2803. R<^P^y i^> ^^^' ^' ^' ^'^ Tythes. 519 



bad one ; or ratlier, that it ij not so bad as described by its 

 adversaries. In this way slavery niii^ht be supported at Al- 

 giers, and heading- and hack'ng at Moroeco. That ivbatcver 

 is, is right, may be a just philosopliical principle, but it 

 rarely holds good when applied to political matters. Indeed, 

 the reasoning- adopted by Mr T. S. puts us in n^ind of the 

 iiiotto on some of tho. medals circulated by those who stiled 

 themselves * Fricpids of the People^ * That a nation to be 

 ^ free, had only to will ir/ A sentiment theoretically true, 

 but practically false, ard r^uited by the experience of all 

 feges. Mankind are gencially guided by a few, and tlicir hap- 

 piness depends entirely U])o:i the genius and disposition of 

 those who accidentally get possession of power. The great 

 mass of the people, in every country, have nothing to do with 

 the direction of aftairs, and their voice is seldom li/tened to 

 feven when lifted up. ' If that respectable body, the High- 

 land Society, had not taken up the business of thiriage, Scot- 

 tish agriculturists would still have been saddled -.vith that 

 burden. It had been sustained for ages, arid few public com- 

 ^aints were made, because individuals neither knew when 

 nor where they were to seek for redress ; yet a law has now 

 passed, which will enable every proprietor to get free of the 

 servitude. Has this law injured the proprietor cf the domi- 

 nant tenement ? Certainly not ; because he gets the full va- 

 lue of the multures from the proprietor of the servient ttne- 

 ment. Precisely in this way would the proposal for coromut- 

 ing tythes operate. Here let me ask your correspondent, 

 whether any law existed in Scotland before the thirlage-act 

 passed, to prevent proprietoi^ from selling their multures ? 

 If he answers me, as 1 presume he v.-ill do, in the negative, 

 then he must confess that his reasonino; on this head, is oood 

 for nothmg, or else must mamtam that the Highland Society 

 undertook a work of supererogation, when they applied for 

 the thiriage act. 



Some other parts of Mr T. S.'s letter might have been a- 

 nimadverted upon, were I not sensible that 1 have already 

 trespassed upon your limits. Suffer me, however^ to remark, 

 on the absurdity of calling farmers to come forward with of- 

 fers of additional rent, in the event of tythes being purchased 

 by proprietors. If an offer of exemption was made by the 

 tythe-holder, then I can discern the propriety of tenants com- 

 ing forward ; but under existing circumstances, an offer for 

 •a farm in the lunar regions would be equally praise-worthy. 



That mankind are alwajs guided by a sense of real inte- 

 rest, is a proposition which few Vv-ill support ; yet your cor- 

 respondent thinks, that because the evil of tvthe:', has becu 



X X X 5 lc^.:i^ 



