SITUATION OF HINDS. 337 



them, his funds being liable for the rent, and they would be 

 incapable of managing the farm without incurring great loss. 

 Two thousand pounds may be stated as an ordinary capital to 

 commence farming with ; and it is hopeless for a person with 

 out considerable funds to think of farming at all. 



The hinds, or farm-servants of East Lothian, are, perhaps, 

 the steadiest and most praiseworthy race of men in the world, 

 and indifferently rewarded for the important part which they 

 act in farm economy, living on poor fare, and in bad cottages. 

 Up to the present time, the best feeling has existed between 

 them and the tenantry ; and there are thousands of instances 

 of men having died of old age in the service of their first 

 employers, without an abatement of income having been 

 made during sickness or infirmity. But a change is taking 

 place in their condition, by the pressure on the tenantry weak 

 ening attachments, and forbidding an indulgence of generosity 

 towards their faithful and proficient operatives. Mutual con 

 fidence and assistance, in the different classes engaged in farm 

 ing, forms the strength of the East Lothian system of agri 

 culture, and the true source of happiness of all interested in it. 

 Kindness and attention, on the part of landholders towards 

 the tenantry, commonly radiates to farm-servants, from them 

 to the animals under their charge, and the happiness of all is 

 thereby promoted. On the other hand, harshness and neglect 

 shown by landholders to the tenantry, descends to servants 

 and animals, and general uneasiness is the result. / Some of 

 the recently introduced tenantry bring all their operatives 

 from other districts, and have commenced the Bothie system, 

 which is highly demoralizing in its effects on the men who 

 are subjected to it, although it is somewhat cheaper than the 

 customary mode of treating the ploughmen. The prospect of 

 this class bettering their condition is hopeless, and there is 

 reason to apprehend their comforts will be curtailed. 



The rural population of East Lothian appears to be under 

 going an unhappy change. The management of landed pro 

 perty is almost entirely intrusted to agents, who, like the 

 middlemen of Ireland, have no permanent interest in the soil, 

 nor sympathy with its cultivators; and, like that country, 

 East Lothian now suffers from the effects of absenteeism, so 



