11209.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
التسليسا
C.O. 885
3.
MY LORD Duke,
No. 96.
· (CANADA.)
QUEEN'S ADVOCATE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Doctors' Commons, December 14, 1861.
I AM honoured with your Grace's commands signified in Mr. Elliot's letter of the 3rd December instant, stating that he was directed to transmit to me a copy of an Act passed by the Legislature of Canada in the month of May last entitled “An Act to No. 2458, "amend chapter 72 of the Consolidated Statutes for Upper Canada, intituled ‘An Act c. 46.
"and to request that I would furnish your "respecting Marriages in Upper Canada,'
Grace with my opinion whether, and with what modification, this Act can properly be left to its operation by Her Majesty.
Mr. Elliot was also pleased to observe that it appears to your Grace that this Act might under certain circumstances cause a man to become the lawful husband of two wives. One under the first clause and one under the second.
Copies of the Acts referred to in the first clause of the law on which my opinion
is requested were enclosed.
In obedience to your Grace's commands I have taken this Act into consideration and have the honour to
Report
That I see no sufficient reason why the Act should not be left to its operation by Her Majesty.
The first section seems to have been rendered necessary by marriages having been solemnized by ministers who had not obtained licenses from the quarter sessions.
The validity of such marriages was open to doubt, (as recited in the preamble,) and the section removes such doubt in all cases, in which neither of the parties has contracted any subsequent marriage,
By the second section it is enacted that in case either party so married has con- tracted any subsequent marriage, the first section shall not be construed to invalidate any such (second) marriage. The second section will not, in my opinion, make the parties to any such second marriage lawful husband and wife: it will leave the question of the validity of their marriages to be determined by law, independently of this Act, and as if it had not been passed.
Were it not for this section, the first section might operate in certain contingencies, so as to invalidate a second marriage retrospectively which obviously ought not to be done.
Where neither party has married again, the Act makes their (questionable) marriage valid; but where either has married again it leaves the validity of such (questionable)
and unaffected by the Act. marriage still open,
To the Right Hon. the Duke of Newcastle,
&c.
&c.
&c.
0
16278.-351. 25.-9/86.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. D. HARDING.
*
10
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO