MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 1025, 8 November 1871, Page 2

MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER.

The Pall Mall Gazette, writing on'the. Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister's Act becoming law in South Australia,; says: —"lt maybe worth our while to reflect for a moment what this really implies, The general principle of the law respecting marriage is the same in this as in other civilised countries. (Zex fact contractis' governs in legal "phrase j that is to say, if a marriage is contracted in France according to the rules of French law, it is a good marriage in England, and the children are legitimate in England. Prove the law of the country in which the marriage was contracted, and its validity in England is established. But to this general rule there are certain most inconvenient exceptions. We are also concerned with one. Marriages incestuous by the law of England are not valid in England if contracted by British subjects abroad, though in countries where such marriages are valid. In consequence of this doctrine, as we all know, marriages with wives' sisters celebrated in Germany have been held not binding here. And the same rule will of course apply to marriage's celebrated under the now sanptioned law in South Australia. The South Australians have gained their point, as they were sure to do. We do npt suppose that in that model community there exists any more propensity towards marrying wives' sisters than anywhere else, ft is po£ fpr that interesting class of relatives that they care. They care for their own independence, as they esteem it. They willnot be overridden by ihe Colonial Office. Theirs is but a trifling victory, for every one knows that the Colonial Office is sure to give in (asregards 'domestic' affairs) at last. But it is a victory, and we wish them joy of it. They obtain it, however, at the cost of some inconvenience to themselves, and of very much confusion to the general law of the empire. A man (so far as we can see) may henceforth have two wives —his deceased partner's sister or niece in South Australia, and any one else in England. The effects of this strange complication on legal rights and | liabilities in matters of divorce, bigamy, ' and so forth must be left to imagination,' and especially to the imagination of lady novelists, to whom we commend the subject with all our hearts.''