is not eafy to blame, and which it is impoffible to alter, a woman lofes with her chastity the chance of marrying at all, or in any manner equal to the hopes fhe had been accustomed to entertain. Now marriage, whatever it be to a man, is that, from which every woman expects her chief happiness. And this is ftill more true in low life, of which condition the women are, who are most expofed to folicitations of this fort. Add to this, that where a woman's maintenance depends upon her character, as it does, in a great measure, with those who are to fupport themselves by fervice, little fometimes is left to the forfaken fufferer, but to ftarve for want of employment, or to have recourfe to prostitution for food and raiment.

As a woman collects her virtue into this.point, the loss of her chastity is generally the destruction of her moral principle; and this consequence is to be apprehended, whether the criminal intercourse be discovered or not.

2. The injury to the family may be understood, by the application of that infallible rule, "of doing to others what we would that others "fhould do unto us. Let a father or a brother fay, for what they would fuffer this injury

in a daughter or a fifter; and whether any, or even a total lofs of fortune could create equal affliction and diftrefs. And when they reflect upon this, let them diftinguish, if they can, between a robbery committed upon their property by fraud or forgery, and the ruin of their happiness by the treachery of a seducer.

3. The public at large lofe the benefit of the woman's fervice in her proper place and destination, as a wife and parent. This to the whole community may be little; but it is often more than all the good, which the feducer does to the community, can recompense. Moreover, proftitution is fupplied by feduction; and in proportion to the danger there is of the woman's betaking herself, after her first facrifice, to a life of public lewdness, the feducer is anfwerable for the multiplied evils to which his crime gives birth.

Upon the whole, if we pursue the effects of feduction through the complicated mifery which it occafions; and if it be right to estimate crimes by the mischief they knowingly produce, it will appear fomething more than mere invective to affert, that not one half

of the crimes, for which men suffer death by the laws of England, are so flagitious as this*.

Yet the law has provided no punishment for this offence beyond a pecuniary fatisfaction to the injured family; and this can only be come at, by one of the quainteft fictions in the world, by the father's bringing his action against the seducer, for the lofs of his daughter's fervice, during her pregnancy and nurturing.

པ

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

ADULTERY.

A

NEW fufferer is introduced, the injured husband, who receives a wound in his fenfibility and affections, the most painful and incurable that human nature knows. In all other respects, adultery on the part of the man who folicits the chastity of a married woman, includes the crime of feduction, and is attended with the fame mischief.

The infidelity of the woman is aggravated by cruelty to her children, who are generally involved in their parents' fhame, and always made unhappy by their quarrel.

If it be faid that these confequences are chargeable not fo much upon the crime, as the difcovery, we answer, first, that the crime could not be discovered unless it were committed, and that the commiffion is never fecure from difcovery; and fecondly, that if we allow of adulterous connections, whenever they can hope to escape detection,

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detection, which is the conclusion to which this argument conducts us, we leave the husband no other fecurity for his wife's chastity, than in her want of opportunity or temptation; which would probably either deter men from marrying, or render marriage a state of such jealousy and alarm to the hufband, as muft end in the flavery and confinement of the wife.

The vow, by which married persons mutually engage their fidelity, is" witneffed before "God," and accompanied with circumftances of folemnity and religion, which approach to the nature of an oath. The married offender therefore incurs a crime little fhort of perjury, and the feduction of a married woman is little lefs than fubornation of perjury ;—and this guilt is independent of the discovery.

All behaviour, which is defigned, or which knowingly tends to captivate the affection of a married woman, is a barbarous intrusion upon the peace and virtue of a family, though it fall fhort of adultery.

The usual and only apology for adultery is the prior tranfgreffion of the other party. There are degrees no doubt in this, as in other crimes; and fo far as the bad effects of adultery are anticipated by the conduct of the husband or wife

who