fore the House of Lords, where it appeared that the criminal intercourse had been carried on in the most open manner, with the view of obtaining a divorce, that the two criminal perfons might be at liberty to marry; in this cafe, although the adultery was proved, yet divorce was refufed to the adulterers.-Such a check will no doubt have the effect to make criminals more cautious in their defign at least, tho' I doubt of its having the effect, in these loose times, to operate a reformation.

LET not, however, offenders in this country flatter themselves, that adultery is not punishable by the law of Scotland., It is declared capital by the ftatutory law of King William, and we know of no fubfequent law that has repealed these statutes. If it fhall be alledged, that the laws are in defuetude which declare this crime capital, let it be remembered that there are other penal laws in fresh obfer vance which ought to ftrike thefe offenders with terror. By the law of Scotland, after divorce, a fubfequent marriage between the two guilty perfons is declared void and null, and the iffue incapable to fucceed to their parents (1600, James Sixth.) 2dly, The offenders are cut off from every benefit of their former marriage; the man forfeits the wife's marriage portion, and the adulteress her marriage provifion, jointure, &c. and is turned out to beggary and infamy. Thus, at prefent, ftands the law of Scotland with refpect to adultery. How far the Minifters of Law are called upon, by office, to put them

N 2

them in execution, they and the public will judge; but if ever the circumftances of time called for fuch exertion to fave a nation, the prefent does! I wave mentioning a certain old law, called the Seventh Commandment, which is enforced by the Divine Author of our religion, as I am afraid these authorities, with people of fashion, are now fallen into defuetude. I fhall therefore leave them to the lower rank of people, and fuch as may ftill think it their duty to go to church, where, if they do not hear them read, and enforced from the pulpit, they may confult the Ten Commandments, as written at large on the church walls, the only paffages of Scripture which perhaps they do read. I fhall conclude with a fhort address to both fexes, to endeavour to open their eyes to the certain mifery and ruin that attends. this crime.

THOU Man of Mode and Gallantry! thou plumest thyself upon thy nice honour, virtue, humanity!—— words always in thy mouth: How oppofite to these principles is thy practice! Wouldft thou hefitate to rob a friend, or beggar his family! Let me thunder it in your ears—you do fo in fact !--By a thousand vile arts, you infinuate yourself into his family and confidence; you, like a thief, under truft, bafely fteal from him what he holds moft dear, the affections of the wife of his bofom! You deprive, till then an honeft woman, of her morals, her virtue, her religion! and confign her to infamy. You deprive a race of helpless infants of a tender parent,

and

and reduce a whole family to ruin! The lofs of money may be repaired; but to rob a husband of his wife, to have the fountain polluted from whence every stream of domestic happiness is derived, is of all miferies the moft bitter and complicated. Deprived of the happiness which he enjoyed at home, the reward of his toil and virtuous labour, his industry flags, and gives way to careleffness and diffipation; defpair not unfrequently takes place, and murder completes the catastrophe!

AND thou, infatuated Woman! once the respected wife of a virtuous hufband! the fharer of his fortune, the delight of his heart, the mother of his infants how art thou fallen!-Seduced from the path of virtue, what mifery attends your fteps!— Your fhort career of folly is run!-Torn from your helpless babes, on whofe innocent heads your infamy defcends; thrown out by your husband from the house where once you was mistress! the hofpitable door now fhut against you! despised by your friends, deserted by your vile feducer, and at laft abandoned to want, mifery, and remorfe!

SUCH, thou Man of Gallantry, are the triumphs of thy vile arts! If the worm within thy breast does not awake thee to remorfe, walk on in the ways of thy heart, and in the light of thine own eyes! a few years puts a period to thy vicious courfe; with the decay of thy paffions thy punishment commen

ces;

When

-When the hey-day of the blood is paft,
Thou fall'ft into the fear and yellow leaf,
And that which fhould accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
Thou must not look to have; 'but, in their stead,
Curfes, both loud and deep!

THESE are the attendants of thy old age! a juft preparative, in this life, for the miferies that await thee in the next ! -I am, &c.

E. C.

HORATIUS.

[The following letter was alfo occafioned by the comparative view of Edinburgh in the 1763 and 1783, and introduced in the following manner, "Were the example of this correfpondent to be followed throughout Britain, a moft curious and valuable collection of facts might be made, illustrative of the progrefs of fociety, and of manners. It might ferve as an hour's amufement to the minifter of the parish, the school mafter, or any judicious obferver, to collect a fhort view of fuch facts as have happened within their respective parishes. With refpect to giving a view of the increase of the population of the country, the number of scholars at the parish schools might be mentioned at the different periods; for, in ge

neral, even the lowest peasantry in Scotland are taught to read, and are inftructed in the principles of morality and religion.—We shall gladly receive the communications.]

SIR,

I LIVE in a country parish forty miles north-east

of Edinburgh. The length of the parish is two miles, the breadth one mile, and about 120 families live in it. I am a conftant reader of your useful paper; and feeing Theophraftus's curious and excellent obfervations upon the metropolis, I was induced to make the following remarks upon the parish in which I have lived for twenty-fix years. If you think them worth the inferting in your paper, they are much at fervice. I am, &c. P. C. your

IN 1763-Land was rented at fix fhillings, on an average, per acre: Only two small farms were inclofed.

IN 1783-Land is rented at eighteen fhillings per acre: All inclofed with thorn hedges and ftone dykes.

IN 1763-No wheat was fown in the parish, except half an acre by the minister: No grass nor turnip fown, no cabbages or potatoes planted in open fields.