a neighbouring minister, where the conjugal
knot was tied. After the young lady had recovered
her senses a little, she did not choose to
carry the simulation of matrimony further. But
the bridegroom took up the matter in a serious
light. The girl was obliged to petition for a
divorce, as the only means of escaping the legal
consequences of her thoughtless engagement.
Another similar fact is quoted; and in both
cases the divorce was pronounced.

It is even extraordinary that like occurrences
are not more frequent; for, according to the
doctrine adopted by different courts of law, a
matrimonial engagement may be inferred from
circumstances only. "It is not necessary,"
said a judge of the State of New York to a
jury, " that a promise of marriage should be
made in express terms; frequent visits, conversation
in whispers, expressions of attachment,
presents offered, walks and drives taken together,
are so many circumstances which may be
insisted upon, in proof of the existence of an
engagement to marry. And if these indications
have sufficient probability to convince the
judges, the law requires nothing further, to establish
the bond."

So arbitrary a power of interpretation in so
grave a matter has opened the door to the most
shameful speculation. Marriageable girls and
widows, casting off the reserve which is proper
to their sex, hunt after rich men, especially men
in the decline of life, and endeavour to attract
them by all sorts of artifices, and to spread the
report—in consequence of familiarities in which
they take the first step—that a wedding is in
preparation. When they think they have
accumulated proofs enough to make out a strong
presumptive case, they exact either marriage or
heavy damages. Sometimes, to escape
undeserved scandal, the gentleman yields to this
Machiavellian pressure, and sacrifices to a quiet
life, a sum which mostly runs up to a tolerably
high figure. If he resist, he is dragged in no
time into court.

In such questions, the jury is easily
impressed by the voice and manner of the woman
who presents herself in the guise of a
victim; and verdicts have been given so
monstrously exaggerated, that they seem rather the
outbreaks of anger than judicial decisions.
Recently, a case of this kind occurred in the
State of Missouri; the jury, yielding to the
excitement of the moment, condemned a wealthy
man, against whom there was nothing but
simply presumptive evidence, to pay £20,000l.
damages to a woman who kept a boarding-house
at St. Louis. The gentleman who had fallen
into the snare did not submit to the verdict;
he appealed; and the judges, in cooler blood and
better edified respecting the lady's previous history,
annulled the sentence, and discharged the
defendant from all further pursuit. It was
time to give a lesson to this kind of women;
for actions for breach of promise of marriage
had become common throughout the United
States. Some half-dozen heavy condemnations
appear to have excited a number of women to
bring their actions, right and left. It had become
dangerous for wealthy men to behave
politely to unmarried women. The result of the
Missouri appeal allowed them to breathe a little
more freely.

Certainly, American legislation is strange!
If the smallest scrap of land has to be sold,
there must be a deed signed and sealed in the
presence of witnesses, and properly registered.
In the case of a will, additional guarantees are
required; but in the gravest act of human life,
simple probabilities suffice to prove an engagement.
As if marriage did not involve more
important consequences to a man's welfare, than
a sale of land or even a will!

One circumstance which gives a great impulse
to hasty and impromptu marriages, is the rapid
development of the new States of the Union,
into which a great number of adventurers rush,
with the certainty of obtaining opulence, or at
least a very easy position. At first they are
colonies of men only, whose increasing wealth
enables them to indulge in the comforts of a
family. To these matrimonial markets many
girls of some education resort, urged by ambition
and the love of adventure, to risk the chances of
a western alliance. Articles appear in newspapers,
begging young women to come, offering
them the liberty of a choice of husbands, and
promising them liberal and certain settlements.
The scarcity of women is continually felt at
intervals in the regions of the west. In May,
1857, the Iowa Reporter made an energetic
appeal to the ladies, entreating women of all
nations to travel in that direction. It stated
that, according to the census of June, 1856,
there were in Iowa 33,640 more men than women,
and that, at the time of writing, they were
short of 60,000 women to establish an equal
balance of the sexes. Although such a state of
things is only transitory, still, women,of whatever
condition, who arrive during periods of bridal
scarcity, are sure to be welcomed and caught up
immediately.

In the older states, American young ladies
exhibit a rather paradoxical conjugal tendency.
Their great ambition is to marry a man of title;
it is a weakness which has gained all classes,
and to which they sacrifice everything. Any
European, however slightly he may be
recommended, if he be the bearer even of a doubtful
title of nobility, by going to the United States
is sure of making a wealthy match, if he only
have patience to bide his time. There are certainly
men who, by their personal qualities, adorn
the title they have received from their ancestors,
and nothing can be more praiseworthy than to
seek their alliance; but that is not generally
what is uppermost in the female American mind.
The title is all in all. If America had been a
woman, she would not have suffered the Prince
of Wales to depart from her shores a single
young man.

That the American law is not only blind to
the veritable character of the institution of
marriage, but that it even lends itself to offences
against society, is shown by a crime committed