CHAP. VIII. MORAL AND SOCIAL RESULTS. 389 



read and write English. But not less remarkable were 

 the effects of the road-making upon the industrial hahits 

 of the people. Before Telford went into the Highlands, 

 they did not know how to work, having never been 

 accustomed to labour continuously and systematically. 

 Telford himself thus describes the moral influences of his 

 Highland contracts : " In these works," says he, " and 

 in the Caledonian Canal, about three thousand two 

 hundred men have been annually employed. At first, 

 they could scarcely work at all ; they were totally unac- 

 quainted with labour ; they could not use the tools. 

 They have since become excellent labourers, and of 

 the above number we consider about one-fourth left us 

 annually, taught to work. These undertakings may, 

 indeed, be regarded in the light of a working academy, 

 from which eight hundred men have annually gone 

 forth improved workmen. They have either returned 

 to their native districts with the advantage of having 

 used the most perfect sort of tools and utensils (which 

 alone cannot be estimated at less than ten per cent, on 

 any sort of labour), or they have been usefully distri- 

 buted through the other parts of the country. Since 

 these roads were made accessible, wheelwrights and 

 cartwrights have been established, the plough has been 

 introduced, and improved tools and utensils are gene- 

 rally used. The plough was not previously employed ; 

 in the interior and mountainous parts they used crooked 

 sticks, with iron on them, drawn or pushed along. The 

 moral habits of the great masses of the working classes 

 are changed *, they see that they may depend on their 

 own exertions for support : this goes on silently, and is 

 scarcely perceived until apparent by the results. I con- 

 sider these improvements among the greatest blessings 

 ever conferred on any country. About two hundred 

 thousand pounds has been granted in fifteen years. It 

 has been the means of advancing the country at least a 

 century/' 



