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in the conjugal chain with a woman who is too vain, even of her follies, to acknowledge either; and who, by having associated herself with those of her sex who have adopted the fashionable levity of laughing at the restraints of social life, has conceived that the guidance and instruction of a husband are but the usurpation of tyrannical privileges, which are not to be submitted to but by the tame drudges of domestic subjugation; and hence it is, that the important anxieties of a mother, and the pure sympathies of a wife, have all been surrendered to the cold-hearted maxims of those who have neither understanding nor sensibility enough to comprehend the delight which the married state is capable of bestowing, when the duties to which its sacred pledge binds their conformity, are fulfilled in reciprocal concern. Alas! how little of that union of mind do we perceive in this state, which is the only source of its felicity! How is it possible that this woman can contentedly surrender the advantages which she might enjoy? -advantages which she must in vain seek out of her present condition, because the world cannot bestow them; for the world has no concurrent feeling with her own, as a mother and a wife. In these characters she is the mistress of her own happiness; and this can only be secured by her right estimation of it in all the circumstances which may be reculiarly attached to her condition. It is this estimation which blends her happiness with that of her husband, and the welfare of her children. And is it within the compass of any one's mature reflection to reject so felicitous a possession? Too true it is, that examples of such insanity are to be found!

I was going on with these reflections, for my mind became absorbed in the train of thought to which they led, thus began his discussion of the knotty point submitted to bis decision.

When Mr.

"To love without affection certainly sounds like a solecism; yet I believe there is not quite so much contradiction in it as we may suppose: and I verily apprehend that too many instances among the married world may be brought to prove, that the paradox may be solved more easily than we are at first inclined to think. I will begin with those matches which originate in love at first sight,' as it called, Here I maintain, that love must be without

affection; because the affection, to be justified in its object, requires a knowledge of the good qualities of that object; for no one can be affectionately inclined towards evil, unless the heart itself be depraved. By affection, then, you will understand, I mean the kind inclinations of the heart; without these there can be no love. She, therefore, who surrenders her judgment to so irra tional an impression may think she loves, but at the same time is deceived by that emotion of the heart which is justly termed passion, and which, in this case, is nothing more than a sudden action of the mind inspelling the thoughts by sensation, not by sentiment, to form a vague desire of possession, without any knowledge of what it would possess. Yielding to the influence of this passion the mind rejects, whatever may enforce upon its reflection, a contrary conviction; and hence the infatuated female marries, because she persuades herself that she has made a right decision;-disappointment follows, and her love ceases: or, rather, the affection which it ought to have produced is lost in her self-reproach; and when the heart feels itself compelled to brood upon its error as the primary cause of its infelicity, the object which it has made the medium of its hasty hope, naturally becomes that of its repugnance. For her love had not one of those properties which mature affection into perfect esteem; and without this, the conjugal state can never be a condi. tion of happiness."

Here Miss Julia ventured to interpose her observation, by assuring Mr. that his conclusion was too general; for that she had known many couples very happy who came together in consequence of what he was pleased to term

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love at first sight.'-" For my part," said she, "I cannot understand how love can influence the heart at all, unless the object appears amiable in our cyes."

"And what should such young Misses as you understand at all about it?" exclaimed the Baronet, "unless indeed they pick out from some rhapsody of a novel that a Master and a Miss met by some marvellous chance, just within eye shot of each other; and in order to serve the novellist's purpose, exchanged vows of unalterable fidelity, which in the course of another page or two it suited their purpose to break. No, no, child, falling in love is ridiculous; its a

stumble of the judgment; for no pru-
dent person would ever fall in love un-
less they were sure of rising afterwards.
There's your Reverend Friend, Doctor,
Mr. D--,
who had lived upon the
leanness of a country curacy for six
years, thought proper to fall in love
with the widow of Deputy Sturgeon,
the fish salesman; but then it was the
most prudent thing he could do; for he
married Thirty Thousand Pounds, which
helped him to buy the living of ***
in Hertfordshire; and as the matron
was at least a quarter of a hundred older
than himself, he had a fair speculation
upon the good woman's falling out of
love into the grave in all due time.

"Sir B,” replied the Doctor, "I am not aware that the sacred ordinance of marriage is confined to any age, or any difference of years, between the contracting parties."

"Or," cried the Baronet, "to any succession of husbands and wives. I grant it, Doctor, but it generally happens, I believe, that when a man has once made a bad contract because he did'nt understand the article, he grows wiser by experience, and takes care to make up his first loss by a better bargain afterwards.”

"But, Sir B-," asked Miss G, "is the skill in making a good bargain to be considered as essential to happiness in the conjugal state.”

"Why yes, Madam, I think it is; for then a man is satisfied with himself and with his lot, and there's no grumbling afterwards."

"But, then," returned Miss Gmay not the Lady be dissatisfied with her part of the bargain ?"

Surely," replied Sir B, "if she fell in love at first sight;' for in that case, perhaps, she might be too blind to look to the safety of her property and if she never inquired into the character of the steward before she appointed him to manage her real and personal estate, she must be an unconscionable dame to find fault with his accounts.”

"Well, this may be the craft of the market," observed Lady S who could not resist the opportunity of convincing the Baronet that she had not forgotten his recent uncourteous attack, "and quite worthy of those very sagacious traffickers who support it."

"Just so sagacious," retorted Sir B-," as to know when the goods are vendable, and will be of any profitable use to the purchaser; but some Europ. Mag. Vol. LXXII, Dec. 1817.

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are really fit for no market at all, and can't be got rid of, either for love or

money."

Lady S bit her lip with anger, and in the impulse forgot that she could not do this without depriving it of a certain portion of the carmine by which its ruby hue had been obtained.

Mrs. here took up her friend's cause, and with a scornful smile, that seemed to tell Sir B- his remark was too contemptible to excite indignation, begged to ask the worthy Baronet, drawing out the epithet to the very corners of her mouth, Whether it would not be some extension of the lucrative princi ples of his prudence, if the traffick which he recommended so earnestly were to admit the Smithfield-bargains of haltered wives? for she could not help thinking that such maxims and such measures were highly deserving of being combined.

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"O Madam!" replied the Baronet, your suggestion might perhaps be adopted, were it not discovered that there are wives who are sufficiently adroit to throw the halter from off their own necks upon those of their husbands; and, thinking that the hempen grace better suited their spouses, have, with much affectionate consideration, mingled them among the rest of the horned species!"

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"Be it so, Sir," rejoined Mrs. "and I would hope that even you will allow it to be no more than what is just, that brutes should herd with brutes !"

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Doubtless, Madam!" cried Sir B-, "and I have heard of ladies who are somewhat expert at this sort of classification, they are so ingenious as to make their husbands what they please.”

Mrs.

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not appearing, or not willing to appear, to understand the Baronet, adjusted that part of the gown which

should have covered her shoulder, and then drawing on her glove, with an affected ejaculation of compassionate concern sighed out"Ah! Lord help the poor creatures! it requires a good deal of ingenuity, I believe, to make any thing of them at all."

"Not so much, perhaps, Madam, as you would have us think; an invention has long been pretty much in fashion among many of the married dames of this land, which very simply and very soon enables them to effect a surprising alteration.”

"Indeed! Sir; and pray what is that?

3 T

I'm sure it is a pity it should not be generally known."

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Why, as for that," observed the Baronet, "I rather think it is no secret; its merely breaking through the matrimonial vow and parting before death; and if a wife once fancies she has found out the art of loving without affection and obeying without the will, perhaps it may be as good an expedient as any. There is indeed another, but then this is sometimes found rather inconvenient in its operation; and this is, leaving the Seventh Commandment out of the scale of conjugal obedience: an omis. sion which is not at all unlikely to happen, when the paradoxical sentiments to which I have referred become the persuasion of the heart."

This observation of the Baronet produced a mutual emotion between Mrs.

- and her tutelary friend Lady S―; the latter, in a whisper, made rather more audible by the accent which her long restrained passion gave to it, turned to the ear of the former with the exclamation

"By G- that is too bad!"

Mrs. -, raising her eyebrows with an effort of unconcern, which her quivering lip shewed her repugnant feelings strongly contended against, said halfaloud, "O my dear! 1 am not in the least surprised or hurt at the rudeness of a man, who seems to have just as many ideas of courtesy as a Smithfield dro

ver!"

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Edificat, Mutat quadrata rotundis." The Tree, whose roots are its agridro-HE commonwealth of the State is culture: its industry is its branches, and these bear all its fruits of sustenance; foreign commerce and the arts are its leaves, under whose shade we find enjoyment, ease, and delectation.

The Baronet heard the opinions of the Ladies, and was about to answer, when Miss Julia, touching his arm, interrupted him

"My dear papa! I know if Mr. Bwould be so good as to sing in his usually delightful style that sweet song of Love has eyes,' you would be convinced that there is such a thing as love at first sight.'"

Mr. B made one one of his stagebows to his young panegyrist, and professed himself ready to obey her commands.

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The great Emperor of the East, King Cyrus, was used to say, "My subjects are the depositories of my riches"—an expression as just as it was noble, as politic as generous.

Trade is the useful and necessary connection of every social being with his fellow-creature. We have a moral intercourse of exchange, as well as a material all is barter and commerce among mankind.

;

Commerce is so ancient, that as soon as there were two men, there began a reciprocal trading between them, of mutually useful services; there never existed any human society, without the commerce of exchanges.

Commerce made the families of men, from families arose communities, the union of these formed empires; com

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Two principal-internal and external: the home trade and foreign commerce. The first connects, maintains, and benefits, the inhabitants of each distinct state or community; the other connects and approximates nation with nation. What are the branches and fruits of the internal commerce of a State?

They are these :-Manners, customs, national differences; the politic laws which form the civil rites of general obligation, of which the public law of a people is formed; the civil law, which determines the lot and the duty of each individual, and secures to him the possession and use of their respective properties; and their exchange among them, which comprehends finance, commerce, or trade, properly so called, manufactures, and products of industry.

What then remains peculiar to foreign

commerce?

All the same objects, but considered more collectively, and without this the haunts of tigers and of lions would be less dangerous neighbourhoods for human societies than the dwellings of their fellow men.

We should distinguish the foreign commerce of different States into two kinds; the trade of production, or the exchange of the excess of one, for the articles of similar abundance which each may desire of the other; and a mercenary commerce, which trafficks in the products of other States, and finds subsistence, and often makes great gains by being the carrier and go-between, the broker of the exchanges of other nations: France and Holland exemplify this distinction.

Those nations have been distinguished as commercial which have addicted themselves to navigation, or the carry ing trade, to manufactures, or especially, to the operations of banking and exchange. Some great kingdoms have neglected these, content to exchange simply the superflux of a fine soil for the various exotics they have desired, of the produce or industry of other lands.

Commerce, strictly so, called, is a spring of absolute and great importance to all states.

Circulation is the life-blood of a nation; to this even taxation gives a stimulus; what is collected of the people circulates to the heart of the State and Bows back again, vivifying all its members. In Hindostan, at this hour, a wellproportioned and well-organized plan of internal revenue, on that prolific and thick-peopled Continent, would in its reflux to a large military establishment, and in an infinity of useful channels of improvement and activity, raise again that fine country, and mild and plastic people, to a point of civilization, intellect, ease, and power, which could soon defy the barbarous Pindarries, and all the other savage and greedy tribes which hover round their confines; break in and ravage their fair fields, despoil their villages, and sweep away their gentle females and interesting infants.

A most ingenious and profound French author said, above eighty years ago, that if the King of France should confide to him the Administration of the Finances, his study should be to "diminish his collections and to increase his expense"-to lessen taxation in provinces which are poor, and to increase in them the establishment of expense for the means of improvement, reducing expenses in stations of more ease and greater means; in the science of Government "benefits are the right arm of authority." We cannot long take money from a purse, which no means or band replenishes. 21st November, 1817.

SIR,

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R.

To the Editor of the European Magazine. October 27, 1817. WAS much pleased whilst reading, in your Magazine for September, the subject Marriage;" the observations there are certainly just, but at the same time deficient. In enumerating the points necessary for reflection be fore marriage, religion has been omitted; whether this happened from an oversight of the writer, or a consideration that it was not one of the points, I leave to himself. But in my opinion it certainly is, and perhaps the first; though often disregarded, it should have been considered, in the subject before me, as instruction is undoubtedly the intent of the author, and where that is the case religion should not be omitted. Perhaps the writer may say, he has included it under " Virtuous Principles;" it may be so, but it is certainly

of sufficient consequence to be considered separate; besides, there are many things appertaining to religion, which are virtuous in themselves in different persons, but when joined become insupportable; for instance, two persons marrying of different denominations of Christians, or perhaps a Roman Catholic and a Dissenter, a Unitarian and a Baptist, is sure to bring misery unto both parties, unless one becomes a convert to the other, which is seldom the

case.

Again: An irreligious person marry ing a religious one, unhappiness ensues, unless a sense of shame in the first brings on a conversion, which sometimes happens; other instances might be produced, but these I consider sufficent, to prove that religion should not be a secondary consideration. True happiness is to be obtained by the mar riage of two persons both religious, and not otherwise. To confirm this idea, I shall not give any particular instance, but refer Inquirers to a book, much in public estimation, entitled, "The Religious Courtship," which will produce sufficient proofs. The writer may say, perhaps, it was so little thought of he did not mention it;-I answer, the intent of writing is to show, not what mankind are, but what they ought to be; and every Christian will allow, that religion should be more attended to than it is.-Sir, should you think the above worth notice, and acceptable to your readers, an insertion will oblige,

Your occasional Correspondent,

ALBERT.

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Or that dread bridge by hempen fetters bound,

From steep to steep at Reda's gulf profound. Drummond.

At a particular season of the year the salmon come along the coast in quest of the different rivers in which they au nually cast their spawn. In this expe dition the fish generally swim close to the shore, that they may not miss the port, and the fishermen who are well aware of this coasting voyage of the salmon, take care to project the nets at such places as may be most conve nient for intercepting them in their

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To the Editor of the European Magazine. and of a depth frightful to look at, se

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parates it from the adjacent land, in the bottom of which the sea breaks with an uninterrupted roar over the rocks; the island itself is inaccessible on every side, except one spot, where, under the shelter of an impending rock, a luxuriant herbage flourishes; but the wildness of the coast and the turbulence of the sea make it very difficult to land here.

In this perplexity there is really no resource, except attempting a bridge of ropes from the main land to the island, which accordingly the fishermen every year accomplish in the summer months, in a very singular manner: two strong cables are extended across the

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