AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF doap. XV. 



rage annually. The school-fees, and other per- 

 quisites connected with the office, added to the 

 salary, will amount to about 1800!., which is 

 30!. to each schoolmaster. But as the schools 

 in the burghs and large towns have the best sa- 

 laries, and are attended by the greatest number 

 of children, the emoluments of the country 

 schools cannot be estimated above 25!. per an- 

 num. 



Whether this be a suitable provision for an 

 order of men engaged in a business so laborious 

 in itself, and at the same time of such essential 

 importance to society, may be referred to the 

 judgment of every candid mind. The salaries, 

 and other emoluments, though small, might be 

 sufficient at the time they were fixed. But such 

 a change has taken place, during the lapse of a 

 hundred years, in the general mode of living, 

 and in the price of provisions of every kind, 

 that i ol. at the end of the last century was a 

 better income than thrice that sum at this pre- 

 sent time. 



Some men, I know, affect to despise this of- 

 fice, as below public notice and encouragement; 

 and, if at all necessary, allege that a very small 

 portion of education and respectability are suffi- 

 cient to qualify a man for the discharge of it. 

 Such an idea of the matter must arise either 

 from the want of consideration, or from some- 

 thing worse. In the parochial schools is laid 

 the foundation of the future fortunes and the 

 future usefulness of the rising generation. There 

 the children are taught to understand, to feel, 

 and t venerate, the sacred obligations of reli- 

 gion, without a Strong and prevailing sense of 



