1832.] An Attack upon the Clubs > 3? 



altogether independent of others no man belongs to himself alone, but 

 to the community. Let the uncowled bachelor-brethren,, nevertheless, 

 betake themselves to their club let them drink let them indulge in 

 gross and licentious ribaldry let them laugh at all the decencies and 

 respectabilities of life, and more especially at marriage let them wrangle 

 over their sullen game of whist let them adjourn to the gaming-table, 

 or to the haunts of secret infamy ; all this injures and degrades them- 

 selves alone. But I lay it down as a broad, incontrovertible axiom, that 

 no married man has a right to belong to a club, and to become an 

 habitual absentee from his home, indulging in hoggish epicurism, while 

 his wife and 'family are perhaps keeping Lent that he may afford to 

 feast. What hath he sworn to in his marriage-oath ? Merely to main- 

 tain his wife, and to make her the mother of his children ? No such 

 thing; he hath sworn to forsake all others, and to keep only unto 

 her, until death shall part them. Is if consistent either with the letter 

 or the spirit of this vow that he should deprive her of his society, and 

 make a sort of concubine of his club ? Is a virtuous, honourable, and 

 accomplished wife to be treated like an impure Dalilah, into whose house 

 her paramour sneaks in the dark, and skulks away again in the early 

 morning ? The little occasional bickerings, from which few married 

 couples are totally exempt, not unfrequently prove, under the soothing 

 influences of children, and the pleasures of the domestic meal, a renewal 

 and confirmation of love; but now, the sullen husband escapes to his 

 still more sullen club ; he becomes embittered by feeding upon his own 

 angry heart ; a reconciliation is rendered every day more difficult; he 

 begins to hate his home ; and his occasional absence is soon made 

 habitual. Meanwhile, the children lose the benefit of the father's pre- 

 sence and example ; the father, whose loss is of still more mischievous 

 import, is deprived of all the heart-hallowing influences of his offspring; 

 and the neglected wife, thinking herself justified in seeking from others 

 that society which is denied to her by her husband, is exposed to temp- 

 tations and dangers, from which she cannot always escape without con- 

 tamination. To over-rate the conjugal and domestic misery now in actual 

 progress, and all springing from this prolific source, would, I believe, 

 be utterly impossible. How many married couples are there in the 

 middling classes of society, the course of whose alienation and unhappi- 

 ness might be traced out in the following order? 



HUSBAND. The club a taste for French cooks, expensive wines, and 

 sensual luxuries fastidious epicurism a dislike of the plain meals 

 which he finds at home, although the only ones adapted to his fortune 

 and his station confirmed absenteeism and clubbism hatred of the wife 

 who reproaches him for his selfish desertion late hours estrangement 

 profligacy misery ! 



WIFE. Natural resentment of neglect reproaches altercations 

 diminution of conjugal affection dissipation, as a resource against the 

 dullness of home expensive habits embarrassment total alienation of 

 heart dangerous connections infidelity misery ! Of this account- 

 current, the items may vary either in quality or sequence, but the alpha 

 and omega will ever be the same. It will begin with the club, and end 

 with misery. 



But is it possible, I shall perhaps be asked, that these institutions 

 should spring up and multiply so rapidly, unless they supplied some mani- 

 fest desideratum in our social system, and were adapted to some preva- 

 lent want of our common nature ? Certainly not ; these foundations are 



