98 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



C NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. A DIGRESSION. 



All hope of finding a Yankee skilled in the use of the spade, 

 or able, or willing, whether able or not, to cut a drain with the 

 same neatness and exactness as an Irishman, or a Scotchman, or 

 an Englishman would do, must, I think, be given up, at least for 

 the present. They are not accustomed to apply themselves so 

 steadily to a minute object. I have never yet found one, who 

 could, or, if he could, was willing to make a straight drain. 

 There are about them a hurry and carelessness of operation, 

 what is vulgarly called an independence of temper, a conceit of 

 their own superior sagacity and knowledge, and an impatience of 

 being taught, a necessary result, I believe, of our free institu 

 tions, and the general diffusion of a moderate education, which 

 refuses to be commanded or directed. This is a temper of mind, 

 which, I acknowledge, has its advantages, and is a great spur to 

 improvement, but which is often excessively discouraging and 

 inconvenient to other parties, who may choose to have their own 

 work done in their own way, and who, when they pay liberal 

 wages for services required, might with some reason expect to 

 find a servant instead of a master. But servant does not, I be 

 lieve, belong to a republican vocabulary. I am content. 



In executing, as I have done, some miles of underground drain 

 ing, I should have utterly despaired of accomplishing it, but for the 

 aid of some Irishmen and Scotchmen ; and, I believe, I shall do 

 no injustice by saying there is this difference between the two : 

 For patient labor and the free expenditure of his strength in 

 such cases, the Irishman cannot be exceeded ; and his skill in 

 the use of the spade, and the pickaxe, and the shovel, is unsur 

 passed. But he needs always direction ; he only imitates, and 

 follows a lead. The Scotchman goes himself. He is equally 

 severe and laborious as the Irishman ; but he has a judgment of 

 his own to guide him, and he always brings that judgment to 

 bear upon his work. 



