THE MARRIAGE AMENDMENT ACT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 498, 12 August 1857, Page 3

THE MARRIAGE AMENDMENT ACT.

(From the " General Assembly papers, Wellington Independent, July 25.)

The Marriage Act of 1842, having by the previous section provided that the consent o! parents or guardians shall be necessary in the case of marriages of minors, goes on to enact that when the parent or guardian shall withold his assent, the minors may appeal to a judge of the Supreme Court, who, if he think the refusal of the parent unreasonable, may judiciously declare his consent, and the parties marry accordingly. What theory of social morals—what ideas on the subject of the relations of parent and child—the framer of this section can have entertained, it is difficult to surmise. Where was he born ? Had he a father ? If he had he must assuredly have been one of that sort who spare the rod, for into the brain of none but a spoiled child could a notion so abhorrent to sound morals have entered. Doubtless he was bought up by some aged female relative whose authority was feeble, whose sugar bason he robbed with impunity, and whose tabby he bullied before her face. The unreverential outlaw! to pass solemn acts of Council to encourage the young to fly in the faces of their fathers and mothers, and to set up for themselves in matrimonial business, before they were old enough to know the meaning of the words.

Yes reader, you who are a father of a family, picture to yourself what might have happened to you had such a clause been

permitted to go unrepealed. You are accosted by that swaggering young puppy, Stuckup, old Stuckup's eldest boy, who is just seventeen years of age, and who comes up to you with his hat rakishly set on one side of his over greased head, with three hairs on his upper lip which he calls a moustache, smelling, though it is but eleven in the day, of bad sherry and worse cigars • —you are accosted, we say, by this swaggering young scamp, who informs you that he has come to solicit the hand of your Amelia Ann, that forward young chit of a daughter of your's who will be fifteen next Christmas, and who already spends all her pocket money on kids and ciinoline. Contempt for the ill-developed dimensions of the young puppy alone prevent you (to use a phrase of his own) from kicking him into the middle of next week; but you intimate your readiness to do it, and politely request him to take himself off with all the expedition of which he may be capable. Next morning comes a knock at your door, and a seedy individual in a black coat and inky fingers is ushered in. It is Sharpnib, Lawyer Hawk's clerk, who thrusts into your hand a long slip of paper, a summons from Judge Stickithemud, to attend at his chambers at 12, to shew cause why young Stuckup should not marry Amelia Ann, of whom you are described as the "said father." At 12, there you are accordingly, and you show cause to the effect following* namely, that young Stuckup has no visible means of existence, much less of maintaining a wife— that he is a notorious .young scamp—that Amelia Ann is no more than a child—and a host of other equally cogent reasons. Judge Stiekithemud takes down a lot of piecrust colored volumes, and after poring over them says he finds a precedent, or cannot find a precedent (either will do) and that he does not consider your reasons to be reasons at all, but highly unreasonable—and he gives his "judicial consent" to young Stuckup marrying your Amelia Ann, which he immediately does, and at the end of three months (his nose having got exceedingly red in the meantime and smelling worse than ever of bad tobacco), he goes to that refuge for the destitute, the "Nelson diggings," and never comes back any more, but Amelia Ann does, and you have her to keep with an addition. And that's what might have I happened to you, a respectable father of a family, a payer of taxes (and rates if you live on TChorndon flat) but for "the Marriage Act Amendment Act.

Nor was" the parent the only individual likely to fall a martyr to this monstrous clause. Stickithemud might be a flinty old patriarch who decided as judges are sworn to decide, by precedent alone, without reference to their feelings. But other judges there might be of a gentler mould, and the appeals which would have beea made to their sympathies might have proved too strong. 'vLet us suppose," said Mr. Ward on introducing his Amendment Act into the House —"let us suppose the existence of a worthy but prosaic matron, with a romantic daughter. The romantic daughter falls in love; the mother refuses her consent to the match ; and the daughter declares her intention of appealing to the judge. Mama thinks she had better anticipate that appeal, hurries off, arrives before his Honor dusty and deliquescent, sits down, and proceeds to give him a complete account of the matter; commencing the history of her daughter at the earliest possible period of her existence, probably some months previous to her being ushered into this sublunary sphere, and enlivening her discourse as she proceeds by divers pleasing anecdotes, elucidating the mysteries of measles, or the secrets of scarlatina. Well, Sir, this lasts for a couple of hours, at the end of which his Honor, if he be mortal, must naturally have conceived an intense dislike to her, to to use the mildest term. Half-an-hour after her departure, the door flies open, and in rushes the summary petitioner. A lovely suppliant throws herself weeping at his Honor's feet, or, possibly, falls sobbing on his bosom, exclaiming that he is her last resource—her only refuge; that she has made up her mind; that for her there is— there can be, no possible medium between matrimony and charcoal. Or let the House consider the case of his Honor on circuit, arriving at a place where possibly a nest of half-a-dozen similar eggs await his sitting. Let hon. members picture to themselves his unfortunate Honor surrounded by six elderly females, of vast lingual capacities, each dilating on her daughter with most afflicting amplitude; and let them watch him, as, stunned, dizzy with intense talk, if I may be allowed to coin an impression, be reels into a room wjiere await him the summary petitioners. Behold six lovely suppiiants, with streaming eyes, and dishevelled hair, one weeping on each shoulder; one clasping, possibly kissing, each hand. Alas for the Fifth Commandment. Sir, I regret

to say, that I have heard the following remark made, in reference to this Bill. " What is the use of a judge, if he cannot adapt himself to circumstances?" Sir, I protest against the cruelty, the heartlessness which this observation implies. Sir, I have had the blessing, if blessing it be. of a legal education ; I have had some slight experience in the course of my existence; but I must confess that neither that experience nor that legal education have removed a single iota of that constitutional inability, which, in common with every hon. member in this House, I should feel in attempting to adapt myself to the peculiar circumstances which I have just described. I think, Sir, that I have now proved my case; and I leave this Bill in the hands of the House, perfectly confident that no hon. member will for a moment oppose a measure which has for its object the removal of the blot of irreligion from our statute-book, and the relief of our judges from a responsibility never before imposed on any court in Christendom."

The House concurred in Mr. Ward's views, and the Act was passed to repeal the clause which we have been discussing. The elderly ladies of the other House, sympathising no doubt with the parents whose outraged feelings Mr. Ward had so forcibly depicted, did not throw out this Bill—but suffered it to become law—and young people now who desire to contract the responsibility of matrimony must either procure papa's consent or wait till they arrive at the age of