It  is  well  known  that  in  England  the  wife
can  do  no  legal  act  relating  to  property  with-
out the  consent  of  her  husband,  being  in
technical  language  femme  couverte ;  this  will
be  readily  accounted  for  in  a  Christian  coun-
try ;  the  state  of  the  law,  however,  in  ancient
Greece  was  precisely  the  same  in  this  parti-
cular. "  When  a  married  woman  was  cited
to  appear  before  a  magistrate  at  Athens,  her
husband  was  also  summoned  in  this  form,
TTiv  Seiya  Kat  top  Kvpiov,  such  a  woman  and
her  lord;  because  wives  being  under  the
government  of  their  husbands,  were  not  per-
mitted to  appear  in  any  courts  without  them."


CHIIISTTAX    PRINCIPLES. 63

It  is  remarkable,  that  in  all  nations,  and  in
many  creeds,  wliere  the  true  origin  is  un-
known, the  marriage  union  is  considered
indissoluble. But  as  this  indissolubility  has
been  found  a  great  bar  to  the  unlimited
indulgence  of  passion,  various  expedients
have  been  hit  upon  to  set  it  aside. In
Mahometan  countries,  marriages  are  less
frequent  than  looser  connexions:  but  when
once  they  have  taken  place,  no  divorce  is
permitted. After  the  restoration  of  the
House  of  Bourbon  to  the  throne  of  France,
when  the  Duke  de  Berri  was  married  to  a
Sicilian  princess,  one  of  her  attendants  re-
peated frequently  during  the  ceremony. Ah  I
le  hon  roi,  il  ria  rien  omis. A  byestander
overhearing  the  remark,  requested  to  be  in-
formed what  it  meant;  and  was  then  told
that  whenever  princes  of  the  blood  in  Popish
countries  were  married,  it  was  customary  to
omit  some  part  of  the  ceremony,  which  might
be  subsequently  construed  into  being  ma-
terial or  immaterial,  according  as  it  might
turn  out  agreeable  or  not  to  set  the  marriage
aside  as   bad   ah   initio:    but  that,   in   the


64  SOCIAL    DUTIES    O^

present  instance,  the  king  had  omitted  no-
thing :  since  therefore  nothing  was  imperfect
in  the  ceremony,  no  human  power  could
dissolve  the  union. In  England,  divorce  is
permitted  only  for  the  single  crime  of  adul-
tery, which  is  required  to  be  proved  in
several  different  courts ;  and  nothing  but
the  highest  judicature  in  the  realm  can  ulti-
mately authorize  it. 