THE EFFECTS OF LOSS OF HONOUR.

THE loss of honour in the male sex may be recovered by after good conduct, and the person so degraded may be again received into society; but it is not so with the female sex-their virtue, once lost, cannot be redeemed; because they no sooner overstep the bounds of virtue, than their character is consigned to eternal infamy in this world. How far such doctrine is agreeable to sound sense, or even religion, is very doubtful :-that it is not consistent with religion is evident from many texts of scripture, where particular allusion is had to reclaim sinners; and Mary Magdalen, the greatest of sinners, was not only reclaimed from crime, but held a conspicuous place among our Saviour's followers. But in our times, matters are different indeed; for, should a female member of a family lose her virtue, she is immediately driven from her father's house, and thrown

on the wide world, where, to preserve her

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existence, she must often lead a life of crime and misery; or, from being driven. to despair, she often ends her mortal life by suicide. Is this Christian conduct in a parent? is it paternal affection? is it common sense? Surely it is neither! But, says the parent, if I overlook so heinous a crime in any of my family, then it will be considered as encouraging these false steps, and thereby open a door to my other daughters committing the like imprudence; whilst, on the contrary, by making a strong example of the first offender, I may strike a terror into the other branches. This is so far true; but you have already lost a daughter by following these harsh steps! Now, would it not be better to have saved the criminal; and, at the same time, adopted such a salutary example, as to have secured the virtue of the other females? Might not a cure be invented less destructive than the disease? Might not the offending daughter be kept for a certain period in the father's house, secluded from the society of the family, and also from strangers, and daily admonished for her criminality; and after she has shewn a sufficient degree of penitence, she might be

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admitted again into society-but still made sensible, by gentle means, of her delicate situation? Or, in the event of a slip, might not the lady be put under the charge of a prudent friend, at a distance from her father's house, who would point out the nature of her guilt; and, by keeping her as much as possible secluded from society, bring her to a true sense of her duty, so as she might ever after live an exemplary life? If the girl has any portion of sense, these mild measures would undoubtedly have the wished for effect; and, if she becomes ashamed of her conduct, and lives ever after a virtuous life, there can be no good reason why she should not enjoy the same privileges with her sisters. But, to a parent to drive his daughter to despair, to divest her of all the rights of a child, because she has committed a crime, to which human frailty, in many a one, may be induced to yield, can never be justified by any principle of justice or religion. The Redeemer himself says, he came not to call the just, but sinners, to repentance. It may then be asked, what power can earthły parents have to ruin their offspring?

The consequence of such conduct as above-mentioned, has in many instances proved most ruinous to females; but one instance shall only be quoted in illustration of the subject.

JEMINA THOUGHTLESS was born, altho' not in the higher circles of life, yet her father had acquired considerable property in houses in the capital of Scotland, where he carried on business. He had several daughters, of whom Jemina was the youngest. He gave all his daughters genteel education; and, with the exception of Jemina, they were all well married: But Jemina, having taken up with her father's manservant, proved with child to him; which her father no sooner discovered, than he, without further enquiry into the matter, drove the unhappy Jemina from his house, leaving her to shift for herself. This unfortunate woman, as might be expected, when banished her father's house and the society of her family, "ashamed to beg," and unaccustomed to " dig," immediately threw herself into the arms of vice and prostitution; and very soon, according to

the common phrase, "came on the streets of the metropolis." When honour and character in the female sex is once lost, it is difficult to imagine to what length vice is often carried: Jemina, in place of hiding her head in solitude and obscurity, had the effrontery to parade the public street from morning to night, and most commonly be fore the door of her own father, dressed in the most lascivious manner, and exhibiting all the actions of an abandoned woman of the town. At one period she formed part of the inmates of a brothel; at another time she lived in the character of a keptmistress but in whatever character she acted, she never failed to insult the public feeling by her impudent display of lost virtue; and in this lamentable situation, Jemina dragged out a life of crime and dissipation, until her constitution, worn out with reiterated shocks, sunk at last into utter oblivion-when a contrary conduct on the part of Jemina's parents might have saved her from public depravity, and exempted her father from many mortifying sights of this his forlorn daughter. Nay, had Jemina's father allowed her to marry the first object of her attachment, they