258 TRANSACTIONS. 
Lyes uninclosed, uncultivate the ground, 
Which great defect doth from the owners flow 
For tenants by well-try’d experience know 
(Their tacks being short, as seldom 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 erop to bear 
Their rents are rais’d or they turn’d out 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 constitution 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 
