AND

LADY INGLEBY.

"Cur me querelis exanimas tuis?"

HORAT. ii. 17.

COME, come, I am weary of so much snivelling!" said Sir Charles Grainger to the unfortunate Lady Ingleby; who now seeing the glaring effects of her imprudence and folly in their true light, wept over that happiness which for her was gone by, never to be recalled; to that fame which was clouded for ever; and for that onceadored child, whose interests she had slighted and disregarded in the moment of unheeding passion.

Such was the result, Sir Charles, of thy cloyed affection! Such is the treatment the woman must consequently expect who forgets the most sacred duty; and such is the gratitude too often shown by unthankful man.

A Seducer is a faithless Friend.

But ought such to have been the language of Sir Charles Grainger to a female who had braved the frowns of the world, who had forfeited for his sake all claims to respect, all future title to conjugal quiet and happiness? That her mind had a strong sense of what ought to have been her duty, Sir Charles must have seen, when she fled from her own noble mansion, where she lived honoured and beloved, to place herself under his protection. Her young mind, first seduced by him, and then having become a guilty wife, she scorned to carry deceit and falshood to the arms of her husband; and abandoning that honour and reputation, which she might still have lived in amongst the unsuspecting circle of her acquaintance, she openly confessed her guilt by elopement, and fled to hide her shame in the bosom of her betrayer.

Of a family, as respectable for their virtues as for their riches and nobility, Sir

A Family formed to please the Fair.

Charles had enjoyed the confidence of his Sovereign; had acquitted himself with honor in the station assigned him, and received that approbation from a grateful government which he merited. The family of the Graingers might be said, in every respect, to be formed to please the fair; handsome in person, insinuating in manners, brave, and elegantly accomplished!

When such are the temptations thrown in the way of an inexperienced young female; who perhaps finds not her loveliness, her merit, her affectionate heart, and correct conduct, treated with that warinth of gratitude they deserve, what are we to expect? A faithless husband too often makes a faithless wife, and what but the natural fickleness and depravity of nature, seemingly inherent in the com position of man, can render him so? Does the term wife carry with it an antidote to love and constancy.-The conduct of

No palliation for Guilt.

many of our fashionables would induce. us to imagine it did. We do not directly say, that Lord Ingleby was one of these inconstants; but when rumour is busy in spreading such reports, when private letters, which were brought forth as proofs to condemn a deluded female, glance in a most marked and pointed manner, on the duty of constancy and fidelity in an husband, and recommend its charms, by adverting to the conduct, and enforcing the example of a faithful domestic quadruped, then we may naturally suppose, that rumour for once had truth on her side.

The outrageously virtuous will perhaps call these remarks, a palliation for guilt; no, they are not so intended; the writer of these pages is as much shocked to see the rapid progress of vice, and the frequent repetition of a breach of conjugal duty as any one can possibly be. We do not by any means excuse the adultress;