The Court of Queen's Bench delivered a judgment on Wed-
nesday which will have a curious effect on the law. A suit was brought against the Rector of Horton, Bucks, to compel him to perform a marriage, and the point submitted to the Court was whether the rector had prescriptive right to demand 13s. as a marriage fee. It was held by three judges out of four that he had not, Sir A. Cockburn observing that to establish the right it was necessary to show prescription beyond legal memory, and legal memory extended to Richard L Now, it is clear that in Richard's time, regard being had to the value of money, the priest could not charge 13s. for a marriage, and the usage therefore was not proved. It is suggested in the Times that this decision may upset the London tax on coals, but that was, we conceive, transferred to the Metropolitan Board by Act. The Chief Justice in the course of his judgment condemned the present law of prescription as bad, and it will, therefore, in all probability be altered. We want apparently a shifting date, say one hundred years from the date of suit.
Previous page
