the former case, death was given by stoning; in the latter (as the Jews interpret,) by strangling.* Such, then, is the reverential manner in which we ought to view the Law of Moses, and such was the remedy applied by it to the licentiousness with which the Jewish divorces had been made;-a licentiousness which seldom fails to be seen, where the power of repudiation is left to personal authority, and private passion, and not solemnly resolved upon with a certain attention to outward character, and under the eye of public justice. And the same laxity, not corrected by the influence of Revelation, we find, so long afterwards, among the Romans, with whom a short formula pronounced by the husband, or indeed a message sent by a freedman (for Juvenal is legally correct,†) was sufficient

* This is inferred from Deut. xxii. 22. Levit. xx. 10, &c. The daughter of a priest, for the crime of fornication, was to be burnt. Levit. xxi. 9.

+ Collige sarcinulas, dicet libertus, et exi. Sat. 6. The

for the dismissal of the wife. Of the same nature, too, is the custom which prevails at this time in many parts of the East, where the sending home of the goods brought by the wife is a valid act of repudiation, without a word spoken by the husband.—And now, my Lords and Gentlemen, what is the result from this part of the inquiry, for your approaching debate?-The Law of Moses, though the noble Earl should draw it once more from his pocket, for the purpose, contains nothing that will answer his wishes. The utmost that could be obtained from it, might be an inference from analogy; but no such inference can be good against the express terms of a statute: and, in the

last word was essential to one of the formulæ announcing divorce; and such is the allusion of Seneca, in his reprehension of the frequent divorces brought about by the Roman women. Exeunt matrimonii causâ, nubunt repudii. De Benef. Lib. iii.-From Maimonides we find that when the bill of divorcement was duly executed, the Jewish husband had the option of giving it to his wife in person, or of sending it by a deputy. De Div.

present case, though the defiler of a virgin not yet betrothed, was compelled to marry her, the adulterer, it is obvious, could not follow the same rule: for both himself and the companion of his crime were capitally punished. The only thing to be observed by you (and it carries much importance with it) is, that the principle of the second marriage of a divorced woman, during the life of the first husband, is fully acknowledged. The only thing to which moral turpitude attached, was the reunion of the man and wife after divorce, and intermarriage with any other. This is called "abomination before the Lord;"- and the reason assigned for this prohibition, by Grotius, who delivers the sense of Christian antiquity upon it, was, doubtless, the true one-it was, says he, ne, specie divortii, alii aliis uxores darent usurarias.

I now leave the subject of the Jewish marriages. It was necessary, however, to

view it in this light, on account of the use I shall presently have for it. You have seen, that the bill of divorcement was not founded in that spirit of moral laxity, which so many have objected to it; but that it was introduced, with its attendant solemnities, to correct, as far as it was permitted, the previous licentiousness of marriage, and to prepare the minds of men for the yet stricter obligations of the Gospel. When, at length, by the progress of the Divine condescension, the world was to receive that purity of life, both private and social, which was more worthy to accompany the Christian dispensation, additional restrictions took place on the Mosaical Law, which had been in itself no unimportant check on the ancient state of manners.

In the discourse of Christ on the Mount, he had delivered to his disciples an important doctrine concerning marriage. " It "hath been said, whosoever will put away

"his wife, let him give her a writing of di66 vorcement. But I say unto you, that "whosoever shall put away his wife, saving "for the cause of fornication, causeth her " to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth

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adultery." Matt. v. 31. The Pharisees, a learned and powerful sect, had doubtless heard of this restriction of their law; they therefore resorted to him for the purpose knowing the truth, and supporting their own authority. Matt. xix. 3.-The Saviour confirms his doctrine; and in answer to the plea they urge of their former liberty of divorce "for every cause" (though another of their schools had somewhat contracted this latitude, interpreting it, as the present Jews do, only of "many causes,”) he declares at once the necessity of the old permission, and the present abridgment of it. He farther reminds them of the original marriage; by which (as it is generally in