The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-12

and that the two must stand or fall together.
Blu Mr., Chamberlain merely said with refer
ence to royalty that none of that class were
present to do honor to Mr.. Bright, and that
nobody missed them" This was very mild
in comparison with what he said against the
church, and when it is remembered that the
royal family are more solicitous than per-
haps any one else in the realm to have this
bill passed the strained reasoning which
would convert the bill into a blow at the
Queens authority appears in its
true light, and is seen at
once to be a groundless assumption. The
Queens sons, it should be said in this con-
n~ection, stood by the bill to the last. They
were all IN at the death, the Prince of Wales
and the Duke Of Albany being present and
voting, and the other two pairing with abb
sentees. The failure of the measure Will be
felt very keenly in the royal household. The
effect it will have on the mooted match be-
tween the Prince of Hesse and the Princess
Beatrice can only, of course, be conjectured.
If, however, the affair is one OF love we can
scarcely imagine that it will be broken OH,
nor yet can we suppose for a moment that
the royal pair will commit the grave scandal
of marrying while the law continues to for
bid them. They must bide their time, as
they no doubt will, and seek solace in their
isolation by thinking of the good time COM
ing. a.n1e
But the strongest proof of the churchly
animus of the opposition is in the attitude
and uncompromising hostility of the bishops,
the lords spiritual, as they are called, Ii
these gentlemen can only be relied upon to
fight the devil with half the zeal and de-
termination with which they have antagon-
lied this innocent marriage law amendment,
we may expect shortly to hear the old fellow
cry for quarter and to see a British millen-
MUM ushered in. 1t is, in fact, solely at the
door of these ecclesiastical legislators that
the bilPs defeat must be laid. But for their
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majority at its second reading, not OF seven
merely, but by twenty-seyen, and notwith-
standing that many of its supporters were
absent, it would have had twelve majority,
but for them, when its third reading was
moved. Thus, as the Daily News points
out, this score of lords spiritual
have accomplished the defeat of a
measure which the voice of the
country demanded, which two-thirds of the
members of the House of Commons were
ready and anxious to vote for, which the
peers temporal have favored by a consider
able majority for a number OF years, and
which but two weeks before was passed by a
fair majority of the entire peers, including
both the lords temporal and themselves.
By this act the bishops have exercised a veto
power such as, in the view of the News, not
even the sovereign of the realm would have
dared to exercise. for the veto power vested
in the crown has fallen into. practical dis
use, the Queen having come to feel, doubt
less, that to cross the will of the two houses
on any subject would be almost as much as
her place was worth. The paper referred to
goes on to say, with reference to these
bishops: aaNp-
They are not usually found in their
places when great measures affecting the
welfare of the people are under discus
sion. The seats apportioned to them are
often empty. or but barely occupied, when
questions which greatly concern the highest
interest of the nation are undergoing Il criti-
cal division; but on a matter in which they
think the wishes of the nation are out of
harmony with the presumed law of the
church, their zeal is awakened and their
votes are ready. One great objection to the
law which the bishops have retained is that
it produces great social evils among the poor,
and those evils will henceforth be chargeable
to the lords spiritual. Such persons are
anomalies. Their position and power are
used not for national but for sectarian, or, at
any rate, for ecclesiastical purposes; and the
nation will seriously consider whether they
should not be entirely limited to their pas
torial duties in their own diocese"
A DEMAND THAT MEETS A PROMPT RESPONSE.
What adds weight to the utterances of the
News is that it is the organ of the present
government. Its leading articles are inspired
by Mr.. Gladstone, and some think he occa-
sionally writes for it. This, however, is not
likely, inasmuch as he is paid a large retain
ing fee as an exclusive contributor to Nine
tenth Century. The demand of this paper
that the bishops shall be deposed from leg
~islative power will meet with a response
from the country such as may perhaps sur
prise their lordships. Calls for public indig-
nation meetings are already out and there is
to be sharp firing, we are told, all along the
line. Should the extreme zeal of these bish-
ops cost them their seats the world will have
another illustration of the old adage that
whom the gods wish to destroy they first
make mad, and that event may be followed
by other great changes. l suppose really
that in the course of a few decades the House
of Lords itself will be swept away, or will at
least be modified into a representative body
after the fashion of the United States Senate.
This is the radical programme certainly, and
if radicalism is the backbone of the Liberal
party, and if it be true that the radical MEM
bers OF the cabinet are its controlling force,
which is now generally admitted by all care
full observers, what changes need be account
ed impossible? Meanwhile the three or four
hundred thousand interested persons who are
once more relegated to a state OF bastardy or
bigamy. after having had one foot for a cou-
pie of weeks inside the boundary lines of Ie-
Ultimate wedlock and proper parentage,
and the other equally interested, and even
more interesting persons who are on the
edges of the matrimonial cliff without the
legal right as yet to plunge themselves over,
must bide their time, like the Prince and
Princess will have to do. They will not have
to wait until the House of Lords has been
abolished, nor, necessarily. till the peers
spiritual have been squelched. A little agita-
ton in the Commons and among the people,
and a few more grains of common sense,
driven by the force of public opinion into
the cranlunis of those who sit in the upper
chamber, and in a year from now all will be
so lovely and the matrimonial goose of the
deceased wife's sister be hanging in such alti-
tudes of popular favor that every unmarried
lady in the country will begin TO wish she
were in the shoes of that fortunate indi-