3. The public at large lofe the benefit of the woman's fervice in her proper place and deftination, 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 recompenfe. Moreover, proftitution is fupplied by feduction, and in proportion to the danger there is of the woman's betaking herself after her firft facrifice to a life of public lewdnefs, the feducer is anfwerable for the multiplied evils to which his erime gives birth.

Upon the whole, if we purfue the effects of feduction through the complicated mifery which it oc cafions; and if it be right to eftimate 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 fuffer death by the laws of England, are fo 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 feducer, for the lofs of his daughter's fervice, during her pregnancy and nurturing.

СНАР.

CHAP. IV.

ADULTERY.

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

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, firft, that the crime could not be difcovered 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 efcape detection, which is the conclufion 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, o rrender marriage a ftate of fuch jealoufy and alarm to the hufband, as muft end in the flavery and confinement of the wife.

The vow by which married perfons 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

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 intrufion upon the peace and virtue of a family, though it fall fhort of adul

tery.

The ufual 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 hufband or wife who offends firft, the guilt of the second offender is extenuated. But this can never amount to a juftification; unless it could be fhewn that the obligation of the marriage vow depends upon the condition of reciprocal fidelity; for which conftruction, there appears no foundation, either in expediency or in the terms of the promife, or in the defign of the legiflature which prefcribed the marriage rite. Moreover, the rule contended for by this plea has a manifeft tendency to multiply the offence, but none to reclaim the offender.

The way of confidering the offence of one party as a provocation to the other, and the other as only retaliating the injury by repeating the crime, is a childish trifling with words.

Which

"Thou shalt not commit adultery," was an interdict delivered by God himfelf. By the Jewish law adultery was capital to both parties in the crime: Even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and adultress fhall furely be put to death." Lev. xx. 10. paffages prove, that the divine legiflator placed a great difference between adultery and fornication. And with this agree the Chriftian fcriptures; for in almost all the catalogues they have left us of crimes and criminals, they enumerate" fornication, adultery," "whoremongers, adulterers," (Matt. xv.

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1. 1 Cor. vi. 9. Gal. v. 9. Heb. xiii. 4.) by which mention of both, they fhew that they did not confider them as the fame: but that the crime of adultery was, in their apprehenfion, diftinct from, and accumulated upon that of fornication.

The hiftory of the woman taken in adultery, recorded in the eighth chapter of St. John's Gospel, has been thought by fome to give countenance to that crime. As Chrift told the woman, "neither do "I condemn thee," we must believe, it is faid, that he deemed her conduct either not criminal, or not a crime however of the heinous nature we reprefent it to be.

A more attentive examination of the cafe will, I think, convince us, that nothing can be concluded from it, as to Chrift's opinion concerning adultery, either one way or the other. The tranfaction is thus related: "Early in the morning Jefus "came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he fat down and taught them; and the Scribes and Pharifees brought unto him a "woman taken in adultery; and when they had fet her in the midft, they fay unto him, Mafter, "this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act; now Mofes, in the law commanded that fuch "fhould be ftoned, but what fayeft thou? This

they faid tempting him, that they might have to "accufe him: But Jefus ftooped down, and with "his finger wrote on the ground, as though he "heard them not. So when they continued afking

him, he lift up himfelf, and faid unto them, he "that is without fin amongst you, let him first caft a "ftone at her; and again he flooped down and wrote "on the ground and they which heard it, being "convicted by their own confcience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldeft, even unto the "laft; and Jefus was left alone, and the woman ftanding in the midft. When Jefus had lift up himfelf, and faw none but the woman, he faid unto her, woman, where are thofe thine accufers?

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"hath

:

"hath no man condemned thee? She said unto him, "no man, Lord; and he faid unto her, neither do I "condemn thee, go and fin no more."

"This they faid tempting him, that they might "have to accufe him," to draw him, that is, into an exercife of judicial authority, that they might have to accufe him before the Roman governor of ufurping or intermeddling with the civil government. This was their defign; and Chrift's behaviour throughout the whole affair proceeded from a knowledge of this defign, and a determination to defeat it. He gives them at firft a cold and fullen recep. tion, well fuited to the infidious intention with which they came:"He ftooped down, and with his finger "wrote, on the ground, as though he heard them * not." "When they continued afking him," when they teized him to fpeak, he difmiffed them with a rebuke which the impertinent malice of their errand, as well as the fecret character of many of them deferved: "He that is without fin (that is, this fin) "among you, let him firft caft a ftone at her." This had its effect. Stung with the reproof, and disappointed of their aim, they ftole away one by one, and left Jefus and the woman alone. And then follows the converfation, which is the part of the narrative moft material to our prefent fubject. Jefus faith unto her, woman, where are those "thine accufers? hath no man condemned thee? She faid, no man, Lord. And Jefus faid unto her, neither do I condemn thee; go and fin no "more." Now, when Chrift afked the woman, "hath no man condemned thee," he certainly fpoke, and was understood by the woman to fpeak, of a legal and judicial condemnation; otherwife, her anfwer, "no man, Lord," was not true. In every other fenfe of condemnation, as blame, cenfure, reproof, private judgment, and the like, many had condemned her; all thofe indeed who brought her to Jefus. If then a judicial fentence was what Chrift

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meant