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Show Marriage of Minors. A COMMUNICATION to the London Mail from A. Montifiore Brice sets out the danger of early marriages. Statistics from Berlin are given to I , , show that marriages .contracted before : twenty-one years prove a failure. In i England the number of marriages con tracted by minors is appalling, especially especial-ly when viewed in its consequences. In London 4.3 per cent of the men who marry are minors, and 16.5 per cent of the females are minors. In the provinces the percentage is still greater, 5.5 per cent of the men and 18 per cent of the females being minors. '.In England and' Wales 56,398 married persons are under age. In London Lon-don alone 13,000 married persons are minors. From the last census it was learned that there were in London 742 ' wives, all minors, whose husbands had abandoned them, and 2.00Q young husbands, hus-bands, all under age, too, who were , not living with their wives. Statistics also showed that of the 850 minors In prison 200 were married. From these statistics the writer concludes that the marriage of minors is a failure, and should be discouraged. In this country coun-try the falling off in juvenile marriages during the last ouarter of a century has been very 'great. In 1874, of every 1,000 married persons, 84 of the husbands hus-bands and 227 of the .wives were mindrs. Since then there has been gradual decrease. de-crease. -Last year's statistics gave only 50 minor husbands and 165 minor wives In 1,000 marriages. Our economists "who discourage early marriages- under the plea that, they are unsuccessful or lead to unhappiness have not probed sufficiently suf-ficiently deep to find the real cause of the evil. If they prove a failure it is not because the couple are young, but because they have stripped marriage of all its sanctity, and made it possible for the married couple to separate for the most trivial cause. The Catholic church regards it as an act of prudence for young people to settle down in life. She encourages those who are young, healthy and industrious to settle down in life and have their own home. Where marriage is discouraged and the young abide their time till possible wealth may come, impurity and immorality will increase, in proportion to the decrease de-crease in marriages. . The best and most efficacious remedy against licen-j licen-j tiousness is, marriage, whilst the love I and care of children, its primary, and doubles man's activity, and proves woman's usefulness. In no sphere of life does woman's grandeur appear to better effect than when faithful to her maternal instinct, she devotes her married mar-ried life to the care of her children. Our modern philosophers and economists who discourage marriage till the hey-dey hey-dey of life is passed, 6r till the difficulty of obtaining the means to support and uijiig up me lamuy is removea, are the worst enemies of their country. They who look upon the birth of a new-born babe as "a calamity and an increase of their burdens, are disloyal to God, unfaithful un-faithful to themselves,, and. unworthy members of society. Alas for the age and woe to the land w here such unnatural unnat-ural crimes are encouraged. |
