Madame X⸺, an English woman, came to live in Paris. She was a widow with children. She obtained, through my instrumentality, a position as secretary. After a time her employer proposed marriage. He told her, however, that his parents would not give their consent (which in France is a bar to marriage), and proposed that they should go to England, and be married in Church. They went, and after complying with the law as to residence, were married in London. When they returned to Paris the husband refused to let his wife live in his house, but told her to remain in her own flat. When she pressed him on the subject his only reply was, “I suppose you know that the English marriage is not valid in France.”
She came to see me broken-hearted. I did all I could for her, but it was useless. The husband only laughed at me. The case was put into the hand of a solicitor, and brought before the French courts, but the judgment was given against the wife. The Judge told her she ought to have been more careful to ascertain the law. Thus she is legally married in England, but not in France, while her husband is free to marry whom he may choose without hindrance.
If, however, he came to England, he would be legally married to the woman he now repudiates. I have stated this case in full as it may be a warning to others, though much more care is now taken than was formerly the case. I laid the whole case before the late Bishop of London (Dr. Creighton) who wrote:
“The case you bring before me is a very sad one, but I do not see what can be done either to obtain redress or to prevent such cases occurring in the future. Marriage is a contract regulated by law; if anyone marries a foreigner they ought to take legal advice about the necessary steps to legalize their marriage. I do not see who is to protect them except themselves. Our Government cannot ask the French Government to recognize as binding in France all marriages solemnized in England. This would open a door to evasion of the French law. The difficulty in these cases arises from the belief that marriage is a purely ecclesiastical matter, and that ecclesiastical procedure is universally recognized. Really marriage is a civil contract which in England the clergy are authorised to perform by the State. To this in their ecclesiastical capacity they add a religious service. People have mixed these two together in their own minds with disastrous results.”
The extraordinary tangles into which English people sometimes get from ignorance—wilful or otherwise—of the marriage law, is illustrated by the following remarkable case which came under my notice. A French working man living in London married an English woman in his Parish Church. He could not legalise the marriage at the French Consulate because he had not the consent of his parents. This consent is generally necessary for any legal marriage of French people, whatever their age may be. One can easily see the reason for this requirement when the law of inheritance is taken into consideration.
No French father can “cut his son off with a shilling,” as in England. They must leave their money to their children, and the younger benefit equally with the elder. This is the reason the realization of property must take place on the death of anyone. It is, however, generally arranged in the family, and does not necessarily come before the public. The couple of our story did not possess any property, being working people. The husband had lived in England from childhood, and consequently had not done his military service. When the question arose as to the legality of his marriage, he promised he would not return to France. While living in England the marriage was, of course, perfectly in order, but the day came when the husband wished to go back to his own country, and he went to Paris with his wife and two children. Needless to say, the man was at once arrested for his military service. It is extraordinary to English minds to see how quickly the arrival of any man in France who is liable for military service is noted by the Government officials, and he receives a summons to join his regiment at once.
While serving three years (or two as it is now) in the army, a soldier is not allowed to marry, and so X’s wife was without a legal husband, and any means of subsistence. She took her two children and went to live with her father and mother-in-law, who became very fond of her and the grandchildren. We helped her for a time with money and work, and I expect she provided her English made husband with the pocket money for tobacco, etc., so much needed by the French soldier. Towards the end of the three years, preparations were made to legalize the marriage in France, the parents giving their consent willingly. When, however, the time came, and it only remained to give notice at the Mairie of the intended marriage, X refused to re-marry his wife, and so legalize her claim to the title in France. It was found that he had taken up with another woman better looking than his wife, who had no claim to beauty, and whose hard work to support the children during this time had rendered less attractive. X’s father and mother were furious with him and offered to adopt the children. Matters were in this condition, when another misfortune fell upon this poor woman. She took smallpox. The hospital for this terrible disease is one of the worst managed in Paris, and the hardships of the unfortunate patients are often very great. When the poor soul came out she returned to the only home she had—the tiny flat of her father-in-law—and was equal to very little work. The grandparents had cared for the children, but they were also poor, and found it difficult to make ends meet. We were almost in despair as to how to help her, as it was a large order to undertake the whole family. The solution of the whole matter would hardly be imagined by one brought up in England. Mrs. X. one day came to me at the vestry in the Rue d’Aguesseau, and said she was going to marry a Frenchman, who was not only willing to support her and the children, but would adopt and legalize them as his own. This can be done in France, and the real father has then no claim to them whatever. I spoke to her very seriously, and told her that her lawful husband being alive, she would be committing bigamy, and that I could have nothing whatever to do with such an arrangement. I pointed out to her that she would be the legal wife of one man in England and another in France; that in England she would be the lawful wife of the first man, while English law would not only refuse to recognise this second so-called marriage, but could prosecute her for bigamy.
Nothing I could say had any effect upon her, the only thing she would say was “I will never go back to England.”
She has now gone through the French “marriage” at the Mairie, and is happy. It solved our difficulty as to the support of herself and children, but the complication in which she has involved herself and the two children is one of the most extraordinary I met with.