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not, except as to certain points in which our law comes in, as to inheritance I mean. I daresay, as many of you know, I did speak against the alteration that you are contending for, still, I am quite open to conviction. But I feel this difficulty. We have got our law in this country—we very properly, after perhaps an unreasonable demur, allowed you to have your law, and now you want us to change our law of inheritance, although we have not changed our law as to the validity of marriages in this country, because we have allowed you to make these marriages valid in the Colonies. Is not that so?
Mr. Downer: Quite so; that is technically what it does come to.
The President: It is more than technically—it is actually.
Mr. Downer: It is substantially, no doubt; but I think we are justified in saying that, because in the first place you will observe that the position of the English law is rather inconsistent upon the subject. You recognise the marriage for one purpose, but you will not recognise it for another. I am assuming that the administration of the fiscal departments is properly carried on, and that they are acting upon sound principles. You say it is a perfectly good marriage, as at the present time the lex loci contractûs applies to it, but when it comes to land you apply a different criterion and you will not let it apply at all.
Mr. Adye Douglas: Does not it apply to the Scotch law too?
The President: It does; the Scotch law legitimises children born before the marriage was entered into, and though no one has ever doubted that the children are legitimate in Scotland, they cannot inherit in England.
Mr. Downer: I fancy our case is a little stronger than
