by one of her most distinguished sons, Fletcher of Saltoun. There are at this day in Scotland (beside a great many poor 'families very meanly provided for by the church boxes, with 'others who, by living on bad food, fall into various diseases,) 'two hundred thousand people begging from door to door. One fifth of the whole population are thus described as wandering beggars, at a time when the wages of labour and the profits of capital should have been high! So bad, indeed, was the state of society, that Fletcher recommended the establishment of a system of slavery, as the only method of cure! Famines were of frequent occurrence, as will be seen by the following passage. 'Some of these scarcities were very severe, and extended 'their ravages over a great extent of country. Those of 1635, 1688, the period from 1693 to 1700-emphatically termed the ""seven ill years"-1740 and 1782-83, were particularly se'vere. During the "seven ill years" the distress was so great 'that several extensive parishes in Aberdeenshire, and other 'parts of the country, were nearly depopulated; and some 'farms remained unoccupied for several years afterwards. In ⚫ 1783, vast numbers of the small Highland farmers were ruin'ed; and many persons died of want.'* So late as 1727, a field of eight acres sown with wheat, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, was reckoned so great a curiosity that it excited the attention of the whole neighbourhood, and numbers of persons came from a great distance to see it.† About the middle of last century, they are described as often wanting food, and to such an extremity were they frequently 'reduced, that "they were obliged to bleed their cattle, in order to • subsist some time on the blood." Within the memory of per'sons "now living," their situation was such that "nothing but 'the frugal, penurious manner in which the peasantry then • lived, could have enabled them to subsist and pay any rent 'whatever. Their clothing was of the coarsest materials; their 'furniture and gardening utensils were often made by them * Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. VI. p. 121. + Edinburgh Review, No. 126, p. 173. American edition. t Description of the Parishes of Lochgoilhead and Kilmorish in Argyleshire. Quoted by Mr. M'Culloch. Statistics of British Empire, Vol. I. 588. selves; their food, always the produce of their farms, was. little expensive, consisting chiefly of oatmeal, vegetables, and 'the produce of the dairy: if a little animal food was occasion'ally added, it was generally the refuse of the flock, unfit to be 'brought to market." The state of the country was rude 'beyond conception. The most fertile tracts were waste, or in'differently cultivated. The education, manners, dress, furniture, and tables of the gentry, were not so liberal, decent, and sump'tuous as those of ordinary farmers are at present. The common 'people, clothed in the coarsest garb, and starving on the meanest 'fare, lived in despicable huts with their cattle.'t Here we have fertile land abundant and cultivated in an "unexpensive" manner, yet we find abject poverty and distress. No "necessity" existed for cultivating inferior soils! The landlord took a large proportion of the product, leaving to the tenant barely sufficient to support existence, yet the condition of the former was worse than that of the tenant at the present day, when inferior soils are extensively cultivated. If the wages of the labourer were low, the profits of the landlord were certainly not high! 'So late as 1763, the slaughter of bullocks for the supply of 'the public markets, was a thing wholly unknown even in Glas'gow, though the city had then a population of nearly 30,000! • Previously to 1775, or perhaps later, it was customary in Edin'burgh, Glasgow, and the principal Scotch towns, for families to 'purchase in November, what would now be reckoned a small, 'miserable, half fed cow, or ox, the salted carcass of which was 'the only butcher's meat they tasted through the year.'‡ With the extension of cultivation over the inferior soils it is estimated that the produce of the country has been increased six'fold since 1770, and as the population has not quite doubled in the interval, it follows, that at an average each individual is 'now enjoying three times the quantity of useful and desirable 'articles that were enjoyed by his ancestors subsequently to the 'seven years' war.'§ * Rev. Mr. Smith, quoted by M'Culloch, Statistics of British Empire, Vol. I. 509. + Rev. Dr. Playfair, quoted in Edinburgh Review, Vol. 56, p. 57. Edinburgh Review, No. 120, p. 173. American edition. Ibid. Vol. 56, p. 60. At present the condition of the people of Scotland is nearly equal to that of the inhabitants of England and Wales. Ireland is a country in which only the superior soils are now cultivated. The poverty of the people forbids the employment. of the machinery requisite to make them yield what they are capable of doing, and the want of proper communications causes a large portion of the land, that would be in a high degree productive, to remain untilled. The condition of that country at this moment coincides almost exactly with the following account of Scotland, which we find in Mr. M'Culloch's work. The late Rev. Mr. Smith, in his Agricultural survey of 'Wigtown and Kirkcudbright, published in 1810, gives, on 'authority of persons "now living," the following details with respect to the state of husbandry, and the condition of the peo'ple towards the middle of last century. "Estates appear to 'have been broken down into very small farms; or where 'these were large, they were held in common by two, three, 'or even four different tenants, who divided the labour and pro'duce in a proportion corresponding to their rent. These, when in tillage, were sometimes run-rigg, when each had his portion 'allotted; sometimes the whole was ploughed, sowed, and reaped in common, and the produce divided in the field, or barn. 'Houses or sheds for the whole cattle of the farm, never entered 'into their conception. Their cows were indeed not uncom'fortably lodged; very often under the same roof with them'selves, and sometimes without any intervening wall or partition. 'Their houses were commonly wretched, dirty hovels, built with 'stones and mud, thatched with fern or turf, without chimneys, 'filled with smoke; black with soot; having low doors, and 'small holes for windows, with wooden shutters, or, in place of 'these, often stopped with turf, straw, or fragments of old 'clothes. The principal object of tillage was to afford straw 'for the winter support of the few cattle which the pasture (if such it could be called,) maintained in summer. As they always overstocked, this was a difficult task; and the poor 'starved animals were reduced to the greatest weakness be'fore the return of spring. Through mere weakness often they 'could not rise of themselves. It was a constant practice to 'gather together the neighbours to lift the cows and horses, or to draw them out of the bogs and quagmires into which they 'were tempted by the first appearances of vegetation." Ireland, in 1837, is in a situation at least equal to that in which Scotland was in 1760. Scotland at that time was in the situation of England in the 16th century. In 1698 she was in that of England in the time of Henry VIII. Each follows the other in the course, and in each we trace a constant improvement of condition, with the increasing 'necessity for having recourse to inferior soils.' If we were to extend our examination to the various nations of the continent of Europe,* we should find the result in all cases the same, notwithstanding the enormous waste of the ruinous wars in which they have been engaged. Had they pursued the same peaceful course as the United States, how immense would have been the change! As this sheet is passing through the press, we have received an abstract† of A Report of the Committee of Correspondence of the Colony of Western Australia,' communicated by Lord Glenelg to the Statistical Society of London, February 20, 1837, from which we learn that rents are paid, notwithstanding the abundance of fertile land-that production is small-that the proportion claimed by the land holder is large-that the expense of converting grain into flour is very great, and that the cost of provisions and other articles of necessity is such that high nominal wages and profits give but a very small measure of the comforts of life.t Here we have a state of things remarkably resembling that *M. Peuchet, the ablest of French statistical writers, says, 'Il se mange 'aujourd'hui plus de pain, plus de viande en France qu'autrefois. L'homme des campagnes, qui ne connoissoit qu'une nourriture grossiere, une boisson peu 'saine, à aujourd'hui de la viande, du pain, du ble, du vin, du bon cidre, ou de 'la bière. Les denrées coloniales se sont repandues aussi dans les campagnes 'depuis l'augmentation de la richesse des cultivateurs.' If we turn to Russia, 'Prussia, and Germany, the change for the better is even more striking than in 'France; and while the numbers of the people are increasing, their comforts and ' enjoyments are increasing still more rapidly.'-Ed. Rev. Vol. 56, p. 65. Published in the London Athenæum, March 4, 1837. The whole population is 1550, and as of course none but the most fertile lands which existed in England when, as now in Western Australia, only the most fertile soils were cultivated. Capital is scarce, and the man who desires to use it will give a larger proportion of the product of his labour for permission so to do. This deficiency are cultivated, there can be no necessity for resorting to inferior soils' to cause the payment of rent. Notwithstanding this, alluvial lands let from 208. to 258. per acre. A thousand pounds is stated as 'the requisite capital for a settler of the highest class; from £200 to £500 for those who labour with their own hands.' Several farms which have been rated, are found to return 10 per cent. on the capital invested. The crops of wheat on alluvial land average 18 bushels an acre: the best weighing 46 lbs. per bushel. The price of wheat is not given, but that of bread flour is stated as varying from 2d. to 1s. per lb., but in 1836, when it was plentiful,' it was 3d. This would give probably $11 as the price of a barrel of flour containing 196 lbs., and $2 30 for a bushel of wheat weighing 60 lbs., or about $1 75 for 46 lbs. The cost of dressing and grinding' a bushel of wheat of 60 lbs., is stated at 3s. or 72 cents. The man who should cultivate 20 acres, would have 360 bushels, the average weight of which might be taken at 42 lbs. 1512 lbs., or 250 bushels of 60 lbs., which would give about 55 barrels of flour, at $11 per barrel, or, $605 The cost of dressing and grinding a bushel of wheat being 38. or 72 cents, that of 250 bushels would be Rent of 20 acres, at 22s. 6d. per acre, $180 288 Return to the cultivator, subject to all the cost of transporting his crop to market, $317 Here we find that nearly one half of the gross proceeds is taken by the owner of the land, and the miller; but if we deduct from the product the cost of transportation, more than one half will be found to be thus absorbed. The capitalist whose means are employed on the most fertile land,' has 10 per cent., but if he wish to apply that profit to the purchase of provisions, he must pay for flour at the rate of $11 per barrel-for beef, 1s. 4d. to 1s. 6d. per lb. (32 to 36 cents)-for mutton, which is said to be plentiful,' 18. (24 cents) per lb. For clothing he must pay nearly, if not quite double the price he must pay at home, and for furniture of every description, double, or perhaps treble price. The owner of capital employed on the worst soils of New England would lose heavily by transferring himself to Western Australia. The wages of agricultural labourers are from 48. to 58. per day. This is nominally higher than in England, but that sum will not secure to them as great an amount of the comforts of life as could be had at home with 28. The labourer upon the worst soils of New England, or upon the sandy soil of New Jersey, obtains almost double the compensation than can be obtained upon the most fertile land in the colony. The wages of the mechanics are from 68. to 88. per day. The number in the |