MARRIAGE (Maritagium), in Law, signifies not only the lawful joining of man and wife, but also the right of bestowing a ward or a widow in marriage, as well as the land given in marriage.
Dissolution of MARRIAGE. See DIVORCE.
Forcible MARRIAGE. See FORCIBLE Marriage.
Frank MARRIAGE. See FRANK.
Jactitation of MARRIAGE, in Law, is one of the first and principal matrimonial causes, when one of the parties boasts or gives out, that he or she is married to the other, whereby a common reputation of their matrimony may ensue. On this ground the party injured may libel the other in the spiritual court; and unless the defendant undertakes and makes out a proof of the actual marriage, he or she is enjoined perpetual silence on that head; which is the only remedy the ecclesiastical courts can give for this injury.
MARRIAGE Settlement is a legal act, previous to marriage, whereby a jointure is secured to the wife after the death of the husband. These settlements seem to have been in use among the ancient Germans, and their kindred nation the Gauls. Of the former Tacitus gives us this account: Dotem non uxor marito, sed uxori maritus affert: intersunt parentes et propinqui, et munera probant (De Mor. Germ. c. 18.) And Cæsar (De Bell. Gallic. lib. vi. c. 18.) has given us the terms of a marriage settlement among the Gauls, as nicely calculated as any modern jointure: Viri, quantas pecunias ab uxoribus dotis nomine acceperunt, tantas ex suis bonis, estimatione facta, cum dotibus communicant.
Hujus omnis pecunia conjunctim ratio habetur, fructusque servatur. Uter eorum vita superavit, ad eum pars utriusque cum fructibus superiorum temporum pervenit. The dauphin's commentator supposes that this Gaulish custom was the ground of the new regulations made by Justinian, Nov. 97. with regard to the provision for widows among the Romans; but surely there is as much reason to suppose, says Judge Blackstone, that it gave the hint for our statutable jointures. Comment. vol. ii. p. 138.
See an excellent marriage settlement by Blackstone in the appendix to the second volume of his Commentaries.
Duty of MARRIAGE, is a term used in some ancient customs, signifying an obligation on women to marry. To understand this, it must be observed, that old maids and widows about sixty, who held fees in body, or were charged with any personal or military services, were anciently obliged to marry, to render those services to the lord by their husbands, or to indemnify the lord for what they could not do in person. And this was called duty or service of marriage.
Policy of encouraging MARRIAGE.—Till the principles of population were explained by Malthus, it was generally held to be the interest of governments to encourage marriage, and to discourage celibacy. Dr Halley has enlarged on this subject, and has shown by computation, that were it not for the backwardness of people to marry, from the prospect of the necessary trouble and charge in providing for a family, there might be four times as many births as there are. It has been a favourite object, too, with most of the governments of Europe at one time or another, to encourage marriage with the view of increasing the population. But we know now that all such attempts are not merely idle, but mischievous. The motives that lead men to marry are at all times sufficiently powerful, and the most common error of individuals has been, not in resisting, but in yielding to these motives, without a due regard to prudence. Population, so far from requiring any artificial stimulus, has a constant tendency to exceed the means of subsistence; and it is only kept down to the proper level, partly by the prudence of those who live in celibacy, and partly by the pressure of misery from the want or the insufficiency of food. To increase the number of marriages, therefore, without regard to the ability of the parents to bring up their offspring, would have the effect of bringing human beings into the world to be destroyed by want or disease.