at all hours of the day and night.
Sailors, soldiers, merchants, all men out of the common track of labour,
and even some in the very lowest walks, are sometimes compelled by their
affairs, or by circumstances, to be from their homes. But what I protest
against is, the _habit_ of spending _leisure_ hours from home, and near
to it; and doing this without any necessity, and by _choice_: liking the
next door, or any house in the same street, better than your own. When
absent from _necessity_, there is no wound given to the heart of the
wife; she concludes that you would be with her if you could, and that
satisfies; she laments the absence, but submits to it without
complaining. Yet, in these cases, her feelings ought to be consulted as
much as possible; she ought to be fully apprised of the probable
duration of the absence, and of the time of return; and if these be
dependent on circumstances, those circumstances ought to be fully
stated; for you have no right to keep her mind upon the rack, when you
have it in your power to put it in a state of ease. Few men have been
more frequently taken from home by business, or by a necessity of some
sort, than I have; and I can positively assert, that, as to my return, I
never once disappointed my wife in the whole course of our married life.
If the time of return was contingent, I never failed to keep her
informed _from day to day_: if the time was fixed, or when it became
fixed, my arrival was as sure as my life. Going from London to Botley,
once, with Mr. FINNERTY, whose name I can never pronounce without an
expression of my regard for his memory, we stopped at ALTON, to dine
with a friend, who, delighted with Finnerty's talk, as every body else
was, kept us till ten or eleven o'clock, and was proceeding to _the
other bottle_, when I put in my protest, saying, 'We must go, my wife
will be frightened.' 'Blood, man,' said Finnerty, 'you do not mean to go
home to-night!' I told him I did; and then sent my son, who was with us,
to order out the post-chaise. We had twenty-three miles to go, during
which we debated the question, whether Mrs. COBBETT would be up to
receive us, I contending for the affirmative, and he for the negative.
She was up, and had a nice fire for us to sit down at. She had not
committed the matter to a servant: her servants and children were all in
bed; and she was up, to perform the duty of receiving her husband and
his friend. 'You did not expect him?' said Finne