Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/358

 at the end of the green loan? And was not the father of this Flinders transported for hen-stealing? and did he not marry a planter's widow, and defraud her children, who, for aught I know, are now begging their bread, while this Flinders, and his cousin, who was a broken milliner, are revelling in the fortune that should by right have been theirs!"

"O dear sir, you have such a memory for these things. But you know that nobody minds them but yourself; and that all the great people court Mr and Mrs Flinders, both in town and country."

"Yes, yes," said Mr Stewart, "the vulgar of all ranks are mean and selfish. But don't mistake me. Bell; I do not despise the Flinders's on account of their want of birth, but on account of their paltry attempts at concealing the meanness of their origin by parade and ostentation. It is they, and such as they, who, by giving a false bent to ambition, have undermined our national virtues, and destroyed our