To the PRINTER of the EDINBURGH EVENING COURANT

SIR,

April 20, 1785

I AM told that there is a scheme now in agitation of reducing the number of Judges in the Court of Session to Nine, and in the Court of Exchequer to Three—Being an old fellow, I am, in very few instances, fond of innovations; and I think a measure of this sort, in which the country in general is deeply interested, ought not to have been industriously kept private, and attempted to be smuggled through Parliament, as if it could not stand discussion. The salaries of the Judges of the Court of Session may be too small, and to discharge their duty with fidelity, the office becomes extremely laborious and important; but I cannot help being of opinion, that the plan proposed, of allowing them to die out to Nine, may be attended with very considerable inconveniences. The learned and the able are at least as liable to mortality as them that are left so; and, if Providence should withdraw from that bench four judges of equal utility to the country with the one left deceased, I am confident the proceedings of that Court would be expofed to no small obstruction and embarrassment. I could enlarge greatly upon this article, but it is a delicate string, and ought to be touched tenderly.—700l. a-year is one of the best offices in this country; and a lawyer, who makes that sum annually, has always been held to enjoy a very respectable employment.

As to the Court of Exchequer, I maintain, that the Judges there have the least work, and, compared to what they do, are the best paid men under Government. In short, I think the scheme upon the whole avaricious and precipitant, evidently injurious to the expectations of many at present following the profession of the law; and, like other improvements lately attempted, may, in the end, be hurtful to the country, and the dispensation of justice.
ORESTES.

and in general accommodated with very good houses, and the different farms on the estate are subdivided and laid out on the most approved plans, and every farm is inclosed by itself with substantial stone walls.

The estate lies within six miles of the thriving town of Dumfries, and within three of the limestone quarries of Closeburn, which afford an inexhaustible source of improvement; and the great post road from London to Glasgow and Ayr, by Dumfries, goes through the middle of it. The value put upon the wood is far from being extravagant, as there is great part of it already full grown, confiding of oak, ash, elm, beech, fir, &c.; and the extensive young plantations are only valued at the original expence of putting them in the ground, exclusive of the expence of inclosing; and from the thriving appearance and quality of these young woods, there is almost a certainty of their soon becoming a matter of very great importance to the proprietor.

Major Maxwell has right to the tiends of the barony of Dalfwinton, and the greatest part of the land tax is paid by the tenants, over and above their rents.

The whole of the above lands hold of the Crown, and are separately valued in the cens books at 2725 merks, which must afford the purchaser a considerable political influence within the county.

The manor house, though not elegant, is lodgable and commodious, and there is a garden and orchard adjacent thereto, stored with fruit trees of the best kinds and greatest variety in that country. There are many of the farms, since the process of sale commenced, set only for three years, and consequently a considerable rife of rent may be with certainty expected when these short leafes expire. The rents, too, of several of the farms are considerably augmented since the judicial rental was taken, in so much that the present free payable rental amounts to 909l. 9s. 2¼d. and on one farm a further rife of 25l. per annum commences at Weitsunday first. Upon the whole, a more complete and desirable purchase than the above lands can scarce appear in the market.

LOT II.—All and Haill a large Fore Tenement, and other contiguous subjects, lying in the town of Dumfries, in the street leading from the foot of the Friar Vennel towards the Green Sandbeds, belonging to the said Major William Maxwell, and bounded and described as in the rights and title deeds thereof.

The proven rental of these subjects, free of all deductions is

L. 15 15 0

And the proven value thereof, at the rate of twelve years purchase, at which the fame is to be set up, extends to L.189 0 0