this purpose, notice must be given to the clerk of the parish or
of the district church. The names of the two parties must be written
down in full, with their conditions, and the parishes in which they
reside--as, "Between A B, of the parish of St. George, bachelor (or
widower, as the case may be), and C D, of the parish of St. George,
spinster (or widow, as the case may be)." No mention of either the
lady's or gentleman's age is required. Where the lady and gentleman
are of different parishes, the banns must be published in each, and a
certificate of their publication in the one furnished to the clergyman
who may marry the parties in the church of the other parish.

It seems singular, albeit it is the fact, that no evidence of consent
by either party is necessary to this "putting up of the banns," as
is it denominated; indeed, the publication of the banns is not
unfrequently the first rural declaration of attachment, so that
the blushing village maiden sometimes finds herself announced as a
bride-elect before she has received any actual declaration. The clerk
receives his fee of two shillings and makes no further inquiries; nay,
more, is prepared, if required, to provide the necessary fathers on
each side, in the respectable persons of himself and the sexton--the
venerable pew-opener being also ready, on a pinch, to "perform" the
part of bridesmaid.

The banns must be publicly read on three successive Sundays in the
church, after the last of which, if they so choose, the happy pair
may, on the Monday following, be "made one." It is usual to give one
day's previous notice to the clerk; but this is not legally necessary,
it being the care of the Church, as well as the policy of the Law, to
throw as few impediments as possible in the way of marriage, of which
the one main fact of a consent to live together, declared publicly
before an assemblage of relatives, friends, and neighbours (and
afterwards, as it were by legal deduction, before witnesses), is the
essential and constituent element. Marriage by banns, except in the
country districts, is usually confined to the humbler classes of
society. This is to be regretted, inasmuch as it is a more deliberate
and solemn declaration, and leaves the ceremony more free from the
imputation of suddenness, contrivance, or fraud, than any other form.
A marriage by banns, it is understood, can never be set aside by the
after discovery of deception or concealment as respects residenc