Sir Roundell Palmer on Friday se'nnight exposed in an admirable
speech the absurdities of our laws of marriage. Even in England, the two grand requisites, previous publicity and cer- tainty, are not secured. Anybody can be married by banns, that is, by having the names read out amidst such a crowd of others that they are unrecognizable ; or by licence, "that is, practically without any precautions at all ;" while in Scotland, a secret writing or mere consent before witnesses may constitute a legal marriage ; and in Ireland there are five different modes of marriage, and the denomination of the parties affects the legality of their union. The Commissioners propose to abolish all these anomalies by de- claring any marriage illegal which is not celebrated before a registrar, and making every minister of every denomination a sub- registrar, with orders to transmit his register to the Civil officer. It would be simpler to insist on civil marriage as a precedent to the religious service, and as the only ceremony recognized by the law, but the Commissioners think that people would not like this. We do not see why. The indifferent would think it all right, and the sacramentarians would consider the civil marriage a harmless piece of surplusage. As to the Catholics, they enact this very thing all over the Continent.
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