The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-08-16
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-
e. tiOn-A Serious Question.
CONSUL Wilson's Renort l

IConsul Wilson's Report.l
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 l nited States marrying French citi-
Zens from being unwittingly entrapped
chat is the right world into making a
marriage which is good enough in the
United States or where it may be made,
but it is a mock marriage in France
1t seems to me this matter calls for the
Intervention of the go eminent, for
government can have no higher duty to
its 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 country-the
United States where it is performed-is
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 num-
Der of American and English women who
are in France, the cast off and discharged
wives of Frenchmen. l do but state fact
well known, except apparently TO those
girls land their parents and guardiansl
who are about to marry Frenchmen, 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
no nd ~, 4
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
raDgement can ever be made with france.
Frenchmen, as well as some others, are
shocked at the rapidity and Lippancy, not
to mention the clandestinity, with which
marriages are not infrequently contracted
in the United States. They do not be-
leVe they are or ought to be valid.
a clandestine acquaintance or court
ship, ending in runaway match inaug-
urated with a ladder and lantern, q
midnight flight, hurried marriage en-
deshabille, and a furious father arriving a
few minutes too late-to call this valid
marriage may do in the United States,
but to ask the law of France to acknowl.
edge 1t would be to ask impossibilities
1t would be regarded as but youthful
escapade, not serious matter; one to be
overlooked and excused, and the youths
family would justify and protect him
when. after having sown his wild oats
got tired of earning husks in a foreign
land, he returns to his home to take his
proper place among them.
FAMILY VS.. INDIVIDUAL.
The objects of the institution of marriage
are so diuerent in the two countries that
their different customs can not be recon.
ciled
In France the patriarchal theory pre-
walls to a 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.
isdiction 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 q secondary con.
sideration. The arrangements of a mar
rage are made and its suitability decreed
Dy the heads OF the two respective fam.
lies.
In the United States the man and
woman to be married are considered as
the parties most interested, and so thew
make the arrangements. In France the
parents consider themselves most inter.
ested, and so they make the arrap gementa
This is the custom of the country, and
every one yields to it. A French woman
with husband and 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, bat it can only
be after making three actes respectueuxC
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-
V1dlng for certificate of the French con-
sui, as agreed on between the two govern
ments. and notified to the consuls by cir
cular 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
citizen is party without the production
Of this certificate