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.