The herald., 1896-07-13
A BREAK IN CONSERVATISM

! The "world do move" to paraphrase
| an expression which introduced the
| Rev. Jasper Of Virginia to fame. The
British house Of lords has Sassed bill
removing the impediment to marriage
with deceased wife's sister after a
vigorous discussion Of the measure
covering some four years. The bill will
now go to the house of commons and
as about two-thirds Of the members
of that branch of the British parlia-
ment are believed to be in it's favor
there Is no doubt about Its prompt pas
sage.
The passage Of this bill by the lords
is significant of the breaches that are
being made in the Conservative lines of
old England. One by one the social
pigments and political superstitions of
the lands beyond the "big pond" are
retreating before the enlightened spirit
of rational liberalism. The armor of
tradition and precedent avails not for
their protection. The contest for the
removal of the inhibition of marriage
with q deceased wife's sister has ragged
since 1873 in England, several bills for
the purpose having secured the assent
lords chamber. The fight was inaugu-
rated, strange as IT may appear. by the
royal family. The precipitating cause
of royalty's interest in the matter was
the desire of thd duke Of Hesse. after
the death of the duchess Of Hesse, the
second daughter Of Queen Victoria, to
marry his late wife's sister. the Princess
Beatrice, who in time welded Prince
Battenberg. The marriage which the
duke and Beatrice desired to consum-
mate would have been unlike most mat
rimonial ventures in that strata of the
worlds society,a love affair. and had the
warm approval Of the princess family.
including her mother. But despite the
tremendous influence Of royalty the con-
servative elements of Great Britain, led
by the heads of the church, succeeded
in thwarting the efforts to remove the
legal obstruction to the union Of two
loving hearts Royalty. however. has
had its innings in the matter and it will
be noticed that on the prevailing side Of
the vote in the house of peers the Prince
Of Wales, the Duke of Connaught, the
Duke of Fife. the Duke Of Devonshire
and the Duke of st. Adams were listed.
The battle commenced nearly score or
years back In dead earnest has ragged
continuously since, urged by pie
beian possessors Of hearts equally
loving as those Of the disap-
pointed duke and princess and kept
like the latter, apart. by the obnoxious
law, and, at last, victory seems to be in
sight.
The origin Of the now almost abol-
ished measure seems to have been in
distrust of men. 1t was intended to
checkmate the designs Of men who in
order to absorb as large share of fam
lily wealth as possible would deliberately
set their snares for the sisters of their
deceased wives. 1t has indeed been
claimed that numerous poisoning cases
antedating the enactment of the law
prohibiting marriage with deceased
wife's sister were traceable to desire to
put away a wife and obtain her sister
because of the dowry that the latter
would bring with her. Another object
was the encouragement of anything
more than a brotherly and sisterly re-
lationship between husband and his
wife's sister or sisters, as the case might
be. In England perhaps q warmer de-
gree of intimacy exists between mem
bers of family than any other country.
and the customs were such and probably
are as much so today, that husbands
were thrown in constant contact with
their wives sisters. 1t was apparently
thought best to make useless the con-
temptation of any matrimonial interest
in sister-in-law by making any mar
ital alliaOcea hetwenr i 10
and sisters-in-law impossible in Eng
land. Such a law is reflection on sin
cerity and manhood and is not calcu-
lated to develop either 1t should have
been wiped out long ago.
A FRENCH SONG