[ ^55 ] 



expence of the diviilon. There are ilill a few com- 

 mons; but the mod of thefe belong to fome of the 

 royal boroughs; and the diviilon of them is pre. 

 vented chiefly by the nature of their charters, or the 

 jarring views and difpofitions of the burgeffes. 



In fome parts of North-Britain, and in very many 

 of South-Britain, commons ftill contmue. So ftrong 

 are the old habits which men have formed from ge- 

 neration to generation, and fo very dif&cult is it to 

 make illiterate or unthinking men change thefe, even 

 when, like all bad habits, they are equally difgraceful 

 and hurtful to themfelves, that it is much eafier to 

 point out a method of improving commons highly- 

 advantageous to the publick and to the private pro- 

 prietor, than it is to perfuade thefe men, either to 

 embrace or acquiefce in that mode of improvement. 

 Commonage is (o inimical to all improvement of 

 land, and a fource of fuch perpetual contention even 

 to thofe perfons who are fo unreafonably attached 

 10 it, that though many methods of correfting the 

 prefent mode of commonage might be fuggefted, no 

 one of them would be beneficial, permanent, or ge- 

 nerally acceptable, to the perfons who oppois the 

 divifion of commons. 



lu my liumble opinion, a general a^ of parlia- 

 metit for the divifion of all commons, both in South 

 and North-Britain, (hould be paffed. It fhould fix 

 a method of divifion expeditious, cheap, and perfectly 

 equitable and fair to every pcrfon who hath a right 



