Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1871-05-04
From de New YORK Son.

, From the New York Sun.
II PROBABLY "a dozen or more at
tempts have been made in Eng
land within the-last half century
to legalize marriage with a de-.
ceased wife s sister, and invariably
with the same result. The meas
ure usually prevails in ::he House
of Commons, but in the House of
Lords, where the influence OF the
Bench OF Bishopsis exerted against
lit, and the conservative element
is in the ascendency, it is decisive
lly defeated. The subject has
been once more before the British
public, and a will lesalizing 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 a meeting in the
conservative interest, liz which a
number of lords, temporal and
spiritual, participated, recently
held in London. The Chairman,
Earl Percy, denounced the meas
ure as contrary to Holy Scripture,
contrary to the rule of the church
in all ages, and contrary to COM
mon sense and all right feeling;
and he believed that if it should
become a law, it would be product
i've Of the worst effects, both go
cially and morally. Another lord
showed that the present war A.
gainst such marriages had been
the law of England for a thousand
years and the Bishop of Winches-
ter, familiarly known in England
as "Soapy Samuel declared that
if there was no law of affinity 10
restrain akman from marryinghs
wife's sister, the law of consan-
guinity did not prevent him from
marrying his own daughter, and
he pronounced it to be a high
crimeI and misdemeanor for any
one even to mention in terms of
advocacy such shameful act.
He adjured the English people to
reject the proposal as one tainted
withiimpurity. and which would
sap the foundations of morality
and public 9ecency. fgalRmu1ha;
In the United States, where q
distinction has been made between
marriages of kindred and those Of
no means frequently. But the
mere affinity, such Language seems
extravagant, if not absolutely lu-
dicrous, No law here prevents q
man from marrying his deceased
wife's sister, and such marriages
doinI fact take place, though the
terrible results anticipated by the
English alarmists have not fol-
lowed. The purity OF domestic
life has In no appreciable degree
been sullied, and it is within the
of almost any one that
the infant children of a deceased
wife have been cared for rs they
perhaps could not otherwise have
been, by her sister succeeding as
their mother. Not only has tie
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
occur. Widowers, with
or without families of young chill
dren, usually, however, incline to
matrimony in a different direction
from their first venture. Some
general law of change perhaps in
fuences them, or they are opposed,
for reasons similar to those ad-
luced by conservative English
men, to marrying their sisters-in-
law. But the significant facts are
that in a country which legalizes
marriages with a deceased wife's
sister, they are frequently the ba-
sis of social life, where il has not
been unsettled, and public morals
are as pure and public decrncy as
enforced as in England.
The subject is one which may
we'll be left to individual tastes
md temperaments. If the law
should ever be changed IN Eng
and, a natural rule of selection
which is, superior to Parliamenta-
y enactments win in all probabI--
ty prevent there, as in America.
he frequent occurrence of marria--
,es which 30 shock the feelings
# hereditary British Legislators.
Amo0o, tho sCTovaTr cikizaua and