e had not been proved
to have lived happily together, except on the testimony of their
servants. Great stress was laid upon this fact by the advocate; and
such an impression did it make on the minds of the jury, that the
damages awarded were a mere trifle. Now, only reflect for a moment on
the absurdity of such a plea, and think how many persons there are
whose quiet and unobtrusive lives are unnoticed beyond the precincts
of their own door--nay, how many estimable and excellent people who
live less for the world than for themselves, and although, probably
for this very reason, but little exposed to the casualty in question,
would yet deem the injustice great that placed them beyond the pale of
reparation because they had been homely and domestic.

Civilisation and the march of mind are fine things, and doubtless it
is a great improvement that the criminal is better lodged, and fed, in
the prison, than the hungry labourer in the workhouse. It is an
admirable code that makes the debt of honour, the perhaps swindled
losses of the card-table, an imperative obligation, while the money
due to toiling, working industry, may be evaded or escaped from.
Still, it is a bold step to invade the privacy of domestic life, to
subvert the happiness we deem most national, and to suggest that the
world has no respect for, nor the law no belief in, that peaceful
course in life, which, content with its own blessings, seeks neither
the gaze of the crowd, nor the stare of fashion. Under the present
system, a man must appear in society like a candidate on the
hustings--profuse in protestations of his happiness and redolent of
smiles; he must lead forth his wife like a blooming _debutante_, and,
while he presents her to his friends, must display, by every endeavour
in his power, the angelic happiness of their state. The _coram
publico_ endearments, so much sneered at by certain fastidious people,
are now imperative; and, however secluded your habits, however
retiring your tastes, it is absolutely necessary you should appear a
certain number of times every year before the world, to assure that
kind-hearted and considerate thing, how much conjugal felicity you are
possessed of.

It is to no purpose that your man-servant and your maid-servant, and
even the stranger within your gates, have seen you in the apparent
enjoyment of domestic happiness: it is the crowd of a ball-room must
testify in your favour--it is the pit of a theatre--it is the co