A MARRIAGE PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1913, Page 3

A MARRIAGE PROBLEM

• MURDERER'S PLEA REFUSED. ' * (I'rom Our Own Correspondent.) LONDOK, 3rd January. Tlie_ Home .Secretary has decided the following interesting social problem in the negative: Should a murderer sentenced to death be allowed to marry the woman of whose unborn child he is the father? The question arose out of the rlcent • sensational Eastbourne case, where a jwlice inspector was shot, and John liams was" sentenced to death for the deed. Williams asked permission to marry Florence Seymour, his sweetheart, but the Home Office has decided tliat he cannot- marry, < The woman, Seymour, became thp mother of a daughter on' 1 Sunday night. At the trial of 'her lover, this woman, aged 'only twenty-one' years, was a pathetic 'witness. During the 'ordeal of speaking- for the life of the father of her uhborn child she persisted ih referring to him as "my husband." although they were hot married. Williams' 8 letter was ' flti earnest plea for mairiage. lie wrote: "I want to marry my girl. Florehce Seymour, before her child is born. Will you give permission? If you do it will have to be given forthwith?" The answer of the Home Office was short and to the point. It ran: "I am in receipt of your letter, and am unable to^ accede to the request therein contained." Williams wrote to Miss Seymour an t affectionate letter, addressing her, t as in all his letters, "'My own j darling wife.'' j Mr. W. H. Speed, solicitor for Wil- \ liams. stated that one ai^utnent iji favour j of. the n^arriagc was that there is aj possibility of a sum of money coming to Williams, or, in the event of his decease, to any heir or heiress. " Isn't ifc j better that the child should be known as thn legitimate child of a, murderer rather than an illegitimate? In any case, the name of the father will be known." A CLERGYMAN'S OPINION. The Rev. Hugh B. Chapman, Chaplain of the Chapel Royal, Savoy, thinks that the question of the marriage is an affair for the man's own conscience and for the religious authorities. He said : "I have known two or three cases of men condemned to die who have been confirtned by the Bishop and hayo i received . the Sacrament during tho interval. Nor can I realise how any brother, in such 'a I misfortune, should bo deprived of his rights as a human being towards the woman whom he loves so long as there is breath in his bodj . Ab for the choice between the stigma attaching to the child of ii murdcier ahd that of namelcsshess, surely this cry of nature speaks louder than what, after. all. amounts to a concession to society, which, fortunately) ■does not dxist on the other side. "We are told somewhere in the Book that the greatest honour should be shown to_ .those parts of the body which are without honour. Here is an ihstance where, without any personal animosity, 'a burglar unfortunately killed a man, whilst every day we come across con* sidered and sustained cruelty which is a thousandfold worse. Yet because the death sentence has been passed the man is treated^as a pariah, and not allowed to give his name to a woman whom"! 1 profoundly respect, and who spells a tvp\} which I heartily wish was far more common than generally obtains. I should be only too pleased to perform the ceremony were I allowed, ahd t should reckon it a truer marriage than many at^vhi^h I have had the misfortune to be present."