MARRIAGE 69 between the intending spouses.^ Thus by the Dutch law a man might not marry his deceased wife's sister,^ but there was no reason why he should not marry his deceased wife's brother's widow.* In the colonies the matter of prohibited degrees has in part or in whole been regulated by statute.* ^ In other words, my wife's affines are not my affines so as to bring them within the prohibited degrees (Van Leeuwen, 1. 14. 13 and Gens. For. 1. 1. 13. 23), at all events in the collateral line. Voet, 23. 2. 33.
Pol. Ord., Art. 10. Gens. For. 1. 1. 13. 24 ; Voet, 23. 2. 33 ; Rechtsg. Obs. uU sup.,
p. 20 ; Hoola van Nooten, vol. i, p. 387. ^ For the Cape see Act No. 40 of 1892, which enacts (sec. 2) that : ' it shall be lawful for any widower to marry the sister of his deceased wife, provided such sister be not the widow of a deceased brother of such widower, or to marry any female related to him in any more remote degree of affinity than the sister of his deceased wife save and except any ancestor of or descendant from such deceased wife '. By sec. 4 nothing in the Act contained ' shall be deemed to legalise or render valid the marriage of a man with the sister of a wife from whom he has been divorced '. Sir A. P. S. Maasdorp has some remarks on this Act (1 Maasdorp, p. 17), which are stated by a writer in 8. A. L. J., vol. xxix, p. 130, to rest upon a misapprehension. In the Transvaal Province by Law No. 3 of 1871, sec. 4, 'Under the prohibited degrees of blood relationship are included : (a) all persons in the ascending and descending line ad infinitum, and in the collateral line to the third degree inclusive, consequently uncle and niece, aunt and nephew, whether by blood or marriage; (b), first cousins when both the parents of the one are related to both the parents of the other, as own brothers and sisters. The law is silent as to the prohibited degrees of affinity, which therefore depend upon the common law. It follows that marriage with a deceased wife's sister is not allowed ; and a man who has carnal intercourse with his wife's sister is guilty of incest. B. v. Paterson [1907] T. S. 619. In the Orange Free State, by Ord. No. 31 of 1903, sec. 1, 'Marriage is prohibited between all persons related to one another in the following degrees of consanguinity or affinity : (1) In the ascending and descend- ing lines between persons related to one another either by legitimate or illegitimate birth, or by marriage. (2) In the collateral degrees, (a) Between brother and sister by birth legitimate or illegitimate ; (6) (As amended by Ord. No. 27 of 1906) between uncle or great-uncle and niece or great-niece by birth legitimate or illegitimate; (c) Between aunt or great-aimt and nephew or great-nephew by birth legitimate or illegitimate. (3) (a) Between cousins whose fathers are brothers and whose mothers at the same time are sisters by birth legitimate or illegitimate ; (b) Between cousins of whom the father of the one is brother of the mother of the other and at the same time the mother of the one is sister of the father of the other by birth legitimate or illegitimate. Sec. 2. No marriage shall be deemed unlawful by reason only that
the persons contracting such marriage are related to one another in any