fcanty provifion, or perhaps with none at all. A collateral male heir fucceeds, who after a painful fearch is difcovered in fome remote corner, qualified to procure bread by the fpade or the plough, but entirely unqualified for behaving as mafter of an opulent fortune. By fuch a metamorphofis, the poor man makes a ludicrous figure; while the daughters, reduced to indigence, are in a fituation much more lamentable than are the brats of beggars.

Our entails produce another domestic evil, for which no proper remedy is provided. The fums permitted in most entails to younger children, however adequate when the entail is made, become in time too fcanty, by a fall in the value of money, and by increafe of luxury; which ' is peculiarly hard upon daughters of great families the provifions deftined for them will not afford them bread; and they cannot hope to be fuitably matched, without a decent fortune. If we adhere to entails, nunneries ought to be provi ded.

But the domeftic evils of an entail make no figure, compared with thofe that refpect the public. Thefe in their full ex3 K 2

ten

tent would fill a volume: they are well known; and it may be fufficient to keep them in view by fome flight hints.

As obferved above, few tenants in tail can command money for improvements, however profitable. Such difcouragement to agriculture, hurtful to proprietors of entailed eftates, is ftill more fo to the public. It is now an established maxim, That a state is powerful in proportion to the product of its land: a nation that feeds its neighbours, can ftarve them. The quantity of land that is locked up in Scotland by entails, has damped the growing fpirit of agriculture. There is not produced fufficiency of corn at home for our own confumpt: and our condition. will become worse and worse by new entails, till agriculture and industry be annihilated. Were the great entailed estates in Scotland, fplit into fmall properties of fifty or a hundred pounds yearly rent, we fhould foon be enabled, not only to fupply our own markets, but to fpare for our neighbours.

In the next place, our entails are no lefs fubverfive of commerce than of agriculture. There are numberlefs land-e

ftates

ftates in Scotland of one, two, or three hundred pounds yearly rent. Such an eftate cannot afford bare neceffaries to the proprietor, if he pretend to live like a gentleman. But he has an excellent refource let him apply to any branch of trade, his eftate will afford him credit for what money he wants. The profit hé makes, pays the interest of the money borrowed, with a furplus; and this furplus, added to the rent of his eftate, enables him to live comfortably. A number of land-proprietors in fuch circumstances, would advance commerce to a great height. But alas! there are not many who have that refource: fuch is the itch in Scotland for entailing, as even to defcend lower than one hundred pounds yearly. Can one behold with patience, the countenance that is given to selfisli wrong-headed people, acting in direct oppofition to the profperity of their country? Commerce is no lefs hurt in another refpect when our land is withdrawn from commerce by entails, every profperous trader will defert a country where he can find no land to purchafe; for to raife a family by acquiring an eftate in land, is

the

the ultimate aim of every merchant, and of every man who accumulates money.

Thirdly, An entail is a bitter enemy to population. Population depends greatly on the number of land-proprietors. A very fmall portion of land, managed with skill and industry, affords bread to a numerous family; and the great aim of the frugal proprietor, is to provide a fund for educating his children, and for eftablishing them in business. A numerous iffue, at the fame time, is commonly the lot of the temperate and frugal; because luxury and voluptuoufness enervate the body, and dry up the fources of procreation. This is no chimera or fond imagination: traverse Europe; compare great capitals with diftant provinces; and it will be found to hold univerfally, that children abound much more among the industrious poor, than among the luxurious rich. But if divifion of land into fmall properties, tend to population; depopulation must be the neceffary confequence of an entail, the avowed intent of which is to unite many fmall properties in one great eftate; and confequently, to

reduce

reduce land-proprietors to a fmall number.

Let us, in the fourth place, take under confideration, the children of landholders with refpect to education and industry; for unless men be usefully employ'd, population is of no real advantage to a state. In that refpect, great and small estates admit no comparison. Children of great

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families, accustomed to affluence and luxury, are too proud for bufinefs; and were they even willing, are incapable to drudge at a laborious employment. At the fame time, the father's hands being tied up by his entail from affording them fuitable provifions, they become a burden on the family, and on the state, and can do no fervice to either, but by dying. Yet there are men fo blind, or fo callous, as to be fond of entails. Let us try whether a more pleasing scene will have any effect upon them. Children of small landholders, are from infancy educated in a frugal manner; and they must be induftrious, as they depend on industry for bread. Among that clafs of men, education has its moft powerful influence; and upon that class a nation chiefly relies, for

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