The Bill for legalising marriage with a deceased wife's sister
passed its second reading in the Commons on Wednesday by a majority of 67, the vote being 222 for the measure, to 155 against. Mr. H. Gardner, the mover, in order to soothe away the opposition in the Lords, inserted a clause relieving all clergy- men from any legal obligation to celebrate such marriages, an improvement which will furnish those Peers who wish to retreat from their long contest over the Bill with a decent excuse. We have never been able to sympathise with the hostility to the measure felt by many pious minds, but we note with regret the principal argument pressed in the Commons on its behalf. We must, it was said, assimilate our legislation to chat of the Colonies. That argument would cover a proposal to introduce the Australian Divorce Law, and, in fact, any law which affected the constitution of the family. Any Englishman in India who professes Mahommedanism may legally marry four wives, and such cases have actually occurred ; are we therefore to extend that privilege, say, to English Mormons P
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