MARRIAGE ABROAD.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2798, 11 September 1883, Page 3

MARRIAGE ABROAD.

Paris, July 10. The following appears m tho Fall Mull Ga-.et(« of July 13 ; — An English cm-res-pondent has written to ask mo whether marriage with a deceased wife's sister is legal ; if so, whether it is frequent, and m what light such a marriago would b<; generally regarded f I knew m a vague manner that it waa lawful for a widower to marry the sister of his deceasod wife. But I never enquired what were the degrees of relationship which tho Code holds to bo too near to admit of matrimony between persons of the same blood. Tho restrictions nro very few, embracing only parents, grandparents, and full and half-brothers and sisters. Marriages between uncleß and niece?, and aunts and nephews aro permissible. Tho latter, howover, do not figure m the census returns. The former are pretty frequent, and they nro m moat cases to bo explained by a desire to kesp fortunes from going out of families. The difference of ago between uncles and neices, and particularly when tho latter are sister's daughters, is not so great as the English average, becauso girls, and particularly thosa who receivo doweries from their parents, marry early. Husbands are provided for thorn before they are out of their teens. The governess, seamstress, and domestic servant get married later. The Church theoretically prohibits inarriagea between collateral ascendants and descendants and cousins to a distant degree, doceased wife's sisters, deceased husband's brothers, and sponsors and their god-children. But she never refuses m this country, whatever she may do elsewhere, a dispensation. The prohibition merely serves to swell tho revenues of high ecclesiastics. Catholics marry m and m when fixed by their business, by proprietary interests, or other causes to a locality just as much as Protestants and Jews. Thero is no social ban whatever upon any consanguine marriage within the degrees not prohibited by the Code, provided the rolatives who wed each obtain a dispensation and get married m church aftor they have submitted to the mayoralty to tho civil rite. When thß letter m which tho above cited interrogatories were put to mo was received I could not think, although my range of observation has been singularly wide for a foreigner, of a marriage between a widower and tho sister of his defunct wife. On beating my brain a good deal I was able to recollect one ca3e. It was m the Da B family ; but tho stepmother of her sister's children was a Pole of Jewish origin, which fact she hid under the profession of ardent Roman Catholicism. On making inquiry I was told that m good society, and among prosperous bourgeois, matrimonial alliances of tho kind I am now treating of are not at all frequent. Why ) Was there a prejudice against them ! None whatever. But fathers and mothers did not like to place their daughters, if they could help it, m a position m which their interests would clash with those of orphaned nephews and nieces. Also, the pecuniary status of a second wife cannot be, if she marries a wealthy man who is not childless, bo brilliant as that of a first wife. Tho husband can out of his fortune settle on her a child's portion, and no more. He can turn the law by accepting the fiction that she brings into tho matrimonial fund a great deal more money than shu really possesses, and for which his estate is liable m case of bankruptcy or at his death. If, however, the creditors or Brat wife's family prove tho exact dowry which the stepmother had, sho loses all the advantages that she would otherwise have enjoyed. Nevertheless, fraudulent evasions of this kind are anything but uncommon. If tho first wife's children are mere babes at the time of the second wedding, there is every chance that a dotal settlement based on a fiction will never bo attacked. Widowers generally marry more for the advantage of their orphaned family than for their own pleasure. I know of many instances m which widowed men of fortune sought out diligently for second wives young ladies of good education and family, who had been professional teachers, and were quite fortuneless. Their object was to have at the head of their establishments and over their children wives who could direct both wisely and .firmly, and who would bo sensible companions for themselves. But to obtain them they were obliged to admit m the settlements that the bridesdesignate had much richer dowries than they verily possessed. Such an admission would not prejudice the right to a child's portion. The second wife being absolute mistress of the common domicilo, and to a great extent the book-keeper and administrator of tho joint income, has opportunities, by which she profits, to hoard money for her own ulterior use. She is very jealously watched by the stepchildren, if they are old enough to perceive that she economises for her separate benefit. A disagreeable situation arises out of this collision of interests. One can easily understand why a rich or merely well-to-do father and mother would shrink from placing the last of two daughters m a position m which she would find herself m antagonism to her orphaned nephews and nieces. There are still other reason* why mar-

rmgea with deceased wives' sisters are not frequent m " lea ancienncs couches soci.iles." Families lioro ;vro small. In moat cases all tho children are horn while, the mother ia young. When Ihuro aro a couplo of girls— and there aro soldom moro — they aro takon togothor to walk, to tho same classes, to the satno dancingschool, and tho samo particß. But a short interval of time separates their respective marriages, and it not nnfroquontly happens that two aistera leave their father's house on the samo day. Should thu eldest die early, the widower has not the second to fall back upon. There aro some exceptional cases m which marriage with a decoasod wife's sister is moat advantageous. It is when tho father-in-law ia m trado and the widower associated m his business. Should thero bo a second unmarried daughter it is nearly certain that she will be married to her brother-in-law, if ho is not disliked by her. In tho working classes I find that marriages with deceased wifes 1 sisters are very common, and particularly m Tillages, where, families aro larger than m towns. In these- classes the mortality is, I am told, greater among young married women than young married men. My bonne who i 3 a nativo of the southern part of tho Creuso, assures mo that cht~ tile widowers often marry sisters of their dofunct wives. I have aaked her, Would a marriago so formed bo thought ill of I Her reply is, " Why should it ? There is no blood relationship. Tho second wife's family will not, if tho husband has a littlo money, set her on to get it into her own hands, and to quiotly rob tho orphans." " But how could sho get hold of it / Tho law does not allow a man to give his second wife moro than a child's portion." " Tlier« are many ways of evading tho law. If the regime under which tho marriage took placo was that of separation tfr-s biens, all the woman gets hold of i 3 her own. Sho can invest it, and nobody haa a right to aak where shu g.)t iL" "Do tho people cht- vous often prefer this regime!" " Tho rich do not. A bourgeois would treat a proposal to marry under it as an insult. The poor, when thero is anything on the woman's side, prefer it to any other." " What would tho cure" m your village think of a marriago with a deceased wifo's sister .' " "Ho would be against it." "Why?" " A bachelor who wants to marry a relative can afford a dispensation. But a widower who ia held down with young children looks to his sous and franca, and will do without a dispensation rather than pay fur it. Just bofore I came to Paris our ouru told 113 from the pulpit that ho would not chargo anything for tho nuptial benediction at marriages ■within tho degreoa prohibited by tho Church. He was sorry he could not aid them to obtain dispensations free of cost, but it was not for him, a mero parish priest, to meddle with what only concerned his superiors."