.

There is another evil arising from one crime being the only allowable
cause of divorce, which is that the possession of one negative virtue on
the part of the woman, is occasionally made an excuse for the practice
of vice, and a total disregard of her duties as a wife. I say negative
virtue, for chastity very often proceeds from temperament, and as often
from not being tempted.

A woman may neglect her duties of every kind--but she is chaste; she may
make her husband miserable by indulgence of her ill-temper--but she is
chaste; she may squander his money, ruin him by expense--but she is
chaste; she may, in short, drive him to drunkenness and suicide--but
still she is chaste; and chastity, like charity, covers the whole
multitude of sins, and is the scape-goat for every other crime, and
violation of the marriage vow.

It must, however, be admitted, that although the faults may occasionally
be found on the side of the woman, in nine times out of ten it is the
reverse; and that the defects of our marriage laws have rendered English
women liable to treatment which ought not to be shewn towards the
veriest slaves in existence.

I must now enter into a question, which I should have had more pleasure
in passing over lightly, had it not been for the constant attacks of the
Americans upon this subject, during the time that I was in the country,
and the remarks of Mr Carey in his work, in which he claims for the
Americans pre-eminence in this point, as well as upon all others.

Miss Martineau says, "The ultimate, and very strong impression on the
mind of a stranger, pondering on the morals of society in America, is
that human nature is much the same every where." Surely Miss Martineau
need not have crossed the Atlantic to make this discovery; however I
quote it, as it will serve as a text to what is to follow.

The Americans claim excessive purity for their women, and taunt us with
the _exposees_ occasionally made in our newspapers. In the first
place--which shews the highest regard for morality, a country where any
deviation from virtue is immediately made known, and held up to public
indignation? or one which, from national vanity, and a wish that all
should _appear_ to be correct, instead of publishing, conceals the
facts, and permits the guilty parties to escape without censure, for
what they consider the honour of the nation?

To suppose that there is no conjugal infidelity in the United States, is
to suppose t