Inasmuch as he was over thirty years of age at this time, it may be
thought that he might have been left to choose a wife for himself. But
a young officer of rank in France, under the Old Regime, was not so
free in these matters as he would be nowadays. Marriage was much more
than a personal affair. It was even more than a family affair. People
of rank did not so much marry as "make alliances" - or rather, submit
to having them made for them. It was quite a regular thing for a
marriage to be arranged by the families of two young people who had
never even seen each other. An example of that kind will appear
presently.
The idea that the Comte de Laperouse, one of the smartest officers in
the French King's navy, should marry out of his rank and station,
shocked his relatives and friends as much as it would have done if he
had been detected picking pockets. He could not, without grave risk of
social and professional ruin, marry until he had obtained the
consent of his father, and - so naval regulations required - of his
official superiors. Both were firmly refused. Monsieur de Ternay, who
commanded on the Ile-de-France station, shook his wise head, and told
the lover "that his love fit would pass, and that people did not
console themselves for being poor with the fact that they were
married." (This M. de Ternay, it may be noted, had commanded a French
squadron in Canada in 1762, and James Cook was a junior officer on the
British squadron which blockaded him in St. John's Harbour.
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