Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-01-05
THE REGULATION OF MARRIAGE.
Il Proposed act in Nesv YorE---A R;go,.
0As Measure.
New York Evening Post.

Aproposed act submitted to the State Bar
association by Mr.. E, T. Gerry, of this city,
provides safeguards against the consequences
of the too easy method of marriage to which
we referred the other day. It declares that
marriages shall be solemnized only by min
recorders of cites, judges of county courts,
police justices, justices of the peace, Justices
and judges of courts of record, and that there
shall be beside at least one witness of the
ceremony; and it prescribes these rules for
their guidance in tho matter, which we con-
dense from the draft of the proposed act:
ut shall be the duty Of the minister OF
other parson authorized to perform such
ceremony, before doing SO, to ascertain by
examination under oath, to be administered
by him, and separate and apart from each
other, OF each OF the persons concerned and
OF any other person, u the Names ages, and
residences of the parties to the proposed
marriage and of their parents, if living: (2)
whether either party is related to the other
and how and whether the marriage is with
the free will and consent OF each party: (3)
whether either Of them has been married or
divorced, and if SO, the name of the previous
vorce, and the ground of divorce: a. name
and residence of the witness, or names aud
residences Of two witnesses if there is more
than one. Such examination shall be reduc-
ed to writing, and subscribed by the persons
examined and by the minister Or other per-
former OF the ceremony. person who
shall Willfully make a false statement under
this oath shall, upon conviction, be adiudged
guilty of wlllful and corrupt perjury, and
shall be imprisoned in a S ate prison for 8
term not exceeding ten years. Every minis
ter OF other person who shall solemuize a
marriage. where either of the parties, within
his knowledge shall be under duress or
within the age of legal consent, or an idiot or
iunatlc, or to which, within his knowledge,
any legal impeachment exists, or who shall
w1lifully violate any Of the foregoing pro-
visions, shall be deemed guilty of a misde-
meanor, punishable by fine OF i'm
prisonment, or both. The minister
OF other person performing the cere-
mony shall attach TO the examination a
written certificate specifying tine names,
residences. color, and nationality of the per-
sons married, names and residences of the
| witnesses or witness, the time and place of
the marriage, and certifying further that
the persons married were known to the min
lister Or other person performing the cere-
mony, OF satisfactorily proved, by the oath
of the parties themselves, or a person
known to him, to be the persons described.
in such certificate, and that they were of
sufficient age to contract marriage. and that
after due inquiry made there appeared no
lawful impeachment to such marriage, and lie
thereupon solemnized the same in accord
ance with tie laws of this State. The person
performing the ceremony will sign the Ger
tifcate, and it shall be subscribed by the
witness or witnesses. The certificate
within three days shall be forwarded
with a certificate of Identification OF
the minister or other person by a
magistrate of the county-to the secretary Of
state of the State of New York, to be recorded
by him; and the person performing the cere-
mony shall deliver to either party to the mar
riage who shall require 1t duplicate of the
certificate
CIergymen would find the solemnizatien
Of marriages under such restrictions as these
moro troublesome matter than it now 49,
Some of them might hesitate sometimes to
undertake the work. Certainly it would not
pay to undertake it in consideration of an
envelope containing the Enclosure, 81 will
see you in few days. which seems to have
been the meagre compensation of the Rev.
Mr.. Virgin on a recent occasion. Some
such regulations as these, however, are prop
er and necessary, and if they should be
adopted marriage might not be so easy, but
it would be safer.