Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-04-09
loft-aanasd Marriages.

The Innovation which our State
| courts seem disposed to make in their
Interpretation Of the laws regulating
the marriage contract, is worthy Of
/ serious consideration. The ruling Of
the Bissel case, that the woman whom
| a man puts forth to the world as his
wife, shall be legally his wife, bids
fair TO be incorporated into the State
Jurisprudence. Two cases OF a pre-
| cisely similar character are now pend
ing in our courts, with the chances
apparently ia favor Of the pseudo
wife. So lear an approach to the
practical operation Of that Scottish
| system under which a man and a
woman may be, and, indeed, often are
married without knowing or even in
tending it, must be carefully scru-
tinted.
1t is a general principle Of the law
Of contracts that interested parties
should be bound by their own repre-
sensations, 50 far as innocent OUT
siders are concerned. If A represents
B TO the world as his partner, he is
estOpped from denying that relation
| to the injury of others who may have
given credit to B on the faith of that
/ assertion. 1t is held that an analogous
! obligation is assumed by the man who
| introduces a woman to society as his
| wife. His friends receive her with all
the respect due to her supposed sta
ton, and permit her to associate
with their wives and daughters.
And, we are told, il is Unfair that
/ the libertine, when tired Of his plathing
should be able to turn and tell those
whose hostility and condolences he has
thus insulted, that his supposed wife
was a disreputable person, who, under
no other circumstances, could have
gained access to their intimacy. To
admit such a principle would, it is
asserted, Dut an end to all freedom and
frankness Of social intercourse, and
/ make of every home a virtual castle
fenced in with all manner of uneasy
doubts and irksOme suspicious.
Probably to q majority of right
minded persons, accustomed to Judge
all matters of domestic morality more
by their feelings than by their intelli-
gence, the reasoning viii seem emil
nently Just and proper. Perhaps If we
examine it we shall find it less sound
than We might wish. Desirable as il
is that the treside should be guarded
from every possible intrusion Of I'M
purity and vice, sE post fOctO marriages
seemseaTcely the logical way to secure
it. The punishment does not wipe
out the insult, nor is the Ofiense re-
moved by making the offender verify
his deception. The injury is COM
pleted with the Introduction, and the
legal wife of 70 day is not less an OBJ
jeetiOnable associate than the nominal
wife of yesterday,
Indeed, the subject is beset with
serious p~erpleXities. The practice
which this legislation seems designed
TO check is certainly on the increase.
Careful observers of social phenomena
have long asserted that marriage is
growing in dislavOr. Whether this
fact is due to feminine extravaganza
or masculine depravity we need not
now discuss. It i5 a tendency to be
deplOred and corrected; a vice which
threatens tOsap the foundations of all
domestic happiness and social moral
ity. About this there can be no two
opinions; the only question is whether
reform can best be accomplished, or
public morals served by l~egislating
the mistress into the wife.
Perhaps, on the whole, this is at
least doubtful. 1t might not be adj
visable even were it feasible, under
the complex condition Of modern so
ciety, to carry out that provision Of
Mr.. Ruskin's delightful Utopia which
made marriage the civic reward of
virtue and OOdCitizenship; butsurely
this is wiser than to make il the pen
atty Of transgressiOn. Men will not
be allured to it by being taught to re-
gard il as a punishment. WedlOek is
too sacred a thing to be so degraded.
And, on the other hama, it is the de-
signing and Undeserving woman who
will most rapidly profit by the license
of the law. Many a young life may
thus be ruined, and lost to all future
usefulness and honor, by being caught
in the tolls of an adventures. These
are considerations which it would be
well to ponder gravely and thorough
" before we commit ourselves to so
radical a change in the most import
ant Of human COntracts.-NeJg York
Times