makes the parties husband and wife, and if he does, it is our opinion that it is possible to obtain writs potent enough to oblige the minister to perform it, if the parties desir ing to marry choose to apply for them.
"THEY order this matter better in France/ " said I—it is Sterne who is speak ing in his "Sentimental Journey." The sen tence remained unfinished, but the matter in question might very well have been the insti tution known as the Mont de Piété—the equivalent of the English pawnshop. The theory of the Mont de Piété (says The Law Journal, London,) is that such a matter as small loans to poor folk should be in the hands of the State, and that private persons should not be allowed to prey on their nec essities. It is just one of those matters in which the State may properly control con tracts, and our Legislature has admitted the principle in the Moneylenders' Act; but though the Mont de Piété flourishes in France and Italy—so much so that, accord ing to the Chanty Organization Review, close upon 4,000,000/ was loaned upon pledges in one year in France, and still more in Italy; though the Government Loan Office flour ishes equally in Germany, Austria, and Hol land, England still stands aloof, in its usual splendid isolation, content to leave things to manage themselves at the sign of the Three Balls. Is there not a chance for the model municipality of the future to make a new departure here? It may be said that easy borrowing is a temptation to improvidence. The pawnshop has been called the "bank of
the unthrifty;" and no doubt the Post-Office Savings Bank and the Credit Bank are more to be desired. But the pawnshop, in some form or other, will never be exterminated so long as we have the poor with us—so long as the struggle for existence contin ues; and the sooner the poor man's bank is run by the State or the municipality the better. ON the question of "Christian Science Principles before the Courts," the New York Law Journal says: In view of the fact that Christian Science goes counter to the general results of hu man experience and therefore necessarily involves all manner of logical inconsistency, we doubt the wisdom of attempting to effec tuate its policies by legal analogies. In ordinary religious and theological con troversies the courts have always sought, as far as possible, to remit parties to ecclesias tical remedies. It will be found necessary to follow this policy even more stringently with regard to Christian Science. Of course, legislatures or courts should not' interfere with the adherents of this school in their purely religious beliefs or harmless religious practices. Rut their speculative faith had best, as far as possible, be ignored in pass ing upon questions of civil rights or crimi nal wrongs. That is to say, the courts should refuse to recognize the teachings of Christian Science as a defense to infractions of the criminal law and should refrain from granting affirmative relief in civil cases based upon interpretations of the principles of the system.
