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still a second question might arise,—Whether the point of goodor bad husbandry, had been settled in the general opinion, in suchtime, that the tenant should, in equity, be considered as boundby his obligation to have adopted the improved practice ? For apractice in husbandry is not, in reason, to be held as an improve-ment, merely because it is an innovation ; good sense requiring,in this as in other subjects, a renitency against hasty change:And as there is, of necessity, a certain loss always to be sustainedin the disarrangement of one system, in preparation for the in-troduction of another, it may be that the tenant’s lease was toonear to its expiry, (by the time that he might be supposed appris-ed of the better system), to allow of reaping, from the practice ofthat system, any adequate compensation for the loss to be sus-tained in the preparation for its introduction. At any rate, asall questions oi this nature must ultimately be remitted by law-courts to arbiters, wherever such a vague clause of obligation isadmitted, it ought to be accompanied with another, binding bothparties, to submit any dispute that might arise upon it, at once toarbiters mutually chosen.
The security of lease has been every where, through Scotland ,the primum mobile of superior improvement. * The total want ofthat security is almost nowhere complained of, excepting in theHighlands of Scotland ; and where the proprietors, out of merehumanity, and at the expence of great sacrifices of their own pe-cuniary interest, are still continuing upon their lands, (till theycan dispose of themselves otherwise), that disproportionate popu-lation. for which there can be no profitable use, upon the intro-duction of a more profitable system of occupancy, it is not to beexpected that they should entail upon themselves such an unpro-ductive system, or give it permanency through the security oflease, f
The size of farms is of considerable consequence to their profit-able occupation.
* Leases, and long leases, have been considered equally as the great cause*of improvement in England. Caledonia, vol. ii. article Peebles-stiire.
I See Lord Selkirk on Emigration from the Highlands .
Ilis Lordship’s antagonists display more of partial humanity than of enlarg-ed views of public utility. In their zeal for supporting Highland populationsome would even persuade us, that, in respect of fitness, for military service, aHighlander is of a sni generis description, constituting a breed of a snperiorkind. It is however pretty evident, that the human character is formed fromcircumstances, and those talents drawn forth for which there is occasion. Thenational reciprocated hostile incursions upon the Borders, gave a more constantoccasion tor hardy intrepidity and alertness, than the mutual predatory warfareof the Highland chieftains ; and accordingly, the Borderers were in use to hecalled out to quell insurrections in the Highlands . Such specialties of charac-ter disappear upon change of circumstances. Highland regimen's are not”indiscriminately recruited from the common mass, and all equally acquitthemselves well. A British soldier will ever act as a hero, whether Highlanderor Lowlander. It may he observed however, that the hardy manner in whichthe Highlander is trained up, fits him for the hardships of war.