Abraham Hayward

“ For, my Lords, the state of society in this country is such, that it is held impossible for a man and a woman, not past a certain age, to live together with respectability and propriety without marriage, if they are persons not prevented by any legal impediment from contracting it. ”

“ The law does not permit a woman to marry during her husband's lifetime; yet this does not obviate the scandal that would arise from the unrestrained familiar intercourse of a married woman with another man."
The worst of the apprehended evil then appears, on analysis, to be this—that, if the prohibition were removed, certain persons who (from age, habits, character, or conduct) might be expected to marry, but who are now living together without marrying, and had rather continue to do so, would be obliged to marry or to part. ”

“ That the effect of the existing law which prohibits marriage within certain degrees of affinity, admits of serious doubts as applied to such marriages solemnized abroad; some of our most eminent civilians and lawyers being of opinion that it works a personal disqualification between the parties which nothing can remove—others considering that domicile in a foreign country, where such marriages are lawful, removes the disability—and others, again, conceiving that the mere celebration of the marriage in such a country is sufficient. ”

“ You are a married man, the husband of the most amiable and respectable of women; you cannot look to the chance of marrying this wretched fugitive: between you and such an event there are two sepulchres to pass. ”

“ In the case of a sister by blood, the feeling has commenced in infancy, grown with our growth, and strengthened with our strength. In the case of a wife's sister, we receive no assistance from habit; on the contrary, the acquaintance may have commenced with the very inclination we are expected to suppress. The difference is so radical, that, if all the nations in the world were to co-operate for the purpose, they could not put the two cases on a par, they could not make men regard their wives' sisters as their own ”

“ There are cases, my Lords, I admit, where a widower is desirous of marrying the sister of his deceased wife, because he thinks that he has thereby a fairer chance of obtaining for his orphan children a kind mother, and a faithful protectress, than if he were to introduce under his roof a strange step-mother; but there are many more cases, in the proportion of fifty to one where the husband would be desirous of having the benefit of the same maternal care over his orphan children shown them by the sister of his deceased wife, without any intention of marrying her ”

“ I look at the state of society in this country, and I see reason to think, that the prohibition which prevents the intermarriage of persons within certain near degrees of affinity, is the very safe-guard of our domestic relations. ”

“ My Lords, a deceased wife's sister may now with propriety undertake the care of her orphan nephews and nieces, because she can never stand to their father in any nearer relation. If the prohibitions were removed, it would be impossible for the husband to invite her to come and live under his roof, unless he held out an offer of marriage. ”

“ That, as your petitioners are informed, great numbers of persons among the higher and middling classes of society have resorted to foreign countries to celbrate such marriages,—thus proving that the existence of the prohibition, as applied to marriages celebrated here, has no moral effect in discountenancing the practice with parties whose circumstances enable them to evade the law. ”

“ Let any pious person consider the consequences of discussing the authority and meaning of scriptural texts, on such a subject as marriage, before a court of common law. The uncertain state of the law, therefore, forms in itself a strong argument for a declaratory Act, The state of the law in foreign countries is also most important ”

“ The Archbishop of Dublin pointedly observes:—"As for the allegations from the Levitical law, if any one brings them forward in sincerity, he should be prepared to advocate adherence to it in all points alike; among others, the compulsory marriage of a brother with his deceased brother's widow."
The Apostles are silent on the point, but reference has been made to the practice and doctrine of the early Christians. Now, admitting that their inclination was to condemn such marriages, their inclination was certainly much stronger to prevent clergymen from marrying at all. ”

“ A very slight degree of relationship would be thought to justify a steady woman of straitened means in accepting the hospitality of a widower with children.
There is no prohibition to marry affecting any of the cases within the second principle, and the case in question obviously depends upon that. It cannot depend on the first principle, because every one knows that sensual passion is not excluded ”

“ Nothing is more common in almost all the states of America than second marriages of this sort; and so far from being doubtful as to their moral tendency, they are among us deemed the very best sort of marriages. ”

“ The only objection which at the first glance appears to have any plausibility, would be perceived, I think, on a very little reflection, to be extremely feeble, namely, the supposed advantage (under the prohibition of such marriages) of a widower's being enabled without scandal to reside with his deceased wife's sister. ”

“ From reliance on age and character, or from a belief that men will not inflict a gross wrong on those dear to them, or be guilty of crime under circumstances which would call down a more than ordinary degree of reprobation on their heads. ”

“ Others see a great deal; or why have so many enlightened Christian communities, after prohibiting such marriages, come round to the conviction, that it is best to sanction them? Why are they constantly taking place in England in defiance of the law? ”