The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1902-04-03

NO RELATION.

BY Lady Cook, nee Tennessee Claflin Of London
For the Post.
Such is the heading of a great Lon
don Daily In its relation Of the claims
Of two poor women under the "Work-
mems Compensation Act which have
just been tried at the Merthyr County
Court
"Maria Jones claimed against the
Dowlais Iron Company, as personal re-
preventative of d. w. Thomas, collier,
sixteen, who was killed on April 5th,
at one Of the respondents coal-pits, by
o fall of the roof. Respondents objected
that the relationship between applicant
and deceased "a natural SOM was not
legitimate, and his honour, having re-
gard to the ruling in Dickinson and the
North Eastern Railway Company, dis.
missed the claim.
"In the matter Of Ann Prosser and
Messrs. Hills, Plymouth COlliery Com
pany applicant claimed on account of
the loss by death through an accident
of Rees Prosser. She had been married
to the deceased twelve years, and lived
with him until his death, but, being
the sister of the deceased's wife, was
not his lawful wife. On that ground
the claim failed. In both cases sums
Of ten pounds paid into court by the
respondents for funeral expenses were
ordered to be paid out, and no expenses
were allowed"
We quote the foregoing as two per-
tinent instances of the brutality of our
laws In such cases, and of the need Of
a sweeping redress. For years we have
publicly advocated the legal recogni.
ton of all parental relationship wheth-
er legitimate or otherwise, and have
pointed out that the cruel disabilities
of woman who marries her deceased
sisters husband, are based upon an ex-
tremely doubtful Interpretation of a
passage in Leviticus. Unfortunately,
the Bill for legalizing marriage with a
deceased wife's sister, although passed
triumphantly through the Commons
by overwhelming majorities, was de-
feated in the "Lords" golsiy through
the action Of the Lords Spiritual. With
q few honourable exceptions the Right
Reverend and Most Reverend gentle
men, after the manner of Traders
Union, combined in q solid phalanx
for the preservation of theological con-
ceits against moral and civil equity
and natural rights. Bishops who were
strangers to the very door-keepers or
who seldom occupied their episcopal
benches, rushed to Westminster with
indecent haste to block the latest effort
| in the cause of freedom. We owe these
purblind legislators few thanks for any
thing they have ever done, and least
of all for this, and we are well assured
that whatever the duration of their &C.
clesiastical power may be, their secular
authority is fast approaching its end.
The handwriting is on the wall and
can be read by him who runs. The
fair spirit and good sense of the Eng
lish people are already in rebellion
against the medieval pretensions of
priestly peers, and every legislative
success of theirs against the liber-
ties of the nation will only hasten their
Parliamentary extinction. But for their
SO swelling the minority it was able to
outvote the majority of the secular
Lords over the last Bill. Mrs. Ann
Prosser would have received substanti-
al compensation from Messrs. Hills for
, her husbands death, whereas the poor
, woman has had to pay his funeral ex-
penses and has been probably ruined
by the costs of prosecuting her claims.
All this may be strictly in accordance
with the ordinary notions Of employ.
ers and capitalists, but for the Right
Reverends and Most Reverends, this is
ito visit the widows and fatherless in
their affiiction" with vengeance, and
utterly opposed to the apostolic teach
ings. There is q large party in this
country which desires to consider mar
riage as purely civil contract for mere
mutual convenience, to be dissolved by
mutual consent If desired, and the BIZ
shops have given practical emphasis to
this doctrine, and have decided that
those who have been "united in holy
matrimony" may, Notwithstanding,
have no relation to each other.
Merthyr is the chief industrial centre
of the Welsh principality, and conse-
quently should contain no small num-
Der of "illegitimates." There must be
hundreds of mothers there in the same
position as Maria Jones before her un-
fortunate boy was crushed to death by
the falling roof Of a coal-pit. The boy