The debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday was
devoted chiefly to the now notorious case of a mixed marriage in Ireland. Mr. Campbell, who brought forward the case, described how Mrs. McCann, a Presbyterian married to a Roman Catholic, had been told by a priest that, owing to the decree Ne Tonere, she was living in open sin. Her husband had left her, and taken her children with him, after saying that unless she was married again in a Roman Catholic chapel she should not see them again. A long and bitter discussion followed between various Nationalist and Ulster Members, in the course of which Mr. Dillon read a letter from Mr. McCann, giving an entirely different account of the facts. Into the merits we do not propose to enter, but from the temper of the debate, even when conducted in the more or less neutral atmosphere of Westminster, one may judge of the kind of controversy which is likely to arise in a Dublin Parliament dominated by a Roman Catholic and Nationalist majority and possessed of full legislative and executive powers over the Protestants of Ulster. The further question arises, Are the marriage laws to be within the purview of the Dublin Parliament? We pre- sume that, on the Colonial analogy, they are ; for are we not told that there is no reason why Ireland should not manage her own affairs as does Canada or Australia ?
