A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator,' 30 April /870—The De- ceased Wife's Sister came up for her annual discussion on Wednesday, the main feature of the debate being Sir Roundell Palmer's speech against the Bill for legalizing marriage with her,—which he rested, of course, on the old ground that a wife should have as much facility for seeing her sisters after her marriage as before, and could not have it, unless they were to be genuinely her husband's sisters as well as her own. This argument seems to us, we con- fess, to assume a double falsehood,—a preval- ence of unnatural and universal speculation on the possible result of a wife's death, and a magic power in the law to prevent such specu- lations in the minds of those to whom they are not otherwise unnatural. The last at least is conspicuously false. The class of men likely to speculate on such matters would be quite as likely to feel the law an additional motive for evil as a motive against it. Sir Roundel( Palmer was more cogent when he criticized the isolated nature of the proposed provision, and asked why all marriages of affinity were not to be placed on the same footing. The Bill was read a second time, in a rather thin House, by a majority of 70,-184 to 114,—and passed through Committee.
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