inds of these well educated children, that they sometimes expect
the very people who suffer by their dishonesty, should sympathise in
the self-complacency they feel from roguery. A gentleman riding near
his own house in Ireland, saw a cow's head and fore feet appear at the
_top of a ditch_, through a gap in the hedge by the road's side, at
the same time he heard a voice alternately threatening and encouraging
the cow; the gentleman rode up closer to the scene of action, and he
saw a boy's head appear behind the cow. "My good boy," said he,
"that's a fine cow." "Oh, faith, that she is," replied the boy, "and
I'm teaching her to get her own living, please your honour." The
gentleman did not precisely understand the meaning of the expression,
and had he directly asked for an explanation, would probably have died
in ignorance; but the boy, proud of his cow, encouraged an exhibition
of her talents: she was made to jump across the ditch several times,
and this adroitness in breaking through fences, was termed "getting
her own living." As soon as the cow's education is finished, she may
be sent loose into the world to provide for herself; turned to graze
in the poorest pasture, she will be able and willing to live upon the
fat of the land.

It is curious to observe how regularly the same moral causes produce
the same temper and character. We talk of climate, and frequently
attribute to climate the different dispositions of different nations:
the climate of Ireland, and that of the West Indies, are not precisely
similar, yet the following description, which Mr. Edwards, in his
history of the West Indies, gives of the propensity to falsehood
amongst the negro slaves, might stand word for word for a character of
that class of the Irish people who, until very lately, actually, not
metaphorically, called themselves _slaves_.

"If a negro is asked even an indifferent question by his master, he
seldom gives an immediate reply; but affecting not to understand what
is said, compels a repetition of the question, that he may have time
to consider, not what is the true answer, but what is the most politic
one for him to give."

Mr. Edwards assures us, that many of these unfortunate negroes learn
cowardice and falsehood after they become slaves. When they first come
from Africa, many of them show "a frank and fearless temper;"[54] but
all distinction of character amongst the native Africans, is soon lost
under the levelling influence of