ment. Obstacles to monly the case, we are subjected to the payment of a Improveprice, the extent of which, in a great measure, depends on the arbitrary will of an individual who holds a monopoly of our corn. Such being the situation of the property of these islands, we are naturally led to use every exertion. that tends to keep us out of the reach of the arbitrary exaction of penal prices. Accordingly, we are maintaining a struggle with nature, with climate and situation, as constant as it is unprofitable for the production of grain, to the exclusion of those crops and modes of culture to which our climate, situation, and soil, are so happily adapted. It would be vain, say the most enlightened of our proprietors and farmers, to raise other crops than bear and oats, though apparently such other crops would be much more profitable; for these profits would not accrue to us. They would be all insufficient to satisfy the additional price which would be exacted for deficiencies in payment of crown rents in kind, when, by cultivating less grain ourselves, we should be obliged to pay in the valuable. grain of other countries, or, what is tantamount, to pay the price which such superior grain would cost in our market. "It is easier, in this case, to discover the disease than to point out a remedy, which would at the same time be effectual, and acceptable to the parties concerned. A conversion of the crown rents into money is the obvious cure. But with respect to that part of the crown rents which is now the property of a subject, this cure cannot be applied without the intervention of the legislature, even if the parties were agreed, as that estate is held under a strict. entail. Respecting that part which is still the property of the crown, as coming in place of the bishop of Orkney, the remedy is easy. It can only be accounted for on the supposition that our particular situation is unknown or un Improve attended to by his Majesty's ministers, that a large and po- Obstacles to pulous district remains exposed to be harassed by exactions as unprofitable to the public as they are burthensome to the islanders. They suffer greatly, perhaps irremediably, by that irredeemable grant already mentioned, which, by interposing a subject betwixt them and the crown, has made their situation much worse than that of other crown vassals. They surely seem to have every claim of justice on their side, and public expediency appears to demand, that what still remains the property of the crown should be applied for their indemnification, and not made an instrument of their farther oppression in the hands of any individual. In order to put an end to the monopoly of corn in these islands, the duties still belonging to the crown, in as far as they are payable in kind, should bet leased or conveyed to the vassals themselves. "The discouragements to profitable agriculture, which our peculiar circumstances occasion, are not the only evils which they produce; they are equally inimical to popu→ lation, commerce, and manufactures. Proprietors being, in general, liable in payment of more grain than they can spare, every circumstance which tends to increase its price is against their interest. Increased population, trade, or manufactures, which would increase the price of bread, would therefore be prejudicial to the interests of Orkney proprietors in their present situation. "If the load of feu-duties in kind were removed from our shoulders; if we were at liberty to turn our property to the purposes for which it is best suited, without the certainty that in so doing we labour for another; if the destructive monopoly of grain and meal in our markets were abolished: these islands would soon increase rapidly in population, and become seats of manufactures and commerce, to the great benefit of the neighbouring Weights. countries, as well as of our own and the public in general. Our climate, unaffected by the extremes of heat or cold, never experiencing severe or lasting frosts, is particularly favourable to many branches of manufacture; and our local situation, with the number of excellent harbours with which these islands abound, would give us great advantages in trade; while the great supply of fish which our seas and sea-coasts afford, if it gave little to commerce, would nevertheless be of great benefit to manufactures, by furnishing wholesome food at a cheap rate." Weights. The weighing instruments of this territory form also one of its grievances. They were brought from Norway at a very early period. The smallest of these weights, or the one of the lowest denomination, is the mark; twenty-four marks make a setteen, or lispund, or pund bysmer, or span; all of which are equivalent and convertible terms; and though the three latter are now obsolete, they were commonly used in the last age. Six setteens or lispunds make a meil, and twenty-four meils a last. The weighing instruments, which are of the same extraction, are the bysmer and pundler; on the former of which are reckoned marks and setteens or lispunds, and on the lat ter setteens or meils. The bysmer is a lever or beam, made of wood, about three feet long; and from one end to near the middle, it is a cylinder of about three inches diameter; thence it gently tapers to the other end, which is not above one inch in diameter. From the middle all along this small end, it is marked with small iron pins at unequal distances, which serve to point out the weight from one mark to twenty-four, or a lispund. The body to be weighed is hung by a hook in the small end of the instrument, which is then suspended horizontally by a cord around it, held in the hand of the weigher, who shifts it towards the one end or the other, till the article he is weighing equiponderates with the large end, which serves Weights. it as a counterpoise; and when they are in equilibrio, the pin nearest the cord points out in marks the weight of the subject weighed. The pundler is a beam about seven feet long, and between three and four inches diameter, some-. what of a cylindrical form, or rather approaching to that of a square with the corners taken off; and is so exactly similar to the Stetera Romana, or steelyard, as to supersede any farther description. There are two of these instruments in use; the one for weighing bear or big, and the other malt; and hence they are denominated the bear and malt pundlers. The former, though constructed on the same principle, and in the same form, with the lat ter, is one-third less in its weight; every meil and setteen being but two-thirds of the same denomination on the malt pundler, which is therefore considered as the standard of the bear pundler; and on this account the latter is seldom used. The pundler is the instrument employed for weighing malt, meal, bear, oats, and other gross and weighty commodities; while the bysmer is made use of for ascertaining the weight of butter, oil, salt, wool, cheese, and other articles, which are divided into smaller parts to serve the various purposes of retail in the country. So intricate are these weights, and such is the uncertainty that attends them, that even the natives who use them daily are far from being agreed what should be the exact weight of each denomination. Some contend that the mark, which is the radical weight of which all the rest are multiples, should weigh eighteen ounces; while others assert that it should weigh two-andtwenty. But the most just, as well as the most common, opinion is, that it ought to be equivalent to twenty-two ounces; and of consequence the setteen or lispund should Weights. contain thirty pounds, and the meil eleven stones four Litigation weights. pounds, Amsterdam weight, The original standards of these have been long lost or destroyed; and hence they are fluctuating, and in some measure arbitrary. But what is more extraordinary, a setteen or lispund, on the bysmer, is different from a setteen on the pundler; and all the marks on the former, and the setteens on the latter, are entirely different from one another. This occasions some particular weights on each of these instruments to be most advantageous to the seller, as others are to the buyer; and this being known only to those who are much in the practice of weighing, not only strangers, but also the bulk of the people, are unable to guard themselves against imposition. Even those who are most intimately acquainted with the nature of these instruments find inconveniencies arising from the use of them; for on the bysmer, the least deviation from a mark cannot be less than ten ounces; nor can the same deviation from any one setteen, on the pundler, be less than ten ounces and what is worse, a certain dexterity in those who are accustomed to weigh much, will create the same, if not a greater difference, without any possible remedy. This arises from using as an instrument the steelyard or lever with unequal arms; because, when a slight inclination one way or other is given to it, a large additional weight is necessary to bring it back to the horizontal position. The weights used in Orkney were at one time made about the the subject of a violent litigation between the Earl of Galloway and other proprietors of lands in Orkney and the Earl of Morton, as grantee of the crown's rights in Orkney, or successor of the ancient counts of Orkney. The proprietors refused to pay their feu-duties, contending that an extravagant increase had been made to the weights |