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The proposed change, it is said, would alter the domestic relations, and diminish the comforts, of the parties principally concerned. The husband would no longer be regarded as a safe chaperon (this is the favourite word) for his sister-in-law; and no sister-in-law could live with a widower without reproach, unless she became his wife.
The fear of such a consequence (admitting it to be at all probable) would be an insufficient reason for refusing to legislate in the present instance, unless the lower class is to be entirely laid out of the question. The poor know nothing of chaperons: they are obliged to get who they can to take care of their families; and their domestic arrangements could not be disadvantageously affected by the change. But it is unnecessary to press this topic, because the objection proceeds altogether upon a mistake.
There are only two principles upon which the kind of intimacy in question between persons of different sexes, is sanctioned by the habits of society.
1. On the ground that sexual passion is completely excluded.
2. From reliance on age and character, or from a belief that men will not inflict a gross wrong on those dear to them, or be guilty of crime
