HISTORY OF EUROPE. [149 



this country ; for, in the ecclesiasti- 

 cal courts, where divorces only could 

 be obtained, no permission could 

 be granted to the parties to marry, 

 after having been separated by the 

 sentence of those courts. The par- 

 ty, therefore, who had not offend- 

 ed, had no other means of being 

 relieved from the disability he la- 

 boured under, than that of applying 

 to parliament for a special act to 

 enable him to marry. The very 

 wording of such an act, therefore, 

 proved, that no person could law- 

 fully marry but the individual who 

 applied for it ; and there would 

 have been no occasion for such a 

 measure as that which he meant to 

 bring forward, had not permission 

 been latterly given to the offend- 

 ing parties to intermarry. Such 

 a practice had obtained for some 

 years past ; and he really believed 

 it was, in a great measure, the cause 

 of the numerous adulteries that now 

 prevailed in this country. From the 

 period of the Reformation, until 

 about the commencement of the 

 eighteenth century, there were, as 

 he could collect, only four cases of 

 parliamentary divorce : [this circum- 

 stance was noticed in a speech made, 

 on the occasion of the duke of Nor- 

 folk's divorce, about the year 1700.] 

 For the next fifty years they in- 

 creased in no inconsiderable degree ; 

 but, within the last fifty years, di- 

 vorces were most scandalously mul- 

 tiplied, and the circumstance loud- 

 ly called for the interference of the 

 legislature. Impressed with this 

 idea, a noble duke (Athol) produ- 

 ced a bill, in 1771, to the eftcct of 

 that now produced, which passed 

 with the almost unanimous concur- 

 rence of their lordships ; but, in the 

 other house, it was contested, and 

 thrown out by a small majority. A 

 similar bill, brought in by a most 



worthy and respectable prelate then 

 present (Durham), in 1799^ met 

 with the like fate, though it had 

 but a small majority against it in the 

 other house. He had, however, 

 every reason to hope, that the 

 bill he was about to offer would 

 not meet the same fate ; and his 

 ground for that hope was, the gene- 

 ral feeling of every man, that the 

 present times were such as loudly 

 called for the measure, and that 

 nothing could tend so much to save 

 this country from the shocks and 

 calamities that brought other nations 

 to ruin, as the preservation of reli- 

 gion and morality. Itwasnow uni- 

 versally felt and acknowledged, that 

 adulteries were committed with a 

 view, that the adulterer might af- 

 terwards obtain the adulteress in 

 marriage ; but let them be cut off 

 from this hope, and the adultery 

 might not take place. It had ori- 

 ginally been his intention to bring 

 forward this regulation in the man- 

 ner of a standing order ; but he 

 since found that this method, al- 

 though the house was fully compe- 

 tent to adopt it, would not be so 

 effectual as an act of parliament. — 

 It was his intention, should the bill 

 be received, to move that it should 

 be printed, and that the farther 

 proceedings on it should be post- 

 poned till after the Easter recess, in 

 order that the noble lords might 

 have an opportunity of giving it the 

 fullest consideration ; and, in order 

 that nobody might be taken by sur- 

 prise, it was his intention to pro- 

 pose that it should not take effect 

 till the end of the sessions of parlia- 

 ment. His lordship then presented 

 a bill, which was read by the clerk, 

 intituled, "An Act for the more 

 effectual Prevention of the Crime of 

 Adultery," which was ordered to 

 be printed. Its principal provision 



