I have been, My Lords, two or three times going to addreſs the Nobility in this Humble manner, that your Lordſhips would be pleaſed to condeſcend to double your Eſtates.
Indeed my thought was by the Extravagance of the Title, to gain your more ſevere Attention to the Novelty of the Propoſal.
But I freely appeal to this auguſt Aſſembly, for the juſtneſs of what I am going to ſay.
'Tis plain, and it would be trifling with you to enter into the particulars, That Scotland is capable of great Imrpovement—. I cannot enter into Methods particular, or Schemes for the performance here, being alſo preparing for your View, a ſmall Diſcourſe on that particular Subject, which I ſhall call an Eſſay at the improvement of the Lands and Trade of Scotland, with or without an Union, to which I refer.
But the Reaſon of this Diſcourſe, is to examine who are the Objects of this Improvement, who the Perſons muſt do it, to whom Scotland looks for the Advantages and Helps of Art, how the Induſtry of the People muſt be revived, the poor ruin'd Farmer reſtored, the Husband-Mans Diligence encouraged, and the whole Kingdom recovered.
And this, My Lords and Gentlemen, muſt be your Part; you alone can put your Hands to the healing the Wounds, Time, Negligence, unhappy Conſtitutions, civil diſſentions, and all the State Broils of the Nation have made upon your Proſperity.
'Tis too evident the Tenant cannot do it, he is poor, and a Slave, he is dejected, diſcouraged, and abſolutely depriv'd of Means to do it.
Nor ſhall I take upon me to ſay, as ſome do, that this is wholly owing to the high Rents you take; for if you ſhould lower the Rent, and conſequently ſink the Value of the Free-hold in the whole Kingdom; yet is the Poverty and Miſery of the Tenant, ſuch at this time, that it would be many Ages before they could recover enough, to be able to make conſiderable Steps this way; and if they could, I believe there may be ſome Reaſon to doubt their Inclination, ſomething unqualified by diſuſe, to improve for the Land-Lord.
But if Scotland muſt be improv'd, it muſt be done by you that are the Land-Lords, whoſe Property in the Freehold gives you a Juſt Concern in the Quality of it, to be very willing to have it made better.
The Landed Men are the only proper Perſons to help forwards this General Bleſſing, 'tis their own before, and the Improvement is their own: As no Men but they are able to do it, ſo no Men but themſelves have a Paternal Concern in it—. They are Fathers of their Countrey; becauſe Owners of their Countrey. Improving your Lands, Gentlemen, is like Educating your Children, not a Duty only, but has ſomething of a Natural Obligation in it, which you cannot reſiſt.
I have not room here to enter into Methods, and I ſhall be the laſt Man in Scotland upon Project—. The only Caution I take leave to give, is this— That Gentlemen being firſt well adviſed from the Nature of the Land, the Method of its Management, the Produce of the Earth, and the Cattel, would be pleaſed by little and little; for to attempt it all at once, is
