oly marriage state, to send him to the house of
correction till he should learn to use more mercy to his yoke-fellow.

How hard is it for a poor industrious woman to be up early and late, to
sit in a cold shop, stall, or market, all weathers, to carry heavy loads
from one end of the town to the other, or to work from morning till
night, and even then dread going home for fear of being murdered? Some
may think this too low a topic for me to expatiate upon, to which I
answer, that it is a charitable and Christian one, and therefore not in
the least beneath the consideration of any man who had a woman for his
mother.

The mention of this leads me to exclaim against the vile practice now so
much in vogue among the better sort as they are called, but the worst
sort in fact; namely, the sending their wives to madhouses, at every
whim or dislike, that they may be more secure and undisturbed in their
debaucheries; which wicked custom is got to such a head, that the number
of private madhouses in and about London are considerably increased
within these few years.

This is the height of barbarity and injustice in a Christian country, it
is a clandestine inquisition, nay worse.

How many ladies and gentlewomen are hurried away to these houses, which
ought to be suppressed, or at least subject to daily examination, as
hereafter shall be proposed?

How many, I say, of beauty, virtue, and fortune, are suddenly torn from
their dear innocent babes, from the arms of an unworthy man, whom they
love, perhaps, but too well, and who in return for that love, nay
probably an ample fortune and a lovely offspring besides, grows weary of
the pure streams of chaste love, and thirsting after the puddles of
lawless lust, buries his virtuous wife alive, that he may have the
greater freedom with his mistresses?

If they are not mad when they go into these cursed houses, they are soon
made so by the barbarous usage they there suffer; and any woman of
spirit, who has the least love for her husband, or concern for her
family, cannot sit down tamely under a confinement and separation the
most unaccountable and unreasonable.

Is it not enough to make any one mad to be suddenly clapped up,
stripped, whipped, ill-fed, and worse used? To have no reason assigned
for such treatment, no crime alleged, or accusers to confront? And what
is worse, no soul to appeal to but merciless creatures, who answer but
in laughter, surliness, contradiction, and too of