Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-04-05
WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL S, 1871.
MARRYING A sIsrER.IN.IAW.. z
Legislation and Public senffmemi
ON the subject I'm England and

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LegfsIaffon and public sentiment (
on the subject I'm England and
America. fRl fba Z f.0IIlHa $50
From the New York SUM- fsat so
Probably dozen or more attempts
have been made In England within the
last half century to legalize marriage
with deceased wife's sister, and inva-
riably with the same result The mea-
sure usually prevails in the House Of
Commons, but in the House of Lords,
where the influence of the Bench of
Bishops is exerted against it, and the
conservative element Is in the ascend
ency, it is decisively defeated. The sub
Ject has been once more before the Brit
ish public, and q bill legalizing such
marriages recently passed the Lower
House of Parliament, only to be defeated
in the Upper House. This result was
foreshadowed by the action of meeting
in the conservative interest, in which a
number Of lords, temporal and spiritual,
participated, recently held in London.
The chairman, Earl Percy, denounced the
measure as contrary to Holy Scripture,
contrary to the rule of the church in all
ages, and contrary to common sense and
all right feeling; and he believed that
if 1t should become law, it would be
productive of the worst effects, both
socially and morally. Another lord
showed that the present law against
such marriages had been the law of Eng
land for thousand years; and the
Bishop of Winchester, familarly known
in England as Soapy Samuel, de-
clared that if there was no law of affinity
to restrain man from marrying his
wife's sister, the law of consanguinity
did not prevent him from marrying his
own daughter; and he pronounced it to
be high crime and misdemeanor for
any one even to mention in terms of
advocacy such shameful act He alb
jured the English people to reject the
proposal as one tainted with impurity,
and which would sap the foundations of
morality and public deceney.
In the United States, where distinc-
ton has been made between marriages
Of kindred and those of mere affinity,
such language seems extravagant, if not
absolutely ludicrous. No law here pre-
vents a man from marrying his deceased
wife's sister, and such marriages do in
fact take place, though by no means fre-
.quently. But the terrible results antici-
pated by the English alarmists have not
followed. The purity Of domestic life
and it is within the experience of almost
any one that the infant children of de-
ceased wife have been cared for, as they
perhaps could not otherwise have been,
by her sister succeeding as their mother
Not only has the tone of society not been
lowered by the celebration Of such mar
riages, but there is reason to be-
lieve that domestic happiness would be
promoted if they could oftener occur.
Widowers, with or without families
of young children, usually, however,
incline to matrimonial alliances in
different direction from their first ven
ture. Some general law of change per-
haps influences them, or they are op-
posed, for reasons similar to those
adduced by conservative Englishmen, to
marrying their sisters-in-law. But the
significant facts are that in a country
which legelizes marriages with deceased
wife's sister they are not frequent, the
basis Of social life has not been unset
tied, and public morals are as pure and
public deoenoy as strictly enforced as in
England. The subject is one which may
well be left to individual tastes and tenn
peraments. If the law should ever be
changed in England, a natural rule of
selection which is superior to Parliamen-
tary enactments will in all probability
prevent there, as in America, the fire.
quent occurrence Of marriages which so
shock the feelings Of hereditary British
legislators.