1 40.1

have received from the public, is-the beſt evidence that they are ſkilſul in their buſineſs.

The diſtillation of whiſky is carried on to a great extent by Andrew Stein, Eſq. of Hattonburn. This work employs many hands. The number of cattle fattened by the refuſe is conſiderable, and the manure produced by it is of very great importance to the neighbouring helds«.

State of the Poor.=-The means by which the poor in this county are ſupported, can be no burden to ſociety, nor any obſtacle to improvements.

"The number: of paupers on the parochial liſts amounts to about 52. They are ſupported by the church collections and dues, and the intereſts of ſome donations and[mall funds aCCU= mulated in times of plenty: the whole of the annual expend» ture for their ſupport amounts to about 1171 Among the ſece» ders are alſo 2 few poor, whom they ſupport by colleCtions at the ehurches- Suppoſing their number was equal to the half of the parochjal poor, and the money expended upon them was jikewiſe equal to the half of theirs, the whole poor in the county will only be 78, and their ſupport annually no more than 1751. 103. From this account, which is drawn chiefly from the ſtatiſtical hiſtory of Scotland, it appears that the proportion of poor to the inhabitants of the county is nearly as dne to eighty-two 3 ard their ſupport, excluſive of the in- tereſt of ſtock funded, comes to about fivepence or ſixpence a year to each individual; a ſum ſo trifling as hardly to be mentioned, eſpecially as it is the reſult of charity voluntarily beſtowed, without the ſmalleſt burden whatever on landed property» The money colle&ed for the poor is wholly under the management of the kirk-ſeſlon of each parilbh. The kirk-ſelon conſiſts of the miniſter and elders. This money is diſtributed to the poor, partly by(0 much a month, as they ſtand in need of it; and partly: by paying their houſe rents,

F 2 purchaſing