The age-herald., 1897-09-19
FREE THINKERS IN BOSTON
An Attempt to Establish a Branch
 League.
WOULD ABOLISH MARRIAGE
English Organization and Gained NOtOriety Chief ly From the Lanchester Case-Efforts Di-
 rected Toward Rpening Opinion.

fecteu toward hpenlng oPnon,
 From the New York Sun.
 About twenty-five men and women in Boston are trying to establish branch of the English Legitimation League here. The object of the league is prac- tically to abolish the marriage ceremony and substitute for it a contract dissolu- ble at will, by which the man and the woman shall agree to live together as husband and wife and to recognize as le- gitimate any children that may be born of the union. Among the members of the society are two mlddle-aged women with soeialistic tendencies, two Boston bluestockings. a young English girl, an elderly anarchist, and a young Russian of good family, but an unpronouncable name, who works in Boston and resides in one of the suburbs. Of these persons, perhaps the young English girl. by rsa- son of her recent association with the founders of the association in London, Oswald and Gladys Dawson, is most thoroughly imbued with the principles of the movement, and it has only been by energetic work on her part that the society or league has obtained even the foothold it has in Boston.
 This is not tba first time that such an effort has been made In 1893, shortly after the prospectus was given to the public by Oswald Dawson, it's originator man of anarchistie tendencies, then living in Boston, advocated the found- ing of a branch society, but without any success. Doing away with the legnl form of marriage is not the ostensible purpose for the formation Of the league, although even the members admit that 1t is means to the end. They say that the true object of the league is to ''cre- ate a machinery for acl1r owledging off, spring born out of wedlock, and to se- cure for them equal rights with leglti- mate children
 MT. Dawson, the parent of the league, is the son of Thomas Dawson, a for mer well known resident of Leeds, Eng land, member of the Society of Friends Oswald Dawson long ago discarded the belief of his fathers and has been free thinker for many years, like his wife, Gladys Dawson. In explanation of his peculiar views on marriage, he says:
 q disbelieve in the promise for life. I do not believe that the state has any concern in the relation of the sexes, in the first place, and, in the second place, ] don't consider, even if it were right for the state to interfere, that it should make the contract binding for life. If the state made divorce as easy as mar riage and as inexpensive, then I don't hif1I- c6r the institution of marriage. I do not expect to be popular in this generation, nor do I expect that legislatures will recognize us in this generation. I am not so much attempting to alter the law, at present, as to rpen public opin- ion in the matter until it is time to move.
 From the earliest times we find two modes of legitimate children--the pro- cess of adoption and the process of mar riage. Of these two the older is the pro- cess of adoption. In the days of the Roman empire, Nerva, Ira ajan Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius all succeeded to the purple, not by birth, but by adop- tion. This process is absolutely unknown to the English and Scottish law. It is we'll known to the American and French law, but, unfortunately, in France it is so hedged about by conditions. restric- tions and limitations that 1t is to all in- tents and purposes useless for the pur- pose of 1egitimatizing natural children. In the first place, no man can adopt a child in France unless he Is 30 years Of age and without legitimate offspring. He cannot adopt child unless that child is twenty-one years of age He must also prove that he has provided for the child during at least six years Of it's minority There is an exception to this rule in the case where an adopt ed child has saved the life of it's adopt ed father. Thus the process of adoption ds not suited to the iegtimation of rat ural children, and the consequence is that the French have to fall back on what is known as the public acknowl- edgment of illegitimate children"
 As examples of unions between men and women without the formality of marriage, MT. Dawson cites the cases of George Henry Lewes and George Eliot. or Chopin and George Sand, Shelley and Mary Wollestonecraft and others equal ly famous. He does not hesitate to put his theory into effect, nor does Gladys Dawson, his so-called wife, between whom and himself no marriage cere- mony ever passed excepting the pub- lished announcement that they had agreed to live together.
 Tn England, a couple of years ago, the league obtained widespread advertising through the case of Edith Lanchester Miss Manchester was "A years old, a daughter of fellow of the Royal h. stitute of British Achitects, a graduate of London university. an ex-teacher in training college (from which she was removed on account of her advanced opinions), and a clerk in a gold mining company, earning her own living. She was O socialist, and had come to regard ehe married woma n as a chattel of her husband Her doubts about the wisdom of wedlock had crossed her mind before she had adopted the socialist creed and she had debated the matter with her family at home for 8 long period. In James Sullivan she found a partner of