Besides, ~one should not judge a natural occurrence so severely~, especially one who is not over virtuous himself. Disgust is bound to result in matrimony, and by their acquaintance with other amiable persons ~all men and women are induced to be faithless. How can we be punished for something we have been forced to do?~” In 1772 the British ambassador, Lord Malmesbury, wrote the following in regard to conditions in Berlin: “moral depravity prevails among both sexes of all classes. To this is added a general insufficiency of means, due partly to the heavy taxes imposed by the king, and partly to the love of luxury introduced by his grandfather. The men lead a dissolute life notwithstanding their limited means, and the women are shameless harlots. They deliver themselves up to the one able to pay the highest price; modesty and true love are foreign to them.” The worst conditions existed in Berlin during the rule of Frederick William II. from 1786 to 1797. He set his people the worst possible example. His court chaplain, Zoellner, even degraded himself by marrying the king to his courtesan, Julie von Voss, although he had another wife; and when she died soon after in childbirth, Zoellner again consented to marry the king to another one of his courtesans, the Countess Sophie von Doenhoff. Other rulers had set an equally bad example at the beginning of the century. In July, 1706, Duke Louis of Wurtemberg married, as an additional wife, his courtesan, Gravenitz, the “corrupter of the country,” as she is still called in Wurtemberg. His cousin, Duke Leopold, still excelled him in profligacy, for he had three wives simultaneously, two of which were sisters. Of his thirteen children he joined two in marriage. The doings of these sovereigns caused much comment among their subjects, but that was all. The marriage of the Duke of Wurtemberg with Graevenitz was annulled by imperial intervention. But she entered into a mock marriage with a profligate count, and thereupon remained for twenty years more the duke’s concubine and the “corrupter of the country.” 2.--Commercialism and the New Marriage Laws.