my tongue. That very many of the graver crimes laid at the Indian's
door, and the revolting heinousness of which the records of our courts
reveal; may be traced to his prescribing for himself, and practising,
a lax standard of morals, is a statement which it would be idle to
dispute. That the marriage tie exacts from him not the most onerous of
interpretations, and that the scriptural basis for a sound morality,
involved in the declaration, "and they twain shall be one flesh," not
seldom escapes, in his case, its full and due honoring, are, likewise,
affirmations not susceptible of being refuted. That, for instance, is
not a high notion of marital constancy (marital is scarcely the term,
for I am speaking now of the pagan, who rejects the idea of marriage,
though often, I confess, living happily and uninterruptedly with the woman
of his choice) which permits the summary disruption of the bond between
man and woman; nor is paternal responsibility rigorously defined by one,
who causes to cease, at will, his labor and care for, and support of,
his children, leaving the reassuring of these to those children contingent
upon the mother finding some one else to give them and herself a home.

To follow a lighter vein for a moment. The Police Magistrate at
Brantford, before whom many of these little domesticities come for
their due appreciation (for they disclose, often, elements of really
baffling complexity) not less than their ventilation and unravelling,
is an eminently peace-loving man, and quite an adept at patching up
such-like conjugal trifles. He will dispense from his tribunal sage
advice, and prescribe remedial measures, which shall have untold efficacy,
in dispelling mutual mistrust, restoring mutual confidence, and bringing
about a lasting re-union. He will interpose, like some potent magician,
to transform a discordant, recriminating, utterly unlovely couple, into
a pair of harmless, peaceable, love-consumed doves. There rises before
my mind a case for illustration. A couple lived on the Reserve, whose