672 KKPOET— 1880. 



gloss over these evils. It is that of raising revenue to carry on government. AVhile 

 the West is yet to be opened up, Americans turn nearly all their attention west- 

 wards. When the work is nearer its end they will look back, turn more attention 

 eastwards, and discover that a low tariff yields as much revenue as a high tariff. 



In conclusion. The lessons we learn from this instance are, generally, that Pro- 

 tection has acted as a drag on the prosperity of the United States, and hampered and 

 not fostered the development of native manufactures ; and especially that American 

 competition in the English food market will now gradually dwindle. 



It only remains to point out that as the United States become peopled up and 

 fully developed more heed will be paid to external policies ; and the interests that 

 now keep alive the Protection that hampers them will sink before the assertion of 

 wider and more popular interests. 



The spirit and acts of this age are all in favour of Free Trade. Protection ia a 

 mere protest of a state of things that is passing awaj-. 



2. On the Preservation of Fish and preventing the Pollution of Rivers. 

 By Lieut. -General Sir James E. Alexander, K.G.B., K.C.L.S., F.B.S.E. 



Allusion is made to the neglect of our rivers in many parts of the United Kingdom, 

 and the prevalence of pollution from towns and public works. Salmon, it is stated, 

 is generally so dear that the poor are deprived of its use. The town of Stirling, in 

 Scotland, has a rent of £1,000 a year from its salmon fishery; but that will cease 

 if the town sewage, gas works, paraffin works, &c., continue unchecked to be dis- 

 charged into the Forth. A better state of things is reported from Callander and 

 Dollar, where the sewage is prevented from polluting the streams. Heavy grass 

 crops, beetroot, &c., are produced by the Edinburgh sewage distributed over the 

 (Jraigentinny meadows. What occurs on the border river, tlie Tweed — over- 

 fished and polluted. A more stringent Act of Parliament is suggested, to deal 

 with river pollution and the pi-eservation and increase of fish. 



3. On the required Amendment in the Marriage Laics of the United Kingdom. 

 Pij the Rev. Daniel Ace, D.D., F.It'.A.S. 



The desirableness of uniformitj' in these laws was shown from three gross cases 

 adduced. Whilst marriage is regarded as a civil contract, inducing a civil status, 

 conferring the same rights and entailing the same obligations upon the persons 

 entering into the said contract, the general feeling in the United Kingdom is in 

 favour of superadding to this important contract the sanction of religion. 



The matrimonial proceedings of the ceremonj^ of marriage differ in the thi-ee 

 kingdoms : the validity of tJie marriage solemnised in one of those kingdoms may be 

 rendered nugatory in the other by some legal technicality. The effects of such 

 diversity have been designated by Lord Chancellor Selborne as ' scandalous to a 

 civilised country.' 



The cases adduced, verifying the epithet, as to their effects, of the Lord Chan- 

 cellor, were — 



1. The Queen r. Millis, 1843, 1844. 



2. Beamish v. Beamish, 1861 ; and 



3. Yelverton v. Yelverton or Longworth, 1864, 1865. 

 The first, a case of bigamy, The Queen v. Millis. 



In 1829, George Millis was married to Esther Graham, according to the rites of 

 the Presbyterians, by an Irish Presbyterian minister, in Ireland ; and in 1836, 

 whilst Esther Graham remained alive, George Millis married, at Stoke, Devonshire, 

 Jane Kennedy, by an English priest in holy orders. In 1842, George Millis was, at 

 the Spring Assizes for Antrim, found guilty of bigamy on the aforesaid facts. A 

 legal argument was raised in the Court of Queen's Bench, Ireland, and ultimately 

 carried to the House of Lords, whether the indictment for bigamy could legally be 

 sustained. The decision of the Appellate Court of the House of Lords quashed the 

 indictment for bigamy, and set aside the first marriage of George Millis, on the 

 principle involved in an ancient canon of the Church of England, viz., that of Arch- 



I 



