Man and Wife · Chapter
Endnotes explained
The author provides a note directing readers to the Report of the Royal Commissioners on the Laws of Marriage (1868) as the source for the legal details on Irish and Scottish marriages used in the novel.
What happens
The author provides a note directing readers to the Report of the Royal Commissioners on the Laws of Marriage (1868) as the source for the legal details on Irish and Scottish marriages used in the novel. He cites specific references from the report to support the accuracy of the legal statements made by Sir Patrick and the lawyer in the Prologue, and criticizes the arguments in favor of preserving irregular marriages in Scotland, contrasting them with the Christian and civilized view that such marriages ought to be abolished.
Themes in this chapter
Marriage and Its Legal Bonds
The endnotes directly address the legal complexities and controversies surrounding irregular marriages in Scotland and Ireland, citing the Royal Commission's report.
Law and Injustice
The author criticizes the legal system's inadequate treatment of marriage, contrasting the lack of legal provision for marriage with the detailed laws for selling horses and dogs.
Characters to notice
- Sir Patrick Lundie
His professional statements on Scotch Marriages are cited as being derived from the Report of the Royal Commissioners.
Key passages
“What Sir Patrick says professionally of Scotch Marriages in this chapter is taken from this high authority.”
Sir Patrick's legal statements about Scottish marriages are based on the Royal Commission's report.
The author confirms the factual basis for Sir Patrick's dialogue.
“A legal enactment providing for the sale of your wife, when you have done with her, or of your husband; when you 'really can't put up with him any longer,' appears to be all that is wanting to render this North British estimate of the 'Estate of Matrimony' practically complete.”
The only thing missing from the Scottish view of marriage is a law allowing you to sell your spouse when you are tired of them.
The author sarcastically criticizes the Scottish legal attitude toward marriage.