One of the most observable traits in the character of Americans, is the great value they place upon education. A mother will submit to any privation for the sake of placing her children at good schools. There are not many instances of the thorough and elegant female education, which the higher classes of French and English receive; but women are generally intelligent and well informed; a good knowledge of history, the popular sciences, Latin, French, and Italian, are common acquisitions; and among the descendants of the English settlers, it is almost an unheard-of thing, for either man or woman, not to know how to read and write. The Dutch settlers, with their wives and daughters, are generally ignorant of those first rudiments of learning; and the descendants of Africans, of all complexions, from black to the slightest possible tinge of olive, are almost universally so. In the slave-holding states, which constitute half the Union, it is contrary to law to teach them the alphabet; and in the free states the prejudice against their color is so strong, that they have found many discouragements and obstacles in the path of learning. The same prejudice excludes them from all trades and occupations, except those which are considered the lowest. A young mulatto girl, of very respectable character, belonging to Boston, lately attempted to learn the art of mantua-making; she was charged ten dollars, five of which were paid in advance. In a few days the mantua-maker informed her that she must not come any more, because her other apprentices would not consent to work in the same room with a colored person. Another girl, who became an apprentice to a milliner, was discharged, because the woman with whom the milliner boarded threatened to turn her out of the house, if she thus equalized herself with a mulatto. It is almost an invariable rule to exclude colored people from stages, and from all the comforts and conveniences of vessels and steam-boats; respectability of character and appearance, and ability to pay for such privileges, make no difference in their treatment. A worthy woman, who attempts to visit a dying child at a distance from her home, is generally liable to insulting conduct and contemptuous expressions, if her complexion has the least tinge of African ancestors.