1HJKDENS AFFECTING LANDED PROPERTY

m

§ 1. Law Charges.

Every proprietor of lands in Scotland has necessarily toincur certain cxpenccs of a legal nature, before lie can obtainpossession of his property. In the case of a purchaser, or ofa donee, he must receive the consent of his superior, througha charter of confirmation, or a charter of resignation and in-leftment. The heir again, resorts to his immediate superior,whether he be the king or prince, or a subject superior, andthe law so far supports the original right inherent in the su-perior, that it enables him to give an entry to the heir of thedeceased vassal, by an order or precept of infeftment, direct-ed to his bailie. These forms are attended with consider-able expcnce; but the burden is amply repaid, in large pro-perties, by the security arising from this mode of investiture,though these expcnces are severely felt in small, or even mo-derate sized estates. Besides these expcnces, owing to thepeculiarity of the Scotch tenures, various questions are fre-quently occurring respecting them ; also, questions in regardto roads, leases, votes at elections, churches, manses, glebes,augmentation of clerical livings, &c. all which are broughtbefore the Supreme Courts at Edinburgh . Hence it becomesnecessary, for almost every great landed proprietor in Scot-land, to employ a law agent, attorney or writer at Edinburgh ,to conduct these complicated concerns. These legal ex-pences must necessarily vary, according to the business to betransacted by these agents j and as they depend upon a va-riety of circumstances, no general estimate can be formed oftheir amount.

§ 2. Parochial Burdens.

These are various, and the amount may thus be computed.1. The stipends of the clergy, though much higher in smallthan in large parishes, may be estimated, at from one-twen-tieth to one-thirtieth part of the gross rental, or from oneshilling to eightpence in the pound. 2. The schoolmasters’