The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-18 00:00:00

THE MARRIAGE LAW.

When people ask for an alteration of an import-
ant law they ought to be prepared to show some
serious and important grievance. This ought to be
shown, then, in the case of the proposed change in
the Marriage Law, and the proposers of the change
profess to prove this, and talk a great deal about it.
They are all but lachrymose indeed; they speak of
domestic hardship, blighted affections, the world
made a blank, hope cut off, happiness poisoned at
the root, and no resource left to a man but religion
and the thought of a future state. This is Parlia-
mentary poetry, and it professes to be a description
of a respectable widower who wants to marry his
deceased wife's sister, and is not allowed to do so by
the law. Now, we ure not devoid of feeling, and
we wish to approach this subject with respectful
delicacy; yet, we must frankly confess we are con-
siderably puzzled to know what to think of this
grievance. In the first place, our respectable►
widower can marry any other woman in the world
that be likes except this one ; at least, the law does
not prevent him. We allow that this does not
settle the question altogether, still it is a considera-
tion when we are about to take out our handker-
chiefs. It deserves a preliminary passing thought
that the whole feminine world, with all its charms,
graces, merits, and accomplishments, is, with one
exception, open to the disconsolate gentleman. His
choice cannot be said to be stinted. He is not abso-
lutely smothered, and has a little room to breathe in
and refresh himself. " Oh, but this is nothing,"
says the Parliamentary sentimentalist ; "he has
set his affections on ono woman ; no other woman
in the world is anything at all to this disconsolate
gentleman, and he is reduced to desperation, un-
less he is allowed to marry his deceased wife's
sister."

Well, then, this is the grievance, and we only
want to know what sort of grievance it is, and not
to let the warmth of our feelings supersede all
cool and reasonable examination. This gentle-
man, then, has, of course, up to the very point
of his lamented wife's decease, entertained no af-
fection for the so flatteringly singled out sister-in-
law—that is to say, no other than sisterly affection.
He has taken pleasure in her society and conversa-
tion, and admired her general character; but, of
course, as our disconsolate widower was always a
person of unexceptionable principles and strict pro-
priety—of course, we say, this being the case, he
has not had, up to the lamented moment referred
to, any other class of feelings for the one ultimately
singled out from the whole feminine world. We
may go a little further even, and say that this state
of mind continues for some time—we will not say
how long, for these are delic ate questions—but for
some time after that lamentable event ; he does not,
of course, immediately enter upon other relations to
the lady ; we will not think it of him for a mo-
ment : he is occupied, of course, with the absorbing
claims of the past, with the sweet pains of memory,
with the melancholy yet soothing retrospect of the
virtues, the amiable temper, and the many engaging
qualities of the departed. Well, then we have
landed our unexceptionable widower upon, we will
say, a year, or, if that is too long, a proper reason-
able date from his late wife's decease, and at this
moment he is- proved to have nothing like an at-
tachment to the future chosen sister-in-law. But
now he begins to look about him ; he wants ano-
ther wife to take care of his children, or to fill up
the void in' his own affections. He has the feminine
world at large before him to choose from ; he also
knows that the Marriage Law of his country prohi-
bits the choice of the deceased wife's sister. With
this law before him, he begins now—not having
the smallest attachment to that lady up to this me-
ment—te form an attachment for her. It is not as
if he had been gradually and insensibly entrapped
by circumstances into an attachment, which, when
the time came, he was forbidden to satisfy ; but,
this being specially the kind of feeling which he has
not entertained, and from which the respectability
of his principles has excluded him, he comes with
his mind and affections free to the choice of a second
wife, and, in that impartial state of his feelings,
forms deliberately a fresh attachment in defiance
of the Marriage Law of his country. He does this
at an ago when the first impetus of the passions is
generally considered to be spent, and when reason
and reflection have had time for growth.
This may be a grievance, then, but, if it is, it is
rather an odd kind of grievance. It is not a
grievance of that overwhelming nature that de-
mands the upset of everything opposed to it, and
the total change of the law as it is, provided a clear
case of general expediency can be made out in
favour of that law. Everybody must be prepared
to make some little sacrifice for the incalculable
benefit which he derives from society, •and, if the
good of society requires some restrictions upon
marriage, he cannot expect the whole of society to
give way to him, and throw down all its safeguards
simply in order to rescue him out' of an awkward-
ness which he has brought upon himself, and which
he might, by a little proper self-control, have
avoided. We know that people bring forward
other arguments in favour of a change of this law ;
they talk about the poorer classes and say it is
wanted for them. This is all nonsense, and those
who talk in this style know that it is nonsenso ;
they know perfectly well that labourers have as
wide a choice among women of their own class as
any other section of the community, and that it is
not necessity, but inclination, that governs their
choice in these matters. They know perfectly
well that the real motive for the change of the law
is the grievance which-we have mentioned—that of
a gentlemen who has formed this exceptional and
irregular attachment, and thinks it very hard that
the law interferes with it. The question then is,
whether the Marriage Law ought to give way for
such a grievance as this, and the decision of that
question depends upon the general advantages of
the existing Marriage Law. We think, for ourpart,
that those advantages are very great. We need not
enlarge upon them; Lord John Russell in advocat-
ing a change in the existing law, admitted them.
Every man of sense must see the enormous social
and family benefits which attach to the general rulo
by which man a' at marriage takes his wife's sisters
as his own.
Moreover, if the barrier between the husband
and the wife's sister is a grievance, the new pro-
posed law itself admits the tolerableness and reason-
ableness of the grievances, because it deliberately
leaves standing other grievances exactly like it.
Cannot a man fall in love with his wife's niece as
well as with his wife's sister P Quite as easily, and