lp observing, that
the heads of the Church of England appear not to have duly weighed this
matter, when an attempt was lately made to legislate upon it. Do the
English bishops mean to assert, that they know better than the heads of
all the other Protestant communities in the world--that they are more
accurate expounders of the gospel, and have a more intimate knowledge of
God's will? Did it never occur to them, that when so many good and
virtuous ecclesiastics of the same persuasion in other countries have
decided upon the propriety of divorce, so as to leave them in a very
small minority, that it might be possible that they might be wrong, or
do they intend to set up and claim the infallibility of the Papistical
hierarchy?

Any legislation to prevent crime, which produces more crime, must be bad
and unsound, whatever may be its basis: witness the bastardy clause, in
the New Poor Law Bill. That the former arrangements were defective is
undeniable, for by them there was a premium for illegitimate children.
This required amendment: but the remedy has proved infinitely worse than
the disease. For what has been the result? That there have been many
thousands fewer illegitimate children _born_, it is true; but, has the
progress of immorality been checked? On the contrary, crime has
increased, for to the former crime has been added one much greater, that
of infanticide, or producing abortion. Such has been the effect of
attempting to legislate for the affections; for in most cases a woman
falls a sacrifice to her better feelings, not to her appetite.

In every point connected with marriage, has this injurious plan been
persevered in; the marriage ceremony is a remarkable instance of this,
for, beautiful as it is as a service, it is certainly liable to this
objection, that of making people vow before God that which it is not in
human nature to control. The woman vows to love, and to honour, and to
cherish; the man to love and cherish, until death doth them part.

Is it right that this vow should be made? A man deserts his wife for
another, treats her cruelly, separates her from her children. Can a
woman love, or honour, or cherish such a man--nevertheless, she has
vowed before God that she will. Take the reverse of the picture when
the fault is on the woman's side, and the evil is the same; can either
party control their affections? surely not, and therefore it would be
better that such vows should not be demanded