The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF 71IE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Tinzes has always thought it a ma ter of regret that
attempts should be made to unsettle the law respecting
marriage with a deceased wife's sister, and :s still of the
same opinion, though it was inevitable the pro:, esal should
be renewed in a reformed Parliament. We cannot but
think that those who promote all this uncertainty on so
grave a subject incur a heavy responsibility. Like all
questions which touch the foundations of social life, this
is one which it is very hard to argue. Once refuse to recog-
nise the existing law, and there is no common ground to go
upon. Every man approaches it from his own point of,
view, and would reconstruct society upon his own theory.
We cannot, however, but observe one point in which
nearly all the speakers displayed a concurrence of feeling
the more remarkable because it was frequently unconscious
and unwilling. It is felt on all sides that the House of
Commons is not the place to argue the theological bearing
of the question, while at the same time everyone betrays
an uneasy feeling that a great difficulty is involved in it.
Such feeling exist, and exist in the most powerful religious
communities of the country, and it is necessary to take
them into account. We do not live under that law of nature
to which several speakers appealed, and there is nothing
unreasonable in asking a small number of persons to
forego the rights they would enjoy in such a state in order
to avoid, as far as possible, bringing the law of the land
into direct conflict with the law of great religious com-
munities. It.should also be remembered that to repeal an
existing prohibition is an act of considerable significance.
Mr. Bright said that the bill did not encourage such
marriages, but only permitted them. But to pass the bill
is to encourage them. It is to give distinct information
to the whole community that in the opinion of the Legis-
lature such marriages are not undesirable. Whatever
the ultimate result, the immediate effect would be a
general and painful disturbance of existing relations. We
cannot see that any case has been made out to justify a
change of such doubtful policy. In England we see no
hardship in requiring men to find second wives elsewhere
than in their first wife's family, and we anticipate great
inconvenience from removing the restriction.
The Standard thinks the course of the discussion in
committee upon the Irish Church Bill affords a striking
proof of the temper of the majority and of the spirit of
Liberal statesmanship. Such peremptory haste on the
part of the Minister, such insolent impatience of debate
on the part of his followers, have not for generations dis-
credited constitutional government, and likened the Par-
liament of England to the Congress of America. Mode-
ration cannot be expected from one party alone. If Mr.
Gladstone chooses to press on his bill by every means
which the command of a servile majority affords, he must
be prepared to find the minority resolved to use
their power of resistance and obstruction. If he will
concede nothing to justice or to reason, ho must be
prepared to find force encountered with force. It is only
by compromise that he can carry a measure which offends
the moral sense of one-half .he nation, and of one branch
of the Legislature ; and if he insists on carrying out his
own will on every point, he can only expect that his
adversaries, when their turn of power comes—and come it
must—will enforce every one of the amendments he has
rejected, and leave him to choose between the humiliation
of an unwilling submission and the inconvenience and
peril of a renewed appeal to the country. Never before
has an English Minister pushed matters to such an
extremity; and perhaps no living man, except Mr. Glad-
stone, would be foolish and reckless enough so to push
them now.

THE REPRIEVE OF THE CONVICT

WILTSHIRE

Sir George Jenkinson has given notice that to-night
(Thursday) he will ask the Secretary of State for the
Home Department whether it is true that a man named
Charles Wiltshire, sentenced to be hung at Gloucester,
has been reprieved by his order; if so, whether he is the
same man who was convicted at the last assizes at Glou-
cester, in the present month, of violating and murdering a
woman, and who, since his conviction and sentence,
bas attempted to murder the warder in charge of him in
Gloucester Gaol ; if he is the same man, will he state the
grounds on which be has recommended the reprieve of
this man ; and, will he state the number and names of
those convicts who, having been sentenced to be hung for
murder, have been reprieved by him since he came into
office, and the dates of such reprieves; and the names
and number, if any, of those who have been hung in
accordance with the sentence passed upon them since he
came into office.