The "Marriages Confirmation (Antwerp) Bill," intended to legalise Mrs. Langworthy's
marriage, now before Parliament, raises some very important legislative problems. When the regulations made by Parliament for the marriages of British subjects abroad are not complied with, has Parliament any business to render valid a marriage, even notwithstanding that one of the parties fully believed that the ceremony was being duly performed ? On the whole, we think the true principle is that such marriages ought to be con- firmed by as poet facto acts of legislation. This is cer- tainly the principle upon which Parliament has acted when legalising marriages improperly solemnised at foreign Con- sulates, as, for instance, by the Odessa Marriage Act, 1867, or by the Acts legalizing marriages contracted in unlicensed chapels. If Parliament is satisfied that a marriage, though bad through neglect or default, was in no sense a mock marriage—i.e., a marriage recognised as a sham by both sides—it has not only a right to render such a marriage valid, but exercises its powers wisely by doing so.
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