of Chancery must be procured, and if there be no such guardian, and no person authorized by law to give or withhold consent, then the license is to be granted without it. If the parent or guardian whose consent is required is non compos mentis, or beyond sea, or unreasonably or from undue motives refuses his consent, the minor, desirous of marrying, must apply by petition to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Keeper, &c., or the Master of the Rolls, or the Vice-Chancellor, either of whom is empowered to proceed upon the petition in a summary way, and judicially declare whether the marriage ought or ought not to take effect. 66 66 The consent of parents and guardians in the case of marriages is required by the Roman law with as much strictness as in our own law. Reason, both natural and civil," observes the emperor in the Institutes, persuades us that the consent of parents should precede marriage. Hence it became a question, whether the son of a madman could contract matrimony, and as the opinions of lawyers differed, we proclaimed our decision by which the son as well as the daughter of a madman is permitted to marry without the intervention of the father, according to the form promulgated by our constitution." (h) If the requisite consent has not been obtained, or any impediment to the marriage exists, a caveat may be entered against the grant of the license. This caveat must be signed by or on behalf of the person who enters the same, with the addition of his place of residence and the ground of the objection on which the caveat is founded, and when it has been so signed and entered, no license is to issue, (s. 11,) until the caveat or a true copy thereof has been transmitted to the judge out of whose office the license is to issue, and until the judge has certified to the register that he has examined into the matter of the caveat, and is satisfied that it ought not to obstruct the grant of the license, or until the caveat has been withdrawn by the party who entered it. If the marriage is not celebrated within three months after the grant of the license, no minister is to proceed (s. 19) to solemnize the marriage. until a new license has been obtained, or banns have been duly published according to the provisions of the act. Marriage by special license.-The stat. 25 Hen. 8, c. 21, authorizes the Archbishop of Canterbury, his successors, and the guardians of the spiritualities during a vacancy of the archbishoprick, to grant faculties, dispensations, and licenses as the pope had done before, and enacts that all children procreated after solemnization of marriage by virtue of a (A) Instit. lib. 1, tit. 10. license or dispensation from the said archbishop, shall be taken to be legitimate in all courts of justice and other places, and inherit the inheritance of their parents and ancestors. This power is expressly reserved to the archbishop intact by the recent marriage acts. (i) Special licenses for the marriage of parties, " at any time in any church or chapel or other meet and convenient place," seem to be regarded in the light of particular favours to be granted only to persons of rank and condition, and are procurable only by those who have a certain amount of influence in high quarters. Marriage by certificate, and license from the registrar.-By the 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 85, it is enacted, that where, by any law or canon in force before the passing of the act, marriages may be solemnized after the publication of banns, they may be solemnized in like manner by the production of the registrar's certificate, and in order to obtain this certificate, the parties must give notice (s. 4) of the intended marriage to the superintendent registrars of the districts within which they have dwelt for not less than seven days next preceding, stating their names and surnames, their profession or condition in life, their respective dwellingplaces, the length of time that they have been resident in their several districts, and the church or registered building in which the marriage is to be solemnized. If either party has dwelt in the place stated in the notice during more than one calendar month, it may be stated therein that he or she hath dwelt there one month and upwards. Printed forms of these notices may be obtained from the superintendent registrar's office. The notices are to be filed by the superintendent-registrar, and copies of them are to be entered in a book to be called "the marriage notice book," which is to be open to the inspection of the public without fee. These notices are, moreover, to be transmitted to the clerk of the guardians of the poor-law union of the district, and be read by him "three several times in three successive weeks at the weekly meeting of the guardians," unless in any case a license for the marriage shall be sooner granted, and notice thereof given to such clerk. If the board of guardians do not hold meetings in every week, it will be sufficient if the notice is read at any meeting holden within twenty-one days from the day of the entry of the notice. After the expiration of seven days from the entry of the notice, if the marriage is to be solemnized by license from the registrar, or of twenty (2) 4 Geo. 4, c. 76, s. 20; 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 85, s. 1. one days if it is to be solemnized without license, the superintendentregistrar is to issue (s. 7) under his hand, at the request of the party giving the notice, if no lawful impediment stands in the way, and there is no prohibition on the part of the parents and guardians, a certificate stating the particulars set forth in the notice, the day on which the noticewas entered, and that the full period of seven days, or of twenty-one days, as the case may be, has elapsed since the entry of such notice, and that the certificate has not been forbidden. The issue of the certificate may be prevented (s. 9) by the parent or guardian, or person having a right to forbid the marriage, putting the word "forbidden" opposite to the entry of the notice in the marriage noticebook, with the addition of his or her name and place of abode, and of the character (s. 10) in which he or she forbids the marriage. Marriage licenses from the registrar.-The superintendent-registrar is authorized (s. 11) to grant licenses for marriage in any building registered for the celebration of marriages within his district, on receiving a fee of 37. in addition to the value of the stamps required to be affixed to such licenses: but he has no power or authority to grant licenses for marriage in any church or chapel in which marriages may be solemnized according to the rites of the Church of England, or in any church or chapel belonging to the Church of England, or licensed for the celebration of divine service according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, or any license for marriage in any registered building not within his district. Before the license can be granted in any case, one of the parties intending to marry must appear personally (s. 12) before the superintendent registrar, and in case no notice has been given to the latter of the intended marriage, he must deliver to him the certificate of the superintendent-registrar, to whom notice has been given, and such party shall take an oath or make an affirmation, that he or she believeth that there is not any impediment or hindrance to the marriage, that one of the parties hath had his or her usual place of abode within the district in which the marriage is to be solemnized, and that the consent of parents and guardians has been obtained where such consent is required. All such licenses and affirmations, or declarations, are liable to the same stamp duties as licenses granted by the ordinary of any diocese, and the affidavits made in order to procure the same. The registrar-general is to furnish (s. 8) every superintendent-registrar with forms of certificates; and, in order to distinguish the certificates to be issued for marriages without license, a water-mark, in the form of the word "license" in Roman letters, is to be made in the substance of the paper of the certificates for marriage by license; and every such certificate is, moreover, to be printed in red ink, whilst the certificates for marriage without license are to be printed in black ink, and are to possess such other distinctive marks as the registrar may think fit to give them. A caveat against the grant of the certificate or license may be entered on payment of a fee of 5s. It must be signed by the person who enters the same, must set forth his or her place of residence, and the ground of objection on which the caveat is founded. After entry thereof no certificate or license is to issue until the superintendent-registrar has examined the objection and overruled it, or until the caveat has been withdrawn by the party who entered it. In cases of doubt the matter may be referred to the registrargeneral for decision; and if the superintendent-registrar refuses the certificate or license, an appeal lies to the registrar-general. And it is provided and declared that every person vexatiously entering a caveat on grounds which the registrar-general shall declare to be frivolous, shall be liable (s. 37) to an action for damages at the suit of the party against whose marriage the caveat has been entered, (k) and every person who forbids the issue of any superintendent-registrar's certificate, by falsely representing himself or herself to be a person whose consent is required to the marriage, knowing at the time that the representation is false, is to suffer (s. 88) the penalties of perjury. No marriage is to be celebrated (s. 14) after notice until after the expiration of twenty-one days after the day of the entry of the notice, unless the registrar's license has been obtained, and no marriage is to be solemnized with license until after the expiration of seven days after the day of the entry of the notice. And whenever the marriage is not celebrated within three calendar months after the entry of the notice, the notice and certificate and license are (s. 15) utterly void, and no person is to proceed to solemnize the marriage, nor is any registrar to register the same, until a new notice has been given, entry made, and certificate thereof granted in the manner previously provided; and any superintendent-registrar, who knowingly and wilfully issues any license after the expiration of three calendar months after the entry of the notice, or who knowingly and wilfully solemnizes, or permits to be solemnized in his office, any marriage declared to be null and void by the act, is guilty of felony.(1) Appointment of registrars, and registration of buildings for the cele (k) As to the evidence in such action, see 7 (1) 7 Wm. 4, and 1 Vict. c. 22, s. 3. Wm. 4, and 1 Vict. c. 22, s. 5. bration of marriages.-Any person possessed of certain qualifications specified by the act, may be appointed (s. 17) by the superintendent-registrar of any union or parish, with the consent of the board of guardians thereof, for the purpose of being present at marriages solemnized under the act, and at which the presence of a registrar is made necessary: and any buildings certified by twenty householders (s. 18) to have been used by them during one year at the least, as their usual place of public religious worship, may be registered as a building for the solemnization of matrimony therein. And if any registered building has been disused as a place of religious worship, and the congregation removed to a new building, such new building may be registered and substituted in the place of the former. Punishment of clergymen and registrars for unlawfully solemnizing marriages. If any person solemnizes matrimony in any other place than a church or chapel wherein banns may be lawfully published, or a building registered under 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 85, or the registrar's office, or at any other time than between the hours of eight and twelve in the forenoon, unless by special license from the Archbishop of Canterbury; or without due publication of banns, and without license; or if any person falsely pretending to be in holy orders, solemnizes matrimony according to the rites of the Church of England, the party so offending is, on conviction, to be transported as a felon for fourteen years, provided the prosecution has been commenced within three years from the commission of the offence.(m) And if any superintendent-registrar knowingly and wilfully issues any certificate for marriage contrary to the provisions of the act of 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c, 85, or who knowingly and wilfully registers or solemnizes, or permits to be solemnized in his office, any marriage by that act declared to be null and void, is guilty of felony, and may be prosecuted at any time within three years from the commission of the offence. (n) PERFORMANCE of the MARRIAGE CEREMONY.-If the marriage is by special license, or by license from the ordinary, the license authorizing the marriage must be presented to some clergyman of the established church, who is bound on the requisition of the parties to solemnize the marriage without delay, unless there is some fair and reasonable ground for doubt as to the identity of the parties named in the license or some material alteration in the name has been discovered.(o) If the parties desire to be married pursuant to the superintendent-registrar's certificate, but according to the rites of the Church of England, they must, if they both reside in the (m) 4 Geo. 4, c. 76, s. 21. (o) Ewing v. Wheatley, 2 Hag. Consist. 185, 186. |