MARRIAGES MADE IN POLICE COURTS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 91, 16 April 1908, Page 3

MARRIAGES MADE IN POLICE COURTS.

"I consider these police court marriages not only ill-advised, but disgraceful," said Mr Thomas Holmes, secretary of the Howard Association, and for many years the best known of the London police court missionaries, to a press interviewer. To many weak and ignorant people, who regard matches made in a police court_' as the happy ending to an unpromising love affair in low life, Mr Holmes's opinion will come as a shock; but he is strongly supported in ms opposition to marriages arranged in this way by Mr Edward Grubb, tue former secretary of the Howard Association. Mr Holmes goes so far as to say that the results are disastrous, and he is, therefore, appealing on behalf of the Howard Association " that these scandals must be stopped," for, he says, "it must be evident to anyone who thinks seriously upon the matter that marriages so arranged between young and often penniless couples are fraught with misery and suffering to the couples themselves, and entail serious consequences on the community." | AN ASSIZE COURT CASE. From Mr Holmes' s budget of illustrative cases the following may be quoted, names and' places being, of. course, omitted:—A year ago one or our judges had before him a young man charged with attempting to murder the girl with whom he walked out. His brutality, ruffianism, and jealousy had alarmed her, so she gave him up. He Waylaid her . and attempted to murder her by cutting her throat. He was charged, but the charge was reduced to one of causing grievous bodily harm. At the trial the young woman was asked by the Judge if she would consent to marry the prisoner, adding that, if she would ; it would, make a difference in the sentence imposed. The marriage duly took place, the prisoner being allowed his liberty for the purpose. Mr Holmes does not note any sequel, but his comment is: "If our penal law administrators think that brutality, jealousy, and murderous instincts can be cured by marriages arranged under such circumstances, their knowledge of life and human nature must be very limited;

A more recent case, with a-tragic sequel, has, occurred at Acton. A young man stands committed on a coroner's warrant charged with murdering his wife. At the inquest the wife's mother informed the coroner that' the marriage had been, arranged by a police court missionary. Another case shows the singular readiness of magistrates to arrange such marriages. A young girl was charged with abandoning her illegitimate child, which had been taken to the workhouse. When the case came before the magistrate a man., who was a complete stranger to the girl, rose in. court and said he would marry her. The magistrate adjourned the case^to enable him to do so, and contributed a sum of money towards the expenses of the wedding, which was left for tne court- missionary to arrange. The amazing feature of this case is that the man who volunteered to marry a girl whom he had never seen before, and who was already the mother of a child, was out of work, and at the time was writing to the newspapers asking for subscriptions to enable him to get^married. v BOY AND GIRL MARRIAGE.

Take another case. A wedding was arranged in court as the result of ah affiliation order, and the boy and girl —they were little more—were persuaded to get married. Mr Holmes endeavoured to dissuade them, and even offered to take care of the child while they earned enough money to furnish rooms. They would not listen. 1 hey married, and obtained their furniture on the hire system. In a year there was another child. They could not pay the rent, and could not keep up the payments for the furniture, so it was seized. Soon aicerwards the man and his wife and three children i were charged in the police court with j&leeping out of doors in a waggon, lhey were penniless and without food on a winter's night. These and other cases that might be Clted glve Point to Mr Holmes's ques-

tion: "If a man has ill-used a girl before marriage, is he more likely to be gentle and loving after he is married?".—especially, 10 may be added, when he is coerced, into marrying her i as an alternative to imprisonment.) i Mr Holmes places these marriages in j three categories:-^ ; - 1. Those in which some crime has been committed. 2. Those in which the ruffians who are always hanging about police courts come forward and offer to marry a good-looking girl with the intention of livingl on her earnings afterwards. ' 3. Those in which illegitimate children are concerned, and an attempt is made to bring the parents together in wedlock. / He is opposed to police court marriages in all these cases, contending that they ought'not to have a place in English penal law administration. — Daily Chronicle. \