It visits the sins of the parents on the children; it encourages
vice by depriving fathers and mothers of the strongest of all motives
for making the atonement of marriage; and it claims to produce these two
abominable results in the names of morality and religion. But it has
no extraordinary oppression to answer for in the case of these unhappy
girls. The more merciful and Christian law of other countries, which
allows the marriage of the parents to make the children legitimate, has
no mercy on _these_ children. The accident of their father having been
married, when he first met with their mother, has made them the outcasts
of the whole social community; it has placed them out of the pale of
the Civil Law of Europe. I tell you the hard truth--it is useless to
disguise it. There is no hope, if we look back at the past: there may
be hope, if we look on to the future. The best service which I can now
render you is to shorten the period of your suspense. In less than an
hour I shall be on my way back to London. Immediately on my arrival,
I will ascertain the speediest means of communicating with Mr. Michael
Vanstone; and will let you know the result.
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