Lord Buckmaster's Matrimonial Causes Bill was read a second time
in the House of Lords on Wednesday by a majority of 93 to 45. The Lord Chancellor, in accordance with his promise of .a fortnight ago, explained that the Governmeet would leave the House free to decide on the Bill. He would propose to eatrust the Asp* Judges, not the County Courts, with juris- diction in divorce cases. He rejected the view that marriage was indissoluble,. and supported the proposal to make wilful deser. thin for three years, or persistent cruelty, or lunacy, or habitual drunkenness, or life-long imprisonment, a ground for divorce, whether for the husband or for the wife. The Archbishop of Canterbury reminded the House that hard eases make bad law, and declared that the hard cases were, after all, the merest handful in comparison with the nine millions of married couples in the country. The Archbishop did not oppose the demand that divorce proceedings should be cheaper, or the proposal to put women on the same footing as men. Lord Coleridge said that his experience as a Judge in the Divorce Court had compelled him to admit that the restrictions. on divorce must be relaxed. Lord Parmoor and Lord Salisbury opposed the Bill.
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