WHAT CONSTITUTES A MARRIAGE.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3796, 26 February 1881, Page 2

WHAT CONSTITUTES A MARRIAGE.

The New York Court of Appeals has decided in favour of the legality o.f the marriage contracted by the late Wm. E. Hynes, a wealthy citizen, with Mrs May F. Saunders in 1871, while in London. He gave her a ring in the presence of witnesses, and told her he would recognise her as his lawful wife so long as she remained a true and honest woman. He repeated the ceremony while crossing the Channel, and repeated his declaration ia France. She remained with him up to his death, in 1874 ; but the sisters of Mr Hynes refused to recognise her or her children as legal heirs, and litigation ensued as to the validity of the marriage. The decision of the Court of Appeals confirms the decisions of the two lower Courts, and the sisters of the deceased will have to vacate the property owned by their deceased brother and account for the profits derived from the estate since his death.

' President-elect James A. G-arfield will be 49 years old the 19th of this month. When he takes his seat in the White House next March, he will be the third youngest President the Bepubliehas ever had. Grant was the youngest President having lacked one month of 47 years when inaugurated. Frankin Pierce wjis four days younger than Garfield will noxfc March when he was inaugurated. Two other presidents were in their 50th year when inaugurated—James L. Polk ajjd Milliard Fillmore, older than Grariiekl^ will be. The next youngest was John * Tyler, who was over 51 when he succeeded to Harrison, barely begun term of office. Abraham Lincoln was 52 years old, and Martin Van Buren and E. B. Hayes not quite 55. AndrewJackson lacked eight months of being 57, and George Washington had passed that age, when inaugurated. Oddly enough, the four consecutive presidents, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, were each in their 58 th year when inaugurated. Zachary Taylor and Tippecanoe Harrison were 65 and 68 respectively when they took the oath of office, and neither lived to fill out his term. la point of lage, James Buchanan came between the two, being in his 66th year when inaugurated. If you have great talents, iudustry will improve them; if moderate abilities, indm. try will supply their deficiencies. Nothing is denied to well directed labour; nothing is ever to be attained without it.— Sir J. Reynolds.

Beware of judging character by single deeds, and be even reticent in judging at all. Only a perfect sympathy, by which we can see things from another's standpoint, and forget for the time our own* can enable us to do justice.

All that I have accomplished, or expect or hope to accomplish, has been and will be by that plodding, patient, persevering process of accretion which builds the antheap, particle by particle, thought bj thought, fact by fact.—Elihu Burritt.