Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/435

 428 FEDERAL REPORTBE. �eau have no influence here, and her case must stand or fall hy the inflexible rules whioh, while they may be harsh in the particular case, are, nevertheless, the universal test. �The fact that marriages between persona so related are so commonly prohibited by legislation in those communitiea wbich are among the most advanced in moral and intellect- ual progress, must be deemed high evidence of the generally prevailing sentiment on the subject. Whether this senti- ment finds its origin in the mandate of divine law or the belief that such unions are a violation of the physical laws of nature, or in the conviction that to tolerate such alliances ■would impair the peace of families and lead to domestic licentiousness, its existence must be acknowledged, and traced to some or ail of these sources. �The statutes of Henry VIII., prohibiting such marriages, are but a re-afSrmation of the Levitical law. Regina v. Chad- wick, 12 Eng. Jurist, 174. While the Levitical law is not binding as a rule of municipal obedience, it bas been judi- cially declared to be a moral prohibition, and as such bind- ing upon ail mankind, (Harrison v. Buswell, 2 Vent. 9,) and is now incorporated into the statutes of England by the acts of 5 and 6 William IV., c. 54. In Illinois it is held that such a marriage "is prohibited by the laws of God," within the meaning of a statute of that state, Bonham v. Badgley, 2 Gilman, 622. In Parker' s Appeal, 44 Penn. St. 309-312, the court, while holding that such a marriage was not void under the laws of Pennsylvania, took occasion to say: "We cannot refrain from stating that such connections are destructive of good morala, and should be frowned upon by the eommu- nity." �Between what degrees of consanguinity the line is to be found, which determines what marriages are unobjectionable and what are not to be tolerated, it is not necessary to decide; but the better opinion would seem to be that marriages should not be sanctioned in any nearer degree than that of cousins- german, A marriage between uncle and niece, or nephew and aunt, would certainly shoek the sentiment of any enlightened community, and this, in the absence of any other test of the ����