this neighbourhood, where I have lived all my life. There are a great many Scotch at all the collieries here, and most of them very respectable men, exceedingly so. You may ask me why the union is so strong in parts of Scotland—as in Lanarkshire? It is because in Lanarkshire the pitmen are one-third Irish, and many of the worst Scotch from other counties. Those who come here are among the best in their own country, I should think, from the accounts they give me. When a Scotchman comes here he earns English wages; but he does not spend them as an Englishman does. A Scotchman often, rather than lose buying a good book, will lose his dinner. The Scotchwomen begin to keep their houses cleaner after they get into England, and by degrees they come to keep them as clean as the Englishwomen; and the first generation after their fathers come are equal to the English in their wish to keep everything clean about them. They are generally very saving, and lay out the over-plus of their earnings in books and furniture or lay it by. They have a great disposition to have their children well taught. Indeed, I have seen several lads that have been educated in the Scotch schools, and I find them very well taught; they can reason like men. “I don’t think I ever saw Adam Smith’s works in more than one or two English pit-men’s houses. They are backward to attempt anything that requires steady thinking, such as that book, or any work on logic or mathematics. The Scotch often study both. This makes one of the great differences between the best working-men of the two people. The English seldom attempt even English grammar or geometry; they always tell me they are obliged to give way when they have made a trial.[7] They had rather read any popular work, such as the ‘Christian Philosopher,’ the ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ or Walter Scott’s novels. They love to read their country’s history, and they like to talk of its renown in the ancient French wars of Edward the Third and Henry the Fifth. They are also great readers of Napoleon’s and the Duke of Wellington’s wars, and their soul seems to take fire when they talk of their country’s victories. They are fond of biography, and especially that of men who rose from being poor men to be great characters. They are very generous in their dispositions, and will share their loaf with the poor, as all the beggars and trampers from Newcastle and all the country know. They are greatly improved in my time as to drinking habits; there is much less of it, and their money is chiefly spent in living well and making a great show in furniture and dress. The women, too, are improving, and manage their families much better than they used to do. The English pit-boys are exceedingly quick at school—much more so than the Scotch, I think. What I most want to see is better descriptions of schools—schools under masters of ability, who can teach their boys to think and reason. You will find boys who have been at such schools as most of those we have