The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-06-16 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

MARRIAGE WITII A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER BILL.
In the Horst Or LORDS, June 11, there was a very large
assemblage of Peers to attend the discussion on the motion

for the second reading of the Bill to legalize marriage with a
deceased wife's sister. The Prince of Wales, the Duke of
Connaught, and the Duke of Albany were in their places on
the cross benches, and in the Royal Gallery were the
Princess of Wales and Princes Albert, Victor, and George of
Wales, the Duchess of Albany, and the Duke and Duchess
of Saxe-Meiningen. The Peeresses' Galleries, the spaces at
the foot of the throne and outside the bar, and the Strangers'
Gallery were also thronged.

Lord Brabonrne presented a petition, Dived by 7,422
Nonconformist ministers of every denomination in England,
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland in favour of the Marriage
With a Deceased Wife's Sister Bill. Various other petitions
were presented for and against the Bill, one of them pre-
sented by Lord Balfour of Burleigh, against tke Bill, being
signed by 37,176 women of the United Kingdom.

Earl Granville presented and read a petition, signed by
the Agent-General of the Cape of Good Hope, the Agents-
General of New South Wales, Victoria, and other Australian
Colonies, by members of the Legislative Council of New
Zealand, and others, in which the petitioners represented
that the Colonial Possessions of the British Empire con-
tained a population of twelve millions of people of European
origin, and that in some of these Colonies marriage with the
sister of a deceased wife had always been legal, while in the
others such marriages had been made legal by the local
Legislatures acting under the powers conferred upon them;
and praying their Lordships to adopt such measures as
'would enact that men and men becoming husband and wife
in one part of her Majesty's dominions should be husband
and wife in all parts of the Empire (Ministerial cheers).

Lord Dalhousie, in moving the second reading of the Bill
for legalising Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister, ob-
lerved that the main opposition to the measure was from
the spiritual element in their lordship's House. There were
only two of the right rev, bench favourable to it, but they
Were strongly tn its favour. He would be happy to answer
any questions as to the Bill which might be put in the course
of the debate; but the arguments in its favour had never
been answered. Similar Bills had seven times passed through
all their stages in the House of Commons, and of that House
there were now 400 members who had voted, or were
fledged to vote, in favour of the provisions of this measure.
Me hoped their lordships would see the advisability of pass-
ing the Bill this session, as that it must become law before
long was a thing which scarcely could be doubted.
Lord Cairns, in moving the rejection of the Bill, submitted
that the course adopted by the noble mover of the Bill was
not in accordance with Parliamentary precedent. Lord
Dhlhousie had not advanced arguments to support the Bill,
though those urged against it last seFsion by the Bishop of
Peterborough had never been answered. Last year the
debate on this subject had no ending; this year it had no
beginning. The noble and learned lord then proceeded
to argue against the Bill on the ground that it would
_ make marriages legal which never had been permitted by
' the law of the country from the most ancient times, and on
the basis that legalizing marr isge with a deceased wife s
sister would be only a commencement in the abolition o the
p_rohibitions of marriages of consanguinity and affinity. He
'lien dilated on the Scriptural and ecclesiastical objections
to marriage with a deceased wife's sister and on the statute
of Henry VIII. which made it illegal. Coming to the
foreign countries in which this marriage is legal, he in-
quired whether in their domestic relations they were happier
than England. As to its being legal in the colonies, he did
not accept the doctrine that the parent country ought to
follow suit to the colonies. He rejected the argument in
favour of the Bill based on the ground that the question was
a Poor man's one. If it were, Parliament ought to take the
course which would elevate the poor man; but he referred
to statistics got together by the late Lord Hatherley to show
that this was not a poor man's, but a rich man's question.
Re denied that we ought to alter the law on the ground that
innocent children suffered by its existence, observing that
the children of polygamists and children born out of wed-
lock suffered through no fault of their own. Lastly, he
believed that the passing of this Bill would break up our
social and domestic habits; and on all those grounds he
asked their lordships not to read the Bill a second time.
Lord Bramwell and Lord Carrington supported the Bill.

The Archbishop of Canterbury defended theology as a
Science, and argued that to the theologian the prohibition in
Leviticus against marriage with a deceased wife's sister was
not obscure. The dispensations for such marriages given by
the Bishop of Rome were a proof that from the earliest times
such a marriage had been condemned by the general law of
the Church.

Lord Coleridge contended that the Bill was opposed to
female opinion, and would restrict the circle within which
affection might be cultivated without passion.
The Bishop of Rochester, speaking from his experience as
P. London clergyman, declared that the poorer classes were
not in favour of the proposed change.
Their lordships divided—
Contents (for the Bill) ...
Non-contents

Majority (for the Bill) .
The announcement was received with loud and prolonged
Cheering.

The Prince of Walee, the Duke of Connaught, and the Duke
of Albany voted for the second reading.
The Irish Constabulary and Police Bill having been read a
third time, their lordships rose at eight o'clock.

In the Holism OF COMMONS, there were 52 questions on
the paper' but the majority were of limited and local in-
terest.