The Express.
London, England, 1862-01-28 00:00:00

LAW AMENDMENT SOCIETY.

The fifth general meeting of the members of
this society was bald last evening the society's rooms,
in Waterloo-place, R. P. COLLIER, ~ M.P., in the chair,
for the purpose of hearing • paper be Mr. G. Hastings,
oss " The Marriage Laws of the United Kingdom."
The paper commenced by declaring the desirability of
thaimilatiog the marriage laws at the United Kingdom,
width at present widely differed. There way three mow
tad conditions necessary to a good marriage law—firstly,
publicity ; secondly, certainty ; and thirdly, an authentic
record. The paper then reviewed the marriage laws in
England from the Anglo-Saxon period down to the present
time—they being now, it was said, in • tolerably satisfactory
state. The state of Irish law was not se satisfactory, inas-
much as by the net of Gee. It. any marriage performed by
a Roman catholic priest, where the parties were not
both Roman catholic', was considered illegal. Lord
Campbell, last session, bad introduced • bill
which, when it became law, would remedy this
evil. In other respects the law in England
and Ireland was similar. It was in Scotland that the
greatest dissimilarity existed in the marriage law, and
which required, in the interests of morality, immediate
alteration. The law of Scotland recognised three systems
of marriage, the first a regular marriage before witnesses in
church, the other two irregular, viz., by a verbal
contract between the man and woman in the presence of a
witness, and the marriage by repute, or where a man cubs-
hada with • woman, and chase to nay in public she was his
y orlon wh e
ofh wife. The paper contended this was a wrong upon the
woman, instancing the Dalyrmple and Mouotgarret mums as
example& It was the source of unchsatity amongst ;
the lower
presromenaeds, atond.thgerecaatimaeu oefittehentfarrodnguliPanKmdi
women in Scotlaud. The paper contended that this immo-
rality could only be checked, and a proper protection given
to the women of Scotland, by at once assimilating the
marriage law in that country to the other parts of the
kingdom.
A long and interesting discussion ensued, in which Meths.
Wingfield, Flood. Rochfort Clarke, E. Webster, James Hay-
wood, and the Chairman, took part—Messrs. Clarke and
Webster defending the Scotch law, and contending that int-
morality existed to as great aa extent in England as in
Scotland.
Mr. HASTINOR replied, contending that there were more
illegitimate children born in Scotland than in England in
proportion to the population, which be considered a sign of
greater immorality.
A vote of thanks WAS given to Mr. Hastings for his paper,
which was ordered, to be printed, and the meeting concluded.
DISASTERS; tic Tux lixsi CIIAIRIEL.—The gale of
last week in the Irish Channel has caused an amount of
damage to shipping which was not at first anticipated. It
appears that a violent hurricane raged almost without in-
termission on Wednesday night and Thursday, causing
much devastation on the Welsh and Irish waste. Already
a very great number of disasters have been reported at
Lloyd's. The Black Ball line ship Indian Ocean was lite-
rally smashed to pieces at Mineheed, some ten miles south-
east of Waterford, and little of her cargo or wreck is ex-
pected to be saved. The Fury (steam tug), from Milford,
with the Jules in tow, a quantity of floating wreck,
apgareatly from a ship or barque. Also passed • ship
eateries with tackles bound on. The Thornhill, from Car-
diff for Halifax, has returned with decks swept, boats
washed overboard, cook drowned, and several of her crew
• disabled.