iSS REVIEW. — STATISriCS. Juoe 29,' 



REVIEW. 



*rhe ftntijitca/ account of Scotland^ drawn uj} from the conmiu- 

 nications of the Miiitflers of the different parijhes, by Sir 

 John Sinclair Baronet : Volume frj} . 

 The public are here prefented with the fiifl: volume of a 

 •work, that promifes to refcue great Britain from a reflec- 

 tion that has been thrown upon it by foreign nations, an in- 

 attention to its internal ftate, and the means that may tend 

 to augment its profperity ; for if effenlial political improve- 

 ments are to be made at all, they mutl begin with an accu- 

 rate knowledge of the ftate of the country. Without this 

 preliminary ftep., every attempt at improvement can only be 

 deemed a fort of quackery ; nor can it ever be known with 

 any degree of certainty, whether the mealures that (hall be 

 purfued at raiy one period, prove hurtful or beneficial. We 

 therefore congratulate the public on the appcaiancd of this 

 work, as we truft it will prove the fure balls of future in- 

 quiries, that cannot fail to prove highly beneficial to the 

 community at large, and to this part of the country in parti- 

 cular j and it is our moll earneil wi(h. that no croln accident 

 may intervene, to interrupt the progrefs of this higlily bene- 

 ficial undertaking. 



The public are made acquainted in tliis volume, in a ve- 

 ry accurate manner, with the prefent ftate of fifty-three pa- 

 vifhes in various parts of Scotland ; fo that an attentive 

 reader may be able, even from this fpecimen, to form a to- 

 lerably adequate notion of the whole. But when the work 

 fliall be concluded, if the remainder fliall be executed in 

 the fame mafterly manner with the prefent volume, there will 

 be no exaggeration in tlie faying of the worthy Mr. Dem- 

 fter, " that no publication of equal information and curiofi- 

 *' ty has appeared in great Britain fince doomfday book ; and 

 " that from the ample and authentic fafts which it records, 

 *' it mull be reforted to by every future ftatefman, phiiofo- 

 " pher and divine, as the beft; bafts that has ever yet ap- 

 " peared for political fpeculation." 



