The New-Zealander. SATURDAY, OCT. 9, 1847.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 142, 9 October 1847, Page 2

The New-Zealander. SATURDAY, OCT. 9, 18 47.

Be just and fear nut : Let all the ends thou aims't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's. Jacques.—" And will you, being a man of your breeding, be married under a bush like a beggar ? Gel you to Church, and have a good priest that can tell you what marriage is: this fellow will but join you together, as they join wainscot ; then one of you will prove a shrunk pannel, and like green timber, warp, warp." Touchstone. — " lam not* in the mind, but I were better to be married of him than of another, for he is not like to marry me well : and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for me hereafter, to leave my wife." — As You Like It, Our Council is so prolific in legislation, " Sub ilicibus sus Triginta capitum fetus enixa," that we are quite unable to pay due attention to the bantlings it bears. One among them, however, will require specially careful nursing, as having been sadly maltreated by one of the doctors piesent at its birth. We allude to the bill brought in by the learned AttorneyGeneral, ** to prevent clandestine marriages by minors and others, and to define distinctly what should constitute a valid marriage ;" iv olh< r words, to put an end to mopstick marriages, and to oblige boys and girls— Punch's lising generation— to look before they leap ; instead of coupling up without leave or license, as heretofore, in giddy compliance with the promptings of juvenile whim Biondelio tel s usi in the Taming of the Shrew, that •« he knew a wencb married of an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit ;" and matters had so nearly arrived at the same pass out here, that it became absolutely necessary, foi the sake of Antipodean propriety, that the law should interfere. The principle of the bill, it might be thought impossible to find an objection to ; ,as to the details, many might look upon them with some suspicion, as savouring too much of registership and civil contract, breaking' in upon the old associations of bells and banns, or whatever could add solemnity to the occasion ; we, ourselves, indeed felt more than half inclined to break a lance' in Quixotic defence of Mother Church, being of opinion that they who think it too much trouble to pray for a blessing, do not deserve one. But it soon appeared, that instead of grumbling for more, thanks ought rather to be rendered for that remnant of ancient rites which is still secured. For it has been made cloar — to use a phrase in vogue-^lhat we are " behind the age ;" that what' we were used, to think the most serious move in life — almost too serious sometimes to be risked at all •—had been voted a trifling matter by the more enlightened world, which had pitched an uneasy burthen off its back with the facility'of a buck-jumping horse, having finally adopted the liberal notions of Tom Shuffleton in the play book, where he informs us that " Marriage was a weighty affair formerly ; ' so was a family coach :— but domestic duties, now, are like town chariots; they must be made light, to be fashionable," It would seem' that there is no longer need for care or forethought in the matter/ more than the girls and boys aforesaid are willing to bestow ; or, at ail events, more than those Scots lads and lassies, who have been lately held up as pattern instances of. the propriety with which juvenile will is exercised. We must suppose that they are made of sterner stuff than the English' pock-puddings ; that their brains are not attacked by the same giddy whirl of hallucination when suffering from a love fit as those of their more Southern neighbours ; but that they walk away in pairs, so soon as they shall have attained to years of indiscretion, orderly and demurely, with coolest reflexion and self-possession, to kirk or to laic coupling-place, whichever they pre* fer. Noah's creatures made.no mistakes in pairing for the ark— serpents were not matched with doves, " Serpentes avibus geminate, tigribus agni," and- why should we be less secure in choice thaji they ? Such, at least, is the paraphrastic version of a protest that has been recorded against our new Colonial Marriage bill, by one of the independent members of Council, who, fired with anti-Malthusian zeal, ever anxious to bring the rose of Sharon to the tents of Kedar, —and to indulge besides his private spleen against the Church, has addressed himself to the task of clearing away all let or hindrance, lay or canonical, that might impede a con-

summation so devoutly to be wished ; to rendering that rite unceremonioui which our forefathers took pains to make impressive ; to revival, upon principles that even fifth monarchy men would have disavowed, of the freaks of Puritanism some two centuries ago, when " Some were for abolishing That tool of Matrimony, a ring, By which th f unsanctified bridegroom Is only married to a thumb ; As wise as ringing of a pig, That used to break up ground and dig." together with as many other time-hallowed customs as they could persecute the rest of the nation into giving up* Let us now examine the honorable member's objections, and test their validity, one by one. In the first, he complains that the bill gives to *' a few religious sects the privilege of performing marriage ceremonies, which is denied to ail other sects." We have searched in vain for any such denial : ministers of all religious denominations are allowed to perform the marriage ceremony; it is merely required, from those not named in the schedule, that they should cause themselves to be recognised by the deputy- registrar as heads of a religious body within the colony. To the second objection, that "the bill takes away from certain secis privileges which have already been conferred upon them by a former local ordinance, the same answer might suffice. But we may likewise observe, that the honorable member seems to have mistaken the meaning of the ordinance to which he alludes, which merely declared that marriages should not be invalid because not performed by a minister episcopally ordained, leaving untouched or undecided other, points that might be raised. On the third clause of the protest, many observations are to be made. When the hon. member asserts that marriage, so far at least as the State is concerned, is merely a civil contract, he assumes the non-connexion between Church and State — of v that very connexion which at other times he so loudly deprecates. When he asserts that the present bill does not attain or seek " aJditional security or advantages" with rtspeet to " the ensuring of due deliberation and public notification before marriage is* entered into/ he forget j that before the passing of this bill, there was nothing to prevent any one who pleased from going to the house of a minis' er, at ten o'clock at night if he pleased, and being married.offhand. That three week's notice must now be given, after seven days residence in the colony, before a certificate can be obtained from the deputy-registrar. When he accuses the bill of being " calculated to stir up religious animosities, without any good to be served thereby/ he tacitly assumes that some sort of religious animosities are advantageous, or harmless at the least. We would thank the honorable member exceedingly to let us know which sort might be harmlessly indulged in ; such specification would be a godsend to the Chu'ch Militant. He then " further protests against the passing of this bill, in so far as it prohibits all persons from marrying under 21 yea s of age, unless with the previons consent of parents or guardians — first, because the liberty of marrying, without such consent, no* exists in this coicny without any bad effects' arising therefrom, and therefore ought not to be interfered with." If this be not a pctitio prineipii % a plain begging the question, Burgers dicius and Smiglecius are naught. The existence of these ill effects is the very question in dispute by which that particular clause of the enactment must stand or fall. In answer to the assertion which follows, " that such a liberty is the recognised legal right of a large portion of the commuuity, — Scotchmen," we beg leave to deny the fact. It is a great presumption in an Englishman to offer to set a Scotchman right in a matter of Scots law ; still we must remind him, that such right, or sufferance, held good in Scotland alone ; not in England, or in this community, where a Scotchman must take the laws as he finds them. We used the past tense advisedly, for we believe that the right so challenged no longer exists, even there. When ' the honorable Member tells us, that " such a restraint on marriage (if useful in England) is altogether inadapted to the circumstances of this colony, by reason of an earlier maturity here/ we hope that he means, maturity of judgment ; if not, we must content ourselves with answering in the words with which the last of the Horatii reproached his sister. " Abi hine cum immaturo amore ad sponsum, oblita fratrum mortuorum vivique, oblita patriae." The next section of the protest, in which complaint it made that young people are preventing from obtaining a '* status in society," we do not thoroughly comprehend. Seeing the Latin word, we feared some latent impropriety ; ou referring to the dictionary, our suspicions were confirmed ; and we laid down tl\e book with a strong impression that the said " status" had better be any where else, than " in society.'* What follows is clearer by far. " The restraint in question has a tendency to produce

ill feeling in families by giving a legal right to parents to compel that obedience which ought to rest upon natural affection and moral suasion alone." We will not stop to remark upon the confusion of positive and negative compulsion ; but merely observe, that children are as apt to be unreasonably stiff. necked in these matters as the parents themselves; that some of them are so averse to parental interference, that even consent is painful to j them. What says Lydia Languish ? •• So, j while I fondly imagined we were deceiving I my relations, and flattered myself that I should outwit and incense them all ; behold, my hopes are to be crushed at once, by my aunt's consent and approbation, and I mysdf am the only dupe t But, "sir,— here is the picture." She discards her lover, sooner than be married like a dutiful niece J . Upon the last clause, we have no observation to make. We must honestly confess that it has puzzled us,— that we do hot comprehend it all, The fault is probably our own, and we readily allow, that although the hoo. member is bound to find us in reasons, he is not bound to find us in understanding. " Intelligenda, non intellectum adfert." He seems however, to be what Sir Thomas Browne would have called a half Janus,— unable to look two ways at once. And with regard to the question before us, Dan Chaucer has al ready shewn that there are two opposite views to be kept at once in «ght. " Marriage is such a rabble rout, That those that are out would fain get in, And those that are in would fain get out." His scheme should have been completed, and provision made for both contingencies. He who exerts himself so actively in lessening the difficulties of getting in, should be obliged to find secu i<y that he would likewise provide corresponding facilities for getting out. I 1I 1 is cruel to set " springes for woodcocks/ more especially for woodcocks under age, without leaving ultimate hope of a release. If-the birds Will fly into the trap, the fault is not so much with them, as with him that sets it ; and he is bound in fairness to let them out again, after making them do penance for a reasonable time. For we may assume, with hold Montaigne, that they will mostly be willing to go : " II en a Ivient cc gui se veoid aux cages : les oiseaux gui en sont dehors, desesperent d' y enjrer ; et d* ung pareil soing en sortir ceulx gui sont au dedans.'* Which Webster, in the White-Devil, has copied so closely, without acknowledgment, that the passage may serve for a translation. " 'Tis just like a summer's bird cage in a garden ; the birds that are without despair to get ia ; and the birds that are in, despair* and are in a consumption, for fear that they shall never* get out,''

General Pitt.— His Excellency, MajorGeneral Pitt, K.H., our new Commander of the Forces, will land this forenoon at Official Bay, under a salute of seventeen guns, from the battery at Britoraart Point. A guard of honour will be stationed at the landing place, and the whole disposable force of the garrison drawn out to meet his Excellency. MijorGeneral Pitt formerly commanded that distinguished regiment the 80th.

We have to acknowledge our obligation to W. S # Grahame, Esq., agent for Lloyd's, for having fur. nished us with a Few copies cf the European Times, a Liverpool commercial newspaper, conducted, as appears to us, with unusual ability. Several articles ou the subject of Free trade and the Currency question have appeared in it, which we shall take au early opportunity of laying before our readers. Auckland Savings' Bank.— -Messrs. J. I. Montcfiore and T. S. For-aith, the trustees in rotation, will attend this eveuiug from 7 to 8 o'clock, at Mr. Montefiore's store, to receive deposits; aud Mr. J. Dilworth and Dr. Johuson will be in attendance on Monday, 11th instant, from 12 to 1 o'clock.