Page:Remarksonlawreg00haywgoog.djvu/13

 such marriages,—thus proving that the existence of the prohibition, as applied to marriages celebrated here, has no moral effect in discountenancing the practice with parties whose circumstances enable them to evade the law.

"6thly, That the validity of such marriages, though celebrated in a foreign country, is, in the opinion of many eminent lawyers, at least doubtful; so that each separate example is calculated to disturb the future peace of families, by raising up a doubtful offspring, and exposing them to all the miseries of litigation with their nearest relatives.

"7thly, That, among the poorer classes, a prohibition so directly at variance with natural impulses, has a direct immoral tendency, by enabling the unprincipled to contract such marriages, and then to repudiate their wives when it suits their purpose; and your petitioners have reason to believe that these effects have already been extensively produced."

In a petition to the House of Lords, signed by seventy-six of the leading firms of London solicitors and by several hundred country solicitors, it is set forth:

"That the effect of the existing law which prohibits marriage within certain degrees of affinity, admits of serious doubts as applied to such marriages solemnized abroad; some of our most eminent civilians and lawyers being of opinion that it works a personal disqualification between the parties which nothing can remove—others considering that domicile in a foreign country, where such marriages are lawful, removes the disability—and