The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-04-02
Civil Marriages in Germany.

The Berlin Staatsanzeiger publishes
a royal decree laying down the particu-
lar conditions under which the imperial
law on civil marriage is to be applied in
the Prussian monarchy from the first of
March. The manageable age of the
adult male subject is fixed at not under
twenty years, of the female at sixteen !;
but exceptions may be made by law full
authority. The consent of the father
is necessary before wedlock up to the
end of the young mans twenty-ffth
| year, and the young woman's twenty
fourth but if the father be dead, then
| the mothers is required; but if neither
parent be living, that of the sponsors.
Sects that, under local customs. use no
| sponsors, are released from this last
restriction. And where there is a law
| full guardianship, in the absence of
parents, by family council, it's author
| ity is recognized. For children born
| out of wedlock the mothers consent
takes the place of the fathers and the
| child of legal adoption requires the
consent, up to the full age, of its
adopted parent. In all cases of refusal,
| after the first limit of manageable age
is reached, the son or daughter has
legal appeal to the district court. The
forbidden degrees are of course those
rScited in the original act of the impe-
rial diet. Widows cannot marry, with
out legal dispensation, before the end
of the tenth month after their former
husban7o decease. None of the spe-
cial restrictions now existing as to the
marriages of military and civil Prus-
sian officials, or of foreigners residing
in Prussia, are to be affected by the in
PRODUCTION of the law, but all Othe i'm
pediments existing under former local
laws are repealed. Violations of the
restrictions prescribed are to be pun
ished as offenses against the criminal
code of Prussia And, finally, all dis
pensatory power is for the future to
rest entirely in the hands of the state.
Hawthorne on the Saxon.
A London critic says that Julian
Hawthorne's Saxon Studies, in the last
are marvellous pieces of writing, filled
with his peculiar humor, and sometimes
displaying CLEANS of insight that posi-
lively gtartle." He thus attacks the
custom of listening to fine music in q
beer garden: "The Saxon's sentimen-
talism is vitiated by his moral and phys |
ical in-health. He is continually doing
things false in harmony, and incOmpre- |
he can sit through a symphony of |
movements with the hand which has |
just carried to his lips mug of beer,
and anon returns thlther with slice of |
sausage? 1t seems as if no length of |
practice could marry this gross, ever |
lasting feeding, to any profound ap- |
probation of music. He frowns down |
the laughter of child, the whispering
of pair of lovers, as disturbing the |
performance but the clatter of kniIe |
and fork, the champing of iaws-offends |
him not. He seems to recognize the |
noble beauty of the theme he mods and |
rolls his eyes at the sublimer strains. |
Does he comprehend them? He re-
minds me of the Jews, who, indeed, |
possess the Bible; written, moreover,
in their native Hebrew; who peruse
it daily, and can repeat much of it by
heart and who yet have never read so
much as a single line of the word of
God" His final Judgment is that the
Saxon has a strong resemblance to the
goose, "that pig of the bird race, " and
he accuses him of a "cold, profound
selfishness. which forms the foundation
and framework of the national and in
dividual character, in every walk of
ife,-the wretcbed chill of which must
annul the warmth of the
most fervent German eulogist, provided
he be bold enough to bring his -theo-
retical enthusiasm to the decisive test
of few years personal intercourse and
with the people"