jurisdiction over the parties and cause, ought to be the same throughout the United Kingdom. There is in Scotland a prohibition of the intermarriage of persons declared, by the sentence of a Divorce Court, to have been guilty of adultery together. The Commissioners conclude that this prohibition ought not to continue. The Legislature declined to introduce any similar prohibition when the present divorce law was established in England. As it now exists in Scotland, it is one of an arbitrary nature, depending on the terms of the sentence, not on the mere fact of adultery. It is a settled point in the law of Scotland, that a sentence of dissolution of marriage, on proof of facts sufficient to constitute divorce by the Scotch law, which admits of more latitude in this respect than the law of England, may be competently pronounced by a Scotch Court between persons having their legal and matrimonial domicile in England, or any other country. Thus English persons may temporarily resort to Scotland to obtain such divorce, without intending to domicile permanently in that country. It is still an unsettled point in English Courts whether such divorce would be recognised without a legal domicile in Scotland. Limits of residence, upon the jurisdiction of such Court, should be well ascertained; and no facilities granted for divorce except those recognized by the laws or customs of the country. As the late Sir James Graham, Bart., said at the passing of the 19 and 20 Vict., c. 96, there should be no needless interference with marriage customs, except to secure legality of marriage. Certainly any clergyman, whose conscience does not forbid him to solemnize a marriage of divorced persons, perhaps the only possible reparation of evils past and irremediable, should be exempt from all ecclesiastical penalties; and a Bishop withdrawing or refusing such a license on such grounds should be rendered amenable to a law which requires justice to be administered, without any infliction of censure or loss, for simply discharging a legal duty in favour of fallen persons. The Marriage Commissioners recommended that throughout the three kingdoms notices, such as are now given to the Registrars under the Registration Act, should be substituted for banns and licenses, that all ministers of religion of whatever denomination should be entrusted with the powers now exercised by Registrars; that they should be able to receive and publish notices of marriage, to celebrate marriages, to register them, and grant the usual certificates. They also proposed that marriages should be allowed to be solemnized in any place and at any time. When notice of marriage should be given to a minister of religion, it should be accompanied by a declaration, which, if false, would entail the penalty of misdemeanour. In every case a copy of the notice should be forwarded to the Superintendent Registrar the next post after being received, to be inserted by him in his notice book, kept by him for such purpose. A copy of such insertions should be sent quarterly to the Registrar General. No minister of religion should arbitrarily refuse to record such notice, or to grant the necessary certificate after the expiration of fifteen days, without being liable to a fine of 40 shillings for every day's neglect, recoverable in a magistrate's court, but should the minister to whom a party should signify intention of marriage, know of any legal impediment, and disregard it, he should be subject to a penalty, either of a fine of £10 or two months' imprisonment, at the magistrate's discretion. If parties are not personally known to the dispenser of certificates, fifteen days should intervene before a certificate of compliance with preliminaries should be issued; but, whenever granted, a copy should be sent by the next post to the Superintendent Registrar, or vice versa to the incumbent of the parish, or other minister of religion. A certificate by a clergyman, incumbent of a parish wherein one of the parties resides, might give authority to be married in any other church; but notice should, by the next post, be sent to the minister of that parish. The time for which such certificate should be available, should extend to three months, to be computed from the date of the certificate. Such certificates would supersede all licences and banns; the latter now seems to aid, or supply facilities for clandestine marriages, as the published list at Manchester, Leeds, and Greenwich would seem to indicate. In no case, henceforth, should banns be a statutory requirement, but quite optional to the parties contracting marriage. If published in the church it should be, as at present, after the second Lesson of morning or evening service. All preliminary requirements should be regarded as directory, and none of them as essential to the validity of marriage, or in any wise to invalidate them. The following conditions should be observed: 1. If the party to be married be either of them a widower or widow, the time of demise, either of the deceased husband or wife, should be specified in the notice. 2. A statement of any relationship, and what, subsisting between the affianced party; or, to the deceased wife or husband. 3. When residence first commenced in parish, or Registrar's district, and where residing, and how long prior to the said notice. 4. If either party be a minor, then the consent in writing of the parent or guardian; if their consent be not forthcoming, their address. And no certificate should be granted, unless the consent or refusal be recorded. The parents or guardians should be obliged to do one or the other under the penalty of a misdemeanour. 5. If both parties do not give notice to the same minister or officer, to whom, at what place, and when, is the notice of the other party given. The declaration should be made, and subscribed by one or both of the parties themselves, and supported by the testimony of two other credible persons, before any Justice of the Peace, authorized and accredited minister of religion, or civil registrar. A false declaration. should be regarded as a misdemeanour. The State having the absolute right to ascertain that the marriage is duly registered, should have the power to punish all persons making any wilfully false and material misstatements in the declaration, and the guilty parties should be rendered liable to the penalties of perjury. But should any minister, civil officer, or other person wilfully contravene the provisions of the marriage law, his offence henceforth should be a misdemeanour; the penalties of felony for such an offence being repealed. A Roman Catholic bishop or priest should be sanctioned to celebrate mixed marriages if he pleased; but nevertheless he should be subject to the same rules with regard to time, place, notice, and registration, to which ministers of all other denominations are compelled to yield compliance. Every clergyman or minister should in no wise be relieved from the obligation imposed on him by the law or discipline of his own communion, as to time and place; the State should have nothing to do with these circumstances, canonical hours, as to the time for celebrating the mass, have nothing to do with the authentication of the contract of marriage. As to the place, let the religious freedom of the conscience of the married pair determine this question. No stamp duties on certificates, notices, or other documents should be imposed, consequently the present duties should be abolished. All fees and compulsory payments of every kind for the fulfilment of any preliminary condition, should be abolished. If any fees should be required to supplement the miserable incomes of the parochial clergy, there should be a moderate uniform scale settled by law. Wheresoever practical, marriage fees should cease to be exacted. All postage in compliance with the law of marriage should be free; and any increase to the expenditure of the nation would confer a corresponding increased public benefit. The morals and welfare of society, being involved in marriage life, the ceremony of marriage becomes more lastingly impressive, when the offices of religion, particularly of the respective religious community of the married parties, are introduced by way of sanction, and moral enforcement. And more especially when Christianity guards the nuptial bond; and the Supreme Lawgiver enjoins fidelity in the words He has engraven on every man's conscience : "Thou shalt not commit adultery." : As to its solemnization, Puffendorf avers: "according to the opinion of the Jews, consent alone rendered a marriage valid,"* and Grotius observes, "that no proceeding was made in the nuptial affairs till the solemnity had been ushered in by the hearing of Divine service in a public assembly." A diversity of systems of marriage, which now obtains in the three kingdoms, is fraught with evil; for in one kingdom, the most important contract of all social relations formed, in another is neutralized by the glorious uncertainty of the Law. "Indignum est in ea civitate, quæ legibus teneatur, discedi a legibus." After so much exposure as is contained in the Report of the diverse and uncertain operation of the existing Marriage Laws in the United Kingdom, the first duty of the Legisla. ture should be to sweep away this heterogeneous congeries, and enact a general law of marriage, embracing the peculiarities of each and all for the United Kingdom, to secure the legitimacy and peace of families, and to maintain the rights and preserve the property of the married pair. In all parts of Great Britain and Ireland marriage is contemplated in the same point of view as a contract inducing a civil status, conferring the same rights and entailing the same obligations upon the persons entering into it. Nevertheless, the general feeling of the United Kingdom is in favour of superadding to this important contract the sanction of religion. Public attention seems also to be unmistakably directed to the desirableness of uniformity in the marriage laws of the United Kingdom. These views the Commissioners endorse, and although some of the evidence given at the sittings are less favourable than others to the employment of clerical agency, they are, notwithstanding, strongly impressed with the conviction that it would be better not to interfere with the general sentiments and habits of the people. In accordance with these opinions the Commissioners recom * Book vi., c. 1, s. 14, De Incest et Inutil Nuptiis, Dent. xxii, 23, 24. |