h which I soon grew fatigued, was devoted to retirement,
to domestic enjoyment, and to the duties which devolved upon me as a
parent. I loved my children with the greatest tenderness, and applied
myself to the cultivation of their principles, and the progress of their
education. All, however, would not do. I was unhappy; unhappy, not
only in my present wife, but in the recollection of the gentle and
affectionate Maria. I now felt the full enormity of my crime against
that patient and angelic being. Her memory began to haunt me--her
virtues were ever in my thoughts; her quiet, uncomplaining submission,
her love, devotion, tenderness, all rose up in fearful array against
me, until I felt that the abiding principle of my existence was a deep
remorse, that ate its way into my happiness day by day, and has never
left me through my whole subsequent life. This, however, was attended
with some good, as it recalled me, in an especial manner, to the nobler
duties of humanity. I felt now that truth, and a high sense of honor,
could alone enable me to redeem the past, and atone for my conduct with
respect to Maria. But, above all, I felt that independence of mind,
self-restraint, and firmness of character, were virtues, principles,
what you will, without which man is but a cipher, a tool of others, or
the sport of circumstances.

"My second wife died of a cold, caught by going rather thinly dressed
to a fashionable party too soon after the birth of Emily; and my son,
having become the pet and spoiled child of his mother and her relatives,
soon became imbued with fashionable follies, which, despite of all my
care and vigilance, I am grieved to say, have degenerated into worse and
more indefensible principles. He had not reached the period of manhood
when he altogether threw off all regard for my control over him as a
father, and led a life since of which the less that is said the better.

"The facts connected with my second marriage have been so clearly
established that defence is hopeless. The registry of our marriage, and
of my first wife's death, have been laid before me, and Mrs. Mainwaring,
herself, was ready to substantiate and prove them by her personal
testimony. My own counsel, able and eminent men as they are, have
dissuaded me from bringing the matter to a trial, and thus making public
the disgrace which must attach to my children. You now understand,
Sir Edward, the full extent of your generosity in proposing for my
dau