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Mr. Deakin: You gain a good deal.
Mr. Hofmeyr[1]: You gain social standing.
Mr. Dodds: I think not. The law of England now recognises the marriage contract. The capacity to contract depends upon the law of domicile. The contract of marriage is governed by that law as well as any other contract; and a contract of marriage being governed by that law must be recognised as legal. It is only with regard to the inheritance of property that there could be any difficulty.
Mr. Lorimer[2]: There is the question of legacy duty.
Mr. Dodds: The difficulty is only with reference to the inheritance of land, and I do not see that the proposal which Mr. Upington makes would alter the position at all.
The President: In answer to your question I may say that I have not a copy of the Bill, but this is a draft of the Bill which was introduced by Sir Thomas Chambers, who took up this question first, and it is extremely probable that the Bill of 1878 would follow the same lines. That Bill is, “Be it enacted that from and after the passing of this Act, marriages which have been or which shall be hereafter contracted shall be deemed to be good and valid to all intents and purposes in the United Kingdom, and the issue of such marriages shall have all rights of succession, inheritance, and otherwise as if they had been the children of parents legally married in the United Kingdom.”
Mr. Dodds: That Bill was confined, so far as inheritance is concerned, to the recognition of Colonial marriages; it did not propose to alter the law of England as to marriage.
