On the Laws respecting Marriage. RESPECTING the view in which the law in this country considers marriage, it treats it as a civil contract; as to its tendency, it is regarded as all other contracts. By several statutes a penalty of one hundred pounds is inflicted for marrying any person without banns or licence; but by 26 Gro. III. cap. 33, if any person solemnize marriage without banns or licence from one duly qualified, or in any other place than a church or chapel where banns are usually published, unless by special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury, he shall be guilty of felony, and be transported for fourteen years, and the marriage be void. Marriages, according to the legal forms of other countries, are valid in this. Parties marrying under twenty-one, must have the consent of their parents or guardians; and, if the mother be insane, or beyond sea, the Lord Chancellor will proceed upon relation in their stead. Marriages, within the Levitical rules of consanguinity, are not legal; but, if solemnized, are not void till after sentence of the episcopal court. To marry an heiress by force is a capital felony. Bigamy, in law, respects either woman or man; and is when a second marriage takes place before the death of the first wife or husband. Formerly, this offence was punished with death, but it is now felony, with benefit of clergy. --- In Bigamy, the first wife cannot be evidence. against her lawful husband, but the second may, as the last marriage is not valid; and vice versa on the man's part. The Act allows five exceptions: First, When either party has been abroad seven years; Secondly,-Where either party has not seen each other for seven years, (though in the kingdom,) and there is no knowledge that the other party is alive; Thirdly,-Where there is a divorce from bed and board; Fourthly,--Or wholly from the marriage chain; Fifthly,-Where the parties are under age. Notwithstanding the laws against Bigamy have received the sanction of the legislature and our religion, innumerable cases are always presenting themselves, in which these laws become cruelly oppressive. If a man or woman, after marriage, prove abandoned, drunken, insane, or prostituted, there is no redress; the reproachless party is compelled to drag on a life of disappointment and of misery. In all cases of this kind, the law acts diametrically opposite to its intention: the unoffending are punished in mind, body, and estate, and the culprit inflicts the misery consequent to an indissoluble tie. In cases of adultery, the rich can obtain redress; but the expense of prosecuting a suit of divorce in the House of Peers, to annul a marriage, is an entire prohibition to a poor man's prospect of justice, and, as he dare not, without felony, venture to take a virtuous wife, and no prudent woman will marry the worthiest of men under such circumstances, the injured husband flies to unlawful embraces, and thus, in declining to offend against the laws of man, he violates those of God. Pope Innocent was the first who ordained the celebration of marriage in a church; before which it was totally a civil contract. And in the times of the grand rebellion, all marriages were performed by the justice of peace, and these marriages were declared valid. In Scotland, the parties being together as man and wife, or declaring themselves. so before witnesses, makes a valid though informal marriage. All legislatures ought to encourage the legal union of the sexes. The anxieties for the provision of a family are so many, that it acts with all the prudent as a restrictive barrier. Dr. Halley observes, were it not for the backwardness in marrying, there might be four times as many births as we find. By computation it appears there are 15,000 persons above sixteen, and under forty-five, of whom at least 7,000 are women capable of bearing. Yet there are only 1238, or little more then a sixth part of these, who breed yearly; whereas, were they all married, it is highly pro3 E 18. 394 REMARKS ON THE LAWS, &c. bable that four or six would bring forth a child every year, the political consequences of which are evident; hence those who have numerous families should be allowed certain immunities. From the censuses, however, which have been taken in the present century, notwithstanding the long wars that have destroyed the human species and the activity of the Republican guillotine, mankind have considerably increased in number. Inoculation was to the natural small-pox what vaccination has been to inoculation; the infant races are preserved, and become the fathers of fresh stocks; added to which medicine and the facilities of cleanliness have improved. Marriage, it is true, is not expedient to all, and the propriety of it is much influenced by circumstances; but the Apostle Paul in the most delicate and direct manner has expressed his sentiments on this head. Though religiously an advocate for celibacy himself, he does not enjoin it when it may come in counteraction with propensities ordained by God, and sanctioned from the time of creation in the first pair. The Roman Church, taking up the practice and doctrine of St. Paul, has enjoined celibacy to the priesthood; but our church wisely has not made this essential to the true serving of God, for a clergyman is in his highest character when he serves the Deity by his piety, and his country by his paternal example, -000· 395 INDEX. EUROPE. TURKEY.-Adam and Eve in Paradise, 1.-Laws of England GREECE.-Marriage honorable among the ancient Greeks, 57.— › RUSSIA -Ceremonies of marriage, 98.-Promiscuous bathing |