Greatest in the West and North. 99 



poor clays there has been none. It has been 

 greatest in the grazing counties and in the west 

 and north. The increase shown in Scotland 

 deserves special attention. In that country the 

 larger proportion of grazing-land no doubt 

 partly explains this ; but, on the other hand, 

 entails are more strict, and land is understood 

 to be more heavily mortgaged than in England, 

 so that in these respects Scotland has no ad- 

 vantage. It was this greater disability of the 

 entailed Scotch proprietor which drove him 

 earlier to seek a remedy. A little more than a 

 century ago, in 1770, the first Improvement of 

 Land Act was passed, the famous Montgomery 

 Act, the preamble of which clearly explains its 

 origin. " Whereas much mischief arises to the 

 public, which must daily increase so long as the 

 law allowing such entails subsists, if some remedy 

 be not provided," and then it provided a remedy 

 very similar in principle to the Drainage Acts 

 passed for both countries eighty years later. 

 But the power of raising money would not alone 

 have sufficed. It was necessary also to take 

 care that that money should be wisely expended, 



