AGRICULTURE. 19

occur many cafes, in which the proprietors, were they at liberty to a€t with freedom, would per- ceive it was their intereft to adopt fuch meafures as fhould admit of having thefe, now common- able lands, cultivated in a proper manner, it would furely be a very defirable thing, if fome eafy mode could be devifed for giving them that freedom, when they found they could avail them- felves of it with propriety; while it fhould, at the fame time, allow others to retain the undifturbed enjoyment of their prefent commonage, until a fit occafion fhould prefent itfelf for altering it.

In all cafes of this fort, it is neceffary to pro- ceed with caution; and whenever recourfe can be had to experience, in fimilar cafes, that ought to be confulted in preference to any preconceiv- ed idea, however beautiful, that never has been carried into practice: for unforfeen difficulties in every new cafe occur, which are often accom- panied with very ferious confequences. In the prefent cafe we find, that the fame evil which fubfifted in Scotland, n carly, as I fuppofe, to an equal proportional extent as it now does in Eng- land, has been gradually done away, without V10- dence or difficulty of any fort; merely by permit- ting every one who found it his intereft to aban- don the pra€tice of intercommonage, to do fo,

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