Divorces may be obtained under peculiar circumstances, but they are attended with a good deal of expense. The women are generally virtuous; for their constant occupation leaves little leisure for the mind to become corrupted. Ladies of the highest rank are busy at the labors of the loom. When the British envoy made a formal visit to the queen’s mother, he found her maidens in the gallery of the palace, weaving with the utmost activity. Nearly all the cotton and silk used in the Birman empire is woven at home by the women. Indeed, they take an active share in the general superintendence both of out-door and in-door transactions. When the governor of Maindu had a large ship on the stocks, his wife was seen to cross the river every morning in her husband’s barge, attended by female servants; she took her seat on the timbers, and superintended the workmen for hours; and she seldom failed to come again in the evening, to see that the day’s task had been completed. The Englishmen, who observed her, said her husband never accompanied her, and she appeared to have no need of his assistance. But notwithstanding the Birmese ladies enjoy so much more of freedom and confidence than their neighbors, they share something of the degradation imposed upon all Asiatic women. Their evidence is not deemed equal to that of a man, and they are not allowed to ascend the steps of a court of justice, but are obliged to give their testimony outside of the building. A man who cannot pay his debts is liable to be sold, with his wife and children; hence innocent, industrious women not unfrequently suffer most cruelly for the vices or indolence of their husbands. Sometimes when criminals are condemned to death, the helpless wife and children share his punishment. When driven by poverty, the lower class of Birmans do not hesitate to sell their wives and daughters to foreign residents. Women are not considered as dishonored by these circumstances, and seem easily to resign themselves to their lot. They are generally very faithful to their new owners, and render themselves useful by keeping accounts, and aiding in the transaction of business. But foreigners are never allowed to carry these women or their children out of the country. If a vessel were discovered with a Birmese female on board, it would never again be allowed to enter any of their ports. Orders of monks are established in the Birman empire, and formerly there were establishments of nuns; but, for political reasons, a law was passed forbidding any woman to seclude herself from society by a religious vow.