The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-09-19 00:00:00

-..-•••••••M.w.

The present Marriage Act stands on our records
as a monument of human folly. It meets with op-
position in every quarter; but if the people felt and
acted.. they ought on such an occasion, they would,
as soon as the Parliament re-assembled, insist on
its erasure from the Statute Book. The principle
on which it is founded is jute, that parties solemnly
married, though the banns should be irregular, or
the license improperly obtained, shall not, after
cohabitation, for such irregulatity, annul the con-
tract ; but this principle presents itself to the ostler'
in the midst of language the most obscure, of blun-
ders the most disgusting, of forms the most absurd,
and of regulations the most intricate. The Act of
20 George 11. was bad enough ; and the law that
compelled the poor, who could not afford a license,
to have their banns read three times in the church,
is a blot its our code. It is the duty of a statesman
to contribute all io his power to keep the morals of
the people in purity, and a wise statesman would
endeavour to preserve the delicacy of females. A
judicious regulation often produces effects which
the most sangiiiiie could not anticipate; and it is
easy to corrupt, but difficult to purify a people.
In this age in vain may we expect a sanctity of man-
ners, whilst a looseness of morals so universally
prevails. This senseless statute exposes the young
people who are about to be married to the ribaldry
of the obticersi., arid imposes on females a task
which they ought not to perform. Whilst the
Bishop was administering the solemn rites of ordi-
nation in our Cathedral," septa contemporary Paper,
" three or four girls were laughing and giggling
about the persons mentioned in the notice." Such
exhibitions, as the Act requires, sully the character
of the sex ; tend to suppress that modesty which is
their loveliest characteristic; and, instead of en-
couraging the delicate relation of man and wife.
they throw chstacles in the way of matrimony. So
rude and so barbarous is air Legislature, so indif-
ferent to decorum, and to that sensitive feeling
which gives grace to woman, that there is nothing
relating to the holy contract, however preposterous,

. .
which we may not anticipate from its caprice—
nothing, however di•guaiing, which we may not an-
ticipate from its folly. If the Act were only absurd,
it might be borne with patience--it is mischievous,
nod ought to be abolished. Those who are ac-
quainted with the mode of passing Acts, and the
erasures, amendments, corrections, udditioov, and
interpolations, which take place in their progress,
are est astonished, when they receive the royal
assent, that they are too often a congeries of contra-
diction•, and a farrsgo of absurdities. it is the
least part of the nonsense of the present law, that
the house or houses rf their respective abodes shall
be affixed on the principal door of the church or
chapel, and in some conspicuous place within. The
conjuror who is to effect this sleight of hand is not
described ; and the parties may employ any necro-
mancer of their own choosing to affix the houses on
the outside of the door of the church, and in the
inside of the same church at the same time ! But
a clause requires what nobody can perform, unless
the parties procure an armed sentinel to guard the
notice, that the same shall remain so sexed until
the expiration of the three Sundays no which such
banns shall be published ! The Act appoints no
officer to perform this hocus-pocus trick, and gives
no fee even to the volunteer in such an undertaking.
After the rigmarole nonsense, the vile trash, about
the mode of obtaining the license, the Act states,
that if one of the parties shall be of the age of 21
years, but the other party shall be under that age,
and a widower or widow, both parties shall make
oath accordingly, as to himself and herself, and to
his and her natter with respect to the other party!
Belief of what f—Let the spirit of nonsense tell!
Make oath accordingly f—Spirit of nonsense say '
what this accordingly means! But that bosh the
parties shall make oath as to himself and herself,
and ss to hit AND her belief "with respect
to the other party," spirit of nonsense at-
tempt not to explain I The whole clause
teems with this monstrous matter. In a wise age
the supporters of such absurdities would be deemed
fit objects fora commission of lunacy. The four-
teenth clause intends to give, we may presume, the
power of grunting licenses to the Archbishops,
Bishops, sod their officials ; but this wise Act says,
that no person shall be deemed authorised by law
to grant any such license except the Archbishops
of Canterbury and York, according to the tights

now vested its them, and except Ile several othei
Bishops within their respective dioceses, one of
whom (that is, Bishop or Archbishop) shall be resi-
dent at the tine within the diocese of the Bishop,
&c. The Act declares, that it shall extend only to
that part of the klhgdont coned England ; and yet'
lest the kingdom called England shill be deemed
to be beyond the leas, it also declares, that it shall
nut extend to any marriages solemnized beyond the
fear! The consent of parents or guardians must
be given in the presence of; and be attested by,
two or more witnesses; and an affidavit, not only as
to the signature of the guardiau, but also of the
party so consenting, being the parent or lawful
guardian, must be made. This is delightful ! The
question as to the parent may not be difficult; bdt
as to whether any other consenting person is or is
not the lawful guardian, few persons but lawyers
can decide; and yet this is to be Sworn to, accord-
ing to the best of the knowledge and belief of au
attesting witness, who, it is probable, may have no
knowledge of what constitutes a lawful guardian !
But the thirteenth clause is the most monstrous of
all : it makes the officer granting such license not
duly observing e// the provisions contained in the
Act respecting such license to be guilty of a misde-
meanor; end yet there are many provisions in the
Act respecting such licenses which the officer cannot
observe. The Act repeals, on the 23d of .1 oily, cer-
tain provisions of the 26th of Geo. II.; hut its own
operation is deferred till the Ist of September—the
intervening period forming a sort of purgatory most
delightful to the anxious suitors of Hymen, the
new Act being so long in abeyance, and the old one
in part nullified. In order to make the monster
more monstrous, it requires that roof must be
made to the satisfaction of the official : if he be not
sati.!fled, the Dept may play the prompter ; and
the parties, tired of the intricacy, folly, and absur-
dity of this abominable measure, may be induced
to take each other's word for it. To wind up the
iniquity, it plunders the person peujuring himself
or herself of all property arising from the marriage,
though that property should be derived from the
innocent party. This is • fine specimen of legisla-
tion : it should be preserved in all cabinets as a
curiosity of en age pretending to be enlightened—a
curiosity fabricated by certain well-educated and
respectable persons, who are offended when the peo-
ple laugh at their nonsense ! He who has watched
the in-ogress of legislative enactments will not be
astonished. Many of our Solon, have been foremost
in depriving the country of its liberties—ln render-
ing the castle of en Englishmen no longer a place
of safety—in proposing death for having a net or a
wire in • field or on • common, for a few
minutes before seven o'clock, in the month of
October—in consigning British free-men to a man
of war, for being found on board a smuggler—ln
abridging the right of petitioning, and the privilege
or assembling—ill imposing enormous fines for petty
offences, without the intervention of a jury—in de-
nouncing transportation for the heinous offence of
libel against the Minister*, though the Ministry
should be ruining the nation—in short, in destroy-
ing Magna (Aorta, and reducing Englishmen to •
level with the vile slaves of the vile despots of the
Continent. It would be a good thing for the coun-
try. if some one who could write English correctly,
were employed to prepare public laws ; and still
better if • philosopher were appointed to correct
the vagaries of the wild Statesmen of the day. Then
the young gentlemen who dabble in these matters
might safely indulge themselves in legislation ;
then one might presume that all improper restrains
on marriage would be discouraged, as promoters of
vice and &pressers of virtue; the ceremony might
then be rendered simple, and the obstacles to it be
few : we should not then see Acts staining the Sta-
tute Book that bid defiance to decency and deco-
rum. If some reasonable method to prevent the
inc . of the abominations be not adopted, the re-
verence due to the laws will fast decay ; legislators
will become despicable by their wretched abortions ;
and the people, tired of being the plaything of ca-
price. will take their affairs into their own hands !
Power, when it insults, is unsafe. This scandalous
measure will excite indignation from Berwick to
the Scilly Iles, and raise such a clamour, we trust,
that the parents of the monster will tremble in their
heart's core. There are, among the forgers of these
fetters, many declaimers against French customs
end mennfrs ; and yet they have adopted one of
the most odious, in this notices-sticking ceremony.
They cry aloud against jacobins and levellers, and
see themselves, in action, the greatest levellers and
jacobins. The strongest language is weak in con.
demnation of this Act—

" Which blurs the graft and bloat of modesty ;
--------.----• takes off the rope
From the fair forehead of innocent love,
And sees a blister there:.
(Alfred Exeter Paper)

It is whispered in the political circles, that Lord
PALMERSTON has srwiified his wish to retire from
the War Department. and that he is to be suc-
ceeded by Lord WILLIAM lIIIINTINCR. It is added,
that Lord PALMERSTON is to be raised to the
English Peerage.—(Loesing Paper.)
TUN FUNDS.—Our market yesterday continued
particulerly steady :—Consols 804 81 ; New 4 per
Cents. 100 if 100 ; India Bondy, 47 46; Ext.:he-
gira Bills, ; Smell ditto, 49 ; Bank SW k for
Account, 9474 248 ; Commis for Accoonr,
Foreign Stocks ; New Spanish, 65 65i it .tVenrsliw
"Air' nil.