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 vately which I should be ashamed to avow publicly, I have no objection, if you think it worth while, to express my deliberate judgment on this important question.

So far as my parochial experience extends, the prohibition of Marriage with a deceased Wife's Sister, operates far more to the promotion than to the prevention of crime. Among the lower classes, cohabitation without marriage is almost invariably the result, while the few conscientious persons who are deterred by the law from forming such a connection, are precisely those to whom it would be a benefit.

Were the prohibitions founded on Scripture, we ought at whatever sacrifice to obey God rather than man; but I cannot see the expediency of a law, which, having no such sanction, is observed only by the scrupulous, evaded by the wealthy, and defied or disregarded by the poor.


 * I am, my dear Sir, faithfully yours,

III.

 * 63, Gloucester Place, March 7, 1849.

I certainly have a strong opinion against the Act which forbids marriage with the Sister of a deceased Wife, and have no objection to put my sentiments on paper for you to make any use of, that you think