316 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. XV. 



ties, cannot be supposed, like the husbandman, 

 .the manufacturer, or the artificer, to earn their 

 subsistence, or to add to the stock of national 

 wealth, by. what is called productive labour. By 

 a different application of their time and their ta- 

 lents, however, they contribute most essentially 

 to the public good. The education of the 

 young in every necessary branch of useful liter- 

 ature, and the instruction of the people at large 

 in the great principles and duties of religion and 

 sound morality, is the important task assigned 

 them by the community. In the faithful and 

 successful discharge of this office, is laid the sur- 

 est foundation of jiational prosperity, as well a 

 of individual happiness. Under a just convic-r 

 tion of this, Government has considered public 

 teachers as a necessary order in the State, given 

 them a legal establishment, and burdened the 

 landed property with their support. 



'The Parochial Clergy. In Fife there are 6 1 

 parochial charges ; but as four of these are col- 

 legiate, the number of established ministers is 

 65. The clergy in this county, as in other parts 

 of Scotland, are mostly stipendiaries ; that is, 

 they have a living or stipend modified from the 

 teinds of their respective parishes. As the teinds 

 are the only funds from which church livings 

 can be legally granted or augmented, so minis- 

 ters stipends, and augmentations of stipends, are 

 the only burdens by which they can be legally 

 affected. Manses and offices must be built, and 

 glebes provided for the clergy, at the private ex- 

 pence of the heritors, in proportion to their va- 

 lued rents. The legal glebe consists of four 

 acres of arable land, and pasture sufficient for 



