SCOTLAND. 301 



In this small country, of less than three millions of in- 

 habitants, the connection of interests that fundamental 

 principle so indifferently comprehended elsewhere is 

 apparent and felt by all. Scotland, in fact, is one family. 



Is it surprising that agriculture should have profited 

 by such a concurrence of circumstances 1 Its progress, 

 especially from 1790 to 1815, was extraordinary; that 

 is to say, from the time when these combined causes 

 began powerfully to operate. England showed herself 

 capable, during that period, of taking off an almost inde- 

 finite quantity of commodities ; corn and butcher-meat 

 rose to enormous prices in the English markets, which, 

 for a new country like Scotland, could not fail to give 

 an immense impetus to production. 



If it is true, according to Eicardo, that a small capital 

 brought to bear upon a virgin soil produces more at first 

 than a larger amount applied at a later period, this 

 axiom was then most fully realised ; on certain lands the 

 return was tenfold in the short space of a few years. 

 The general comfort, too, was increased to such an ex- 

 tent, that, according to a French traveller (Simond), 

 who visited Edinburgh in 1810, houses in the Old Town 

 were pointed out to him, inhabited by the working and 

 lower classes, where persons of the highest rank had 

 only lately resided. " A chair-porter," writes a corre- 

 spondent of Sir John Sinclair, " has lately quitted Lord 

 Drummore's house because it was no longer habitable ; 

 the Marquess of Douglas's is occupied by a cartwright, 

 and the Duke of Argyll's by a hosier at a rent of 12." 



"When the fall in prices took place after the peace of 

 1815, this progress began to abate ; it was not possible 

 that it could go on at the same rate for any length of 

 time, but it still continues to a certain extent. Eailways 

 have been productive of much greater effects in Scot- 



