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prohibiting such marriages, come round to the conviction, that it is best to sanction them? Why are they constantly taking place in England in defiance of the law? or why are so many persons desirous of contracting them? In the case of a sister by blood, the feeling has commenced in infancy, grown with our growth, and strengthened with our strength. In the case of a wife's sister, we receive no assistance from habit; on the contrary, the acquaintance may have commenced with the very inclination we are expected to suppress. The difference is so radical, that, if all the nations in the world were to co-operate for the purpose, they could not put the two cases on a par, they could not make men regard their wives' sisters as their own; and the strictest law made by a single state, in opposition to the general feeling, would have no moral influence at all.
In Curran's celebrated speech against the late Marquis of Headfort, he supposes a warning voice thus addressing the noble defendant prior to the completion of the crime: "Pause, my lord, while there is yet a moment for reflection. What are your motives, what your views, what your prospects,—from what you are about to do? You are a married man, the husband of the most amiable and respectable of women; you cannot look to the chance of marrying this wretched
