rality of spirit, and its merciful condescension to human weakness."

It is astonishing that men who admit the authority of the Saviour on such a point as this, should attempt to evade prohibitions so explicit, by any ingenuities of argument, which are dictated rather by the feelings of prejudice than the cool reflections of enlightened reason.

To all the subtle sophistries of these writers, it will be sufficient to oppose the forcible and elegant language of the learned Judge of one of the Ecclesiastical Courts, in a memorable sentence delivered by him, in a matrimonial suit, many years ago. In the arguments which had been adduced in that case, in support of the separation, much stress had been laid on the wretched state of disaffection in which the parties were living, and in which they were to continue to live, unless relieved by a sentence of Divorce. To this the learned Judge replied; "The humanity of the court has been loudly and repeatedly invoked. Humanity is the second virtue of courts; but, undoubtedly, the first is justice. If the present were a question of humanity simply, and confined its

"The Right Hon. Sir William Scott, since created Lord Stowell.

views to the present parties, it would be easily decided on first impressions. Every body must feel a wish to sever those who wish to live separate from each other, and who cannot live together with any harmony; but the law has said, that married persons shall not be separated upon the mere disinclination of one or both to cohabit together. The disinclination must be founded upon reasons which the law approves. To vindicate the policy of the law is no necessary part of the duty of a judge; but it would not be difficult to show that the law, in this respect, has acted with its usual wisdom and humanity; with that true wisdom and real humanity which regard the general interests of mankind. For though, in particular cases, the repugnance of the law to dissolve the obligations of matrimonial cohabitation, may operate with great severity upon individuals, yet it must be remembered, that the general happiness of the married life is secured by its indissolubility. When people understand that they must live together, except for a very few reasons, known to the law; they learn to soften, by mutual accommodation, that yoke which they know they cannot shake off; they become good husbands and good wives, from the necessity of remaining husbands and wives, for necessity

is a powerful master in teaching the duties it imposes. If it were once understood, that, upon mutual disgust, persons might be legally separated, many couples, who now pass through the world with mutual comfort, with attention to their common offspring, and to the moral order of civil society, might have been at this moment living in a state of mutual unkindness, of estrangement from their children, and of unrestrained and licentious immorality. The happiness of some must then be sacrificed to the general good."

This reasoning is fully confirmed by the Roman historians, to whom we cannot help once more adverting. They describe, in strong terms, the reluctance felt by that people, when they were pressed to marriage by Augustus; a circumstance, which sufficiently indicates, that the prevailing institutions were not favourable to the men, and also refutes the specious theory, (as Gibbon properly observes,) that the liberty of Divorce contributes to the happiness and virtue of a people. Of the readiness with which this facility of separation hastened the disorderly effects of the corrupt passions of human nature, and destroyed the peace and simplicity of those habits which had before characterized their

domestic polity, we have abundant proof in the Roman writers. Juvenal's" octo mariti quinque per autumnos;" Seneca's "numero maritorum annos computere ;" and Martial's "jam decimo nubit Thelesina viro," though not a little hyperbolical, when completed "in tricesimâ luce," yet serve to satirize the evils of the time, and prove the monstrous products of those laws, which, for causes the most trivial, permitted, and consequently gave occasion to, multiplied Divorces.

Circumstances have of course arisen in reference to this, as well as all other crimes, which, partaking of lighter or deeper shades of moral turpitude, have furnished materials of the nicest casuistry. The writers on natural law have supposed cases in which this crime might present a very different aspect from that which it wears in the calm scenes of domestic quietude and civil peace. War sometimes introduces in the train of its numerous evils the commission of crimes which no foresight could control. On such a principle as this, it must be, that some have contended it to be one of the rights of war, that the wives of the enemy, taken as prisoners, may be considered part of the lawful spoil of the conqueror, and be tributary to his embrace. But this right has been too

long and too universally questioned by the practice of civilized nations, to require any lengthened refutation.

It has also been a question, whether the power of the husband over the person of his wife was not such as to enable him to consent to her committing Adultery, without contracting guilt, in a case of life and death, or extreme peril. It is surprising to find so devout a man as St. Augustine, admitting the force of the reasoning urged in favour of this supposition, and not at once rejecting the impure proposal with the disgust and indignation it merited.

Another doubt respecting the power with which marriage was considered to invest the parties, was very specious, because it apparently approached nearer to the true end of marriage. It was asked, whether Adultery might not be committed without a crime, if both parties consented to it with a view to the procreation of children, and it was contended that the records of the patriarchal ages furnished instances of the alienation of the person of the husband, even at the suggestion of his wife. But these were cases in which the peculiar state of the world's population has found no parallel, and to which, therefore, is appropriated its exclusive justi