were to contaminate the truft repofed in them, and to fay to fuch a woman, "your plea is, or, at leaft, fuch is the plea of your officious defenders, that, if you may not be permitted to form a fecond contract with the man, by whofe feduction you have broken your first contract, you must naturally and neceflarily abandon yourself to proftitution.Your plea is most unprincipled; your paffions are moft depraved: but you fhall be gratified. You have broken a facred and folemn vow; but we will enable you, by a legiflative act of ours, to go back unblushingly to the altar, which you ought to approach with angony and horror. Come again to us, as foon as you fhall feel difpofed to quit this fecond hulband, and to take a third. We fhall be ready, toties quoties, to authorize you to change the partners of your iniquity."

The bill was, on the motion of Jord Auckland, printed, read a fecond time, and, on the twenty-firft of May, committed: when feveral amendments, propofed by lord Eldon, were agreed to.

On the twenty-third of May, lord Auckland moved, that the bill be now read a third time. He replied to the various arguments that had been adduced against it. He was aftonished at the oppofition which had been been set up, and at a lofs to conjecture from what principle it could arife.

The bill was now oppofed by the earl of Coventry, the earl of Weftmoreland, the earl of Carlifle, the duke of Cumberland, the duke of Clarence, and the earl of Mulgrave: it was fupported by lord Eldon, lord Hobart, the bishop of Rochefter, and lord Grenville.

The earl of Westmoreland, among

a variety of fenfible and fhrewd remarks, faid, that he would even allert, that the virtue of the country was one caufe for the frequency of divorces. The fentiments of men had become more delicate, and they could not endure to continue united by wedlock to a woman, by whom they had been difhonoured.

Lord Carlifle faid, that, with the acceffions of population, commerce, and confequent luxury, it was not furprifing if divorces were more frequent: but they afforded no reafon why the laws of the land fhould be altered in cafes of divorce; and why the conniving husband should have his remedy against a feducer, by indictment for a mildemeanor, with fine and imprifonment, and fhould alfo have an action by which he might obtain an exorbitant compenfation: much lefs did they furnifh a reafon, why an unhappy woman fhould, for an error, perhaps occafioned as much by provocation on one fide as perfuafion on the other, be turned adrift for ever from fociety, and, by the conclufion now propofed, driven perhaps to Bethlem. He might have expected from the framer of this bill, that when he introduced to many new penal provifions, he would, at least, have protected the offender from another kind of torment: while he left him at the difcretion of the chief juftice of the King's Bench, he fhould have exempted him from profecution by the ecclefiaftical court.-This bill ferved to confirm lord Carlile in the opinion which he always entertained, that monkish feclufions, for there were legal as well as ecclefiaftical monks, were not adapted to qualify a man for legiflation. The ftudies of a reclufe did not lead to a knowledge of the world; but, in

order

that, by the law of the land, he cannot marry me after I have violated my conjugal vow. What must be the confequence then? Why, my fituation must be miferable indeed, with this addition, that none will pity me, because I could not be ignorant of the confequences of committing fuch a crime."

The bishop of London faid, that retirement became women who had yielded to the violence of appetite and paffion, or the arts of feduction, more than scenes of gaiety: for in retirement they might be led to penitence, contrition, and remorfe; which would be followed by the moft beneficial confequences, and among others regain, in fome meafure, the countenance of the world. The bishop of Rochefter, in a long and learned fpeech, fupported the bill, replying to the principal objections that had been brought against it. In the first place, he replied, with great animation, to what had been advanced by lord Carlife, refpecting the incapacity of monks, ecclefiaftical or legal, for legiflation, in certain cafes, and the vexatious frivolity, vanity, and injuftice of the ecclefiaftical courts. The bishop argued, at great length, on the ground of the divine law; and hewed, from the Scriptures, that the cohabitation of a divorced adulterefs with her feducer, under colour of a marriage, notwithstanding the connivance of human laws, was grofs adultery. It was objected, that the prefent bill, not taking away the husband's action for damages, while it made the adulterer liable to indictment, in effect impofed a double punishment for the fame crime. This he contended, was not any novelty in the Jaw of this country. That, how

ever, was a point on which he fpoke with diffidence, because it belonged to the learning of monks of another order. But if he had de. fcribed the practice of the courts erroneoufly, he hoped that the fuperior of that other order, the noble and learned lord on the woollack would fet him right. He had fome times thought that it had been a happy thing for the public, if no bill of divorce had ever paffed. But the notorious prevalence of adul tery, in countries where divorce was by no means to be had, feemed to prove the contrary. On the views and fentiments of what had been called the "honourable feducer," he could not but fuppofe that the bill, if paffed into a law, would have a confiderable effect. He believed, indeed, that neither this, nor any other bill poffible to be framed, would reftrain the paffions of the fwinish seducer: but he was confident that the fwinish adul

66

terer was a very rare character among his countrymen. Bithop Horfley, in conclufion of his fpeech, faid, My lords, once more I conjure you to remember, that justice, not compaffion for the guilty, is the great principle of legiflation. Yet, my lords, your compaffion may find worthy objects. I mean, my lords, your merciful regards to the illuftrious fuppliants proftrate at this moment at your bar.-[Here every lord turned his eyes to the bar, imagining that fome French emigrants of high diftinction, of both fexes, had come to throw themfelves on the compaflion and protection of the British fenate.] But the bishop continued-" The fuppliants this moment at your bar, are, conjugal felicity; domeftic happinels; public manners; the virtue

of

of the fex. Thefe, my lords, are the fuppliants now kneeling before you, and imploring the protection of your wifdom and your juftice." Such perfonifications of abftracted ideas are neither unnatural nor uncommon among nations of extreme fenfibility and livelinefs of imagination; but in this country, as was, proved by this thetorical peroration, they may ferve only to make people ftare, and to weaken any impreffions that may have been made by a lefs bold, and more felid kind of eloquence.

Lord Grenville faid, that with regard to the legal and religious points of the queftion, he would certainly refer to the opinions of thofe who make law and religion their study and their profeflion. He never knew his noble friend (lord Mulgrave) fo much out of his place as when he ftood there contending, in legal construction, with a noble and learned judge, and in religious difputes with a right reverend prelate. He reminded him of the pedant who read lectures to Hannibal on the art of war. It had been urged that ladies, who were guilty of infidelity, had no other means of returning to the paths of virtue than by marrying the very perfons who had difhonourably feduced them. What then, lord Grenville afked, would be the fituation of the unhappy woman, whom her feducer, after gratifying him(elf, refufed to marry? or what return was there for the woman who had been feduced by a married man? The only way in which fuch a feducer could make compenfation, as it was called, was, to contrive a divorce from his lawful wife, which would lead to multiplied tranfgreffions.

The motion for the third reading

of the bill, was now put and carried; but only by a fmall majority, the noncontents being 69, and the contents only 77. The bill being paffed in the houfe of peers, was read, on the twenty-fixth of May, a first time, in the houfe of commons; a fecond time, on the thirtieth of May; and, on the tenth of June, the order of the day moved for carrying it into a committee. In all thefe ftages it was ably fupported, though with much lefs zeal then in the houfe of peers, while it was oppofed with not lefs of either ability or fpirit. Every one admitted the importance of the fubje&t, and regretted the prevalence of adultery as well as of diffi pation and vice of all kinds: but fome confidered the restriction propofed in the bill as too fevere; others that there was nothing that had happened, in the manners of the times, to make it necellary; others that it was inadequate to its ohject, and would tend to increate the numbers of bad women, by rendering them inteclaimable. Some of the members objected to it as transferring the right of punishing from the jury to the judges, arming them with new and formidable powers. Some objected to certain claufes in the bill, but difapproved of others. Though this was by no means a party queftion our readers may probably with to have the opinion of Mr. Pitt, on the bill. He thought it merited difcution, and might be rendered lefs unpalatable to thofe who, he doubted not, from laudable motives, oppofed it, by various modifications. On the whole, he thought, the benefits would preponderate in favour of fociety: and that whatever degree of feverity was inflicted on

the

the few, would operate beneficially for the whole. On the queftion, that the speaker leave the chair, the house divided when there appeared for the queftion 104, againft it 143: confequently the bill was loft.

This bill, the object of which was brought home to the bofoms of fo many individuals, in various ways, made, as might be expected, a greater noife, while it was under confideration, than any other bill that was brought in the course of this feffion before parliament.

Among the parliamentary acts of this year pafied without noife or debate, we cannot omit to notice the interference of the houfe of commons, on the motion of Mr. Abbot, for the better prefervation, arrangement, and more convenient ufe of the public records of the kingdom. On the eleventh of July, an addrefs to his majefty for that end was unanimoufly agreed on, and the expenfes of the measures adopted for accomplishing it were provided by the commons.

A bill of great importance to the commerce of this country, which had long been in contemplation, was paffed in the month of March. This was the act for improving the port of London, by the establishment of wet docks at Wapping and other places.

Before we difmifs the parliamentary proceedings of this feflion it is neceffary to take notice of an accident which forced the attention, and greatly interefied the feelings, not only of both houfes of parliament, but of the whole nation. As foon as his majefty had entered his box at the theatre of Drury Lane, on the fifteenth of May, a piftol was fired from the

pit, apparently at his perfon. The man who had fired it, whose name was Hadfield, was immediately dragged into the orcheftra, and carried behind the fcenes. Being examined by a magiftrate, he exhibited fome fymptoms of infanity; though fome of his anfwers were rational. The veneration and love that the nation bore to his majestys perfon was by this accident awakened into an enthufiaftic joy at his efcape. Even the fpirit of faction was loft in a general fream of loyalty and exultation Addresses of congratulation on the king's escape were prefented by both houles of parliament, the univerfities, the corporation of London, and, in a word, by all the other corporations, as well as the counties. Hadfield was tried in the court of King's Bench for high treafon. It was proved that he had been for fome years infane, chiefly in confeqence of wounds received in his head, when he acted as a ferjeant in the army, in 1794, in Holland. He was therefore acquitted, but not difcharged.

In confequence of what had been done by Hadfield, and of repeated inftances of the fury of infanity, being directed against a perfonage, whofe fafety was fo dear and important to the state, two additional claufes, by way of amendments, were added to the infanity-bill.

The lord chancellor, on the twenty-fecond of July, after adverting generally to the great and various danger to be apprehended from infane perfons, when fuffered to go at large, and obferving, that nothing in the infanity bill appeared to him effectually to remedy this evil, ftated, that the object of the firft additional claufe, was to render