The Weekly North Iowa Times

The Marriage Law in Scotland.—A curious illustration of the absurdity of the state of the law in Scotland with respect to marriage has recently been made manifest at Maidstone Assizes, where a certain Miss Elizabeth Ackford sued Lord Huntingtower, a well known rakish nobleman, for the non-payment of a pension of £60 a year. She had been his mistress for some years, had had five children by him, and traveled with him in Scotland as his wife. When they parted, nominally, his lordship fell into arrears in the payment of the £15 quarterly, hence the action. His pleas were remarkable—first, that as they had passed for man and wife in Scotland she was therefore his wife, and as such could not bring an action for debt against her husband: second, that she had infringed on the terms of the contract by which she received the pension in molesting and annoying him. The judge decided in accordance with the first plea—that she was Lady Huntingtower—the decision to be subject to reversal by the superior courts. "Now, as the interesting defendant in this case happens to have another wife, if the decision be not reversed of course it invalidates her claims, while her quondam husband, by his own plea, stands a self confessed bigamist."