"
"Is it supposed," asked a commissioner, "that the woman, by marrying
this other man, wipes off her disgrace with the former?"
"Yes; but it is so common that the disgrace is not so much as to prevent
the young man marrying her."
The attorney-general: "It is hardly within our inquiry, but still it is
interesting to know; can you tell me whether, in these cases, where the
woman marries a man who is not the father of her child, any confusion,
as to the parent of the previously born child, arises? Are they apt in
law, to pass as the children of the subsequent husband?"
"No, I do not think so."
"The distinction is always kept up?"
"The distinction is always kept up; very often the illegitimate child
goes by his own father's name, even among the other children; and I do
not think there is apt to be any confusion of that kind."
Still, it seems that, in severely Calvinistic Scotia, the church does
not wholly wink at this state of things. The sinning couple, after
marriage, have to go through a certain whitewashing at church before
they are admitted to what are called church privileges. They have to go
before a kirk session, consisting of the minister and perhaps half a
dozen elders, when they are _admonished_.
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