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is the marriage of a man with his wife's mother or daughter forbidden; or with his son's, uncle's, or brother's wife. Allow the marriage of a man with his wife's sister, and you cannot forbid his marriage with his niece. Deny the authority of the Old Testament, and Christians may marry those who stand in the nearest degrees of affinity, a father's wife being the only exception expressly made in the New Testament.
Deny that men and women stand on precisely the same ground, and a woman may marry her grandson or her uncle.
There is, however, no fear of such results among Christians, until the reasons against the lawfulness of such a connexion are fairly met and answered, which I venture to say they never can be.
POSTSCRIPT.
Lord Selbourne the present Lord Chancellor, in his speech opposing the Bill for Legalizing Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister uttered these weighty words.
"You must consider how far your principle ought to go, and I am sure you can never stop short of the abolition of all marriages of "affinity."
"If we are to prohibit only such marriages as are prohibited by the letter of the Old Testament, we must repeal the prohibition in the case of 13 degrees prohibited by our law and not prohibited by the letter of Leviticus; if on the other hand you endeavour to arrive at the principle contained in that chapter in Leviticus and to lay down a marriage law within the range and limit of the degrees which are prohibited there, you will arrive at our present marriage law."
Lord O'Hagan the Lord Chancellor of Ireland on the same occasion truly stated that the Bill was opposed
"To the harmonious teaching of the Christian Church and the unbroken tradition of the Christian people since Christianity first rose into existence. The vital principle of Christian marriage is 'that husband
