From the hour when a thought of obligation influences either party to it, the marriage becomes a prostitution." ("The Earthward Pilgrimage," pp. 289, 290, 291). A remarkable instance of the permanence of unions dissoluble at pleasure is to be found related by Robert Dale Owen, in an article entitled "Marriage and Placement," which appeared in the _Free Inquirer_ of May 28, 1831. It deals with the unions between the sexes in the Haytian Republic, and the facts therein related are well worthy of serious attention. Mr. Owen writes:-- "Legal marriage is common in St. Domingo as elsewhere. Prostitution, too, exists there as in other countries. But this institution of _placement_ is found nowhere, that I know of, but among the Haytians. "Those who choose to marry, are united, as in other countries, by a priest or magistrate. Those who do not choose to marry, and who equally shrink from the mercenary embrace of prostitution, are (in the phraseology of the island) _placés_: that is, literally translated, _placed._ "The difference between _placement_ and marriage is, that the former is entered into without any prescribed form, the latter with the usual ceremonies: the former is dissoluble at a day's warning, the latter is indissoluble except by the vexatious and degrading formalities of divorce; the former is a tacit social compact, the latter a legal compulsory one; in the former the woman gives up her name and her property; in the latter, she retains both. "Marriage and placement are, in Hayti, equally respectable, or, if there be a difference, it is in favour of placement; and in effect ten placements take place in the island for one marriage. _Pétion_, the Jefferson of Hayti, * sanctioned the custom by his approval and example. _Boyer_, his successor, the president, did the same; ** and by far the largest portion of the respectable inhabitants have imitated their presidents, and are _placed_, not married. The children of the placed have, in every particular, the same legal rights and the same standing as those born in wedlock. * "It may suffice, in illustration of Pétion's character, to quote the touching inscription found on his tomb--'Here lies Pétion, who enjoyed for twelve years absolute power, and during that period never caused one tear to flow.'"