MONTHLY MIRROR, FOR OCTOBER, 1806. EXTRACTS FROM A COMMON PLACE BOOK. No. IV. SCOTISH MARRIAGES. A LATE decision in the South, seems to call in question the legality of those engagements so frequent in Scotland, usually denominated irregular marriages. The following hints may throw some light on the subject to the mere English reader. Marriage, in Scotland, as in some other countries, is merely a civil contract, which may be entered into by parties not within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, and out of the age of pupillarity, (infancy). This contract may be dissolved at the suit of either party, in case of adultery, cruel treatment, wilful desertion for a certain period, and impotency. The consent or agreement of parties, followed by coition (copula) constitutes marriage; a proof of these facts makes a Scots marriage, to all intents and purposes, binding in law. If the parties exchange letters, declaring themselves husband and wife; if they cohabit together, and in the world pass as such, even though no such promise or writing exist, the law will declare their marriage valid. In such a case, their children will be legitimate, unless the parties can prove a positive agreement of their having assumed the character of husband and wife, only to save appearances with society, or some equally strong motive. Hence it is not uncommon for artful women, in this country, to decoy a lover to their bed, taking care to have witnesses ready, who, upon a preconcerted signal, burst in upon the couple; and should his affection, or his fears, induce him to declare his companion to be his wife, the law, upon the proof of such an acknowledgment, will compel him to abide by his declaration. EE A marriage is said to be regular, when the parties have complied with those regulations which the religious society to which they belong, has thought proper, in such cases, to prescribe to its members. The usual requisites, in Scotland, are public proclamation of the banns three times in the congregation of which they form a part, and that the parties shall be free of scandal; in other words, not liable to church censure for immoralities. Residence for the short period of three weeks in the parish (which is sometimes certified by a landlord of an inn, when the parties have not been in it as many hours) is the warrant to the parish presenter for proclamation; his (the presenter's) certificate of proclamation, which is also in Edinburgh often granted with as little hesitation, is the clergyman's authority for performing the ceremony. In this way, many Scots lovers are united with the greatest expedition, at Edinburgh particularly, in a regular marriage, without subjecting themselves to the censure of their ecclesiastical tribunals. But whether they comply, or not, with those forms, the marriage is equally valid in law, after the parties acknowledge each other, and go to bed as man and wife. A slight rebuke, or fine, is the price of their reconciliation with their congregation, for marrying irregularly, should they incline to continue members of the Presbyterian church. Those who have no such desire, have no occasion to submit to any such discipline. Hence it appears obvious, that the consent of parties, followed by a copula, is in Scotland, and if performed there, of course all the world over, a marriage perfectly valid and legal. What the parties should chiefly have in view, in marrying irregularly, as it is called, is sufficient evidence of their engagement and cohabitation. The usual method in this country is for them to appear before a justice of peace, and declare themselves married persons. A petition is usually presented, stating that they have intermarried without complying with the forms of the church; the judge writes a few lines on this petition, finding them to be married, and fining them in a few shillings to the poor of the parish, &c. A document is then obtained, which can at all times be referred to, in proof of the marriage; and that is all which is necessary, since the marriage without it is abundantly valid. The Gretna Green forms are equally unnecessary and ridiculous. The priest is no other than some low fellow of the village, who has no better right to act in that capacity, than the parish : beadle, or town hangman. A clerical dress is provided for him at a public house; he is introduced to the lovers by the postillion that brought them thither, and who is said uniformly to run snacks with him in the gains. He passes himself off for a clergyman, and begins his part by trying to make the most of his customers. His demands are generally one hundred guineas, though he will come down to as many pence. This important point settled, he proceeds to go over as much of the ceremony, which, in Scotland is verbal, as he can remember the parties proceed to bed before witnesses, and he, after making out such a certificate as he can, gets drunk with his companions at the lovers' expence. This marriage has nothing in it regular; it is, however, sufficiently binding. All the fellow's real use is in seeing and witnessing the bedding, and the acknowledgment of the parties, all which can be done just as well by any body else. The landlord and any other person, for two are necessary, the postillion, or any one, are sufficient for the purpose. The ceremony of the blacksmith is an impertinent piece of mummery, even to a degree criminal, as it is a mockery of the ecclesiastical forms of the country, which can neither make the marriage one whit the less irregular, nor can the want of it render the engagement less valid or legal. The parties, and they only, by their going to bed as acknowledged husband and wife, make the marriage. Singular as it may appear, I was assured, upon the spot, that this scandalous impostor has, in some years, drawn above twelve hundred guineas, by practising upon the ignorance, or the urgent demands of the infatuated lovesick nymphs and swains of the South; that above an hundred couples have been annually the dupes of this tobacconist and his associates, from whom he contrives to get as much money as they can be swindled out of, on pretence of marriage fees. His demands being in proportion to the fancied opulence of the parties, are, as I have already stated, from some hundred guineas to a crown, which he will accept, rather than lose the job. Of late, however, two interlopers, one of them a disbanded soldier, by trade a thatcher, and the other a journeyman mason, threaten to deprive him of half of his honourable gains. The acknowledgment of parties, and their bedding before witnesses, in any part of Scotland, constitutes, as I have already stated, the validity of marriage. The ceremony of the blacksmith is worse than useless, being an offence contra bonas mores, by a solemn mockery of solemn ecclesiastical forms. As evidence of the fact of |