The laws of England prevail in the United States, with slight modifications. Marriages are not generally performed in the church, because the dissenting sects are more numerous than Catholics or Episcopalians. The ceremony is legal when performed by a magistrate, but a clergyman is universally preferred. Fathers give portions to daughters, according to their wealth, and it is a rare thing for a bride to be entirely destitute. It is customary for women to purchase their furniture, which is generally arranged in the house by some of the bride’s female friends. Divorces are very uncommon. Infants are never wrapped in the swaddling bands, ligatures, and biggins, still used in many European countries. Of late years, even that pretty ornament, the cap, is generally dispensed with, in conformity with the advice of physicians, except at baptism and on other ceremonious occasions. As yet, it is an uncommon circumstance, even among the rich, for a mother not to nurse her own children. Great freedom is allowed to young people; particularly during courtship. In old times, the North Holland custom prevailed in interior parts of the country, to considerable extent. It is a universal practice for lovers to remain with the objects of their choice several hours after other members of the family have retired to rest. Aristocratic people do indeed consider this custom ungenteel, and urge upon their daughters the scrupulous etiquette of more corrupt countries. “The spirit of the age” is unfavorable to the old-fashioned doctrine of “falling in love;” even literature, which formerly represented this passion as the moving-spring of all human action, now generally ridicules its power. This influence has extended in a considerable degree to America; and mothers are not wanting who will consent to sell their daughters to the highest bidder, though the bargain is accompanied with formalities, supposed to render it much more respectable than the sale of Circassian girls in the Turkish markets. But while the country is so prosperous, and there are such facilities for gaining a living, matches of interest will continue to be exceptions to the general rule. Stolen marriages can be solemnized, without the consent of friends, at Providence, Rhode Island, as at Gretna Green, in Great Britain; but there is seldom any serious opposition from parents to render such a step excusable. There are very few convents in the United States. The nearest approach to them among Protestants are the establishments of Shakers, where the brethren and sisters live in different dwellings, and enter the meeting-house by different doors. These people are proverbial for neatness and industry; but their unnatural mode of life induces something of automaton regularity, which is painful to a free spirit.