Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-31

growing out of such marriage with any
legal bubbles or harrassments. Public
sentiment has always been the sole bar
to this form of marriage; they
have ever been rare and infrequent
among the Scotch themselves; and
innocent progeny have never been
permitted to suffer from conditions re-
sultant from that which, while propriety
might question its exercise, Justice and
law regarded as an inalienabe human
right. From time immsmorial all that
has been requisite for valid marriage
in Scotland has been an interchange of
real and actual consent, constituting at
the time given an undenisble intention
and determination to enter the relation
OF husband and wife, with either incon-
testable written evidence of that fact, or
evidences OF witnesses before whom the
same is declared. This was Scottish law
200 years ago, 100 years ago, and it is
Scottish law to-day. 1t has never been
modified in effect in the slightest degree
The strictest conditions OF registration
have been imposed as in all other civilized
countries; and about the middle of the
present century-not because
NECESSARY RESTRICTION
upon regular or irregular marriages
CCuIlisu pcOplcy Dub WHOLLY III
Difference to English clamor for check
upon the "Gretna" and "Coldstrsamp
marriages Of English people-an addi-
tional requisite was provided to the effect
that at least one of the contracting par
ties must have been an actual resident of
any parish of Scotland for twenty-one
days preceding marriage.
In other words, any marriage in Scot
valid marriage by civil contract; and the
requisites for marriages here to-day are
precisely the same as they always have
been, with the exception of the safeguard
of subsequent registration and the trif-
ling condition Of brief residence of one
of the contracting parties. That the
Scotch marriage laws hare been liberal,
wise and humane, and that the best
social results in Scotland are directly at
tributable tn the same, admit of no de-
NAL in the face of the incontestsble fact
that in no other known country is the
marital relation held more sacred; and
when statistics also show, as they do,
that social scandals arising out of I'M
happy marriages, and appeals to courts
for severance of the marriage bond are
unknown. The proposition,
therefore, can be safely advanced that
the ToryocrAcy of the English law, in
spirsd by the church autocracy in Eng
land, and not any inherent unwisdom of
Scottish law, as solely responsible for
the unenviable notoriety OF famous and
infamous Gretna Green.
There seems to be no way of ascertain
Ing the exact date OF the first irregular
at Gretna, or OF discovering the
1egrees through which its humble priest |
Of Hymen reached his zenith of fame.
But by dint of perseverance and good |
fortune at last set eyes on the record of |
he first marriage of which any record is /
preserved at Grstns. The date is I77I, |
'r but seventeen years subsequent to the |
passage of Lord-Chancellor Hardwicke's
English marriage act, and il is not un-
likely that this one was the hrst; the
leralding of the ludicrous adventures of
he parties to the same being quite sufi-
'ient for directing attention to a now
Vay OF escape from the rigors
Il English marriage laws. The
'oung man and woman who at
bis date attained bliss by the Grstna |