Democracy and Liberty. William Edward Hartpole Lecky
doctrine of Adam Smith
Arguments against legislative interference with acts not directly injurious to others
True as a general rule, but the prevailing tendency is to multiply exceptions
Examples of them in English law—How far law strengthens morals
Grounds on which laws suppressing immoral acts were originally proposed
Gambling
Craving for excitement the secret of its popularity
Capriciousness of English law in dealing with it
Suppression of public gambling-houses
Intoxicating Drink
Difficulties of legislating on this subject
Drunkenness not an increasing evil
Largely due to bad houses and bad cooking
To unhealthy or excessive labour
To the absence of other tastes and pleasures
To the want of provident habits
Judicious taxation can encourage sobriety
Distinction to be drawn in temperance legislation
Should simple drunkenness be treated as a crime?
Drunkenness sometimes preventible, sometimes not
Drunkenness a disease—Its medical treatment
Detention of inebriates in retreats—The Commission of 1893
Inutility of short sentences—Proposed reformatory treatment of drunkenness
Connection between drunkenness and crime
Less popular in England than in other English-speaking countries
Sunday closing—Shorter hours in public-houses
Liquor legislation in the United States
In the Scandinavian countries—The Gothenburg system
Experiment in South Carolina, 1892
Desire to diminish by law the temptation to drink—The Parish Councils Act
How far legislation should deal with spectacles or other amusements leading to vice
With noises and disfigurements in the streets
Distinction between things that are obtruded on the notice of all and things that are not
Marriage Laws
Early history of Christian marriage
Council of Trent first made a religious ceremony necessary
Survival of the old doctrine that simple consent constitutes marriage
Claims of the Catholic Church to rule marriage
Opinions of Catholic divines about Protestant marriages
The State considers marriage a civil contract
Legislation in France before the Revolution
Marriage Law of Henry VIII.—English common law
Divorce in England—Case of Lord Northampton
Divorce by special Acts of Parliament
English legislators treated as null marriages which were ecclesiastically valid
Purely civil marriage established by the French law of 1792
Its effect in simplifying marriages and removing disabilities
Various Forms of Imperfect Marriages and Marriage Disabilities