INTRODUCTION. 



8. Soon after improvements began, the rents of lands 

 were progressively increased, without the spur of which, 

 neither industry in cultivation, nor economy in manage- 

 ment, can in general be expected. Oppressive and sudden 

 additions ought certainly to be avoided ; but without a fair 

 income for his land, no proprietor ought to part with a 

 control over his estate, more especially for so long a period 

 as nineteen or thirty-one years. A tenant, on the other 

 hand, who obtains a lease of some duration, and on liberal 

 terms in regard to covenants, can well afford a reasonable 

 augmentation, either at once, or at different periods of his 

 lease, on a rent that was previously moderate. 



9. It was a circumstance peculiarly favourable to the 

 improvement of Scotland, that the farmers, in general, 

 were liable to no material burden, but their rent to the 

 landlord, by whom the land-tax, and, since the year 1633, 

 the stipend to the clergyman have been usually paid. * 

 Wherever there is any uncertainty in regard to the sums 

 to be exacted, (more especially if the burden increases with 

 the industry exerted) no farmer will attempt any expensive 

 improvement Hence one of the advantages of a recent 

 law, by which the servitude of thirlage, or bondage to any 

 particular mill, may be legally commuted. The personal 

 sei'vices also, to which the Scotch peasantry were, at one 

 time, subjected, and which were often indefinite, are now 

 almost entirely exploded. 



* One-half of the parochial schoolmaster's salary is paid by the te- 

 nantry, together with one-half of the expence of maintaining the poor. 

 This, however, is a trifling object, as the expence of supporting the 

 poor is chiefly defrayed by voluntary collections at church on Sundays. 

 The Scotch farmers are also liable in payment of the property-tax, and 

 either to statute labour, or road assessments. 



