SWITZERLAND

Schwyz

bearable; but in India after contracting such a marriage she is in all cases absolutely cut off from everyone of her own race, who detest and despise her as a social outcast. Her husband, if a Mohammedan, is permitted by his law to have four wives, and from the first she may find herself only one of two or three other wives. Nor is the fact of his becoming a Christian before marrying any safeguard, for he may change hack again to suit his convenience. Hindoos are married at a very early age. It is a religious ceremony they must go through. A European wife, when she arrives in India, may therefore find that she is not in reality occupying the position of a wife in the European sense of that word.

THE FOREIGN MARRIAGE ACT, 1892
(55 & 56 Vict. Cap. 23)

AN ACT TO CONSOLIDATE ENACTMENTS RELATING TO THE MARRIAGE

OF BRITISH SUBJECTS OUTSIDE THE UNITED KINGDOM. [JUNE 27, 1892]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. All marriages between parties of whom one at least is a British subject solemnised in the manner in this Act provided in any foreign country or place by or before a marriage officer within the meaning. of this Act shall be as valid in law as if the same had been solemnised in the United Kingdom with a due observance of all forms required by law.

2. In every case of a marriage intended to be solemnised under this Act, one of the parties intending marriage shall sign a notice, stating the name, surname, profession, condition, and residence of each of the parties, and whether each of the parties is or is not a minor, and give the notice to the marriage officer within whose district both of the parties have had their residence not less than one week then next preceding, and the notice shall state that they have so resided.

3. (1) The marriage officer shall file every such notice, and keep it with the archives of his office, and shall also, on payment of the proper fee, forthwith enter in a book of notices to be kept by him for the purpose, and post up in some conspicuous place in his office, a true copy of every such notice, and shall keep the same so posted up during fourteen consecutive days before the marriage is solemnised under the notice.

(2) The said book and copy posted up shall be open at all reasonable times, without fee, to the inspection of any person.

4. (1) The like consent shall be required to a marriage under this Act as is required by law to marriages solemnised in England.

(2) Every person whose consent to a marriage is so required may, at any time before the solemnisation thereof under this Act, forbid it by writing the word 'Forbidden' opposite to the entry of the intended marriage in the book of notices, and by subscribing thereto his name and residence, and the character by reason of which he is authorised to forbid the marriage; and if a marriage is so forbidden the notice shall be void, and the intended marriage shall not be solemnised under that notice.

5. (1) Any person may on payment of the proper fee enter with the marriage officer a caveat, signed by him or on his behalf, and stating his residence and the ground of his objection against the solemnisation of the marriage of any person named therein, and thereupon the marriage of that person shall not be solemnised until either the marriage officer has examined into the matter of the caveat and is satisfied that it ought not to obstruct the solemnisation of the marriage, or the caveat is withdrawn by the person entering it.

(2) In a case of doubt the marriage officer may transmit a copy of the caveat, with such statement respecting it as he thinks fit, to a Secretary of State, who shall refer the same to the Registrar-General, and the Registrar-General shall give his decision thereon in writing to the Secretary of State, who shall communicate it to the marriage officer.

(3) If the marriage officer refuses to solemnise or to allow to be solemnised in his presence the marriage of any person requiring it to be solemnised, that person may appeal to a Secretary of State, who shall give the marriage officer his decision thereon.

(4) The marriage officer shall forthwith inform the parties of and shall conform to any decision given by the Registrar-General or Secretary of State.

6. Where a marriage is not solemnised within three months next after the latest of the following dates :

(a) the date on which the notice for it has been given to and entered by the marriage officer under this Act, or

(b) if on a caveat being entered a statement has been transmitted to a Secretary of State, or if an appeal has been made to a Secretary of State, then the date of the receipt from the Secretary of State of a decision directing the marriage to be solemnised,

the notice shall be void, and the intended marriage shall not be solemnised under that notice.

7. Before a marriage is solemnised under this Act, each of the parties intending marriage shall appear before the marriage officer,

and make, and subscribe in a book kept by the officer for the purpose,

an oath

(a) that he or she believes that there is not any impediment to the marriage by reason of kindred or alliance, or otherwise; and

(b) that both of the parties have for three weeks immediately. preceding had their usual residence within the district of the marriage officer; and

(c) where either of the parties, not being a widower or widow, is under the age of twenty-one years, that the consent of the persons whose consent to the marriage is required by law has been obtained thereto, or, as the case may be, that there is no person having authority to give such consent.

8. (1) After the expiration of fourteen days after the notice of an intended marriage has been entered under this Act, then, if no lawful impediment to the marriage is shown to the satisfaction of the marriage officer, and the marriage has not been forbidden in manner provided by this Act, the marriage may be solemnised under this Act.

(2) Every such marriage shall be solemnised at the official house of the marriage officer, with open doors, between the hours of eight in the forenoon and three in the afternoon, in the presence of two or more witnesses, and may be solemnised by another person in the presence of the marriage officer, according to the rites of the Church of England, or such other form and ceremony as the parties thereto see fit to adopt, or may, where the parties so desire, be solemnised by the marriage officer.

(3) Where such marriage is not solemnised according to the rites of the Church of England, then in some part of the ceremony, and in the presence of the marriage officer and witnesses, each of the parties shall declare

'I solemnly declare, that I know not of any lawful impediment why I, A. B. (or C. D.), may not be joined in matrimony to C. D. (or A. B.)'

And each of the parties shall say to the other

'I call upon these persons here present to witness, that I, A. B. (or C. D.), take thee, C. D. (or A. B.), to be my lawful wedded wife (or husband).'

9. (1) The marriage officer shall be entitled, for every marriage solemnised under this Act by him, or in his presence, to have from the parties married the proper fee.

(2) He shall forthwith register in duplicate every such marriage in two marriage register books, which shall be furnished to him from time to time for that purpose by the Registrar-General (through a Secretary of State), according to the form provided by law for the

registration of marriages in England, or as near to that form as the difference of the circumstances admits.

(3) The entry in each book of every such marriage shall be signed by the marriage officer, by the person solemnising the marriage, if other than the marriage officer, by both the parties married, and by two witnesses of the marriage.

(4) All such entries shall be made in regular order from the beginning to the end of each book, and the number of the entry in each duplicate shall be the same.

(5) The marriage officer by whom or in whose presence a marriage is solemnised under this Act may ask of the parties to be married the several particulars required to be registered touching the marriage.

10. (1) In January in every year every marriage officer shall make and send to a Secretary of State, to be transmitted by him to the Registrar-General, a copy, certified by him to be a true copy, of all the entries of marriages during the preceding year in the register book kept by him, and if there has been no such entry, a certificate of that fact; and every such copy shall be certified, and certificate given, under his hand and official seal.

(2) The marriage officer shall keep the duplicate marriage register books safely until they are filled, and then send one of them to a Secretary of State, to be transmitted by him to the RegistrarGeneral.

11. (1) For the purposes of this Act the following officers shall be marriage officers, that is to say:

(a) Any officer authorised in that behalf by a Secretary of State by authority in writing under his hand (in this Act referred to as a marriage warrant); and

(b) Any officer who, under the marriage regulations hereinafter mentioned, is authorised to act as a marriage officer without any marriage warrant ;

and the district of a marriage officer shall be the area within which the duties of his office are exercisable, or any such less area as is assigned by the marriage warrant or any other warrant of a Secretary of State, or is fixed by the marriage regulations.

(2) Any marriage warrant of a Secretary of State may authorise to be a marriage officer

(a) a British ambassador residing in a foreign country to the government of which he is accredited, and also any officer prescribed as an officer for solemnising marriages in the official house of such ambassador ;

(b) the holder of the office of British consul in any foreign country or place specified in the warrant; and

(e) a governor, high commissioner, resident, consular or other