Chap.VIlI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 311 



mode of farming, if it had continued, the land would have been fo 

 much exhaufted, that it would now have done little more than defray- 

 ed the expence of culture, fuch as it is at prefent. It is not, therefore, 

 to be wondered, that the gentlemen of the county were fo fenfible of 

 the obligations they had to Mr Barclay, that they invited him to be their 

 reprefentative in the laft ['arUament, and have recholen him for the 

 prefent. There is no example, as far as I know, of fuch honour beino- 

 done to any member of Parliament, except another example, which the 

 fame county has furnilhed ; that is the example of Lord Adam Gor- 

 don, who is now commander in chief of his Majefty's forces in Scot- 

 land, but who reprefented the county of Kincardine before Mr Bar- 

 clay; and was, in like manner, invited by the county to be their n , e- 

 fentative. And he is a man fo univerfally beloved and elleemed, that 

 every perfon who knows him muft think him highly worthy of fuch 

 an honour. In both thefe cafes, I made the motion to the meeting of 

 the freeholders ; and it is the only concern I ever took in what is ca.lU 

 ^^ politics: The motion, in both thefe cafes, was univerfally approved 

 of; and thus the county of Kincardine has had the honour of fettinj; 

 an excellent example to the electors of members of Parliament, but 

 which I have not found to have been followed by any other coun- 

 ty or borough. 



Thus, I think, I have proved, that the number of cottagers In 

 Scotland, as well as of farmers and gentry, is lefs than it was in for- 

 mer times ; though, 1 believe, the cottagers in Scotland are ftill 

 more numerous than in England : For 1 do not believe that there is 

 a farm in Scotland, of any extent, on which there are not fome cot- 

 tagers ; whereas, in England, there is hardly a cottager to be i'ttn 

 living upon a farm, the work of it being performed either by un- 

 married fervants, kept in the houfe, or by day labourers from the 

 neighbouring towns and villages. 



