Do you really never give advice? Even if you saw one of your children wandering towards what you knew was a crumbling cliff edge?

In Regency England, a decision about marriage was a very grave one for a woman. She could almost certainly not get a divorce, she was legally the property of her husband, and could be beaten without legal recourse. And she lost control of her own money. I think a woman in the position of a mother had a lot of reason to worry and give advice - it is a shame that Lady Russell lacked the penetration of character that would make it good advice. But I cannot regard it as pathological at all, and I can understand Lady Russell's reasoning well enough, even if I do not agree with it.