ART. XXIV. Subftance of the Bishop of Rochester's Speech, in the Houfe of Peers, Friday, May 23d, 1800, in the Debate upon the third Reading of the Bill for the Punishment and more effectual Prevention of the Crime of Adultery. 8vo. Pr. 35. 1s. Robfon. THE Bishop takes a view of the Divine law, as it affects the crime of adultery, in order to establish the illegality of the mar riage of the adulterefs, and to fhew that fuch marriage during the life of her injured husband, was always confidered adultery. His Lordship's arguments, on this point, are, to us at at leaft, convincive; and we perfectly agree with him in his interpretation of the paffage in the 19th chapter of St. Matthew, which, we have ever thought, will not admit of any other conftruction than that which he puts upon it. "When I fpeak of the Divine law, I mean the divine law as it ftands under the Gofpel. By that law I contend these marriages are adulteries. By the Laws of Mofes, the punishment of adultery was death and a large power of repudiation was given to the husband for inferior offences. In the latter periods of the Jewith Hiftory, when the morals of the people were exceedingly relaxed and depraved, capital punishment in the cafe of adultery was rarely inflicted; but the power of repudiation was used, in an extent beyond any thing the letter of the law could justify; and this the more fober part of the nation feem to have understood. Our Lord was confulted concerning the propriety of fuch divorces. His anfwer was, that by the original inftitution of marriage, the contract was indiffoluble. That the liberty of divorce, under the Mofaic law, was an accommodation to a certain hardness of heart among the Jewish people-that from the beginning it was not fo. He adds, And I fay unto you, (I, in conformity to the fpirit of the inftitution, thus lay down MY law) whofoever fhall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whofo marrieth her, which is put away, committeth adultery."* In the firft Epiftle to the Corinthians, St, Paul lays down the fame rule, as a pofitive command of our Lord, with respect to married perfons, both Chriftians. Where one of the parties was a Heathen or a Jew, and the other a Chriftian, the cafe admitted fome exceptions. But in the cafe of husband and * "Matt. xix. 3-9. In this 9th verfe, I fay unto you,' &c. Our Lord lays down his own law, without regard to the law of Mofes, which he abrogates. By Chrift's law, the man who puts away his wife, except for adultery, and marries another, commits adultery. And he who marries her, thus put away by Chrift's law for adultery, the only caufe of putting away under Chrift's law, committeth adultery. This is the only expofition which our Lord's words can bear. For by the law of Mofes it was not adultery for a man to put away his wife for another cause than adultery, and marry another. Neither was it adultery by the Mofaic law for another man to marry a woman put away." See Deut. xxiv. 1, 2. wife both Chriftian, the Apoftle fays, unto the married I command (not I, but the Lord) let not the wife be separated from her hufband. But if the be feparated, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband.'* The Apostle enjoins this, not as from himself, but as a positive command of Christ. The Apostle therefore agrees in my interpretation of our Lord's words, when I fay, that, as the Divine Law is laid down by our Lord himself, in his answer to the Pharifees, the cohabitation of a divorced adultress with her feducer, under colour of a marriage, notwithstanding the connivance of human laws, is grofs adultery." The Bishop fuccefsfully ridicules the prepofterous idea that neither the clergy nor the lawyers are competent judges of the subject; and he vindicates the bill from the charge of innovation by fhewing it to be perfectly confiftent with the primitive purity of our laws. The peroration is too energetic and too much to the purpose, to be omitted here. My Lords, you have been addressed as fathers. You have been entreated, not to be severe against those infirmities of our common nature, from which your own daughters, with all the advantages of high breeding, cannot be exempt. My Lord's, I too call upon you, as FATHERS. I demand of you, not connivance at the fhame, but protection of the innocence, and honour of your daughters. A father may have many daughters. If one of these is betrayed by thefe infirmities of our common nature, how is the father to protect the honour of the reft? Will he think its fecurity too dearly bought by the fufferings of the guilty? How is it to be secured at all, if this guilt is generally to efcape with impunity? But, my Lords, I addrefs you not as fathers individually. I fay, that the innocence of daughters is a matter, in which fathers ought to make a common cause: and the feelings of the individual must be facrificed, when the occafion requires it, to the common interest. "My Lords, once more I conjure you to remember, that justice, not compaffion for the guilty, is the great principle of legiflation. Yet, my Lords, your compaffion may find worthy objects. Turn, my Lords, your merciful regards to the illuftrious fuppliants proftrate, at this moment, at your bar; conjugal fidelity; domeftic happiness; public manners; the virtue of the fex. These, my Lords, are the fuppliants now kneeling before you, and imploring the protection of your wifdom and your juftice." ART. XXV. Subftance of the Speeches of Lord Mulgrave in the Houfe of Lords, in reply to the Speeches of Lord Auckland and the Bishop of Rochefter on the Divorce Bill. 8vo. PP. 50. Wright. LORD MULGRAVE oppofed the bill on the fame ground with the Duke of Clarence, that it would have a tendency to increase the very crime which it profeffed to check. Our opinion of this ground of oppofition we have already declared; but in this speech *"1 Cor. vii, 10. 11." we we have not found a fingle argument capable of producing any change in those fentiments which a perufal of the fpeeches, to which it was meant as an answer, had excited in our minds. We cannot agree with his Lordship in his opinion that " in point of general morality, fociety is in a better ftate than it has formerly been in this country;" we have already affigned our reasons for entertaining an oppofite opinion; nor can we poffibly concur with him, in the idea, that the marriage of an adulterefs with an adulterer tends to promote the reformation of the former, because a complete deteftation of her crime muft precede her reformation, and how fuch detestation can exist in conjunction with the enjoyment of the fruits of the crime, it is impoffible for us to account upon the operation of any known quality of the human mind, of any known principle of human action. The reverse of this position appears to us to be inconteftibly the fact. His Lordship differs from the Bishop of Rochester in his conftruction of the passage in the nineteenth chapter of St. Matthew, but all the precedents adduced in support of his arguments, are fully proved by the Bishop not to bear upon it. This is the laft fpeech we have to review on this very important fubject, and it is with great pleasure we find that notice has been given, by a very worthy and able member of the House of Commons, of a determination, to make a fresh application to Parliament in the next feffions. We truft, the matter will be amply difcuffed in the interval, and that the firm friends of religion and morality will not fleep upon their pofts. We cannot, however, difmifs this topic without expreffing our regret that the mafterly fpeeches of Lord ELDON and Mr. ERSKINE have not been printed. The latter we understand to have been a speech containing more found knowledge and legal information, than any fpeech that was delivered on the fubject in the House of Commons. ART. XXVI. Thoughts on the Propriety of preventing Marriages founded on Adultery. 8vo. Pp. 27. Rivingtons. 1800. THESE are the temperate and judicious thoughts of a fenfible mind, which has duly confidered the fubject, in its tendency to affect individuals, and fociety. The author was a decided friend to the Bill which the Commons rejected; and his propofition for making the adulterer contribute to the future fupport of the adultress, whom he is restricted from marrying, is entitled to serious attention. ART. XXVII. A Difcourfe to unmarried Men. Small 8vo. Pp. 15. No Bookseller's Name. THIS is a very excellent difcourfe on the fin of fornication, which ought to be read by every man of the world, who acknowledges the truths of Christianity. We are informed by a Correspondent that it is to be had at Mr. Clarke's, Bookfeller, in New Bond-ftreet. ART. POETRY. ART. XXVIII. The Annual Anthology. Vol. I. 12mo. 6s. Longman. 1799. Of this collection it may very truly be faid: "Sunt bona, funt quædam mediocria, funt mala plura." But, we believe, the public concur with us in opinion, that the number of bona are, in proportion, very small. Among the mala plura are the pieces of Mr. Dyer and Dr. Beddoes. Dyer's Ode to the river Cam is unworthy of a schoolboy juft beginning to verfify, in English, an epigram of Martial. "While yon skylark warbles high, On thy banks, O Cam, I lie, What common-place ftuff is this!-Ex pede Herculem. With refpect to Beddoes, we advife him to confine himself to his laboratory, ne futor ultra crepidam.-Yet, the nymph Aura, perhaps, may be as coy as the mufe; the Gas may go off in a bubble; and, in fpite of his airs, the doctor may give us fumum ex fulgore, both philofophical and poetical. Of the quædam mediocria, Mr. C. Lloyd and Mr. Southey are ready to furnish us with fpecimens: but we condefcend not to tranfcribe verfe, which "Non Dii, non homines, non conceffere columnæ." For the best, we bow to a lady, with pleasure; we haften to confer the wreath on Mrs. Opie; not from any feeling for the fair fex, or any fentiment of politenefs; but as the impartial judges of poetical merit. "To Mr. OPIE, on bis baving painted for me the picture of Mrs. Twifs." By Mrs. Opie. "Hail to thy pencil! well its glowing art Has trac'd thofe features painted on my heart: SONG SONG, by Mrs. Opie. "Think not, while gayer fwains invite And cloud my Laura's smiling hours. But Laura, fhould misfortune's wand Altho', alas! the fcorns my love." These are charming little pieces. They are the flowers of the Anthology but they were wafting their fragrance among weeds; and we were willing to remove them to a more genial spot *. ART. XXIX. The English Sailor and French Citizen, a loyal Sketch, in Verfe, embellished with a Caricature Frontispiece, defigned by Woodward. 4to. Pr. 8. 1s. 6d. Allen, Weft, and Hughes, Chapple. 1800. This Jeu d'Efprit contains much point and pleafantry. For ex ample: CITIZEN. "Me come To teach de English freedom, from my home." JACK. "You teach us freedom!-teach us to make flip, A lath like you-teach Britons to be free! *That the Anthology (as it is called) is not a little tinctured. with Jacobinifm, we fcarcely need obferve, after mentioning the names of these authors: we hold their politics and their poetry, in equal contempt. |