town, (for it seems there are females of that description here also,) offered higher rent to this pious Glassite than any other, and he accepted it. And, though he cants, and prays day after day, and would make one believe he is extremely pious; yet. it seems he goes and receives, month after month, the rent of his houses from those frail fair ones, though he is often told, and is perfectly certain, that what he receives is the wages of iniquity.

It has been observed, that where there is a great number of weavers collected, there new and gloomy notions of religion prevail. It was among the manufacturers of lawn, cambric, &c. in Germany and the Low Countries, that Calvinism was first introduced. It was among the Hugunots and silk weavers in France that Louis XIV. found the greatest opposition to his notions of religion. The weavers in Spitalfields were among the most active in the noise raised in 1780 by lord George Gordon bout the Papists; and, in Scotland, the weavers in Glasgow, Paisley, Perth, Dundee, &c. are always among the first to join any new sect that start up, the effect, no doubt, of their sedentary life, and the melancholy monotony of their occupation.

Dundee, like most other towns, is yearly increasing in size; and while hundreds are flocking into the towns in quest of high wages, many of the manufacturers here, as well as about Perth, Glasgow, Paisley, and the like, are going out to the country, and establishing manufactories where labour is cheap, and they are not hampered for room; and this has, and ever will be the case in a commercial

nation. The people in the country seek the high wages in the towns, and the people in the towns go to employ the poor in the country, and thus rich and poor places, as well as rich and poor kingdoms, contend with each other, and will continue to do so till, like water, which always finds its level, the ane becomes as rich as the other.

PANBRIDE.

From Dundee, on my way to Aberbrothick through a tolerably well cultivated country, I arrived at Panbride. At the best inn here, which is but a small one, I found two tolerably welldressed men arguing keenly about one of their friends. It seems, in this place lately, the wife of a man of some property, having been married for years, had no children. At length she grew sickly, and, after lingering for some years, died. During her illness, a sister of hers had come to take care of her and the house. This woman having been careful of her sister and every thing, continued to keep the house after her sister's death; and acted her part so well, that, as the man was inclined to marry, he openly declared he wished to have her for his wife. But, though she consented, they suspected the law was against it. They applied to the parson of the parish, to the presbytery, and to the synod: but there was no redress; these courts declaring the marriage would be illegal. This was the subject they

were on when I entered. I begged they would not be interrupted on my account. One of them, who had been at the church courts, and heard their decision, argued that they were wrong. He had argued in these church courts, that as the woman, who was dead, had no children, the bond of connection between the sister and him was at the death of his wife completely broken; that had she had children, the case would have been otherwise; and that he saw no reason, either in a civil or religious point of view, to prevent the man from marrying, since they were both willing, and in all probability would do worse if they were not permitted. He told me, he had argued the matter freely before the clergy, and told them, that in different, ages and countries there had been different notions respecting matrimony: that Abraham, the father of the faithful, seems to have had no check of conscience for marrying Sarah, his brother's daughter, whom the translators of the Bible have called his sister; that Jacob married two sisters, Rachel and Leah; that, among many of the Tartar tribes, the fathers marry their own daughters, and send their mothers, when they arrive at forty, to labour in the kitchen; and that Cimon, the son of Miltiades, which was allowed by the laws of Athens, married his own sister. I was not a little astonished at the learning or reading of this man on the point in question. He was, it seems, an elder of the kirk. He did not seem to think the business ended, but that it must have another issue one way, as he said, or other.

Upon inquiring if there was any thing very remark

able in this parish or neighbourhood, they spoke a great deal about the house and extensive plantations and park of Panmure, belonging, since the death of the earl, to the honourable William Ramsay Moule, his nephew. This gentleman is, I believe, the most opulent commoner in Scotland, his annual income being forty thousand pounds.

On my way to Aberbrothic, I overtook a rather shabbily dressed young man, somewhat lame, but seemingly very happy. Having asked me, without much ceremony, what I was, I replied, I would be obliged to him, by way of preliminary, if not inconvenient, to tell me what he was. He immediately replied, "Why, Sir, I am master of a large parish in this neighbourhood."-" Master of a parish! How can that be?"-" Why, Sir, I am master of the children, the children are masters of their mothers, and their mothers are masters of their fathers; hence I am master of the parish." Having heard this logical definition and inference, and my poney being disposed to go a little faster than this country schoolmaster, I bade him adieu. He had, it seems, somewhere met with the anecdote of Miltiades, who said what was similar to this of his little daughter.

ABERBROTHIC.

Having put up at the best inn at Aberbrothic, which is opposite to the church, I set out with my letters of introduction, and to make my observations. Though there are several others, I find the staple manufactures here are osnaburgs, or

brown linen, and sail cloth. This town, like many. others, has increased much of late, and the people here are also much divided in their opinion about religion. The abbey is a noble building, and is less in a state of decay than any deserted monasteries I have seen either in Scotland or England.

Being introduced to some of the inhabitants here, I found that they pique themselves much on their privileges, since a freeman of this burgh has certain rights and privileges all over the kingdom; these peculiar privileges having been granted to one of the abbots of Aberbrothic, and all the burghesses, on account of his and their steady adherence to the crown during the rebellion of the nobles in the reign of James III. king of Scotland.

Paul Jones, the daring pirate, was, it seems, extremely troublesome here during the late American war; nay, so much so, that he fired many shots at the town, which were almost red-hot after they had lighted in the streets. However, though the inhabitants were dreadfully alarmed when they first saw and heard the cannon-balls whizzing over their head, and many had run to coal cellars, &c. to hide themselves, yet, like soldiers, after a first and second engagement, they became not so much afraid. Indeed, one of the weavers was so little affrighted at them, that, wishing to have one of them, he followed it after it had lighted running into the streets; but it was so hot when he came up to it, that it not only burnt his hands, but a hole in his apron, as had happened to others, while he was carrying it home. Mr. Bruce, the Church of England clergy