OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 195 the latter was Doctor Woolston s son-in-law, and he altered his theory a little to create a respectable point of disagree ment ; while Doctor Woolston could not pardon a disaffec tion that took place, as it might be, in the height of a war. About this time too, Mrs. Yardley died. All these occurrences, united to the protracted absence of Mark, made Bridget and Anne extremely unhappy. To increase this unhappiness, Doctor Yardley took it into his head to dispute the legality of a marriage that had been solemnized on board a ship. This was an entirely new legal crotchet, but the federal government was then young, and jurisdictions had not been determined as clearly as has since been the case. Had it been the fortune of Doctor Yardley to live in these later times, he would not have given himself the trouble to put violent constructions on any thing ; but, getting a few female friends to go before the necessary judge, with tears in their eyes, anything would be granted to their requests, very much as a matter of course. Failing of this, moreover, there is always the re source of the legislature, which will usually pass a law taking away a man s wife, or his children, and sometimes his estate, if a pretty pathetic appeal can be made to it, in the way of gossip. We have certainly made great progress in this country, within the last twenty years; but whether it has been in a direction towards the summit of human perfection, or one downward towards the destruction of all principles, the next generation will probably be better able to say than this. Even the government is getting to be gossipian. In the case of Bridget, however, public sympathy was with her, as it always will be with a pretty woman. Never theless, her father had great influence in Bucks county, more especially with the federalists and the anti-depletion- ists, and it was in his power to give his daughter great uneasiness, if not absolutely to divorce her. So violent did he become, that he actually caused proceedings to be commenced in Bridget s name, to effect a legal separation, taking the grounds that the marriage had never been con summated, that the ceremony had occurred on board a ship, that the wife was of tender years, and lastly, that she was an heiress. Some persons thought the Doctor s pro-
