The chief event of the week in the House of
Commons has been the all-night sitting which began on Wednesday in order to secure the passage of the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill. The opponents of the Bill, led by Lord Robert Cecil, kept the House sitting till six o'clock on Thursday morning, when the Bill was read a third time. The only important amendment agreed to by the advocates of the Bill was a very proper one, under which no clergyman can be forced to celebrate a marriage under the Bill. The Bill will go to the House of Lords on Monday, and it is greatly to be hoped it will be passed. The sense of the nation has long been clear on the matter. In the many divisions during the all-night sitting, the minorities hostile to the Bill did not exceed twenty- seven, and were generally not more than seventeen.
Previous page
