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neous interpretation put upon a text of scripture or in the undue authority attributed to a set of canons, matters little,—at all events, in a mistake. If, therefore, it chanced to be brought under the consideration of Lord Denman and his brother judges, there is no saying to what conclusion they might come, and a good deal of embarrassing discussion would be inevitable. Let any pious person consider the consequences of discussing the authority and meaning of scriptural texts, on such a subject as marriage, before a court of common law. The uncertain state of the law, therefore, forms in itself a strong argument for a declaratory Act, The state of the law in foreign countries is also most important; as proving both the sense put upon the alleged scriptural authority by other Christian communities, and the almost universal tendency to contract the marriages in question.
A man may marry the sister of a deceased wife, either as a matter of course or upon a formal application to the authorities, throughout the whole of Prussia (including the Rhenish provinces). Saxony, Hanover, Baden, Mecklenburgh, Hamburgh, Denmark, and most of the other Protestant States of Europe.
An unanswerable testimony regarding the frequency and beneficial results of such mar-
