kind of “marrying for money” that is constantly practised in France. It is no more than a sort of partial prudence in cases where complete prudence would be not to marry at all. [Sidenote: Moderate Prudence rare in England.] In England this sort of _moderate_ deference to prudential considerations is comparatively rare. An Englishman marries for affection decidedly, or for money with equal decision. He despises a small dowry. The same man may marry for pure love with absolute disdain of money, or he may sacrifice affection and seek for a wealthy heiress. He would not, like a Frenchman, be turned aside from a love-match by five or six hundred pounds. [Sidenote: Imprudence in the English Lower Classes.] Nearly all ranks in France are moderately prudent with regard to marriage, but in England it is only the comfortable classes that are so. The imprudence of the lower middle classes and of the people is almost without limit. They talk about marriage, and they enter upon it, exactly as if pecuniary difficulties had no existence. One of my friends was invited to a wedding where rather genteel appearances were observed, but nobody except himself had any cash. At the end of the ceremony the young bridegroom approached him and borrowed fourteen shillings to pay the fees. The money was never returned. [Sidenote: Marrying for Marriage only.] [Sidenote: A Decision to Marry.] [Sidenote: Clerical Influence.] [Sidenote: Orthodoxy.] [Sidenote: Morality.] I think it may fairly be said that there is more marrying _simply for marriage_ in France than in England. What I mean may be made clearer by a particular instance. A French lady once told me and several other people that her son was going to be married. “Who is the young lady?” I inquired. “Oh,” she answered, “I only mean that my son has decided to marry, he has not yet fixed upon any young lady; that is a matter for future consideration.” This, I should say, is very characteristic of French habits of thought about marriage. A young Frenchman will live on for some years without troubling his head about the matter, when suddenly, nobody knows why, he will come to the conclusion that he ought to get married, and then he will very likely ask some old lady to manage the business for him. In the clerical party marriages are often made by priests, who have great influence in finding rich girls for young men likely to be dutiful sons of the Church. Open unbelievers cannot hope to benefit by these influences. In England also a reputation for strict orthodoxy is very valuable to a young gentleman at the time of marriage; it is, in fact, or certainly was some years ago, more valuable than a reputation for morality. I myself have known instances of young Englishmen who married well and were known to be immoral, when they would not have had the most distant chance of “marrying money” if they had not been regular attendants at divine worship. [Sidenote: The Author’s Opinion.]