ment*. That refpect for the nuptial ties has not increased fince the paffing of the flature, not only common obfervation, but the records of courts of juftice and of parliament itself bear ample tellimony. The practice of obtaining at once a dowry and a divorce by the foul means of adultery, has grown upon us to a moft fearful and portentous extent.

Facunda culpæ faccula nuptias

Primum inquinavere, et genus et domos,
Hoc fonte derivata clades

In patriam populumque fluxit.

Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos
Matura Virgo; et fingitur artubus
Jam nunc, et incestos amores
De tenero meditatur ungui,

That thefe fchemes are too often planned and executed, not without the consciousness of the husband, we have but too much reafon to believe. The neceflity of repreffing the mifchief has attracted the notice of one Houfe of Parliament, and we trult that it will not for ever efcape the wisdom of the other.

It is excellently well obferved in the fentence before us, that the religion of the country has always mixed itself much in the confideration of its law upon the fubject of the marriage contract." The perfon by whom it is celebrated; the facred place in which the rites are performed; the awful nature of the ceremony itfelf; inveft it with a degree of religious veneration, of which it would be facrilegious folly to deprive it. The first attempt to reduce it in any cafe to the level of a common contract, was made by this ftatute. The policy of our ancestors were different. It was then a folemn indiffoluble compact, made in the prefence, and upon the altar of God; formed not only between the male and female who plight their troths to each other, but between them and that pofterity which they hope to produce, and the fociety with whom they affociate. The mode in which God first created man and woman was their guide and their type. In the frong metaphor of the

*Its confequences to the poor is the chief reafon which has induced Sir W. Blackitone to question the policy of the ftatute; ipeaking of it, he fays, "reftraints upon marriages, fpecially among the lower clafs, are evidently detrimental to the public, by hindering the increafe of the people; and to religion and morality, by encouraging licentioufneis and debauchery among the fingle of both fexes; and thereby defroying one end of fociety and government, which is concubitu prehibere vago." Com. p. 438.

ritual, the husband and his wife became of one bone and one fleth. Thofe who ufed fuch language, meant to exprefs by it, that an attempt to disjoin them, ought to be dictated by a neceffity not lefs ftrong, and followed by a struggle not lefs painful, than that which must attend an amputation from the body, which we have received from nature. We do not fay that an alteration in this our ancient and immemorial law, cannot be juftified on any account. But we think that it is to be justified alone upon the ftrongest and clearett grounds of neceflity. Whatever opinions we entertain, however, upon the subject, we feel how much it is our duty to fubmit with refpe&ful deference to the wifdom of the legislature. Such reflections as we have made, are intended as hints for the confideration of any member of either Houfe into whofe hands thefe pages come, and not as murmurs against the exifting law. We fhall conclude with a remark upon the claufe before us.

It contains no limitation, as to the time at which it can be brought to operate in any particular cafe. The marriage may be diffolved by the minor, or the friends of the minor, at the moft diftant period from its being made public. Equal power is given to the party who is of age, as to the minor who is not. The adult husband is invested with a privilege to break through thofe obligations when entered into with an innocent young female, which he would not poffefs if he had engaged with one who was in the ripeness of her years of ability to confider and contract for herself. It allows him to expel fimple innocence and beauty, as a ftrumpet from his arms and his houfe, and

It renders children thus born to a virtuous and wedded mother, illegitimate; and removes them, in cafes of ftrict fettlement, from the fair profpect of inheritance beyond the huf band's power to restore it by a more formal marriage. Such a provifion never did fpring from temperate meditation in the groves of the goddefs Egeria. Had it been devifed by Draco, (whofe laws are faid to have been written in blood) he would with inhuman exultation have caufed it to be infcribed, as Archimedes is faid to have caufed the fphere to be engraven on his tomb an emblem at once of his profeffion as a lawgiver, and his skill in devising of penal functions the moit crue! in their confequences, and extenfive in their operation..

AKT.

ART. III. A Topographical Defcription of Cumberland, Weftmorland, Lancashire, and a Part of the Weft-Riding of Yorkhire; comprehending, first, a General Introductory View; fecondly, A more detailed Account of each County, its Extent, general Appearance, Mountains, Caves, Rivers, Lakes, Canals, Soils, Roads, Minerals, Buildings, Market-Towns, Commerce, Manufactures, Agriculture, Antiquities, and the Manners and Cuftoms of its Inhabitants; thirdly, a Tour through the most interefting Parts of the District, defcribing, in a Concife and perfpicuous Manner, fuch Objects as are beft Worth the Attention of the curious Traveller and Tourist. Illuftrated with various Maps, Plans, Views, and other useful Appendages. By John Houfman. 8vo. 550 pp. 550 pp. Fine Demy, 10s. 6d. Superfine Medium, 12s. Law. 1800.

N our number for September laft, p. 451, we noticed to our readers Mr. Houfman's Guide to the Lakes, &c. which we perused with much pleasure, and recommended to future tourists as the molt fatisfactory Guide we had feen. Our remarks on that part of the work were very few, because we regarded it as a part only of a more extenfive publication, which is now brought to a conclufion, and appears in a more finished and complete form, enriched with a great variety of pleafing and interefting fubjects, which the author has arranged with confiderable method, and difcuffed in a plain and perfpicuous manner. Our curiofity has been highly gratified by the perufal of this volume, the contents of which we fhall now detail more at length, and reprefent impartially to our readers the merits. of the performance, which, though not faultlefs, has strong claims to the notice of the public.

The volume opens with a brief outline, descriptive of the general appearance and various produce of the kingdom; after which, the author proceeds to notice the most striking features of those counties which are more immediately the object of his attention.

From the ample title-page, which we have copied out at length, the reader may form fome idea of the contents of this part of the volume; and we can justly remark, that the candour and good fenfe of the author, entitle his obfervations to a confiderable share of attention and regard. The following fhort extract, defcriptive of the general appearance of Westmoreland, will furnish a fpecimen of this part of the work.

"The general appearance of this country is marked with fome of the ftrongeft features in nature; immenfe tracts of mountains, beautiful but contracted valleys, extenfive lakes, and large rocky diftricts, containing

containing many high, fteep, and bulging crags. Weftmoreland is not only encircled with mountains but the greatest part of its interior furface is fwelled into hills. The long range of heavy looking hills be fore-mentioned bounds the eastern fide of the county; in front of which is a pretty extensive tract of tolerably level ground. The reft of the country is almoft wholly hill and dale. Farm-houfes and fmall villages, beautifully covered with blue flate, and whitened with lime, are feated about the feet of the hills, with their small irregular fields spreading up the fides of the mountains, and almoft univerfally divided with ftone walls. This laft circumftance gives the country a naked appearance; but the numerous pieces of woodland interfperfed, enliven the scene, Every dell or hollow has its little brook or rivulet, and even the finalleft of thefe is plentifully fupplied with fish. Several low heathy commons are feen towards the eastern fide of Westmoreland; and the western fide is characterized with high ragged prominences, and even fome rocky plains, fmall coppices, and a large extent of low, flat, peat-mofs; while, on the north, the fine woods above Lowther add a striking feature to the landscape."

Of the remaining part of the volume, which is the most confiderable, containing the author's defcriptive tours through the diftrict, we fhall give a more minute analyfis, with fuch brief extracts as may enable our readers to form a judgment of his abilities as a writer.

The tour commences at Sheffield, the fouthern point of the district; and, after describing the flourishing state of its manufacture, of its hardware, population, and buildings, the author proceeds northwards, with a detailed account of the manufactories at Wakefield, Leeds, and Halifax; and a judicious report of the ftate of agriculture and produce of the country.

From Settle, which is briefly noticed, Mr. H. proceeds to vifit the Caves, &c. in its vicinity. Among a great variety of natural curiofities in this part of Yorkshire, Giggleswick Well, we think, deferves particular notice.

"About two miles from Settle, and close by the road, is that remarkable ebbing and flowing, or rather recipocrating well, which is defervedly noticed by all travellers who pafs that way. A ftone trough, of about a yard fquare, is placed over the fpring, with openings at different heights to admit the iffuing of the water at different times. Its reciprocations feem very irregular, and are faid almost to cease in times of very great rains, or long-continued droughts. Sometimes it will rife and fall near a foot in this refervoir every ten or fifteen minutes. In October, 1797, about one o'clock, P. M. this fingular well rofe and fell twice in ten minutes but very irregularly. Juft after our arrival the water began to fink, and in three minutes it fell five inches; it then continued ftationary for about half a minute, and afterwards rofe alinott to the fame height in lefs than one minute, boiling up violently in different places, and throwing out a quantity of fand. It afterwards fell one inch and a half, and then only rofe an inch. The

boiling,

boiling, or emiffion of water from the ground, feems to ftop almoft in ftantly, and to refume its operations, when it begins to flow again with equal abruptnefs.

This fingular phænomenon is difficult to be accounted for ; nor has it ever yet been fatisfactorily done. That conjecture, however, which fuppofes it to be occafioned by a natural Syphon in the bowels of the earth, though liable to fome objections, feems the most plausible.” P. 206.

From the Caves we are next conducted to Kendal, and from thence, by way of Lowther-Hall, &c. to Penrith, with a brief defcription of the Lake Haws-water, and other objects worthy of notice in the intervening country. The town of Penrith, and fome curiofities in its vicinity, are minutely noticed. Mr. H. proceeds next to vifit the romantic fcenery of Ulifwater and Patterdale, of which we are prefented with an elegantly engraved view, and fome accurate defcription. We could make fome pleafing extracts from this part of the volume; but the confined limits of our Review urge us to pursue the tour, by the nearelt road, to Kefwick; "the diftant profpect of which muft naturally excite the curiofity of every traveller, and render them impatient to take a nearer view of those romantic scenes around the matchlefs Lake of Derwentwater." Mr. Houfman feems to have examined minutely, and points out with great accuracy, the different ftations for viewing the Lake; and the molt eligible mode of vifiting the various objects of curiofity in this pleafing and romantic diftri&.

The view from Cattle-Crag, in Borrowdale, we will prefent to our readers.

Caftle Crag, a fomewhat detached mountain of rock, the fides of which are adorned with various forts of trees and fhrubs hanging from the fiffures, ftands nearly oppofite, on the right, in the very Pafs of Borrowdale. The view from its top will amply repay the labour of climbing thereto, which may be done up the narrow paths cut in the fide of the hill for carrying down the flate, quarried on its top. From bence the Lake and Vale of Kefwick are fpread out before us in the moft picture que manner; the village of Grange ftands romantically below us, at the foot of the rock, beyond which every bend of the river, as it ferpentizes through a range of marthy meadows to the lake, may be diftinctly traced; the fides of the lake feem diftended, and its length contracted; while little iflands, like fo many gems, decorate its bofor in a beautiful manner. The firip of low ground, along the line of fhore on each fide, is nearly loft in the vaftnefs of its circumfcribing neighbours; thofe furly guardians (which) with all their beautiful ac companiments of projecting rocks, and hanging woods coloured in various tiots, drop down almoft perpendicularly to the lake, and form a barrier infinitely more strong and grand, than the famous wall of China. At the lower end of the lake, the cultivated vale, interspersed