Note 192 — Book VI.
John Beames translation
Upon this Rule of Law, Lord Littleton observes, “as the Canonical prohibitions extended so far, that divorces frequently happened, after a cohabitation of many years in a state of wedlock supposed lawful, there was much humanity and equity in this Law,” especially as his Lordship had just observed “such a separation supposed a nullity in the marriage, and the children must in strictness have been bastardised by it,” had it not thus have been tempered and relaxed. (3 Litt. Hist. Hen. 2. p. 126.)
A similar Law forms part of the Modern French code, though clearly the result of different principles—“Dissolution of marriage by Divorce, allowed at Law, shall not deprive the children born of the marriage of any of the advantages which were assured to them by the Laws, or by the marriage contracts of their Father and Mother.” (Code Napoleon, s. 304.)