into the abyss of cold cynical indifference as to the purity of our national life, I implore all men to aid us in resisting the proposed change of the home life of England.
A friend smiled when I said, "I would rather hear of the landing of 300,000 French at Dover than of the passing of this Bill." It was no exaggeration of my feelings. We can, and should, repel an external foe; but inward decay and rottenness will destroy us, sap our morals, and our only life worth having is at an end. Rome was burnt by the Gauls, but the Roman senate was unappalled. Hannibal caused her power to shrink to the dimensions of her walls, but a Roman nobly bought at full price the ground on which he had encamped. In the reign of Claudius, on the contrary, she seemed to command the known world, but that decree by which he was permitted to impugn her moral code showed that she was tottering to her fall. And most firmly do I believe, that the first breach in the social laws of England that govern marriage will be a clear indication of a moral failure, and a fall graver than any that ancient or modern history has recorded.
Believe me.
Dear Mr. Dean,
Yours most faithfully,
W. P. WOOD.
February, 1861.
