In their public libraries, I have seen hundreds of workmen and labourers thronged around the tables, and absorbed in reading the newspapers.
The Scotch papers, such as the Scotsman, the Glasgow Herald, the Glasgow News, the British Mail, are in no wise behind the London papers in importance or in literary merit. They have their own correspondents in all the capitals of the world, and get the news of the day at first hand.
Comic papers are remarkable by their absence. The Scot does not throw away his time and money on such trifles.
On the other hand, religious papers swarm and make their fortune.
The famous Edinburgh Review has perhaps no longer quite the reputation it used to enjoy, but it is still one of the most important Reviews of Great Britain.
Yes, in all truth, Scotland is an energetic, robust, and intelligent, nation.
It is the sinew of the British Empire.