The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-02-10
THE LAW OF FRANCE
CONCERNING THE VALIDITY OF MAR
RACES IN THIS COUNTRY.
Cases Where Those Contracted In the
United States Become Invalid
An Evident Need of Legisla-
FL tfon-A Serious Question.
rConsnI Wilson's Report.I


desire to call the attention of the de-
partment to this subject in the hope that
some way may be found to prevent citizens
of the nited States marrying French citi-
zens from being unwittingly entrapped
chat is the right world into making
marriage which is good enough in the
United states or where it may be made,
but it is mock marriage in France
1t seems to me this matter calls for the
Intervention of the government, for
government can have no higher duty to
It's citizens than to throw such protection
around them as that they may not be
thus entrapped, or, if they will marry,
that it will not be done in the belief that
the marriage, because valid according to
the laws of his or her own Countrywide
United States where it is performed-ls
therefore valid in France, the country Of
which the other party is citizen.
That these things occur, and are pro-
ductive of great misery to American citi
zens who are in a condition least able to
bear it, is, alas, too manifest in the mum
Der of American and English women who
are in France, the cast off and discharged
wives of Freuchmen. | do but state fact
well known, except apparently to those
girls (and their parents and guardians
who are about to marry trenchmen and
the minister of the Gospel authorized to
marry them.
FRENCH CUSTOMS.
The customs and law of France, and its
conservatism concerning the "etat civil"
of its citizens, the necessity for publicity
of the marriage, and the opportunity re.
Quired to prevent it, if illegal, together
with the recognized authority of the
parent over the family, are too strong to
be overborne aud set aside in order to do
justice to those foreigners who may have
put their foot in it by marrying French
citizens in another country.
Another reason exists why no such ar
rangement can ever be made with / rance.
Frenchmen, as well as some Others are
shocked at tue rapidity and ippancy, not
to mention the clandestinity. with which
marriages are not Infrequently contracted
In the l nited States. They do not be-
lieve they are or ought TO be valid.
A Clandestine &C uaintance or court
ship, ending in a runaway match inaug-
urated with ladder and a lantern, a
midnight night, a hurried marriage en-
deshabilte. aud furious father arriving a
few minutes too late-tO call this valid
MARI age may do in the United States,
but TO ask the iaw of france to acknowI
edge it would be to ask impossiblities
1t would be regarded as but youthful
escapade. not serious matter; one to be
overlooked and excused, and the youth
family would justify and protect him
got tired of earning husks in foreign
land, he returns TO his home to take his
proper place among them.
FAMILY VS.. 4NDIvIDUAL.
The objects of the institution of marriage
. are so di. erent in the two countries that
their different customs can not be recon
ciled.
In France the patriarchal theory pre-
walls to great extent, and the family
more than the individual is the unit
Family councils are recognized by law,
which have and exercise as complete iur.
tsdictiOn over the movements and fate of
individuals as ever did court of chan
Gerry. Accordingly the prime object of
marriage after French ideas and customs
is the foundation Of family The hap,
piness of the contracting parties, or their
love for each other, is a secondary con-
alteration The arrangements of mar
rage are made and its suitability decreed
by the heads of the two respective fam
lilies.
In the United States the man and
woman to be married are considered as
the parties most interested, and so they
make the arrangements. In France the
parents consider themselves most inter-
0Sted, and so they make the arrangements.
This Ia the custom of the country and
every one yields to it. A French woman
with husband and a child, separated
from each other and both sick, would
leave her husband and fly to her child.
The husband and wife in their relation to
each other are regarded in public estima-
ton as only secondary and incidental to
the primary and main object-the family
In France men over % years of age and
women over 81 may marry without the
consent of their parents. bit it can only
be after making three actes respectueux-
that Is, petitions in formal and respectful
language, addressed 10 the parents. solicit
ing their consent with an interval of one
month between each.
ENGLAND'S PRECAUTIONS.
The same trouble exists in France as
respects marriages made in. England, and
the English government has taken some
steps to protect its subjects by first pro-
viding for a certificate of the French con-
sui, as agreed on between the two govern
ments, and notified to the consuls by cir
eular from the French government of Dec
%. 1884, that the formalities of the French
law have been complied with by the
French citizen; and second, warning all
registrars throughout the kingdom not to
celebrate any marriage to which French
elnzen is party without the production
OF this certificate.