1822.] 
neyer concerned themselves. Many 
a thoughtless young woman has been 
forced to think by it, and many a 
foolish young man it has almost made 
prudent. 
There are so many certified and 
signed matters, and oaths, and ex- 
tracts required, that many women 
who thought themselves secure of 
husbands are entirely disconcerted, 
most awkwardly situated, and sorely 
disappointed. | T assure you, sir, it has 
made many think who otherwise would 
have married, asis customary, without 
thinking at all; and has given oppor- 
tunity for the advice-givers and 
teachers of wisdom,—which nobody 
about to get married has leisure. to be 
troubled with,—to shake their heads, 
and deliver their lectures. 
But those most to be pitied are such 
ladies whose charms have remained 
too long untasted, and whose beauty, 
—little as there may be of it,—is be- 
ginning to be on the wane; who now, 
for lack of some unlucky consent or 
certificate, on the part of those whom 
they may, with much art and pains- 
taking, have brought fairly to commit 
themselves; may now find all their la- 
bour lost, and ail iheir tender hopes 
disappointed. What anticipations may 
now be frustrated! What pleasing 
dreams may, since the Ist of Scptem- 
ber, 1iever be destined to be answered 
by any substantial reality. I am my- 
self acquainted with a lady, in the 
doubiful time of life, between a young 
woman and an old maid, who had 
waited, and watched, and wished, and 
longed, and survived two or three dis- 
appointments, until Patience was just 
ready to be sent about his business ; 
when, lo! a lover appeared,—and a 
desirable lover, too; whom proper at- 
tentions on her part soon brought to 
name the time,—the month of Octo- 
ber; it could not be sooner, but it 
should not be later. 
Drive away thou drone, Time, 
And bring about our bridal day. 
But, in the mean time, oyt comes the 
Marriage Act, with its certificates, its 
affidavits, and, its church-door labels ; 
and the cruel. man begius to edge, off, 
and dhe constant fair must only sigh 
and wring ** her Jily hand.” Wer very 
look is completely, changed.. She 
scows, instead of thinking of the ca- 
resses of .a husband, and the dear 
name of Mrs. B. to be pondering on 
the ruefu) prospect of withered charms; 
On the New Marriage Act. 
315 
and, in the place of husband and chil- 
dren, the companionship and intimacy 
of a monkey, a parrot, and a cat.’ 
. Seriously, however, whatever opi- 
nions may be entertained upon the 
wisdom of the new? Actas a whole, it 
unquestionably corrects’ an error im 
legislation of serious importance, 
which declares marriages by minors, 
&e. null-and void; a law pregnant 
with much mischief and. confusion. 
And the general principle is certainly 
wise and rational, in every point of 
view; which puts whatever circum- 
stances collective experience induces 
the legislature to declare illegal, with 
regard to marriage, in the form of 
obstructions to its taking place; in- 
stead of ordaining them to dissolve it 
after, and after perhaps years of time, 
alterations of circumstances, transfer 
of property, the birth of children, and 
a thousand important occurrences. 
Whatever tends to make a marriage 
objectionable in the eye. of the law, 
ought undoubtedly tostand in the way 
of its taking place at first; but, after 
a marriage has been solemnized, it 
should remain sacred and unobjection- 
able; and, except in cases of proved 
infidelity, indissoluble. 
The new law will also have a good 
effect in preventing many premature 
and improvident marriages ; and, upon 
the theory of population, will operate 
as a preventative check, perhaps of 
some importance to the prosperity of 
our country, and the thinning of our 
workhouses. Whether the obstrue- 
tions to it by the operation of the new 
Act are not too numerous, and put in 
forms vexatious and embarrassing to 
many, is another question. 
“They order this matter better in 
France,” says Mr. Sterne, setting out 
on his Sentimental Journey. We 
may say, perhaps, with some truth, 
“they order this matter better in Seot- 
Jand ;” in one respect at least, for there 
marriages are indissoluble ; while the 
necessary forms previous to. the cere- 
mony are simple, and free from oaths 
and technical intricacies. ‘There the 
original law is, that marriage is not an 
ecclesiastical, but a civil institution ; 
and the original officiating person is 
nota clergyman, but a magistrate or 
justice of the peace. ._Hence a mar- 
riage by the latter is perfectly indis- 
soluble in law; but the parties are re- 
fused what is called church privileges, 
without payment cf a certain sum at 
mariage to the church funds, most 
of 
