French neighbours.

* * * * *


NOTES OF A READER


IMPROVEMENT OF LANCASHIRE.


The west of England has considerably the advantage over the eastern
side of the island. One way or another nature did much more for it. It
is true, that the eastern side was civilized much earlier; yet human
ingenuity and industry have of late years been much more successfully
employed in turning the gifts of nature to the best possible account.
Ireland and America are customers, for whom, though they were long in
coming, it was worth while to wait. After all, Lancashire is the most
remarkable and characteristic feature in the comparison. From being
among the most backward parts of England, this county has _worked_ its
way into the front rank. The contrast between its condition up to the
middle of the last century, and the astonishing spectacle which it
exhibits at present, belongs to the transformation which a hundred
years create in a newly settled country like America, far more than to
the gradual improvements and changes of an old English county.

It would be curious to analyze the concurrent causes, and marshal
the successive steps, by which Lancashire has advanced;--not only
succeeding in appropriating to itself a leading interest in the
creative inventions of Watt and Arkwright, but connecting its name