The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-08-31
Marriage Laws.

Just before the adjournment OF the re-
cent session of the British House Of Com
mons-which was very much overworked
body, according to all accounts-a number
Of important subjects were postponed !;
among them that of the marriage laws in
troduced by Sir Rounded Palmer. An
intelligent writer to the New York Times
makes the following notice of this matter
"The principle of religious equality,
now practically recognized for the first
time three centuries after the Reformation,
seems to require some sort of equality, and,
if possible, uniformity, in the laws rela-
ting to marriage. The laws, as they now
exist, Sir Rounded may well call extraor-
binary. In England people are married
by bans, or dispensed from them by
license. In church marriages no registrar
is required to be present among non-con-
formists his attendance is requisite. The
Quakers have O separate law all to them
selves. If the place where the marriage is
celebrated has not been properly conse-
Grated the marriage is invalid. 1t can
only be performed within certain hours
never later than II A. NJ. In Scotland
there is marriage by simple consent of the
parties marriages according to three or
four different laws, and irregular mar
riages, which make people liable to fine ;
but the payment Of the fine legalizes the
marriage, and this is q common mode OF
procedure. In Ireland there is one law for
Protestant churchmen, another for Presby-
terians, and no law Ut oil for Catholics, cx-
cept law of pains and penalties in GER
tain cases. If q Roman Catholic priest
should presume to celebrate marriage be-
tween Roman Catholic and Protestant, or
even between Roman Catholic and per-
son who had been Protestant within q
year Of the marriage, till comparatively o
recent time that was a capital offence, and
even now it is q criminal offence OF very
high order, and the marriage is absolutely
void. Of the irregular Scottish marriages,
Sir Rounded has the horror that might be
expected in IN English lawyer and church
man, and his description of them is tech
meal and droll. He says:
"The system Of irregular marriages In
Scotland is very startling thing to those
whose minds ore not thoroughly accustomed
to it. 1t is contracted in two different ways
Suppose any gentleman in this house visited
house in Scotland where young lady
happens to be staying, and that he and the
young lady took walk together, and in the
course Of the walk he took piece of paper
out of his pocket, on which they wrote down
mutual promise to marry; though the
piece Of paper might be simply put back
again into his pocket though nothing
might be said to anybody about the writing
and though nobody else might be there a
the time, if the persons afterwards lived il
certain way together that would be valid
marriage, although nobody might know Of
the fact of the marriage for years after
wards. No mere promise will constitute &
marriage unless it be in writing, and unless
SubSeQuente copula. A promise SO giver
and SO followed constitutes a good marriage
however long it may be kept secret. There
is another even more extraordinary mode,
in which no writing at all is necessary anc
that is where the promise is made not DE-
future, but de preSenti-where the woman
SAYS take you, John, for my husband,
and where the man says l take you, Mary
for my wife before witnesses. A promis'
of that kind being brought up at any future
period, even although the people have never
lived together, will hold good, and will b.
sufficient to overturn any perfectly honor
able and reputable marriage that either Of
the parties may have subsequently entered
into; and this actually occurred in the Gel
ebrated Dalrymple case