Cambridge.
_Canongate Marriages_ (Vol. v., p. 320.; Vol. vii., p. 67.).--The
correspondent who expressed his surprise some time ago at his Query on this
subject not having called forth any remark from your Scotch friends, will
perhaps find the explanation of this result in the fact, that in Scotland
we are guided by the civil or Roman law on the subject of marriage; and
consequently, with us marriage is altogether a civil contract; and we need
the intervention neither of clergyman, Gretna blacksmith, or the equally
disreputable Canongate coupler. The services of the last two individuals
are only sought for by you deluded southerns. All we require here is the
agreement or consent of the parties ("_consensus non_ concubitus facit
matrimonium"); and the legal questions which arise have reference chiefly
to the evidence of this consent. The agreement may be made verbally, or in
writing, before witnesses or not, as the parties choose. Or a marriage may
be constituted and proved merely by habit and repute, _i. e._ by the
parties living together as man and wife, and the man allowing the woman to
be addressed as his wife. A promise of marriage, followed by _copula_, also
constitutes a marriage. But it would be out of place here to enter into all
the arcana of the Scotch law of marriage: suffice it to say, that it
prevails equally at John o' Groat's House and Aberdeen, as in the Canongate
or at Gretna Green. A _regular_ marriage requires certain formalities, such
as the publication of banns, &c. An _irregular_ one is equally good in law,
and may be contracted in various ways, as above explained.
This law, though _at first sight_ likely to lead to great abuses, really
works well in practice; and prevents the occurrence of those distressing
cases, which not unfrequently happen in England, of seduction under promise
of marriage, and subsequent desertion.