The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-08-14 00:00:00

THE ANOMALIES OF OUR MARRIAGE

LAWS.
Refereng to the antiquated system of publishing the
" which is scarceiy in keeping with the present time,
the Daily News enquires :
Is there any reason why in these days weshould keep
up the old and inconvenient practice of marrying by
banns? We put the question because of the preposter-
ous demands which in many cases are being made on
the patience of congregations. No doubt there are
district churches where a few more of such interruptions
to the service would be easily borne by incumbents not
•iverburdened with surplice fees ; but in many parish
churches the reading of a list of names which seems as
if it would never end is an intolerable nuisance. At
Lambeth Parish Church, in London. on Sunday morn-
ing week, the publication of the banns of marriage oc-
cupied a longer time than the delivery of the sermon.
If society were really served by this mode of publica-
tion, po douiit congregations would be content to sit
and hear with patience of the reciprocal domestic
intentions of James Joiner and Mary Muffin. But
it is not served thus, awl the clergy are the first
to admit that the system of banns, as generally
practised, guarantees nothing whatever, not
even the prevention of illegal marriages; besides
which, being merely an alternative system, if it did
operate to secure a useful puliiicity it would be avoided
whenever secrecy was desired. When Anna Matilda
Rosebud, for whose name lads and lasses have been
vainly listening after the second lesson for these three
months, really proceeds to matrimony, she shuns her
• own accustomed church, and it is some congregation
miles away that hears her name proclaimed as
this parish," where she has perhaps hired an apart
ment, or whither she has gone to visit a friend. At
present churchgoers endure the reading of a long string
of words which convey no notion whatever to their
minds, without the consolation that they are rendering
any nervien to anybody. It is an inconvenience which
ight be easily abated.

-
Commenting on the anomalies existing in our marriage
laws, the Daily 7'elelirapit zemarks
As Sir Roundel' Palmer showed on Friday night,
the marriage laws of this country are in a state of
sodulalous confusion. Tney represent, not a system,
but a chaos. Even England, although less open to re-
proach in this respect than either Scotland or Ireland,
has a confused taucle of laws relating to the entrance
into the most important relation of life.
Members of the Established Church are uncle one
Act and Din - enters under another. A Churchman
may be married by process of banns or by special
licence; that is, he may either have his intention
shouted in the public ear, or, for the payment of a fee,
may obtain such secrecy and despatch as were once the
chief charms of Gretna Green. A Nonconformist, on
the other hand, may be married by a civil registrar ;
he signs his name, pays his money, aid takes his
choice. From the other Dissenters the Quakers are
cut off, Rnd haves law of their own. And, as Sir
Roundel' pointed out, marliages between members of
the Established Church, although in themfseives open
to no ohjectiou whatever, ale null and void if cele-
brated in a church which has not been properly conse-
crated, or in a different parish from that in which the
banns have been called.
Ireland is in a still worse plight, having no fewer
than five or six different nieshods of marriage. The
members of the Episcopal Church are under the same
system as those of England. Roman Catholics may
be joined togethes in holy matrimony without going
through the preliminary process of banns, and merely
by the aid of a priest belonging to their own commit.
Mon. In the presence of a hedge priest, Pat and
Biddy may join hands, and then be legally united for
life. But no priest is permitted to unite a Roman
Catholic and a Protestant; and, if he attempt to do so,
the union is void, and he himself is guilty of a statutable
offence. Moreover, in Ireland every telkious sect has
a law of its own.
As for Scotland, who shall sing the praises of the
chaotic confusion which characterises its marriage
laws? The Gretna Green weddings have disappeared;
and, indeed, it was runaway couples from England,
and not from Scotland, who availed themselves of that
historic sanctuary. Now, as before, the great majority
of the Scotish unions are solemnised by the "minister,"
after the minion clerk has read the brae on three