258 Transactions. 



Lyes uninclosed, uncultivate the ground, 

 Which great defect doth from the owners flow 

 For tenants by well-ti'y'd experience know 

 (Their tacks being short, as seklom long they be, 

 Perhaps three years, or five, or three times three). 

 If they should be at cost and pains to make 

 Their land prove fertile and much labour take 

 To bring the ground a better crop to bear 

 Their rents are rais'd or they turn'd ovit next year. 

 This to amend let all attempt with speed 

 Who have it in their power to give remead ; 

 May many join, and all with one consent 

 Obtain at length an Act of Parliament, 

 That in North Britain all who set yr. lands 

 Shall on stampt paper sign it with their hands 

 That all their tenants' tacks or leases bears 

 The fixed term of one-and- twenty years, 

 That tenants may have time to try and make 

 Improvements of their lands for their own sake. 

 Let them enclose some aikers every year. 

 And plant such planting as the soil will bear ; 

 Let summar' justice 'gainst the tenants be 

 Quite laid aside, and let them courteously 

 Pay all their rents, but if the landlord find 

 His tenant backward go, or come behind 

 In his improvements, and no friends he have 

 That will assist him or his credit save, 

 Then let his tack be registrate with speed. 

 And others take that will perform the deed. 

 If some such method could be thought upon. 

 Much money might be sav'd, for much is gone 

 Of late to other countries to procure 

 Corn, wheat, and rye, that did not long endure. 

 But if our lands were all enclosed well, 

 And well manur'd, all that in Scotland dwell 

 Would be sustain'd, and much would be in store 

 For every year's produce would produce more. 

 And then North Britain might lift up her head, 

 And thankful be when all her sons have bread. 



The constitutiou of the Burgh and the administration of its 

 affairs are criticised at great length and severely. It was the 

 custom, our author says, for the old Council to elect the new, the 

 community having no voice in the election, and no direct power to 

 impugn the actions of their rulers. The result was that affairs were 

 managed mostly by a faction forming little more than a majority 

 of the Council, composed of relatives and friends, banded together 

 to perpetuate the magistracy among them, and whose motive was 



