98
DISREGARD OF MARRIAGE VOWS.
sacred in the eyes of God as if his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury had pronounced the nuptial benediction. Among such an immense number of negroes, it is almost impossible to discover the offenders in this respect against common decency, although the clergymen are generally indefatigable in their exertions to discover the truth. Still, vigilant as they are, they have been deceived ; and instances are known, where parties have been twice married, even in the episcopal church. In some cases, a wedding-party have assembled within the sacred walls, the intended bride and bridegroom waiting at the altar until the lips of the presiding minister shall have made them one ; when, as that solemn charge has been given, " If either of you know any impediment why ye may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it,'' those important words, “ I do," have been suddenly heard, and (as in most cases) a female has come forward declaring that herself and the guilty beau had been long ago married at the chapel. When such circumstances have occurred, and the clergyman refused to re-marry them, it has been no unfrequent practice for the parties to embark on board a small vessel, and proceeding to Monserrat, or some other island, there to procure the completion of their unhallowed purpose. Another evil to be deplored is, that even when parties are lawfully joined in the bands of wedlock, they pay such little regard to the solemnity of the act. The smart dresses, (for which often they commit an unlawful deed,) the plentiful breakfast, or lunch, the gilded cake, and the driving about in borrowed gigs, is much more thought of by them than the serious, the important promise of loving one another in sickness and in health, and, forsaking all others, cleave only unto them who, by the ordinances of God and man, are made one flesh. From this want of regard to the serious part of the ceremony, great mischief ensues. As soon as the novelty has worn off, the husband forgets the wife he ought to cherish, and the wife forgets his honour which she is bound to protect. The old leaven cleaves about them,