[Footnote 290: LUCKOCK, _op. cit._, 303, 304, who holds that sometimes by such collusion the "ends of justice were defeated, and persons defrauded of their rights." _Cf._ the remarks to this effect of Lord Selborne in the House of Lords, 1873, in _Tracts Issued by the Mar. Law Defence Union_, II, 168.] [Footnote 291: LUCKOCK, _op. cit._, 304.] [Footnote 292: _First Report of the Commission of 1847-8_, v, vi, xii; HAMMICK, _Marriage Law_, 33 n. _b_; GEARY, _Marriage and Family Relations_, 11, 30 n. 3. See HUTH, _Marriage of Near Kin_, 129 n. 1. According to the _Report_ (viii), since the Lyndhurst act (1835) there had been 1,364 marriages within the prohibited degrees, of which nine-tenths were with a deceased wife's sister. Only in 88 cases had the act prevented an intended marriage; and of these 32 resulted in open cohabitation. Ten of the 88 cases were among the lower classes. See the epitome of evidence, xvii-xxxix; the minutes of evidence, 1-120; and the interesting letters and papers in the Appendix, 121-65.] No legislation followed the commissioners' report. Nor, despite repeated efforts, has the perennial "deceased wife's sister's bill" ever yet become a law. It is, indeed, curious to see a noble senate capable of accepting the liberal civil marriage law of 1836 still stubbornly resisting in this particular the secularizing of marriage which a recent writer observes "is an evident accompaniment, if it is not a consequence, of the progress of democracy."[293] There "can be little doubt," adds the same author, "that the opposition to these marriages rests mainly upon theological grounds."[294] Yet even on such grounds it is hard to see why the Protestant theologian or lawgiver should retain them in the table of degrees of affinity prohibited by the code of Moses, while other provisions of that law far more clearly enjoined are rejected or ignored. "The Jews themselves maintain that this kind of marriage is not forbidden in the Old Testament, and great numbers of the most eminent Christian divines concur in their opinion."[295] The Catholic is far more consistent and liberal in this respect; for he "regards the prohibition as resting, not on direct Divine or natural law, but merely on an ecclesiastical command, and his Church therefore claims and constantly exercises the right of dispensing with it."[296] The arguments on either side of the controversy need not here be summarized. Those in favor of the prohibition rest almost wholly upon authority. Only secondarily is an attempt made to defend it on social, political, or moral grounds. For most people of the civilized world[297] the subject is already "ancient history." Hence the modern student who first takes this controversial literature in hand is amazed to find men of high repute still earnestly speaking the language of the Middle Ages; still juggling with the casuistry and quibbles which satisfied Tancred and his predecessors.[298]