§ THE EARL OF EGLINTONwished to know what decision had been come to with regard to the scale on which the Ordnance survey of Scotland was to be concluded. He understood it had been decided that the rich mineral and agricultural parts of Scotland should be surveyed on a twenty-five and a half inch scale to the mile, the Highland and mountainous districts on a scale of six inches to the mile, and the large towns on a scale of ten feet to the mile. He, perhaps, had no right to com- 1760 plain, for the county he represented had been very liberally treated on the twenty-five and a half inch scale; but he could not help thinking that a uniform six inch scale should have been carried out all over Scotland. The twenty-five and a half inch scale could easily be reduced to the six inch one; but the six inch scale could not easily be increased to the twenty-five and a half inch. Another objection to the twenty-five and a half inch scale was the enormous size of the map. He had found that the map of a tolerably large county on that scale would exactly cover the highest house in London, the French Embassy. Then, if that survey were to be carried out on a differential scale, not as regarded counties, but as regarded individual districts in the same county, it would be found a very bad plan indeed, and would not answer in any way whatever.
THE DUKE OF ARGYLLsaid, he thought the noble Earl would admit that while a plan—for it ought not to be called a map—on a twenty-five and a half inch scale would be highly useful, and almost indispensable for many purposes, in the cultivated districts of Scotland, it would be utterly useless in the case of the uninhabited and mountainous districts; and that, therefore, it would be utterly useless that the whole country should be surveyed on that scale. He quite agreed with the noble Earl that it would be desirable that some plan should be adopted with regard to the districts to which the different scales were to be applied, in order to secure a certain degree of uniformity in the survey; and the exact line of division would be a matter of careful consideration for the officers charged with carrying it out. He represented himself a mountainous country which it would be useless to survey entirely on the large scale; but it contained detached districts to which that scale might be applied with great advantage. The six inch scale, he believed, had not been found altogether useless for property purposes in Ireland; but the circumstances of the two countries were totally different, and although so small a scale would be sufficient for the Highlands of Scotland, it would not be at all sufficient for all purposes in the lowlands. He thought it a great national object that they should possess a plan which would be sufficient for property purposes, and serve it the same time as the basis of a registration plan for the sale of lands. The pro- 1761 posed plan would serve all those purposes and as it would not cost much more than uniform six-inch scale, he thought their Lordships ought to be content with it.
§ LORD MONTEAGLEsaid, it was important to know whether Scotland and Ireland were to have a survey which would be of real use to both countries. He did not think that so large a sum of public money was intended to be laid out for the private purposes of property. The practical scale was that of one inch to the mile and he hoped it would be adopted in Scotland. A larger plan would be of little real use to the country, and would entail an enormous expenditure.
§ THE EARL OF HARDWICKEsaid, he had never found that the people of Scotland were unmindful of their own interests and he could not conceive that anything could be more advantageous to the owners of land in Scotland than to possess a perfect plan of their farms upon a twenty-five and a half inch scale, surveyed at the publie expense. If he were a Scotchman, he should certainly vote for a twenty-five am a half inch scale, because it would then be an object with him to obtain the most perfect map of his estates.
THE DUKE OF ARGYLLagreed with his noble Friend (Lord Monteagle) that for all scientific purposes, though not, of course, for statistical or estate purposes, a map upon a one-inch scale was indispensable. With regard to the observations of the noble Earl opposite (the Earl of Hardwicke), he could only say that the six-inch scale, which had been adopted for Ireland, could only have been adopted in reference to purposes connected with property. The noble Earl appeared to think that questions connected with property were not matters of national importance; but it seemed to him (the Duke of Argyll), that it was a great national object to obtain a perfect map of the whole country upon a large scale.