A bill was accordingly framed by the late Mr JOHN GRAY, writer to the Signet, agent for the Royal Boroughs, which was brought into Parliament by Mr Dempster, in the session of 1786. By this act, the 26th Geo. III. chap. 101., a Board was appointed, for the erection of Light-houses on the coast of Scotland; the preamble stating that “it would conduce greatly to the security of navigation and the fisheries, if four lighthouses were erected in the northern parts of Great Britain,” viz. one on Kinnaird Head, in Aberdeenshire; one on the Orkney Islands; one on the Harris Isles, and one at the Mull of Kintyre, in Argyleshire; for which a duty of one penny _per_ register ton, for British, and twopence _per_ ton upon foreign ships, should be paid by every ship or decked vessel which should pass one or all of these lights. [Sidenote: Commissioners _ex Officio_.] The Commissioners appointed for putting this act in execution, are, “His Majesty’s Advocate and Solicitor-General for Scotland; the Lord Provost and First Bailie of Edinburgh; the Lord Provost and First Bailie of Glasgow; the Provosts of Aberdeen, Inverness and Campbeltown; the Sheriffs of the Counties of Edinburgh, Lanark, Renfrew, Bute, Argyle, Inverness, Ross, Orkney, Caithness, and Aberdeen;” and to these have since been added, the Sheriffs of the Counties of Ayr, Fife, Forfar, and Wigton, agreeably to a clause which authorises the Commissioners to add to their number. [Sidenote: First Meeting of the Board.] The first meeting of the Commissioners was held at Edinburgh on the 1st day of August 1786; and consisted of the following members: His Majesty’s Solicitor-General, Robert Dundas of Arniston. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir James Hunter-Blair, Bart. The First Bailie of Edinburgh, James Dickson, Esq. The Sheriff of the County of Bute, Bannatyne Macleod, Esq. The Sheriff of the County of Aberdeen, Alexander Elphinston, Esq. The Sheriff of the County of Lanark, Sir William Honyman, Bart. [Sidenote: Mode of raising Funds.] The meeting having elected Sir James Hunter-Blair to be their Preses, and appointed Mr Gray to be their Secretary, deliberated upon the measures to be taken for giving effect to the statute. The first object of the Board was to borrow the sum of L. 1200, which they were authorised to raise. As all the Commissioners were acting _ex officio_, it was suggested, that the most convenient method of arranging the security for the funds to be borrowed, would be for the Magistrates of the five boroughs mentioned in the act to become security, upon assignment of the duties leviable for the lights,--a mode which was accordingly adopted. [Sidenote: Progress of Northern Light-houses.] [Sidenote: Information about Light-houses.]