acknowledged universally that a man may not marry his mother; his daughter, or grand-daughter; his sister, or his half-sister, whether uterine or by his father only, whether legitimate or base-born;[1] or his aunt, the sister of his father or his mother. We presume it to be allowed by all that the laws forbidding incest would be transgressed by a marriage with any one of these. Questions, however, have been raised, and are being raised, with regard to marriages made incestuous by reason of affinity, in those cases in which previously to the union that relationship which is popularly called consanguinity was not existing. More particularly is this so with regard to marriages with two or more sisters in succession. It is with these, the last mentioned, that we now concern ourselves. In dealing with the matter in dispute, itis manifest that our reasonings, be they on which side they may be, may be made to move in one or another of three channels. Of these, one will contain those reason- ings which may be advanced for the lawfulness of these marriages ; another, those which may be set forth in abatement, or for the annulment, of the force of the arguments so adduced ; the remaining one, those which may fairly be stated upon the opposite side, and against the legality. Of these, the contention in favour of allowing marriage with a deceased wife's sister comes the first in order. It rests chiefly on these principal averments. That an indisputable sanction has been given by implication in a certain place in the Holy Scriptures;
- ↑ Such seems to be the meaning of "born abroad." Levit. xviii. 9.
