The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-22 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1858.

To-morrow the subject of legalising marriage with
a deceased wife's sister is to come again before
l'arliament ; and this time it ought not to be in
vain. All reasons that have hitherto been so
frequently urged remain in full force, but at the
present moment they are reinforced by peculiar
circumstances.

The position of Lord Dan's Ministry is such
as to make it both expedient and fair that they
emenort the liberal view of the Question.
Law Reforms are what the country expects from
them ; and a reform like. that derrianded in the
present case, is just the one by which they could
prove that they were free from ecclesiastical
bigotry, and were willing to remedy a legal
injustice, which has been felt to be a grievance by
110112 e one in almost every circle. Few, indeed,
are the persons who do not know an individual
who has been unjustly deterred from selecting the
most natural second mother for his bereaved
children, or who has not done it in despite of law
at home, or, as he has conceived, by escaping the
tyranny of Ecclesiastical Courts in free England,
through resorting to some foreign land. The new
Ministry would assuredly do not only a most
righteous deed, but one which would gain them
righteous approbation if they carried a law defi-
nitely legalising the marriages now held to be
illegal or at least doubtful. They would suffer
no injury with their High Church connections,
since these last could not secure better friends by
rejecting them, while they would gain incalculably
in the esteem of the country.
We may remind Lord DERBY also, that there
is a special reason why his Ministry should grant
the boon we demand. Amongst his appointments
is that of a Noble Dake to an honourable post,
who, but for the marriage of a parent with his
wife's sister would have had no existence, and
but for Lord LYNDEICrEsT'S Act, passed especially
in his fs.veur, might have had but an illegitimate
existence. The presence of that Noble Duke in
high office under Lord DERBY ought to be a
pledge that the present Cabinet is prepared to ren-
der to all that justice which enables the Duke to
take his rightful position in society and in the
Administration. Will the Earl allow it to be
said that a Nobleman, born of suety a marriage as
is now arbitrarily forbidden, shall b 3 prominent
in the high places of the land, while all hence-
forth born of similar marriages, even though sup-
posed by their parents to have been contracted
legally, are to be stiginalised as the offspring of
illicit connection ? Will Lord CHELMSFORD or
any of his colleagues venture, in the presence of
the Noble Duke, to stigmatise soch marriages as
irreligious or impure, or even as dishonourable ?
Or, if they die, must they not expect that he
will resent such'conduct by resigning all connection
with the. Administration? The Nobleman in ques-
tion, too, and those who appointed him, must remem-
ber that it was on the occasion of an Act pissed,
as was well known, to secure his moral rights,
that all other Englishmen were for the future de-
prived by law of the same rights. We should
rather say it was intended to deprive them, since
we hold•that the statutes of the land, interpreted
as, we trust, they will be on an appeal to the
Rouse of Lords, leave Englishmen free to con-
tract the marriages in question.
We hardly need add, that we should not advert
to the Noble Duke's position, •
fro if we could conceive
that the marriage
merelym he sprung was not
held to be not
and good" in the
sight
o:.Q*llso,lll3hlinta 4:uhtohlayt, ofju satll
honourable and pure-minded
raeiw.
regard
suasecond marriages as amongst the moat hono
able which men and women can contract. 'eh,
two sacred elements of tender regard to the de.
parted, attracting our affections to those who
1 ived her, and of parental longing that our
offspring should be in the charge of one "who
would naturally care for them," are generally the
first moving causes to such a union on one side ;
and, on the other side, a tendency to love one who
loved and blessed a sister's life, and to feel a
mother's interest in a departed sister's children,
are the natural and generous reciprocal feelings.
Such marriages spring from those pure affecaou4