In the diVision on the Deceased Wife's• Sister resolution, thirteen
Conservatives voted with Mr. Broadhurst, and seven Liberals with the Ecclesiastical party. Mr. Gladstone, Mr. W. H. Gladstone, and Mr. Herbert Gladstone walked out without voting, as also did some of the Conservative leaders—for ex- ample, Mr. Gibson; and the Fourth Party refused to vote,— for Mr. Arthur Balfour, who voted with the Conservatives, must now be regarded as no longer belonging to the Fourth Party. On the whole, it is clear that the division on the marriage law does not follow party lines, and that there are leaders of all parties who do not see their way to a clear decision. *Under these circumstances, it seems pied), clear that, the present legal veto on such marriages as Mr. Broadhurst dealt with, cannot be sustained. It takes a very strong conviction to hold the posi- tion of exclusion against the natural rule of liberty ; and a strong conviction does not seem in this case to bo entertained by the strongest men.
Previous page
