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but becaufe fuch objections may always be alleged, and are impoflible by teftimony to be afcertained; fo that to allow implicit credit to them, and to diffolve marriages whenever either party thought fit to pretend them, would lead in its effect to all the licentioufnefs of arbitrary divorces.

Milton's story is well known. Upon a quarrel with his wife, he paid his addreffes to another woman, and fet forth a public vindication of his conduct, by attempting to prove, that confirmed dislike was as just a foundation for diffolving the marriage contract, as adultery; to which pofition, and to all the arguments by which it can be supported, the above confideration affords a fufficient anfwer. And if a married pair, in actual and irreconcileable difcord, complain that their happiness would be better confulted, by permitting them to determine a connection, which is become odious to both, it may be told them, that the fame permiffion, as a general rule, would produce libertinifm, diffenfion, and mifery, amongst thousands, who are now virtuous, and quiet, and happy, in their condition; and it ought to fatisfy them to reflect, that when their happiness is facrificed to the operation of an unrelenting rule, it is facrificed to the happiness of the community.

The fcriptures feem to have drawn the obligation tighter than the law of nature left it "Whofoever," faith Christ, "fhall put away his wife, except it be "for fornication, and fhall marry another, com"mitteth adultery; and whofo marrieth her which "is put away, doth commit adultery." Matt. xix. 9. The law of Mofes, for reafons of local expediency, permitted the Jewish husband to put away his wife, but whether for every caufe, or for what causes, appears to have been controverted amongst the interpreters of thofe times. Chrift, the precepts of whofe religion were calculated for more general use and obfervation, revokes this permiflion, as given to the Jews" for the hardness of their hearts," and

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promulges a law which was thenceforward to confine divorces to the fingle caufe of adultery in the wife. And I fee no fufficient reafon to depart from the plain and ftrict meaning of Chrift's words. The rule was new. It both surprised and offended his difciples; yet Chrift added nothing to relax or explain it.

Inferior causes may juftify the feparation of hufband and wife, although they will not authorize fuch a diffolution of the marriage contract, as would leave either party at liberty to marry again: for it is that liberty in which the danger and mifchief of divorces principally confift. If the care of children does not require that they should live together, and it is become, in the serious judgment of both, neceffary for their mutual happiness that they should feparate, let them separate by confent. Nevertheless this neceffity can hardly exift, without guilt and mifconduct on one fide or on both. Moreover, cruelty, ill usage, extreme violence, or moroseness of temper, or other great and continued provocations, make it lawful for the party aggrieved to withdraw from the fociety of the offender, without his or her confent. The law which impofes the marriage vow, whereby the parties promise to "keep each other," or in other words, to live together, must be understood to impose it with a filent refervation of these cases; because the fame law has conftituted a judicial relief from the tyranny of the husband, by the divorce a menfå et toro, and by the provifion which it makes for the separate maintenance of the injured wife. St. Paul likewife diftinguishes between a wife's merely feparating herself from the family of her hufband, and her marrying again. "Let not the wife "depart from her husband; but, and if fhe do de66 part, let her remain unmarried."

The law of this country, in conformity to our Saviour's injunction, confines the diffolution of the marriage contract, to the fingle cafe of adultery in the wife, and a divorce even in that cafe can only

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be brought about by the operation of an act of parliament, founded upon a previous fentence in the ecclefiaftical court, and a verdict against the adulterer at common law: which proceedings taken together compose as complete an investigation of the con plaint as a caufe can receive. It has lately been propofed to the legiflature to annex a claufe to these acts, reftraining the offending party from marrying with the companion of her crime, who, by the course of proceeding, is always known and convicted; for there is reafon to fear, that adulterous connections are often formed with the profpect of bringing them to this conclufion; at leaft, when the feducer has once captivated the affection of a married woman, he may avail himself of this tempting argument to fubdue her fcruples, and complete his victory; and the legislature, as the business is managed at prefent, aflifts by its interpofition the criminal defign of the offenders, and confers a privilege where it ought to inflict a punishment. The propofal deferved an experiment; but fomething more penal, will, I apprehend, be found neceffary, to check the progrefs of this alarming depravity. Whether a law might not be framed directing the fortune of the adulterefs to defcend as in cafe of her natural death, referving, however, a certain proportion of the produce of it, by way of annuity, for her fubfiftence (such annuity in no cafe to exceed a fixed fum), and alfo fo far fufpending the eftate in the hands of the heir, as to preserve the inheritance to any children the might bear to a fecond marriage, in cafe there was none to fucceed in the place of their mother by the first whether, I fay, fuch a law would not render female virtue in higher life lefs vincible, as well as the feducers of that virtue lefs urgent in their fuit, we recommend to the deliberation of thofe, who are wil ling to attempt the reformation of this important, but most incorrigible clafs of the community. A paffion for fplendour, for expenfive amufements and

diftinctions, is commonly found in that description of women who would become the objects of fuch a law, not lefs inordinate than their other appetites. A feverity of the kind we propofe applies immediately to that paffion. And there is no room for any complaint of injustice, fince the provifions above ftated, with others which might be contrived, confine the punishment, fo far as it is poffible, to the person of the offender; fuffering the eftate to remain to the heir, or within the family, of the ancestor from whom it came, or to attend the appointments of his will.

Sentences of the ecclefiaftical courts, which release the parties a vinculo matrimonii by reafon of impuberty, frigidity, confanguinity within the prohibited degrees, prior marriage, or want of the requifite con. fent of parents or guardians, are not diffolutions of the marriage contract, but judicial declarations, that there never was any marriage; fuch impediment subfifting at the time, as rendered the celebration of the marriage rite a mere nullity. And the rite itself contains an exception of thefe impediments. The man and woman to be married are charged, "if they "know any impediment why they may not be lawfully joined together, to confefs it," and affured "that fo many as are coupled together, otherwise "than God's word doth allow, are not joined toge"ther by God, neither is their matrimony lawful;" all which is intended by way of folemn notice to the parties, that the vow they are about to make will bind their confciences and authorize their cohabitation, only upon the fuppofition that no legal impediment exist.

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СНАР.

СНА Р. VIII.

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MARRIAGE.

HETHER it hath grown out of fome tradition of the divine appointment of marriage in the perfons of our firft parents, or merely from a defign to imprefs the obligation of the marriage contract with a folemnity fuited to its importance, the marriage rite, in almoft all countries of the world, has been made a religious ceremony; although marriage in its own nature, and abstracted from the rules and declarations, which the Jewish and Christian fcriptures deliver concerning it, be properly a civil contract and nothing more.

With refpect to one main article in matrimonial alliances a total alteration has taken place in the fashion of the world; the wife now brings money to her husband, whereas anciently, the husband paid money to the family of the wife; as was the cafe among the Jewish patriarchs, the Greeks, and the old inhabitants of Germany† This alteration has proved of no small advantage to the female fex; for their importance in point of fortune procures to them in modern times, that affiduity and respect, which are always wanted to compenfate for the in

It was not, however, in Chriftian countries required that marriages fhould be celebrated in churches till the thirteenth century of the Christian æra. Marriages in England during the ufurpation were folemnized before juftices of the peace, but for what purpofe this novelty was introduced, except to degrade the clergy, does not appear.

The ancient Affyrians fold their beauties by an annual auction. The prices were applied by way of portions to the more homely. By this contrivance all of both forts were disposed of in marriage.

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