LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2349, 13 October 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

TS.QV vriC STORIES OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION. THE MISSING MARRIAGE REGISTER. The south ooaet of Devon Is fringed with a rnrribur of pretty watering-places, which, until the advent of tr.e railway, existed in a state of primitive simplicity and absolute quietude and seclusion. I have heard the story of an old gentleman who, hunted from place to pla?e by the encroaching lines of railway, took refuge in a forlorn nook of South Devon, suu that the remorseless railwav came at last, and ran between his garden and the sen, The tradition goes on to say that this injured individual committed aui' ide. At the time when only the rumours of a railway were heard in the South Ham, as the southerly part of the county is called, and that in the somewhat mitigated form of an atmospheric railway, there were, living In a seaside cottage of a bungalow description, a widow lady and her two obildren —a girl aud a boy. The lady's name was Adeline Eoo, and it will be for the purposes of this unvarnished narrative, that her maiden name whs Doe.

This 1b a legal story, and I may as well take as names the two famous old English names which were once used as a matter of form in actions of ejactment. althongh tho linage of the names has now disappeared. Mrs Roe was one of the most loviog and beloved of mothers. She was the most careful and conscientious of teachers. But there was one very curious circumstance about her. She was never known, in the little town and in the neighbourhood, to have apoken of her husband. Her children never heard her speak of their father. Personally they recollected nothing whatever of him. As children they never spoke of a subject oonceruingvwhich she never spoke to them. If they had ever done so there was something in the mother's manner which repelled inquiry. There were ill-natured people who, after their manner, said ili-natured things ; but go gracious and kindly was the lady, so puro her life and spotless, that their ill-natured remarks fell to the ground. It was all vory •well to be reticent with children, who understand th<s doctrine and discipline of reserve. But as the children grew up, and they asked questions which it wa3 reasonable and right they should ask, It became very difficult for her to maintain her position of absolute silence. She never volunteered any remarks, and answered as few questions as possible. She was a lady who could never tell the slightest conventional fib, or even make an evasion, without a heightened color and hesitating voice It was impossible that, something or other should not leak out. When her daughter was married it became necessary that she should give the name and occupation of the girl'p father. On the marriage register the name of the bride's father was stated as Richard Roe, Captain, R.N. Now, It so happened that there had been a famous sailor of the name of Roe in the generation before, who had obtained a great naval victory off Uape Finisterre, and who had been elevated to a peerage with an estate ia consequence; and it became an object of curiosity to the Roes to know if they were in any way related to the famcuß Earl.

But the gentle lady died, and made no sign. The son had long ago entered the navy, probably because, from early life, he had been brought up near the eea and the shipping, and perhaps, also, becauee it was in the blood, a transmitted inherited ten doncy. The son grew up to manhood and even declined towards old age during his mother's lifetime ; but the mother never told her secret. He became a distinguished sailor himself, of whom his country had just reason to be prosd. The mystery of his birth had ceased to ba spoken of ; but it was a mystery which often brooded upon his mind. In the co rae of the many years of his intercourse with his mother in her country home there were several remarks of bars which he mentally pieced together into a coherent whole, and which were sufficient to f ornish him with a working hypothesis for the solution of this problem. He had also been led by the similarity of name to inquire into the history of the famous Karl, and he3ides the public documents, which became a portion of the historical knowledge of the epoch, circumstances arose which told him much of the private history of the great man. He had accidentally made friends with the Earl's nearest representatives. He had been enabled to view some private letters of his, which were pres-rved in the archives of a great library. He was Etartled by the similarity of the Earl's handwriting to his own. Standing beneath the great Earl's portrait, the decide! likeness that existed between bimself and the portrait greatly Impressed the friends who were present and traced the similarity. Being permitted to read these letters, ard having various conversations with persons who knew much of the Earl's family history, he found that in a curious way that history dovetailed with his own. To say the truth, the great seacaptain had been something of a martinet. Ho was an unmarried man, but he had two nephews, to the elder or the survivor of whom his title and estates would descend. They were entailed by law, and the Earl could not withhold the inheritance, though he might curtail or abrogate an allowance. Anyhow, he seemed to rule over the young men with an absolute domination. The old Earl appeared to have been an absolute womnn-hi'ter. This was the more unfortunate, as the tastes of the nephew were altogether in the other direction. There was evidence that ha was very much attached to a yourg lady of tho name of Adeline, and also that the Earl did not app r ove of any such attachment. But the career cf this elder nephew was prematurely cat off. Seventeen years before the great Admiral died himself, Captain Koe lost his footing in a boat while in harbor, and was drowned. It was a curious fact that the death of this Captain Roe at sea harmonised exactly with the date of the death of the Captain Roe whom, since hii sister's wadding-day, he had regarded as his father Upon hiß mother's death he had a careful examination of all her letters, dairias, and relics, and found that all communications from her husband had ceased about that date. There were only two other Roes in the service, and by an exhaustive process—visiting them at their and inquiring into their history—he had been able to eliminate them altogether from the range of possibilities. Of course the fact that his mothet had given the name of Captain Roe, SJS,, as his father would not, if uncorroborated, prove the fact to the world, but to his own mind it brought ample provision. Still there wore two facts which completely staggered tho honest simple mind of the Admiral. If the young captain had really married his mother, when where they married, and where was the certificate of their marriage? Again, on what possible hypothesis could he explain why bin mother, in every way so devoted and ucielfish a mo'her, should allow the title and inheritance to lapse from her son, and allow so many weary years to go by without completely clearing that good name which is a'ways so dear to a woman's heart? Moreover the Admiral was troubled by a virion of wicked lords and simple maidens, and ho thought that perhaps hiß mother had durir-g many years In her cottage home sought to remove a bitter memory of confidinc; trust and miserable deceit.

Had the Admiral been gifted with the constructive powers of a modern novelißt, he would have found no difficulty in elaborating a theory which would satisfactorily have Eolved all the difficulties of the case. It was quite poasiblo that her husband had married hor, leaving her in total Ignorance of his rtal rank and expectations. It was quite possible that, in fear of his uncle's resentment, he had exacted a solemn promise from hftr that she would never divulge the secret of her marriage. Very probably, having never been absolved from that promise, she considered that it was still binding upon her. The sudden unexpected death broke off all ties with the family to which she had allied hrrself, and which appeared, according to her husband's own thowing, to look so coldly and stunningly on the marriage. She had a little property of her own, whioh had subaequently increasod by an opportune legacy ; and being a woman of high independent spirit she resolved to hold aloof from the family, which, even in her husband's case, had not treated her with any exceati of generosity. Of course it is not possible to solve completely the secret of that long and extraordinary silence. In all probability, however, it was in some such reasons that might be guessed, or in a com-

binatlon of them, that the secret of the silence might be found. The mystery of his mother's marriage was one on which the Admiral often dwelt ; but he dtrelt upon it in a dreamy speculative way rather than with any view to practical results. To his imind there waj little halo of romance in the story ; it was only a bit of doubtful family history, whichjit wculd bo desirable to clear up once and for ever, and then let alone again. If a vision of something splendid at times loomed aurora the Admiral's hazy vision, the vision was connected with prolonged litigation and interminable expenses. And so, although the Admiral made every inquiry, and gathered and put together every bit of evidence that he could collect, he rather played with the subject than went thoroughly into it; and conscious, perhaps, that he had not done all that ho might have done before he died, he put the evidence he possessed into the hands of his son, and begged him to do justice to the memory of his own mother and the gracious silverhaired lady whom the grandson just remembered.

That son was a clergyman, living an almost idyllio life in one of the sweetest and moßt remote of English counties. Happy amid the woods and streams of his rural parish, with the rosiest of children and moat loved and loving of wives, it was little, indeed, that ho asked or wished for from the world. It was not likely that any alteration of condition would really add to their happiness j and he had senee enough to know that any alteration would hardly add to his own happlnejs. But he had reoeived the legacy of a sacred trust which he must discharge in loving gratitude to the dead; and he had also a duty to discharge to the children who would come after him. He took the most simple and direct way, which, strangely enough, the Admiral had persistently neglected to take Be took his case, with all its proofs and wants of proofs, to a legal firm of the very highest standing. The lawyers went carefully Into the matter. They found, and their opinion was sustained by tho judgment of counsel who were really very learned in the law, that Captain Roe, R.N., was the nephew and the heir to the title and estate of the great Earl of Finisterre.

The Identity was established by a great variety of indisputable testimony, which left the fact altogether unimpeachable. But then oame the difficulty of proving the marriage. There was no moral doubt on the subject, as the young clergyman justly argued ; but, alas, there was a great deal of legal doubt. In fact, while the evidence of Identity was absolutely overwhelming, there was a total absence of any kind of evidence, direct or indireot, to prove the allnged fact of the marriage. It is hardly necessary to say that a committee of the House of Lords would require most rigorous proof of such a marriage There was one thing, and one thing only, which could establish the marriage beyond any possibility of cavil. The theory of a Scotch marriage, with all its presumptions and uncertainty, was not to be thought of, unless facts pointed irresistibly that way And there were no such facts in existence. A good, downright old fashioned parish register was what was imperatively wanted. The longer they looked at matters, tv-e more was the necessity apparent. In fact it was perfectly clear that the whole case entirely hinged on the discovery of such a register. If such a register was discovered, the claim to the peerage would possess an irreslstable strength. If such a marriage register could not be discovered, the whole claim would infallibly collapse. 'lt must have hap; enod in something like this way,' said Williim Roe. 'He must hhve been staying with some people, or taken lodgings, in a quiet out-of-the-way neighborhood, or sho may have been staying with friends in such a neighborhood. That would have given them the amount of legal residence which would entitle them to banns or license Then they would get married as quietly bb possible, and ho would leave his wife in the same, or in some similar, quiet spot, while he went on his sea-cruises. I must say I think it dreadfully unfair to the wife.'

' I think it so very selfish,' said the good wife, ' for peop'e under any ciroumstance to make clandestine marriages. I daresay that when your poor grandfather was drowned, his widow continued for months and months without knowing she was a widow. And then there is a misconstruction and want of charity during life ; and after death there comes all this uncertainty and heart-burn-ing and litigation. It is all very fine and rom»ntio to get married secretly ; but I think there is nothing like the good oldfashioned way—to have your banns published on three following Sundays, a wedding-breakfast for your friends, and a wedding for all the world.' ' You have not read Aristotle, my love,' answered her husband ; ' but Aristotle, who as a rule is very much opposed to expense and profusion, thinks that on an occasion like a marriage there ought to be a display. Such a display insures a publicity which out always to be associated with marriage, and prevents such an awful amount of future fuss as that in which we shall be living for some time to come ' ' Truth is stranger than fictien,' said the lady. 'I have not had any novel from Mudie's all this summer which is really bo sensational as this bit of our own family history.' ( To be continued.)