HISTORY OF EUROPE. [153 



frailty ! nor have once paused to re- 

 collect, that God, for these things, 

 will bring them into judgment." 



The reason his royal highness as- 

 signed for quoting the above pas- 

 sages was, to ascertain the opinions 

 of the right reverend prelate on the 

 condition of the seducer and the se- 

 duced, and to oppose them to the 

 arguments recently used, and still 

 retained, by that reverend and learn- 

 ed prelate, who had succeeded him 

 in his office. He complimented the 

 style and composition, which, he 

 said, was truly sublime, and which 

 did honour to the writer's head and 

 heart. On those arguments he would 

 repose now for support, and hoped 

 that their due application would be 

 made in behalf of the unhappy fe- 

 male, who might be beguiled by 

 the seductive artsof an insidious and 

 designing villain. On the case of the 

 adulterer, his royal highness expa- 

 tiated with warmth and indignation: 

 such a character disgraced society. 

 He knew no man, he said, so bad 

 as he, who, entering the house of 

 a man, his friend, as his guest, 

 should requite him by the seduction 

 of his wife ; such a man was and 

 would be ever held in disgrace and 

 abhorrence by an enlightened and 

 civilized society : but the case of 

 the unfortunate female, who fell un- 

 der those arts, was an object of 

 compassion and humane considera- 

 tion. The laws already punished 

 her delinquency, by judgment of 

 divorce, by depriving her of her 

 dower, and by the disgrace insepa- 

 rably attached to such a conduct. 

 He admitted, that the laws should 

 be vindicatory on such occasions, 

 but, in theirpunishments, that they 

 should be just. He gave his nega- 

 tive to the bill. 



The bishop of Rochester said. 



that, in religion, there was, un- 

 doubtedly, Christian charity ; but 

 that it would be wrong to depart 

 from the rigour of the law in the 

 punishment of so dangerous a crime 

 as adultery. The unfortunate wo- 

 men in the Magdalen were not 

 adulteresses. 



Lord Auckland complained much 

 of the number of divorces, whicli 

 seemed still to be increasing. In 

 the last session, their lordships, he 

 observed, had been summoned forty 

 times, in the order of their proceed- 

 ing, on twelve bills of divorce. 

 He lamented, also, the general re- 

 laxation of mind and morals. On 

 the system of modern societies and 

 manners, his lordship quoted the 

 poet, Cowper, who, in the third 

 book of his Task, says — 



Virtue and vice had bound'ries in old time 

 Not to be passed. And she that had re- 

 nounced 

 Hersex'shonour, was renounced herself, 

 By all that prized it; not for prudery's 



sake, 

 Butdignity':-, resentful of the wrong. 

 'Twas hard, perhaps, one here and there 



a waif 

 Desirous to return, and not received ; 

 Butwasanwholesomerigourin the main, 

 And taught th' unblemished to preserve, 



with care, 

 That purity, whose loss is loss of all. 

 Men too were nice in honour in those days. 

 And judged offenders well. But now — 



yes, now, 

 We are become so candid and so fair. 

 So liberal in construction, and so rich 

 lu Christian charity, (good-natured age!) 

 That they are safe : sinners of either sex. 

 Transgress what laws they may. 



Lord Auckland stated thesubject 

 before their lordships, in the form 

 of the following question : was it to 

 be tolerated, that whenever a wo- 

 man should think proper to prefer 

 another man to her husband, their 

 lordships, the hereditary guardians 

 of the well-being of the people. 



