criminals have the option of either the bowstring or the poignard, as the mode of púnishment which awaits their guilt. In some parts of the empire this phlegmatic people sell an adulteress for a slave.

It is said that a similar practice of borrowing and lending wives prevails in China as it did once in Sparta; and that fond parents will even make a stipulation with their daughters' husbands to allow them the indulgence of a gallant; but, by the more refined, this custom is held in the abhorrence it deserves.

Sir John Chardin, in his Travels, notices the view which the Mingrelians took of this subject. Adultery," he says, "is punished with the forfeiture of a hog, which is usually eaten in good friendship between the gallant, the adulteress, and the cuckold."

If the practices in the East were anomalies in legislation, these are certainly equally so in morals. But such lax notions are not to be wondered at, when he further tells us, that" as to their education, it is the most obscure imaginable, and their notion of marriage nothing but a contract of bargain and sale."*

An equal laxity prevails generally among

* Travels, first part, page 85.

the nations last alluded to, on the subject of Divorce; and this had better be disposed of before we remark on the enactments and customs of Great Britain.

In Mingrelia, their law of Divorce is very wide. "If any one," says Chardin, "have married a barren woman, or of an ill disposition, or ugly humour, they hold it not only lawful, but requisite to divorce her, inasmuch as it was no contract, no match, of God's making!"*

The Ethiopians allowed of great liberty in Divorce. It was very common among them, till the Missionaries taught them better.

The Mahometans have equally loose notions on the subject of Divorce. Their religion holds it to be lawful, whatever the occasion be; and it is sufficient if one party dislikes another, and that they resolve to unmarry themselves. The act of separation is usually past before a judge or a churchman, and called Talaac, or a Bill of Divorce.†

* Travels, first part, page 102.

+ Pitt's Account of the Mahometans, page 334. He witnessed many Divorces and consequent re-marriages.

This leaves the parties at liberty to marry again. On this dissolution of marriage the man is obliged to return to the woman her dowry, if it be he that sues out the Divorce; if not, she loses it. A liberty of renewal of the marriage is also granted; and this dissolution and renewal are tolerated three times, but not more.* But this is sufficient to show, that the charge of a wife, with them, is little more than the charge of a maid-servant.

This privilege, in Persia, is rarely made use of; but the abuses it holds out are sufficiently obvious. True, the husband must return the portion if he sue out the Divorce; but it does not require much ingenuity to perceive that he could easily adopt such a treatment of his wife as would compel her to that measure; in which case he retained it; and the secrecy with which the conjugal intercourse is carried on in those countries, would be a complete bar to all inquiry.

In China, Le Comte states, that no Divorce to the husband is allowed but for Adultery, and a few other causes, which, he says, rarely

* This separation among the Persians must be in the presence of the Casi, or Cheit Lesloon, (Doctor of Law.) Tavernier Trav. book 5. cap. 18. p.

243.

occur. In those cases the husbands sell their wives to any one who will become a purchaser, and buy others.

The infrequency of their Divorces is perhaps to be traced to the permission of concubinage, particularly when among the causes of Divorce tolerated by them is found enumerated one which, in christian countries, would not be heard of; viz. the irksomeness of the married state. The account of Le Comte does not seem easily reconcileable with this last statement; but the former is speaking of the provisions of the law, while the latter has reference to the habits of the people.

It is certain that the great Chinese Lawgiver, Confucius, put away his wife on this ground. In his "Life," it is stated, that he was content with her as long as they were together; that he never kept any concubines as the custom of his country allowed, because he thought it contrary to the law of nature; but that, after a time, he divorced his wife for no other reason than that he might be free from all incumbrances and connexions, and be at liberty to propagate his philosophy throughout the empire.*

Some of the Catholic Missionaries have remarked, that one of the chief obstacles to the introduction of Christianity among the Chinese, was the system of unrestrained intercourse of this kind which prevailed among them; and Le Comte relates two remarkable instances, where concubinage was the sole bar to a reception of the gospel; but this could not be relinquished: as in the case of the young man in the gospel, the instructor was left with sorrow for the harshness of his requirements.

A law of the Algerines, mentioned by Dr. Shaw, is not a little extraordinary. A forfeiture of the Saddock, or wife's marriage portion, entitled the husband to put away his wife whenever he pleased. There was but one circumstance, (and that was still more. extraordinary,) which at all tended to qualify and restrain the rash and arbitrary use of such a tenancy at will of the wife vested in the husband. It was this; that, when so put away, he could not take her again, notwithstanding the strongest solicitations were made in her favour, till she had been married and bedded to another man."

* Shaw's Travels, fol. p. 303.