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Mills.==-Every diſtritt of the county is well ſupplied with meal, barley, lint, and other mills. The moſt, if not all of theſe neceſſary machines, are under the abſurd and vexatious ſyſ- tem of thirlage, by which the lands of one proprietor are fre- quently thirled to the mill of another. However proper this ſyſiem might have been at the firſt ereCion of water mills, it 15 n0W; and has been for a long time paſt, a ſerious cauſe of grievance to the community. This evil has been removed, in ſome places, by the tenants purchaſing a right to the mills and their multures. By the greatcft number of tenants, how- ever, this mode of procuring a remedy is juſtly confidered as being very unequitable; becauſe theſe tenants,' having but ſhort leaſes, muſt thereby purchaſe a perpetuity which they have no chance of enjoying but during the remainder of their leaſes: and, at their removal, the proprietor of the farm will only reap the advantage by laying a proportionably greater rent on the land, to their ſucceflors. This operates upon the great body of the farmers in Scotland not to purchaſe a right to the mills or their multures. The reaſonable way would be for landed proprietors to remove all aſtrittions to mills, and to lay, on the land, an additional rent in proportion to the loſs they may ſuſtain by'the annihilation of this obſtacle to im- Provements."Till this, which is reaſonable and fair, 15 done, there is no proſpe& that this burden will be ſoon removed*.

The

* In the ſtatiſtical account of the pariſh of Kilbarchan, a method of getting rid of thirlage is mentioned, which is not liable to theſe objections. When 2a mill in that pariſh was out of leaſe, the ſeveral tenants bound in thirlage, with concurrence of their landlords, compounded with the proprietor of the mill, by agreeing to pay 6d. per acre annually, of their arable land, in all time coming, as a compenſation for the ſervitude. This tranſaction relieved the preſent te- nants, and their ſucceſſors, for ever, without advancing any ſum to purchaſe the right. The only overſight that ſeems to have been committed, was, that they did not demand the wonted uſe of the mill as an equivalent for the compoſi- tion. The mill remained with its ancient proprietor, and was ſoon let to a

; tenant