LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER BILL.
[To TUE EDITOR, OF rx " BPECTATOR.1 Stn,—It is, to use a mild word, surprising to find the Spectator ,saying that "it is unquestionable that for nearly two centuries the marriage with a deceased wife's sister was legal even in England." You do not mention the dates to which you refer, ,but it may perhaps be presumed that the centuries intended are those immediately preceding the year 1835, when the Act was passed rendering such marriages ipso facto void, and it -would certainly be well that the real effect of that Act should be properly appreciated. The first point to be noted about it is, that it does not make any distinction between marriage with a wife's sister and marriage with any other person within the prohibited degrees ; and a second point is, that if, but for this Act, this particular marriage was legal, BO were all 'marriages within the prohibited degrees either of consanguinity or affinity.. The only pretext upon which any shadow of legality can be claimed for any marriage within the prohibited degrees is, that for some time before 1835 the Courts had held that no such marriage could he declared null after the death of one of the parties ; but they were always liable to a degree of nullity during the lifetime of both parties, even at the suit of a stranger ; and after the death of one party, the other could he punished by the Ecelesiastieal Courts. Moreover, this qualified recognition after the death of one party applied even
to cases of consanguinity, so that if a father and daughter or a brother and sister had gone through a form of marriage, it could not have been annulled after the death of one of them.
The only effect of the Act of 1835 was to alter this state of things by rendering a decree, for nullity unnecessary in any case of marriage within the prohibited degrees, and consequently to remove the conditional recognition above- mentioned.
The truth is, therefore, that (1) marriage with a deceased wife's sister was never legal ; (2), it was only protected from a decree of nullity when the union was already dissolved by death ; and (3) whatever argument is drawn from the state of the law before 1835 in favour of this marriage may, with equal reason and justice, be used in support of any other union, however unnatural.—I am, Sir, SLe., L. [A voidable marriage is not a void marriage. It is certainly a legal marriage till it is voided.—En. Spectator.]
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