Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ...bill must be filed within one year after the marriage. The property so forfeited is to go to the innocent party. The statute declares, where persons knowingly and wilfully marry in any place other than a church or public chapel wherein banns may be published, without a special license, or shall knowingly marry without due publication of banns or the obtaining of a license from the proper authorities, or acquiesce in the solemnization of the marriage by one not in orders, the marriage shall be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever. The clause of Statute 26 George II, that no suit shall lie in an ecclesiastical court for the purpose of compelling a marriage in fade ecclesiae, by reason of any promise per verba de praesenti or per verba de futuro, was re-enacted. There are also numerous provisions relating to the registration of marriages by the persons competent to solemnize them. The statute exempts Quakers and Jews from its operation. All these acts, be it remembered, refer to England only. The next Act relating to marriage is that of 6 & 7, William IY., Chap. 85 (1836). This law marks an epoch in the history of English marriage legislation. It was felt that something must be done to permit dissenters to marry according to their own fashion. Even to the clergymen of the Established Church there was something unpleasant in being compelled to unite people by means of forms and ceremonies for which they had not the slightest reverence. Lord John Russell introduced the bill, the object of which, he said, was to permit every one to be married according to whatever form his conscience dictated. Some of the members thought that the bill went too far in establishing a purely civil form of marriage for those desiring it. This, they...
