The debate on the question whether marriages which would not
be good in this country,---marriages, for instance, with a deceased wife's sister,—but which are good under certain Colonial Acts, assented to by the Crown, should entitle the heirs of colonists married under such Acts to inherit real property in this country as lawful issue of their parents, came on in the House on Wednesday afternoon, when the Govern- ment were beaten by a majority of twenty-one (182 to 161), and the Bill to validate such marriages, for the purpose of giving their issue the right to inherit real estate in this country, was then read a second time. The Govern- ment resisted it with a certain faintness of heart, Sir Henry Holland, for instance, only arguing that it was not for this country to alter its law, even in a case of some hardship, to a colonial pattern, but rather was it suitable for the Colonies to follow in the steps of the Mother-country. The sympathy for the Colonies was, however, too great for the Go- vernment, and hence their defeat. It certainly would be too bad first to sanction a Colonial Marriage Act, and then to treat the issue of a marriage so sanctioned as illegitimate, even for a single legal purpose. When first a new law of marriage in a colony was sanctioned, this question was virtually determined.
Previous page
