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proper. Looking at the policy of such connexions, it has always struck me, that there is one decisive argument against legislation on the subject, and that is this: — from the habits of society, and the domestic arrangements of different classes of the community, the rich and the poor, in this matter, do not stand at all on the same ground.
It is an assumed thing, almost universally, that it is a positive good for the Sister-in-law to have the charge of the children, to be domesticated with them, to be all to them that any mother's substitute can be. Now, in our rank of life, I believe that good is more likely to be obtained by having the law as it is. Many a woman of marriageable age would feel more free to go and live with the widower, if the thought of a future union was an excluded thing from both minds. There is so much of sensitiveness in a great many minds upon points of that sort, that the step, which would seem the most natural in the world, might be declined, or taken with hesitation and reluctance, provided an opening were given for ill-natured comment, or a want of entire propriety were hinted by prudish friends. Whether more marriages would take place under an altered state of law, I cannot tell; but, I cannot help thinking, the opportunities for them would be lessened — that is, that the Widower and the Sister-in-law would less frequently have one common home.
On the other hand, looking at the poor, and the size of their houses, generally, it is quite clear that if it be desirable for the aunt to be the trainer; then it
