife it muit have occurred 



to 



