MISCELLANIES.

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ADVISER.
To S. SAGEPHIZ, Esq.

Mr. ADVISER,

I HAVE seen frequently instances in the newspapers of persons being punished for obtaining goods under false pretences. I do not know how far the law extends on this point, but I am sure it ought to comprehend the crime of which my husband is guilty; for I think I can prove satisfactorily, that he has gained possession of me in that manner. But in order, good sir, to lay the case clearly before you, I will just tell you the method he took to cheat me into matrimony.

dear mamma's discipline, and how much I longed for an opportunity to escape from it. Unfortunately, just as I attained my sixteenth year, this opportunity presented itself. Mr. Snubwell, who had been long intimate in our family, made proposals for me, which were rejected by my mother for various reasons; one of them was, that she thought me too young to marry. You may be sure that our opinions on this subject did not coincide. Mr. Snubwell made private applications to myself: he protested the most inviolable affection for me; vowed that, if I consented to marry him, he would always treat me with the greatest kindness and indulgence; and, in short, made me so many fair promises, that I consented to elope with him, and 'we were privately married. ·

We have not yet been married quite three months, and when I tell you how he has treated me during that time, you will judge what correct notions he has of kindness and indulgence.

I am an only daughter, and my mother had such an implicit belief in the truth of the old adage, "Spare the rod and spoil the child," that she thought it a duty incumbent on her to whip me regularly at least twice a day while I was an infant. My father, who was a goodnatured and easy-tempered man, often remonstrated on this wholesome severity, as my mother used to call it, but always without effect. She declared that there was no keeping children in order without Almost in the beginning of our correction; and, unfortunately, she honeymoon, I took it into my head forgot that I was not to continue one day to avail myself of the lialways a child, for up to my fif-berty which I fancied I had gained teenth year she could not persuade herself to treat me as if I was any thing else. Now, you must know, Mr. Adviser, that from the time I entered my teens I thought myself a young woman: you may judge, therefore, how ill I brooked my

by my marriage, and I did not return till nearly half an hour after our usual time of dining. Instead of my spouse waiting to receive me with smiles and goodhumour, I found him seated at table, with a countenance ten times

his account, I am perpetually outraging his authority, and my sins. of omission are nearly as numerous as those of commission; so that between both, he finds occasion to scold and snap at me from morniug till night. If I speak, what I say is foolish, or ill-timed, or impertinent. If I am silent, I am either sullen or plotting mischief. My actions give as much offence as my words: sometimes I behave childishly; at others, I affect an air of womanly consequence, which at my age is ridiculous. It was but this very day that he told me my judgment was so bad, that I ought never to act without consulting him. As he said this just after breakfast, I thought I would play him an innocent trick, which might

more expressive of crossness and ill-humour than ever my mother's had been. He had helped himself, but as soon as he saw me he desisted from eating, in order to lecture me on what he called my breach both of duty and good manners in coming so long after the usual time. Would you believe it, Mr. Adviser, though I was exceedingly hungry, I was compelled to sit for half an hour before he suffered me to put a bit into my mouth? and when I would have remonstrated in my turn, I was silenced by, "No words, madam; you have heard my pleasure, and I will take care that you shall conform to it:" and he directly rang for the servant, whom he had sent out of the room while he was speaking to me. As I could not pursue the subject in the pre-perhaps make him ashamed of himsence of the footman, I sat silent, swelling with vexation, and without tasting a morsel, while my sweettempered lord and master finished his dinner, and I never saw him eat so hearty a one, without condescending to address a single word to me. I repressed my tears with difficulty till the servant withdrew," it is only a proof of obedience to when I burst into a violent fit of crying; upon which he took his hat, saying, with a sneer, that he saw I was disposed to play the baby, and that I wanted a little of good mamma's discipline, which, if he did not find me in a better humour on his return, he should perhaps send for her to inflict it. With this polite speech he quitted me, and I did not see him again till four o'clock the following morning. From that time to this I verily believe that he has been trying a series of experiments on my patience and temper. According to

my

self. Accordingly, when we sat down to dinner, I put on a very demure face, and asked him if I might help myself. "Help yourself!" cried he, in a tone of astonishment," for Heaven's sake what new whim is this?"-"It is not a whim, sir," replied I very humbly;

your commands. You know you told me this morning I ought never to act without consulting you: now, as eating is an act, I thought

He interrupted me by such a furious burst of passion, that I was glad to run and lock myself into my own chamber, where, as I sat deploring my ill fortune in being tied to a man fitter for a task-master to a Negro plantation, than the husband of a free-born Englishwoman, it came into my head that I would take your advice upon the subject; and if you think there are