CROSS CRITICISM. 
top of tbe clearing immodiately ” (it was noon, Mr. 
‘Smitli had hiid no breakfa^ft, notldng but a cup of 
coffee at 6 A. M. ) : “ take two coolies wdth you, a piece 
of rope, and measure what span of a bridge would 
be required for that stream. I see advertised in a 
London paper a verv nice description of suspension 
bridges ; we will bridge the streams, and, as Sir Edward 
Barnes said of the Kadugannawa Pass, blast the rocJcs,^^ 
So Mr. Smith again took his departure, speaking a 
little above his breath, lucky his employer did not 
hear him, or he would have said, ‘‘ Why, surely he 
has mistaken me for. the rocks !” When Mr. Smith 
and his neighbour Mr. Meek met, of course tbe.v had 
a talk on the merits and demerits of their respective 
employers, end in these conversations, the curious feat- 
ure was, that the one saw all the good points in his 
neighbour’s situation, and none of the had, in fact 
each thought that if he only had his neighbour’s place, 
how jolly he would be, would n’t he get on, &c. 
Isn’t this a curious feature in human nature, for 
it may he reasonably presumed that liad the two occu- 
pied each other’s situation, had their positions been 
reversed from the first, just exactly the same conver- 
sation and wish for change would have been the result. 
It has gometimes been remarked it is a good thing 
proprietors don’t know or hear the remarks passed 
upon them by Iheir superintendents. But has the 
saying ever been reversed ? What would sup- 
erintendents say, or do, if they knew all the hard 
things said or thought about them, when tbe accounts 
come in! Depend upon it, Messrs. Smith and Meek, 
your employers talk a great deal more about you than 
you do about them, and if the talking should not be 
in your favour, which it more frequently is than other- 
wise, on the game principle as the old saying about 
being always “sure ^o hear ail the evil about a man 
whether the good is ever mentioned or not,” it stands 
harder with you than it does with them, for if a 
rumour once goes forth — and wbo can keep in rumours ? 
' — it may eventually do much damage to the superintend- 
ent, whereas u hat do Messrs. Easy and Perean care about 
rumours, so long as their estates give a pi-obt. If a 
proprietor gets the name of being extravagant and 
expensive, who cares, so long as he pays his way ? 
The only- rumour which can affect seriously Messrs. 
Easy and Perean, is a doubt of their solvency, or being 
able topaytiieir way, twenty shillings in th(i pound, and 
that is very easily tested ; if it sbould befall, it is soon 
forgotten, in fact their position is stronger than before. 
It is a curious fact, that your easy-^oing fellow On 
a coffee e">t:.te, before very long, generally becomes Un« 
ea.sy in bis health. One vvould naturally suppose that 
