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Such an enactment, however, did pass, and has thrown fresh difficulties in the way of these marriages, but it has failed to put a stop to them, and has made no change in the general feeling respecting them. Parties who can afford it, repair to a foreign state (Hamburgh or Denmark, for example) where the prohibition does not exist, get domiciled, and marry there. The poor, confiding in their obscurity, get married (or go through the form) in the ordinary manner in their parishes. The mischief in their case is, that, if the couple happen to disagree, they take advantage of the illegality to part. In the case of parties married abroad, there is also great risk. The opinions of the leading members of the legal profession have been taken, but none of them can venture to state positively how such marriages would be regarded by our courts; though the better opinion is that they would be held good. In the meantime, the chance of a disputed succession is hanging over each couple that has ventured on the step.
The facts are proved by the petitions. One numerously signed by the provincial clergy states—
