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

El2t ~StoarlyNt Voctiftr.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1569.

•
OTTR ILARS,IAGS LAWS.
The relation of ivarrie•C is 50 holy and etered
that it is painful to think if. should be the sport
of lase :ea C.18t0015 of a coallicting ch deicter,
and this hi a country—to epee:: tor it moment of
the United Kiiigdom as a emmtry —where mar-
riage in itself is held hi as high hooour as
among any nation of the earth. In Etiglend,
Sentienfl, as I ireliad thero have ben for cen-
turies various religions sects and parties, and it
is a matter of necessity, therefore, that mar-
riage should he looked at from different points
of view. Two leading differences of opinion
are that marriage is a religi ma compact, Slid
that it is but a civil cootract, but those who ad- .
Tecate the latter idea do not for a moment deny
its sacred charaeter—sacred in the sense of
earnest, binding, and solemn. This, indeed, is
the 11111Ventili opinion in oar highly civilised
country. Marriage is a ;solemn co:upact, or it
Is nothing ; it is ahaut the most important
engegement rn.in or woin in c in undertake, or it
Ii a hidNete mockery. B.,ing so, it is indieput-
able Viet the cog 'gement sheen be entered in-
to on ler the solonan sanction of universally re-
cognieeed law, and that this law should be plain,
intelligible, and uniform.
We are of opinion that" the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland " should, as far as
differences of nationality will permit„ be gov-
erned by uniform laws. We never could under-
stand why bills ehoolil be introduced into Par-
liament to apply to England only, and that for
years —it may be for generations—the other
parts of the same " united kingdom" subject to
different laws. In nine cases out of ten there
is no valid excuse for this variety of treatment.
In the case of the Reform Act, as one exception,
we can understand that the differences in the
tenure of land and houses and the different
vitae of rentals should be some reason for dif-
ference of treatment ; and there may be other
cases where varieties of national customs may
make uniform leeislation difficult, if not impos-
sible ; but the relations of the duties of parents
are the same in every portion of the United
Kingdom, and there does not seem to us one
eounii, logical reason why the marriage law .
throughout the Kingdom should not be uniform.
But what is the fact? That we have numerous
confl:cting laws and customs which are contin-
ually producing the most perplexing, and some-
times the most ilisasteroue results.
Sir Roundel' Palmer has done well to draw
public attention to this conflict of law and cus-
tom, and it is the imperative duty of the people
to study this disgracefully anomelous state of
our jurisprudence in order that when Parliaineet
again meets we may he prepared for a reform
which is urgently needed. We need but glance
at a few of these anomalies to see into what a
pitiful state of chaos and uncertainty we have
drifted, whereas the important character of the
marriage melte it detwinde simplicity and Ind-
foretity • In li elatal there are "at heist " five
differ.eit uirtleels of getting married, end if a
• Cat-hullo erieet celebrates the untrriege be-
tween a C.o.liulie ati4 a 11,1,..1“ WII.I IS or who has
been withiu a year a er..tialaut, tha pri. at is
quitty a a exiinoial offense I In Scotland rage.