The marriages of Quakers and Jews were excepted from the acts prior to 6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 85, and are now subject to a peculiar legislation. They need not be in a registered building, and the registering officer of the Quakers, or the secretary of the synagogue, is authorized to be present instead of the registrar. (For mixed Quaker mar riages, see 23 and 24 Viet., 18 and 35 Viet. c. 10.) The marriages of European British subjects in India are regulated by the imperial act 14 and 15 Viet. c. 40, and the Indian marriage act of 1865. As regards the colonies, the chief imperial statute is 28 and 29 Vict. c. 64, which, however, leaves the matter of registration to local acts. GeneraLly, marriages celebrated in foreign countries accord ing to the Lex loci are recognized as valid if the parties are capable of marriage. Mar riages abroad within the lines of the British army are sanctioned by 4 Geo. IV. c. 91; -a-nd marria,res may take place before British consuls under 12 and 13 Viet. c. 68, and 31 .and,32 Vice. c. 61.
Considerable changes have been made in the details of the marriage law of Ireland by the acts of 1870 and 1871, viz., 33 and 34 Vict. c. 110, and 34 and 35 Vict. c. 49. The first of these acts was required partly as a readjustment after the disestablishment of the Anglican church in Ireland; but it also provides a form of license to be issued by Epis copalian bishops or their nominees, and by the heads of the non-Episcopalian Protestant communions; and it contains important provisions relating to the legalization of mar riages of different religious persuasions. Such marriages must be performed by a cler gyman in a building set apart for the celebration of divine service, with open doors, between 8 A.M. and 2 P.M., and in the presence of two or inore credible witnesses. A certificate from the local registrar is also required under pain of nullity. The act of 1871 gives the form of certificate required for a marriage by special license; it enables Roman Catholic bishops to issue licenses for rnixed marriages, and it extends to such marriages the power of licensing previously given to other church officials.
Scotland.—In Scotland, the principle of the civil law, consensus non concubitus facit matrimonium, has been adopted; and this consent can be proved either by a regular cere mony in facie ecclesice publicly recorded, or in three other modes known to the law. The chief impediments to this consent are nonage, insanity, impotency, relationship within the prohibited degrees, subsisting marriage, adultery in the case of the adulterers, and, since lord Brougham's act (19 and 20 Vict. c. 96), non-residence in Scotland. There are many notorious cases of sham marriages, where a form has been gone through to prevent scandal or by way of joke, but no serious intention to marry was present. Also, if force has been used; or where an error as to the woman's chastity has been caused by her misrepiesentation or concealment ; or a mistake of personal identity occurs; or where a fraudulent conspiracy has been formed, the marriage is null. In Scotland, as elsewhere, clown to the council of Trent, a sacerdotal benediction was essential to marriage; and the Scotch clandestine or inorderly marriage was one celebrated with an improper reli gious ceremony, and quite different from the irregular marriage (without religious cere mony) punishable under 19 and 20 Viet. c. 96. By 10 Anne. c. 7, Episcopalian minis ters, and by 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 28, all other priests or ministers not of the established -church were permitted to celebrate marriage. This had previously been the privilege of the established church. Proclamation of bans takes place in the parish church, whether civil or quoad sacra, in which at least one of the parties has resided for six weeks. Irregular marriages are constituted by consent, and proved by a written or verbal decla ration of interchange of consent per verba A prcesenti; or by a promise to marry, on the faith of which intercourse has followed (these facts, according to one opinion, re.quirino. to be proved by a decree of declarator); or by cohabitation and habit and repute. The consent which makes an irregular marriage may, of course, be given before the regis trar, or may be proved by a conviction before the justices of the peace. under 17 and 18 Vict. c. 80, the registration act. An order appointing registration can be obtained on proof before the sheriff, under lord Brougham's act, 19 and 20 Viet. c. 96.
Much discontent was felt in Scotland with the corrupt practice in proclaiming bans. The proclamation wa,s generally not made on three successive Sundays, as required by law, but thrice on one Sunday; and for this illegality the session-clerks were in the habit of charging higher fees than would otherwise have been exigible according to custom. Indeed, the fees charged varied largely over the country, and in some places were so exorbitant that, in the opinion of many authorities, they were a direct occasion to con cubinage and irregular marriage. The dissenters too, rightly or wrongly, felt aggrieved by the necessity of having recourse to the parish church. To remedy this state of things, the marriage notice (Scotland) act, 1878, was passed, " to encourage the celebration of regular marriages." According to this act, where two persons residing in Scotland wish to marry regularly, but without bans, each of them gives notice, in a form provided by the act, to the registrar of the parish or district in which he or she has lived for fifteen days immediately. tefeite; and this notice is entered bv the registrar in " the marriage notice book," which anybody can inspect for one shilling; and for seven consecutive. days after receiving the notice, the registrar is bound to keep posted up in a conspicuous-. and accessible place on the door or outer wall of his office, a public notice of the mar. riage, in another form provided by the act. Where both persons live in the same parish. or district, one notice is enoug,h. After the seven days, if no objection to the marriage appears on the face of the notice, and if no objection is stated by a third perty in a wilt ing subscribed by him and supported by a declaration taken before the registrar, the latter must grant to the person giving notice a certificate of due publication; and this certificate is sufficient authority for a minister, clergyman, or priest to celebrate a regu lar marriage, just as if it were a certificate of proclamation of bans. The certificate must be used within three months of its date; and no minister' of the church of Scotland. is obliged to celebrate a marriage not preceded by proclamation of bans. One party to. the marriage may produce a registrar's certificate, and the other a certii-icate of bans. The act imposes severe penalties on those who celebrate a marriage with a religious ceremony but without a certifictite of the one kind or the other; on registrars granting certificates not authorized by the act; and on persons guilty of willful falsehood in a notice, a declaration, or an objection. The fet,fristrars keep a supply of forms for use. under the act. As regards the treatment of objections made to the registrar; where these relate merely to some formality or statutory requirement, the registrar must make inquiry, and report to the sheriff, who may direct the notice to be either amended or canceled; but where the objection relates to a legal incapacity to marry or a legal impediment to marriage, the registrar is forbidden to issue a certificate until he sees the. judgment of a court of law disposing of the objection.
Ireland.--As rez,o-ards marriages celebrated in what was once the established church. of Ireland, not much difference existed between England and Ireland, except that bans, being under the canons and rubrics of the church, were more easily proclaimed, and the use of licenses (which were much cheaper) was more common. Roman Catholic mar riages were under the common law, and if celebrated by a priest were valid without bans, license, notice, residence, or consent. Mr. Monsell's act, 26 and 27 Viet. c,. 90, directs them to be registered. Presbyterian marriages were regulated by the Irish mar riage act, 7 and 8 Viet. c. 81, passed in consequence of the famous case of QUeell and" Millis, invalidating all celebration of mixed marriages by Protestant non-conformists. This act and the act of 20 and 27 Vict. c. 27, relating to the registration of places of pub lic -worship for the solemnization of marriage, are extended by the act 36 Viet. c. 16 to. meet the case of communities "who are not Roman Catholic, and who do not describe themselves as Protestant." Other non-conformist marriages were by registrar's certificate. or license. For a long time, mixed marriages by the Catholic clergy were forbidden by 19 Geo. II. c. 13.