ary--two hundred thousand vagabonds begging from door to door, or
robbing and plundering people as poor as themselves.[1] Fletcher was
accordingly as great a repealer as Daniel O'Connell in after times.
But he could not get the people to combine. There were others who held
a different opinion. They thought that something might be done by the
people themselves to extricate the country from its miserable condition.

It still possessed some important elements of prosperity. The
inhabitants of Scotland, though poor, were strong and able to work.
The land, though cold and sterile, was capable of cultivation.

Accordingly, about the middle of last century, some important steps
were taken to improve the general condition of things. A few
public-spirited landowners led the way, and formed themselves into a
society for carrying out improvements in agriculture. They granted long
leases of farms as a stimulus to the most skilled and industrious, and
found it to their interest to give the farmer a more permanent interest
in his improvements than he had before enjoyed. Thus stimulated and
encouraged, farming made rapid progress, especially in the Lothians;
and the example spread into other districts. Banks were established
for the storage of capital. Roads were improved, and communications
increased between one part of the country and another. Hence trade and
commerce arose, by reason of the facilities afforded for the
interchange of traffic. The people, being fairly educated by the
parish schools, were able to take advantage of these improvements.
Sloth and idleness gradually disappeared, before the energy, activity,
and industry which were called into life by the improved communications.

At the same time, active and powerful minds were occupied in extending
the domain of knowledge. Black and Robison, of Glasgow, were the
precursors of James Watt, whose invention of the condensing
steam-engine was yet to produce a revolution in industrial operations,
the like of which had never before been known. Watt had hit upon his
great idea while experimenting with an old Newcomen model which
belonged to the University of Glasgow. He was invited by Mr. Roebuck
of Kinneil to make a working steam-engine for the purpose of pumping
water from the coal-pits at Boroughstoness; but his progress was
stopped by want of capital, as well as by want of experience. It was
not until the brave and generous Matthew Boulton of Birmingham took up