Does the bill provide for this case? No. We have two instances of men having appropriated the earnings of their wives. These instances, it is true, occurred some years since, but men have not changed; they are the same to day as yesterday; they will be the same to the end of the world. Therefore, some remedy for such abuses must be found. And although the public do not hear much of these matters, aud a numerous class of persons suffer on, not in peace, because they are not allowed, but in the silence of despair, every man acquainted with the intricacies of society, knows that a number of his fellow men are incumbrances upon the industry of their families; in their sane moments doing little good, and during their insane relapses committing grievous wrong.

Now, why not establish some ready remedy for the evils set forth by these two of teu thousand cases. Some simple tribunal of appeal-a judge in chambers, say who, on a fair hearing of the case, a written testimony, if advisable, as to the character and conduct of the wife; the circumstances of her appeal, particulars of grievances complained of, supported and affirmed by credible and respectable witnesses; might give her an "order in writing, under his hand, restraining the husband, his creditor, or other person, from interfering or attempting to interfere with the wife's earnings or property." In fact, carrying out the provision of Clause XV of the proposed bill, on the ground of the wife being compelled by the circumstances proved to leave her husband's roof. There should also be security for property in landed estate and income, derivable from any source whatever, which may at that time or any future time belong to her; and any property which she held at that time, or which she might afterwards acquire, should be wholly and solely at her own disposal, both during her life time, and by testament after her death.

Such a clause as this, while effectually, and under any circumstances securing the wife's property to her, would not prevent a reconciliation between the parties, if that were desirable. Every man in England, who is worthy of the name of man, will be not only willing, but anxious to promote the formation of a law which would vindicate the rights of women.

If the present bill really is what it professes to be, "An Act to Amend the Law relating to Divorce and Matrimonial Causes in England," then let it be completed, and not leave one, and that a very considerable class of sufferers, unprotected, while it so amply provides for the safety of all others. Legislators, who have on their consciences the responsibility of passing or rejecting this bill, should pause ere it becomes final, and consider whether it completely answers its professed end; whether it protects, as it should do, those unhappy wives, whose carly dream of happiness has faded before a calamitous choice.

There are thousands of women, who year after

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year have hoped against hope; and, who at last only, when hope became a mockery—a folly, would acknowledge to themselves the fact, that an affection which had been pledged at God's altar, was but an ignis faluus; an illusion, burning brightly for a little while, luring them on in life, and then disappearing to leave them in utter desolation and darkness.

This world cannot give back the light of their lives to these heart-broken women; cannot restore to them that which once formed the halo of their life, but the Legislature can ameliorate their condition much can secure them from further injuries, and shield their earnings from the grasp of the idle or the worthless. They can give the heart broken wife immunity from strife, and provide that the home she has made may be secure from the sorrows of her outward life. The fathers of England, who have young and helpless daughters entering on the threshold of society; the brothers who have orphan sisters looking to them for protection, and the husbands who have formed a proper estimate of woman's character, by the gentle companion of their own hearth, have the question in their hands, and may yet prove faithful warders of the weak.

We cannot name a good reason why the wife should, by marriage, be deprived of her claim to manage her own property. It will not be alleged that, in the titles of Mrs. Ellis's books, "The Wives and Mothers of England" they would become too independent--certainly they are too dependent at present, except when protected by the preliminaries already described. They are in the position of outlaws-who, in technical language, can neither sue nor be sued; and thus a wife who has been compelled to support herself and her family, by any description of industry, is exposed to great disad vantage in her dealings with the world, in addition to the possible exactions of the person who should support her and them.

This theory of childish dependence, turned, as it sometimes has been, into hard and hopeless wretchedness, is only tolerable and tolerated be. cause nearly one-half of the world—that is to say, a great majority, three-fourths, or nine-tenths, or more probably, a larger proportion of married men are better than the law, live above the law, and are nearly civilised and just persons, in spite of the statutes. In all these cases the evil is not felt. Still, it exists, and is perhaps more galling to that class of women who possess much strength of character and purpose, than to others of more timid, but not therefore more valuable, or so valuable, minds.

No child of generous impulse has ever yet been ruined by kindness, and no woman whose heart is worth holding will make a recreant wife because she feels that equitable and just independence, which should not have been lost, but which has been legally removed, only because the law on the subject is a fragment of Romish ecclesiastical tenets; having no good foundation, and in no

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country whatever, where it prevails still, as part of a popular creed, productive of good results.

It has always been held as the first principle of the marriage bonds that the wife should lean for all things on the husband; that he should be her support, her guide, her arbitrator. Did we live in Arcadia, the principle might be reduced to practice; but we are in England; plain matter-of fact England; where, in place of Arcadian youths, we have drunken, lazy husbands, idle, profligate fellows, who will hang on to the wife until she can no longer support them! And from such the new bill as it at present stands, would not offer any protection.

We have no quarrel with "the first principle" in question, if both parties could be compelled to follow out its injunctions and respect its require ments; but while we have no means of compelling the husband to be industrious or even sober, it is absurd to retain for a drunken and profligate per son control over the earnings of his wife.

Religion, it is argued, requires a certain course to be followed, good upon the whole, although attended with ostensible wrongs in isolated, and, it is to be hoped, extremely rare cases. We suppose, of course, that the Christian religion is meant, and not any departure from its simplicity. The structure of that religion then is very regular. It appends duty to privilege and privilege to duty as

inseparable companions; and all we contend for is the cessation of power, or privilege, or superiority, where the duty connected with them is not only abandoned but resolutely reversed; and that not for the extreme object contemplated in this bill, but only to allow the wives and families of dissipated, idle, and worthless husbands to live by their industry without supporting worse probably than a dead weight.

This class of arguments is employed often on the ecclesiastical bench, yet if its domestic secrets were examined into by a Commission or Committee, it would be found that the fortunes belonging to the wives of several of these reverend disputants are protected by ante matrimonial settlements. At any rate the common nature of these documents is notorious enough to all parties, and either they should be extended or suppressed.

If they are good for the rich, they cannot be hurtful to the poor. If they are consistent with religion for the protection of property, they cannot be opposed to religion for the protection of earnings. If they are consistent with morality, when they are written out by one solicitor and carefully examined by another, they could not be very inconsistent even with our morality, moveable as it is, when put into a few plain clauses of an Act of Parliament, in general terms, and suitable to gene ral purposes.

TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER XIV.

MORE SOUVENIRS OF HOME.

How ancient recollections crowd together as I contemplate those old and sometimes happy days at home! To call school days the happiest days of life is, in my opinion, tantamount to gammon. I admit, however, that the after recollection of them is oftentimes amusing-always agreeable, be it in the sensation of a mellow regret for past and no longer to be recalled pleasures, or in the satisfactory knowledge that sundry sufferings and castigations can never more be corporeally undergone. Poor old D., the shadow of his memory is always haunting my remembrance; his many eccentricities fall like a pleasant sunbeam across the sombre tinted waters of life, and waken up many a smile where elsewhere gloom and sorrow might overshadow the pathway.

Of all the souvenirs that remained to old D. of his former greatness and riches, there was none he cherished so dearly as the acquaintance

of a few scattered nankeen-breeched old Indians, who, formerly his juniors and inferiors in India, both as regards position and purse, had nevertheless been fortunate enough to reap an ample harvest, which enabled them in the autumn of their lives, to vegetate upon paternal soil without even the inconvenience of a quarter of their livers having been consumed by curries and brandy pawny. These old nabobs were mostly bachelors, who invariably held forth vehemently against the climate and people of England, but still persisted in a course of fiery curries and deep potations, and met together occasionally at some notoriously Oriental tavern, and there indulged in happy reminiscences of past days of luxury, till either the recollection of the heat of India-the dust, the long shore winds, or the sadness of regret for the parapharnalia of days gone by, seduced them into a series of mulled port and devilled kidneys, which invariably ended in alarming relapses and a long amount of penitence and doctor's abominations.

Now these excesses, treasonable as they undoubtedly proved in the eyes of certain fierce old housekeepers, entailed upon poor old D. an inevitable amount of misery, sufficient to crush an Atlas or a Hercules in constitution or spirit. Apart from the extreme misery of a body ill at ease, from the sudden cessation of strong and expensive stimulants, this unfortunate old gentleman was subjected on his return home from each one of these occasional reunions to a series of excruciating annoyances, such as only the acidulated imaginations of a lot of sour old maids could conjure up and carry out into fearful practicability. Soda water was a luxury beyond the reach of his scantily lined purse, whilst absence from the breakfast table was sure to occasion a special deputation, whose business and delight seemed based upon the misery occasioned to the unhappy old bachelor. Could he hold up his head as a gentleman, and confess to the charge of excess? Could he, living in the bosom of a respected circle, so far debase himself as to stop out o' doors till it was actually close upon daylight! There was no hope, no sympathy, no pity for such an one, and a headache might almost be counted a blessing for so great a transgression. The invariable result was a bluepill and soup maigre for that day; and when poor old D., recovering the tone of his stomach, crept down next morning to breakfast, he had fresh martyrdom to encounter in being exposed to a small armoury of bitter sarcasm, to say nothing of dry toast and horribly insipid wishwashy

tea.

As a set-off, however, against these temporary inconveniences, D. enjoyed the satisfaction of tantalising the curiosity, and wounding the pride of his female tormentors, by never on any occasion introducing the stray visitors, who sought him out occasionally, into the parlour, or to any member of of the family. On these isolated occasions, he gained immensely, in importance, especially when, as it sometimes happened, his friend chanced to have a handle to his name, and gave D. a fortnight's recreation and hospitality at Mullagatawny Lodge, or some equally Indianified estate, where black servants, who were redolent of sandal wood and curry powder, shivered in muslin attire, even under the influence of our warmest summer sunshine.

Pride, however, seems doomed to meet with a downfall, and very woeful indeed was the catastrophe that befel old D. One fine morning, when he had just finished rendering ample justice to breakfast, the servant maid announced a stranger gentleman with a white hat, who was anxiously inquiring for his friend, Mr. D.

Surmise was rife amongst the party assembled at that breakfast-table, as to who the noble visitor could possibly prove to be. D.'s sister implored of him to invite the gentleman upstairs, but old D. was inflexible, and, chuckling over his self-importance, mildly suggested that it was only his old friend, Sir Thomas Gurrumpawnep, formerly collector of Chutneyabay, who had, doubtless, called

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in to invite him to spend a fortnight or so at his estate. Under this conviction, the unhappy old bachelor strutted jauntily down stairs; but, alas! for human foresight, and the disappointments and provocations of life!-in a few seconds he returned again, with not one vestige of the usual purply tint about his rubicund complexion, pale as a ghost, and tottering to a seat, he exclaimed"I'm arrested !"

The stranger was a bailiff; the suit that of a ruined merchant in India; the amount sued for two lacs of rupees-and, as no immediate compromise was likely to be effected, poor crest-fallen D., in the midst of loud female lamentations, was fully handed down to a cab, and thence duly lodged in the Queen's Bench.

care

There never was a more ludicrous illustration of the various grades of pride to which weakminded mortals are subjected than in the cases of old D. and his fiery, crippled cousin, Lady A. He was proud of his former wealth aud many acquaintances; proud of his courage-which was sadly put to a nonplus on one memorable occasion, when burglars broke into the house, and stole all the plate, D. answering the women's shrieks and calls for succour by double locking his bedroom door, and then from the window seeking assistance. This breach of chivalry was grievously resented ever afterwards by my aunt's employing the laundress's husband, at so much per week, for the express purpose of firing off a rusty old pistol every evening, to awe away evil-doers-which D. considered an insult of an insupportable character. In the hour of his adversity, his pride flowed in a fresh channel. The immense sum for which he had been arrested made him a perfect lion amongst the other debtors, so that, when friends went to console with him, and cheer him with the prospect of being shortly released, they were rather taken aback to find him perfectly contented and happy where he was. He declared his fellowdebtors to be a most intelligent and delightful set of men, who really knew how to respect intellect and birth. Not a little proud was he of his personal appearance, and extremely careful in his attire. As for the former, his face was usually of a purple hue, covered with blotches and pimples, whilst his figure was more than portly, and his legs extremely short. Clad, however, in his nankeen waistcoat and inexpressibles, his double-frilled shirt front, green tail coat, shoes with large bows, an eye-glass in his left eye, and an umbrella under cach arm-(he always carried two, under some vague speculation of being overtaken by a hurricane of rain, in company with some Countess unknown, to whom he might tender the spare umbrella)-thus attired, when he issued forth for his periodical walks, he was the delight and amazement of all the young ladies about Kensington, many of whom quizzed him amazingly-which the joyous old beau invariably set down to admiration of his deportment. The eccentric Sir John Dineley was scarcely better known, and his caricature figured

in many of the shop-windows about town. Poor D., soon after he had passed the insolvent court, dropped down dead in the parlour one morning, after breakfast, and a severe battle with his cantankerous old cousin. The old lady survived him for many years, growing more satirical and spiteful as time swept her with a ruthless broom towards the brink of the grave.

There was another old Indian uncle, who had married one of my father's sisters. After many years' service in India, he had returned home with a colossal fortune, and was well known about Kensington for many years as a magistrate. The hot pickles and curries consumed in that house were the talk of the neighbourhood. But my uncle had been at the siege of Seringapatam, where he, with another officer, Sir Thomas B. (commonly called "Old Bow-wow") had been, most cruelly treated by Tippoo Sahib. To hear these two disputing and narrating, over their after-dinner wine, was one of the greatest treats we youngsters enjoyed, more especially as we were invariably handsomely tipped before being sent back to my aunt's. one occasion, an unlucky urchin forfeited the privilege for good and all. My uncle had given him a sixpence to buy sweet stuff with, which sixpence turned out to be a bad one; running back with the same to get it changed, he happened to reach the old gentleman just as he was seized with a vio lent fit of coughing. Fearful that he might expire before the sixpence was changed, the graceless young villain thrust it into his face, imploring him to give a good sixpence for it before he died-for which piece of impudence he was exiled from fa

vour.

On

Many a time has the quiet of our everyday life been interrupted by the sudden appearance of uncle C., with a couple of vanloads of costly furniture and pictures, all of which he bestowed as a gift upon my aunts; but alas! these had been barely arranged in place, when some unfortunate circum stance would irritate the old gentleman, and away went all the fine things again to the house of some other relative; whence they made the tour of cousins and nephews innumerable; till one, more lucky than the rest, chanced to be in possession of them at the period of old C's demise, when the last move on the board had been played, and the fickle but wealthy uncle had been checkmated by death.

CHAPTER XV.

INDIA AGAIN.

SOON after revisiting Madras again, I was attacked by a severe illness, which compelled me to seek change of air; I accordingly repaired to my guardian's house at Chittoor, a place some ninety miles distant from Madras. Chittoor was then a considerable civil station, being the site (if I may so term it) of one of the four courts of Circuit and Appeal, which have since been abolished.

There were three circuit judges then at Chittoor; one being my brother-in-law and guardian, and besides these there resided there a Zillah judge, and his Register, Collector, Sub-Collector, and four assistants (these latter were sometimes absent in the district); a captain and a lieutenant in command of a detachment of native infantry from Vallore, and a couple of doctors. On the whole, what with wives, sons, daughters, and other relatives, we constituted a pretty fair society; and what is saying a great deal, pulled well together, without any of those petty squabbles which usually exist in small communities.

Of Chittoor itself, I have many very pleasant souvenirs, both as regards the excellence of its climate, and the quantity and delicious flavour of its mangoes, as also with reference to the princely hospitality and jolly good nature of its bachelor residents. There were abundant and pleasant drives and rides, which extended to a considerable distance all round the cantonment. The favourite drive of an evening was round Chetah hill; so called from the number of these beautiful but dangerous brutes, which were visible often to the naked eye, as they sported and gambolled like kittens on the elevated summits. And, apropos of chetahs, I may here relate a ludicrous, though at the time rather serious incident, which occurred to myself and my sister Harriet. One of the young civilians had a pet tiger caged up in his compound, and which proved a daily source of attraction to the idlers at Chittoor. Master Billy (so had the tiger been named) led a terrible life of it amongst so many noisy and thoughtless youngsters, whose chief delight was to poke fun at him through the iron bars, by fastening lighted cigars to the end of bamboos; a process which made Billy dance about and roar again with agony. One day a young fellow, more venturesome and foolhardy than his companions, had the temerity to enter Billy's cage and to beard the tiger in his own den; the result would speedily have proved more tragical had it not been for the admirable presence of mind displayed by another of the party. The tiger had seized the agressor's arm, and would doubtless have wrenched it off from the shoulder, had not a companion seized upon a stout bamboo and literally thrust it down the monster's throat, causing him to relinquish his hold. This was a pretty fair sample of the savage disposition of Billy. And it was not many mornings afterwards, just as the day was dawning, that I issued forth from our compound on ponyback, for the enjoy ment of my regular morning ride. From the gates of the compound there stretched a long avenue of stately trees, which extended nearly half a mile before joining the main road. Up this avenue, at the same moment, my sister and her little nephew were walking, enjoying a beforebreakfast constitutional. I must confess to have been rather sleepy; the pleasant balmy breeze had hardly yet scattered the last night's somniferous effects, when all of a sudden my pony came to a