The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1815-08-30


she is the victim of his crime, an, adds ano-
Their to the calendar 3. his seduction. Certain
1t IS he has little children who think them
selves legitimate. VIII his advocates defend
him BY proclaiming their bastardy certain it
rs there rs a wretChed fem lie, his own cousin
too, who thinks herself his wife will they
protect him by proc,aimng he has only de-
ceived her into his prostitute,
Perhaps his CRIME, as in the celebrated
case of Howard, itnmortalised by Lord Fisk
inc, may have found its origin in parental cru
city is might, perhaps, have been tina, in
their early years this guilty pair had che
rished an innocent attachment--it might have
been that IN their spring oil lie, VIXEN fancy
waved her fairy wand arotrnd them, t,li all
above was sunshine; ard all beneath was
ilowers when TO their GEAR and charmed VI
sion this ample world was but a weedless
garden, where every tintspoke natures love-
illness, and every sound broathed heaven me-
lody, and every breeze was but embodied fra
GRANGE. 1t might have oeen, that in, this
cloudiess holiday, love woye his roseate bond
dage round them TIL their young hearts SO
grew together that separate existence ceas-
ed, and life itself became sweet identity
1t might have been that evious of this para
disc, some worse than damon tore them from
each other. 20 pine4for years in careless abb
sence, and at lengthto perish I'M a palliated
%
tice herself with her uplifted sword, would
call on mercy TO preserve the victim There
was no such pallation the period of their
acquaintance was little more than sufficient
for the maturity Of their crime, and they d1e
not libel love by shielding under its soft and
sacred name the loathsOme revcls of an adni-
ferrous depravity. 1t might have been the
husbands cruelty left too easy nroad for
seduction. WlIl they dare assert il All,
too well they know he would not let "the
winds of Heaven visit her face too roughly"
Monstrous as it is, i have heard indeed that
they mean to- rest upon an opposite palliation
u have heard it runored that they mean to
rest the .wife's infdelity upon the husbands
tondness. know that guilt IN its conception
mean and in It's commission tretnu Gus, is in its
exposure desperate and srdacous | know
that in the fugitive panic of its retreat it will
stop to fling its parthian poison upon the JUS
tice that pursues il. But ! Go hope, bad
and abandoned, and hopeless as their Cause
Is ; Il do hope, for the name OF human
nature, that | have been deceived in the
rumours Of this unnatural Defence
Mlcrcifut God is it in the presence
OF this venerable court is it in the
hearing of this virtupus jury Is it in
the zenith of an enlightened age, that |
am so te told. because female, tenderness
was not watched with worse than Spanish
vigilance and harrassed with worse than, cas-
tern severity because the marriage contract
is not Converted into the curse Of incarcera-
ton because woman is allowed the dignity
OF human soul, and man does not degrade
Inns Ii into human monster because the
VOW OF endearments is not made the vehicle
OF deception and the affairs pledge is not be-
come the passport OF a barbarous perjury, &
that too in a land of courage and of chivalry.
where the female form has been held as pa
tent direct from the divinity, bearing in its
chaste and charmed helpleSsness the assur-
I ance OF its strength, and the amulet of it's
T protection am i to be told that the damon
|. adutterer IS therefore not only to perpetrate
( his crimes, but to vindcate himself through
ths very virtues he has violated / cannot
believe 1t; L dismiss the supposition--it is
I most uonstrous, foul and unnatural
+ Suppose that the plaintiff pursued differ
I ert principle ; suppose that his conduct had
been the reverse of what it was-suppose
that IN place OF being kind, he had been cruel
to TINS dSuded female (; that he has been her
tyrant, net her protector her goaler not her
.husband what then might not have been the
defence OF this adultercr Might he not then
say, and say with speciousiiess -, True Sc
dnced her into crime, but il was 20 save her
from cruelty true, she is my aduiteress, Be
Cause he was her depot" Happily, gentle
men, he can say no such thing. Ihave heard
1T said, too, during the ten months of calumny,
Tor winch b. every species Of legal delay,
they have proCrastinated, this trial that next
to Impeachment of the husbands tenderness,
they mean to rey on what they libel as the
ieyity OF their unhappy victim know not
by what right any man, but above all
a married man, presunes to scrutinize into
the conduct of married female. know not,
gentlemen, how you would, feel under the
consciousness that every coxcomb was at Ii
.berty to estimate the warmth or the GOODNESS
OF your wives by the baromer Of his vanity,
that h might ascertain pre- cisely the pru-
dence OF his invasion on their virtue But |
do know that such defence, coming from
such quarter, would not at all surprise ME.
Poor, unfortunate, fallen female How can
she expect mercy from her destroyer How
can sheexpect that he will revere the char
acteT he was careless of preserving How
car she suppose, that after having made her
peace the pandar to his appetite, me WILL not
make Interpolation the victim of his ava
rice Such - defence is quite 20 BE- expec-
ted7-knowlng HIM, it will not surprise me
IT know you, it w,il not avail him.
Having now shown you, that crime al
most unprecedented mthis ccl1ltYg, is clothed
in every aggrayatIon and robbed Of every pal
iiative ; it 10 natural you SHOULD enquire, what
was the motive for its Commission ?, What
do you think it was Pr0videntialIy, (niracu-
IOuclV ] Oh la. 81 g.