"A good spirit, indeed," said I. And I sat a while, musing.

"We live very peaceful here," said John.

"So I should think," replied I, "by what you have just been telling me. I suppose you don't meddle much with politics?"

'No," said he, "colliers are not people who ever trouble themselves with politics; and the rest of the folks are very busy."

"I am sure," said Mrs. Maxwell, “work never hinders you from reading the paper."

"You are very sharp upon me, mistress, this morning," replied he; "but I never was a reader in my life."

Soon after this I rose to take my leave; and this first visit had not passed without giving me some insight into the religious state of Queenswood.

In the course of a few weeks I and my family became pretty well acquainted with all our neighbours; though I, for my part, still continued slow in forming intimacies. I believe we were well respected, and perhaps the more so for not being too familiar. I went to Church every Sunday morning; sent the young people in the evening; was very orderly in my house; kept a good tap of ale, of which I invited my neighbours to partake moderately; and so I stood well among the generality of the people. What the most religious thought of me I did not enquire; but religious people of the right sort are always slow to con

demn, and so I continued to live in good repute. What were my own views and feelings upon religion, perhaps, I could not have exactly explained to myself or any one else.

I am sure that the Gospel was preached in its purity by our clergyman; and I am sure that a great deal was given away by Mrs. Owen and her daughters, who were very active among the poor. They attended the school regularly, took care of the sick, and made clothes for the infants and the aged. The Church was well filled, and some of the members of the congregation, I may truly say, were as sincere and humble a people as I have ever seen. Among these, besides the parson's own family, were the schoolmaster and schoolmistress, Frederick and Mary Williams, Mrs. Butler, the innkeeper's wife, William Finch, and the two daughters of the Widow Paterson, besides several of the poor people; one of these, called William Hardy, who wore on Sundays a long old-fashioned coat and red waistcoat, and always sung very loud and with all his heart, died soon after I came here. I like to remember him, for his cheerful earnestness in the Church service always interested me, and often touched my heart. There were also many other well-disposed persons, but not so stout and steady in their religious professions as those I have named above. Such was the Widow Paterson, John Maxwell, and his son James Maxwell, and James Maxwell's wife, and others of the poorer sort.

The well-disposed persons certainly formed the largest number of the population; and perhaps they do in most places where there is a resident pious clergyman, and where there has been one for several years, and where the population does not exceed the minister's power to overlook them. The manners of these people were for the most part exceedingly courteous and respectful to their betters, and nothing of radical manners and habits had then reached Queenswood, so that at the time I fisrt settled there it certainly was a most pleasant, quiet place of abode. Yet even then, there was a leaven working, -and working more briskly than our parson, being then full of infirmities, was altogether aware of.

The charter-master, Edward Davies, was a man of as hard feelings as I ever met with; and unfriendly towards all goodness, not because of any sort of opinions he had gained, but altogether because he was wholly unsubdued and hated any one who controlled him. He was occasionally a bull-baiter and a cock-fighter; yet, being clever in his work, he was by no means out of repute with some of his employers. Two days in the fortnight he lived at the public-house, to say nothing of as much of Sunday as he could get to himself. His wife was a woman of great pride; and the children were treading fast in their parents' steps; though the eldest daughter might have been made something of if she had fallen into good hands. My niece, Susan Smith,

was very fond of this Betsy Davies, and often took her along with her to Church on Sunday evening. The publican, James Butler, was one of those persons who think only of getting money, and would square himself to any man's humour for this purpose. He had the art of keeping things smooth with the parson; he had a back door and back parlour on Sundays for his customers; he went to Church sometimes, and would always assent to what the parson said when he talked to him about the evil of drunkenness; he would sometimes speak to him with a sigh of the wickedness of the times, and say "that for his part whatever ill-natured people might say, he loved due hours, and did not care whom he turned out when the proper time came:" nevertheless, in the house of this very man many and many were ripening for all mischief, and becoming fuel for any fire of iniquity that might be blown up in the country.

Among all the persons, good and bad, whom I have brought before my readers, I think that, after re-considering well my views upon the subject, there was no one in the place whose company I altogether liked so well as the Widow Paterson : she was neither too good nor too bad for me; and she had seen somewhat more of the world than most of her neighbours, and could talk more of things and people that I had been accustomed to in former days. I soon discovered that she had a taste for gossip; and gossip is always amusing

to leisure people who are living for no one decided object, though these very people may have cultivated minds capable of much higher occupations. It was therefore by no means an unpleasant recreation to me to step in sometimes and take a dish of tea with my neighbour Paterson in her small neat parlour, which in my eyes wore an appearance of gentility beyond any other house in the lane except the parson's.

Such as I have described was the neighbourhood of Queenswood when I first came to the place; and such were the habits in which I spent the two first years of my residence in that place.