There are three royal burghs in this county, Ding wall, Tain, and Fortrose; and it were perhaps better for their prosperity had they not the privilege of voting for a representati‘e in Parliament. There are no manufactories in any of them; and their chief support is the litigious spirit of the people. giving employment to a host of practitioners before the Sheriff Courts. The police is extremely bad, if in any respect effective, both as it regards the towns and the county; and the increase of crime is not much heard of, because little effort is made to check it.
Cromarty is a thriving town. It once was a royal burgh, but the inhabitants petitioned for being de prived of their privileges. It possesses a good har bour, and the roadstead is noted as the safest in all Britain. A considerable manufacture of hemp into canvass for bagging, &c. has been long established, and employs a great number of hands. Curing pork is carried on to a large extent. A canal was cut some years ago from the mouth of the river Conan to Ding wall, in order to facilitate the exportation of grain, and the importation of coals, lime, and goods. The principles on which it was constructed, though very able engineers were employed, were however errone ous, and the consequence has been that it became fill ed with mud. It has been once cleaned at a great ex pense, but, what appears most extraordinary, no steps were taken to prevent a recurrence of the evil, and it is again nearly useless.
There are numerous villages in Ross and Cromarty shire; but almost every proprietor who has feucd land for building has repented. When there is no regular employment for it, it is baneful to accumulate popula tion into villages. Idleness, vice, distress, and crime, give too frequent evidence that, when there is no fixed employment, population should not be too rashly en couraged. No improvement can be forced; bra must depend on an extensive combination of circumstances, which it requires talent and meditation to discover. At this moment a great revolution is taking place, owing to the liberal view which the government has taken of the distillery. The effects of this revolution will be the emigration of the remaining Highlanders who have hitherto subsisted solely on the profits of illicit distillation, scanty as they were; or they will seek subsistence from honest labour wherever they can find employment at home; or attend more closely to the produce of such land as they may possess on lease. It is probable that all these effects may take place, and that point of civilization and improvement to which we have been tending since the rebellion in 1745, will ere long be fully attained. In many villages we see shops opened for the accommodation of the inhabitants; and butchers and bakers are establishing themselves. The consumption of meat and wheaten bread is very rapid ly increasing, and the assimilation of the north of Scotland to the land of the Sassenach is almost com plete. New wants are nrising—tne dress of the Gael has disappeared—the language is wearing away, and in half a century will be as rare as the dress is now.
Almost every part of the counties of Ross and Cro martv, capable of carrying crops, is in the highest state of cultivation. There has been during the last thirty years, a wonderful spirit of emulation in all matters connected with agricultural improvement both among' proprietors and tenants. Several able cultivators from the finest districts of the south of Scotland have settled amongst the natives, most of whom, having seen the result of the management adopted by the strangers, have, though slowly, adopt ed their practices. There are still some of the native cultivators who persist in following their old practices; 4nd, wherever fences are seen in disorder, patches of waste land in the middle of fields, and the crops inter mixed like Mosaic on a great scale, a stranger may be assured that the tenant is a native. While incalculable good has unquestionably arisen out of the stimulus given to improvement, much temporary mischief has also resulted from it. Many who perceived the pros perity of those who set about improving the soil with knowledge, judgment. prudence, and with that essen tial foundation, an adequate capital, conceived that they would become t ich without them. Farms, chiefly grazings, were taken, and money obtained by negotiat ing accommodation bills. When the recent depression in the prices of all kinds of produce took place, the consequences were far more severe and alarming than elsewhere, and the north of Scotland will be longer of recovering from them. But it may be reasonably ex pected that, in this experience will teach wisdom, and that it is the part of a fool to spend a fortune be fore it is made. Unfortunately, however, habits are not easily got rid of, and more especially those engen dered by ambition to imitate superiors, and to have the wives and daughters of farmers without fortune equally well dressed and accomplished as those of the landlords.
On the great majority of arable farms we now sec a degree of neatness in the style of the land and inclosing, it, superior to most districts of England and Scotland, and inferior to none. The crops are uni formly clean, and for the most part rich, and the quality of wheat such as frequently to have topped the London markets.
A spirit of improvement in horticulture has like wise arisen, and we find many excellent gardens at tached to the mansions of the proprietors; and though those attached to farm houses be small, they yield abundantly both the utile et dulee. Some proprietors are noted for their love of horticulrural pursuits. and for introducing new fruits, as well as ornamental plants heretofore unknown in the north. The climate is not very favourable for the finer departments of garden culture, and, as already observed, it has be come worse since the beginning of the century. When the blossoms look full and healthy, there comes a withering frost, or rain prevents fecundation. Insects,