The Sun.
London, England, 1812-09-12 00:00:00

CLAN:Ji.;STINt, AIA R WAGES.

The following cases'. were decided before the
Court at Jedburgh,, in Scotland, some time since ;
the importance of the'subject induces us to pub-
lish' it

CELEBRATION OF ILLEGAL. MARRIAGES.

On Wednesday, the 15th inst. Andrew Ruther-
ford*, or Andrew Harry Liddcll,• Rutherford, re-
siding in Coldstream, was indicted, at the instance
of his Majesty's Advocate, first, at common law,
for having falsely assumed the character of a Mi-
nister or Clergyman; and secondly, under the sta-
tute 'of the Ist Session of the Ist Parliament of
Charles 11. 1661, chap. 34, by which it is provi-
deg, " that whatever, person or persons shall
hereafter marry, Or present themselves to be mar-
ried, in. a .clandestine or inorderly way, •or • by
Jesuits, Vriests, or any other not authorised by
this Kirk, shall surfer the penalties therein pro-
s vided—and that the celebrator. of such marriages
be banished the kingdom, never to return therein
under pain of death." The libel then 'proceeded
to 'Ansisg,e the Paamet with having, on or about the
7th of April, and the 19th of November, 1611,
performed two clandestine and irregular marriages
between persons residing in or- near that Place,
and.having 'granted ,attestations or certificates of
.the same.
The pannel havi heard the indictment, and
being asked by the Lord Justice Clerk from
the Bench, whether 'he was guilty or, not guilty
Gs .;he crime charged ? answered—" Guilty, my
Lord, but I (lid not know that I was guilty of any
crime." . •
Mr. Bruce, Couhsel for the prisoner, then, rose,
and ida very neat -speech, in which he began by
reprobating the practice of irregular marriages,
objected to the relevancy of the -present indict-
ment.—llis, chief arguments were, first, that the
only net specifically founded on in the indictment
-(1-661) had been framed originally to secure the
Episcopal Chur,eh, then established in this coun-
try, against Papists, and deposed ministers of
every description, and' that the general expression
-" any other," was intended to apply not to lay-
men, like the prisoner ' at the bar, otherwise the
words " person Or persons " would have been
added, but merely to those of the classes of des-
pised ministers not directly included under the
terms " Priests and- Jesuits." Secondly, that
this act had, for a long periods-been obsolete, and
ought not now to he revived, but something bet-
t,a. "substituted, because it was_ -inapplicable to
present circumstances-3dly, that by ordaining the
punishment of death-against any convicted under
it who should return-from banishment into Scot-
land,. without expressly enacting that this punish-
ment should be judicially 'inflicted after a legal
proof of the fact, it opened the door to private
malice and revenge; and, lastly, that part of the
statute is impracticable at present, inasmuch as the
punishment, "- stocks and irons," ordained by it
against persons who should be married in oppo.;
' .sitioa to it, is a punishment unknown in this
.couatry. On these accounts, be craved that the
prisoner shctald be dis Charged simpliciter. -
The Learned Council. • was answered in a few
words by Mr. Horne, Advocate Deputy, as Cour"-
eil for the Crown ; and the Ridge shortly alluded
to the arguments of the prisoner's Counsel against
the relevancy, of the indictment. —l-le observed,
that to set aside the force of an Unrepealed 'statute,
because it had long been dormant, would under-
mine the fundamental principles a our judicial
proceedings, and introduce . great confusion into
society ; but added, that the statute of 1661, re-
ferred to, had been acted upon about the middle of
last century by this very Court, as appeared from
its records: his Lordship denied that it was ap-
nlmcable to- the Popish clergy And depoied 'minis-
ters only; for, on.the .contrary, both, from-the
preamble and the enacting clause, it appeared
equally applicable to all other persons who might'
• contravene it; and he• quoted, from ..isAr.
mmentary 951 the Criminal Law of

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LONDON; Printed- by THOMAS WOOD, of No. 35, Maiden-Pine, Covent-garden ;d.and Publisivd by WILLIAM ARMIGER SCRIPPS, South mow
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