time to admit of any relaxation from the more serious business reflections with which his mind is always preoccupied, to indulge in the rational, the often instructive, and pleasing remission of female society.

Incontinence in the marriage state among this class, is of rare occurrence. But married females in the United States, very soon change their outward person, and scarcely assume the cares and anxieties of wedded life, than the years of a frequently laborious and monotonous existence, multiply with fearful rapidity, leaving their traces to mark with something more than a mere fanciful precision, their severe and rugged footsteps.

Marriages take place much earlier than in England, being exempt from all constraint by statute; the offspring seldom so numerous. Providence, no doubt, has wisely ordained this indulgence, and exempted the American female from a consequent, to which her constitution is generally unequal. Female beauty in the United States is short-lived; it blooms at a very early age, pleases for a while, and captivates, but soon becomes evanescent; leaving but a wreck behind, and the mere traditionary tales of its former possession.

But there is another class entitled to our commiseration and utmost sympathy; the young female, the daughter of the shopkeeper and mechanic; a class that is far beyond the same order of society in England; who, but partly educated, and reared under the same imperfect limit of restraint as the

THEIR EARLY EDUCATION.

297

males, are at a tender age exposed to the contagion of bad example in their unusually early and constrained intercourse with the world, frequently occasioned by the efforts they are compelled to make for their support and necessary sustenance. The moment they are enabled to work, and can exert their faculties to any useful purpose, they are sent abroad to seek employment, in some one of the numerous trades to which American females are usually accustomed; and are from thenceforth only entitled to a place within the domestic circle, as they are able to contribute to a proportionate share of its expenses. So perfect an understanding exists on this head, that when the female arrives at an age that enables her to exert herself after this mode, she ceases to be an object of parental anxiety, or consideration, is no longer considered entitled as of course to any indulgence, or those other advantages she might reasonably expect to derive from her parents, circumstances, or position in the world. When with this is considered, the difficulty of realizing by female industry and labour, the merest necessaries of life, the thoughtlessness and love of dress, which is almost inherent in every young person, with the infectious and demoralizing influence of bad example-the many temptations to spend money, with the few guards and restraints to which females are subject in the United States, it is scarcely surprising that morality should be at a very low ebb, and female impropriety (to speak in milder phra

seology) amongst this class, unfortunately of frequent and very general occurrence.

Marriage is regarded throughout the union as a purely civil compact. There is no mystical rite, no set form of words, or staid observance necessary, to constitute its validity; no particular class of persons appointed to preside at its ordinance; and requires the assent merely of the contracting parties, who may have the ability to contract, and nothing further; but when once the obligation is fairly undertaken, cannot be dissolved, except by legal inter

vention.

Though marriages are less frequent, according to the number of the population, than in the old country, divorces on the other hand, are far more numerous; and from the legal facilities that are every where given to dissolve the marriage tie, even on the merest pretext, are supposed to exceed two thousand annually throughout the republic. The same disabilities that control and make void the marriage obligation in England, are generally recognized, and admitted by the State laws; such as a prior marriage, want of age, want of reason, and the absence of consent of parents, or guardians. The other usual causes of divorce, are impotency, previous marriage, adultery, wilful and malicious desertion, and absence by one, from the habitation of the other, without any reasonable or justifiable cause for the space of two years; or, where any husband shall have, by cruel or barbarous treat

FREQUENCY OF DIVORCE.

299

ment, endangered his wife's life, or offered such indignities to her person as to render her condition intolerable, or life burdensome, and, therefore, to have forced her to withdraw from his house and family.

Jurisdiction in such cases is always confined to some one or other of the local courts:-in New York, to the Court of Chancery; in Pennsylvania, the Court of Common Pleas in each county; from which an appeal lies to the Supreme Court of the State, within one year from the date of its final adjudication; and according to some such practice in the other States. Upon application by petition of any citizen, setting forth the grounds upon which the interference of the court is prayed for, a libel immediately issues. An intimation is given to the opposite party by subpoena, if within the legal jurisdiction; or, if not, by notice, published in some of the local papers of the district. An investigation follows, and the parties, should sufficient cause be shewn by the libellant, or in default of appearing by the accused party, judgment is pronounced, relieving both from all future matrimonial restraint and obligation.

But the local laws of many of the states require, that the petitioner, as a preliminary to his, or her application for relief, should be a citizen of the State in which such petition is presented. This provision is however very easily met, by the party assuming some temporary domicile within its local jurisdiction, and peaceably residing therein, for

some short while, not exceeding twelve months in any instance; and which will secure to him the immunities and local rights of citizenship. In some few of the States, particularly in those of the southwestern, lately added to the confederacy, a somewhat different course is pointed out to the party seeking a divorce-by petition to the local legislative body, which will thereupon scarcely fail to pass an act declaring the petitioner divorced, a vinculo matrimonii, in case the wife should not appear within three months to put in a caveat, or on her appearing, does not shew sufficient cause against the order. And as the unconscious wife may possibly be some thousand miles off at the time, perhaps anxiously waiting the return of her truant husband, he is compelled, as one of the necessary formulæ to be gone through, deemed a sufficient restriction in all such cases, to publish a notice of this his application in some local print for three months, which paper, it is very possible, never passes the boundary of the State, or if it does, never at least passes within the most distant probability of her ever seeing it. At the expiration of this dread and anxious period of suspense, of hopes and distant fears, the former married, but now freed man, may come forth like a bridegroom from his chamber, in that delight, and sweet ecstacy of joy, that occurrences of this kind are too often wont to impart, to improve upon the experience he has acquired, and where we must be permitted to leave him, until, by some better instruction, he may