[To TRII EDITOR Or TUN " SPECTATOR. n f SIR,—I observe in
the Spectator of February 141h, you state that "it is unquestionable that for nearly two centuries even in England, the marriage with a deceased wife's sister was legal." I do not know to what period of English history you refer. Subject to the power of Papal dispensation, such marriages were, prior to the Reformation, regarded by the Church in England as unlawful. Since the Reformation, and prior to 1835, such marriages were regarded as within the prohibited degrees, and liable to be set aside on that ground by the Ecclesiastical Cotirts, the only Courts in England entitled to entertain a suit for separation a rinculo. It is true that a marriage within the prohibited degrees could not be set aside after the death of one of the parties, the marriage being already dissolved by death, and the sentence in the Spiritual Court being given only pro salute animce. A marriage within the prohibited degrees, if not set aside during the joint lives of the parties, became, after the death of one of them, legitimunt matrimonium ; but if upon this ground a marriage with a deceased wife's sister may be said to have been legal, so may a marriage between brother and sister or between mother and son, for even these marriages wore not void, but voidable only.
—I am, Sir, &c., GAINSFORD BRUCE. 2 Harcourt Buildings, Temple, E. C.
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