DE CAU8 



DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER 721 



th- leduced strength of the navy. In tin- wur with 

 Tripoli ( 1H01 .">) lie gained great distinction; liis 

 brilliant achievement of bofcraing ind burning tlie 

 captured l'/u/tti/>'//t/u'n in tin- harlxmr of Tripoli, 

 and thru escaping mulct tin* lire of 141 gun-, 

 Nelson pronounced 'the most daring act of tlie 

 age.' lor this lie received his conimi ion as 



in ls(>4 ; in 1810 lie wan appointed com- 

 modore. In the war with England in 1812 he 

 captured the frigate M,ni;/intt(iii, hut ill 1814 he 

 was obliged to surrender, after a resistance that 

 cost him a fourth of his crew, to four British 

 frigates. In 1SI."> he chastised the Algerines for 

 their piracy, and compelled tlie dey to declare the 

 American Hag in\ iolable ; and he obtained indem- 

 nities t'm violating treaty stipulations from the 

 bey of Tunis and the pasha of Tripoli. Me was 

 appointed a navy commissioner in 181t>, and was 

 killed in a duel hv Commodore James Harron, near 

 BUdenabarg, Maryland, 22d March 1820. 



De 4'nns. See CAUS. 



D*eazevllle, ft town in the French department 

 of Aveyron, 110 miles NXE. of Toulouse by rail, 

 with iron and coal mines near by, and exten- 

 sive blast-furnaces and ironworks employing 3000 

 hands. Pop. ( 188(5) 7981 ; ( 1891 ) 8871. 



Decoail (Daksltin, 'the south'), a term ap- 

 plied sometimes to the whole of the Indian 

 peninsula south of the Vindhya Mountains, which 

 separate it from the basin of the Ganges, and 

 sometimes restricted to that portion of the same 

 which is rather vaguely bounded on the north by 

 the Nerbudda, falling into the Gulf of Canihay, 

 and on the south by the Kistna or Krishna, How- 

 ing into the Bay of Bengal. Independently of this 

 indeliniteness of meaning, the name, like' that of 

 the Canmtic (q.v.), is rather of historical interest 

 than of actual use. 



Deceased Wife's Sister. By tlie laws of 

 the United Kingdom, marriage with the sister of a 

 deceased wife is prohibited as leing incestuous. 

 At one period this was the universal law of Christen- 

 dom both branches of the Christian church, the 

 Eastern as well as the Western, having united 

 in condemning it. The early canon law forbade 

 marriages between relatives to the seventh degree 

 (afterwards changed to the fourth degree by 

 a council of Lateran ), and declared that affinity 

 must be treated in the same way as consanguinity 

 (see CONSANGUINITY). The foundation for this 

 was the Mosaic law respecting the intermarrying 

 of kindred, as given in Leviticus xviii. As is \vefi 

 known, however, the canon law was not at all 

 times stringently enforced by the ecclesiastical 

 courts, and we find that papal dispensations 

 a fruitful source of revenue to the church 

 were not uncommon at certain periods of history. 

 A noted historical instance is the case of Henry 

 VIII. and Catharine of Aragon. The opinion 

 of the 19th century, however, tends to run counter 

 to the canon law on the subject, as adopted by 

 the Reformed Churches; and the law prohibiting 

 marriages with a brother's widow or a deceased 

 wife's sister has l>een abrogated in every state on 

 the continent of Europe, in the I'nited States, 

 and in most, if not all, the British colonies. Great 

 Britain alone adheres to the old rule. 



In England, though marriage with a deceased 

 wife's sister seems to have lieen voidable at 

 common law, it was first specially piohibited by 

 the ecclesiastical courts by an act passed in the 

 reign of Henry VIII. (25 Henry VIII. chap. 22). 

 The force of this enactment was, however, soon 

 afterwards somewhat weakened by another statute 

 in the same reign declaring that 'all lawful poisons 

 may marry.' The combined effect of both statutes 

 and common law continued to be a subject of 

 150 



dispute among lawyer* down to the pimping of 

 Lord l.yndhurst'h Act, 1835. The U-ttei opinion 

 seems to be that down to IH35 nuch marriage* 

 were binding till they were annulled by decree 

 of the ecclesiastical court*, and therefore if either 

 of the parties died Ix-fore decree wo* obtained, 

 the children of the marriage were legitimate, and 

 entitled to inherit. But Lord l.\ ndlim-i Act 

 put the matter on a clear footing, for it declared 

 all such marriages entered into after its date to 

 1x5 ipsn fn<-tit null and of no effect.- And according 

 to tne construction which this statute baa received, 

 the English courts hold every marriage entered 

 into with a deceased wife's sister to I*- null, 

 provided the parties have their domicile in Kngland, 

 although by the law of the locus o/// ///.///* the 

 marriage might be quite legal. It was so decided 

 in the famous case of Brook v. Brook ( 1861 ), where 

 two English people had gone to Altona in Germany 

 to be married. 



In Scotland, by the Act 1567, chap. 14, all con- 

 nections expressly prohibited by the divine law in 

 the 18th chapter of Leviticus are declared incestu- 

 ous, an 1 1 punishable by death. The declaration of 

 the Confession of Faith follows in this matter the 

 canon law. According to the interpretation which 

 this Act of 1567 has received from the judges ( and 

 the Act 1567, chap. 15, as regards civil ettects), it 

 applies to marriages with a deceased wife's sister. 

 And there are not wanting instances where the 

 punishment of death was inflicted for such mar 

 riages. Barbara Tannahill, in the beginning of 

 the 18th century, was executed on her own judicial 

 confession, for having had connection with the 

 husband of her deceased sister. (See Hume on 

 Crimes, vol. i. 449). According to the existing 

 law of Scotland, therefore, as expressed in these 

 old statutes, marriage with a deceased wife's 

 sister is prohibited as incestuous, and is null for 

 civil ettects as well as punishable criminally. In 

 punishing the offence criminally, the Scottish law 

 is more stringent than the Knglish. incest not 

 being per se a crime in England. 



Organised agitation in Great Britain for the aboli- 

 tion of the law respecting marriage with a deceased 

 wife's sister dates oack to about the time of Lord 

 Lyndhurst's Act. The matter was first brought 

 before parliament in 1841, in which year leave was 

 refused bv the House of Commons for the introduc- 

 tion of a bill for the repeal of the law. Since then 

 the subject has been brought before nearlv every 

 successive parliament. Its History in the rfouse of 

 Commons may be given briefly as follows : In the 

 parliament of 1847 tlie bill was twice read a second 

 time. In that of 1853 it was once read a second 

 time, and once rejected on the second reading. In 

 1857 it was twice read a second time. In 1859 it 

 was twice thrown out. In 1866 it was rejected 

 once. In 1868 the second reading was carried 

 four times; and in 1874 the second reading was 

 negatived by a small majority. Introduced into 

 the House of Lords lit-! . in 1882 the bill wits only 

 thrown out by four votes, and in 1883 it was 

 carried on the second reading by five votes, but 

 lost by seven on the third. In 1884 the bill was 

 dropped on the second reading in both Homes, 

 and in 1885-86 it was lost in the House of Lords 

 by a majority of twenty-two. (Generally till 1893 

 t be bills have been carried in the Commons by a 

 large majority, but lost in the Lords. But in 1896 

 the bill was carried in the Lords. Marriages of 

 this kind have been legalised in Australia, Canada, 

 Barhitdoes. Ceylon, and Mauritius, and progress in 

 the same direction made in other colonies. A bill 

 legalising in Britain marriages validly contracted 

 in the colonies has not been carried. 



In Britain the churches oppose legislation, the 

 existing law being based upon Leviticus xviii. 18, but 



