CH. III.] WIDOWS WITH YOUNG FAMILIES. 161 



is very great, and the witnesses cited the following in- 

 stance. When the cholera appeared here, a small hospi- 

 tal was established, and notwithstanding the great dread 

 which was entertained of the disease, three poor widows 

 feigned sickness in order to gain admission ; when these 

 women were detected, they refused to go out, and staid 

 three weeks or a month, until they were turned out by 

 force. 



Examinations were also taken in nine other parishes of 

 Ireland, and the facts detailed were of the same nature as 

 the preceding, 



REMARKS. 



Widows, burdened with children, have added a 

 new complication in the free state which Christianity 

 has introduced into society. In the state of slave- 

 ry, a woman losing her husband did not lose the 

 means of subsistence for herself and her children, 

 the master was always obliged to feed, clothe and 

 lodge them. But in the free state, a widow be- 

 comes the head of a family, to sustain which she 

 has none of the resources afforded by the profes- 

 sion of arms, of navigation, of administration or 

 the law. 



The widow is almost equally a stranger to the 

 labours of agriculture, to the handicraft of the 

 artisan, to manufactures and to commerce ; she 



M 





