taken in a civil light; abstractedly from any religious view, which
has nothing to do with the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the children.
The main end and design of marriage therefore being to ascertain and
fix upon some certain person, to whom the care, the protection, the
maintenance, and the education of the children should belong; this end
is undoubtedly better answered by legitimating all issue born after
wedlock, than by legitimating all issue of the same parties, even born
before wedlock, so as wedlock afterwards ensues: 1. Because of the
very great uncertainty there will generally be, in the proof that the
issue was really begotten by the same man; whereas, by confining the
proof to the birth, and not to the begetting, our law has rendered it
perfectly certain, what child is legitimate, and who is to take care
of the child. 2. Because by the Roman laws a child may be continued a
bastard, or made legitimate, at the option of the father and mother,
by a marriage _ex post facto_; thereby opening a door to many frauds
and partialities, which by our law are prevented. 3. Because by those
laws a man may remain a bastard till forty years of age, and then
become legitimate, by the subsequent marriage of his parents; whereby
the main end of marriage, the protection of infants, is totally
frustrated. 4. Because this rule of the Roman laws admits of no
limitations as to the time, or number, of bastards so to be
legitimated; but a dozen of them may, twenty years after their birth,
by the subsequent marriage of their parents, be admitted to all the
privileges of legitimate children. This is plainly a great
discouragement to the matrimonial state; to which one main inducement
is usually not only the desire of having _children_, but also the
desire of procreating lawful _heirs_. Whereas our constitutions guard
against this indecency, and at the same time give sufficient allowance
to the frailties of human nature. For, if a child be begotten while
the parents are single, and they will endeavour to make an early
reparation for the offence, by marrying within a few months after, our
law is so indulgent as not to bastardize the child, if it be born,
though not begotten, in lawful wedlock: for this is an incident that
can happen but once; since all future children will be begotten, as
well as born, within the rules of honour and civil society. Upon
reasons like these we may suppose the peers to have acted at the
parliament of Merto