ALL NIGHT SITTING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 11

ALL NIGHT SITTING.

DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER BILL. DEBATE IN THE COMMONS. (From O:ir Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 16th August. That hardy annual, the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, has duly sprung up again this session, and, so far as the House of Commons is concerned, it has triumphed, after a long and perilous voyage, for after a wearisome all-night sitting, Sir Brampton Gurdon had the satisfaction of seeing the Bill, of which he has charge, road a third time. It hrs still to run the gnuntlet of the House of Lords, and it is difficult to say what the members of that House may do with it. The fight againct. tho Bill was carried on with dogged persistence for some seven hoars, by a little band of church ■stalwarts, who never numbered thirty all told, headed by Lord Robert Cecil. The honour* of the battle are considered to have been divided between Lord Robert Cecil, the leader of the militant church laymeii ana ih» v&nerablb Mi Jesse Collings, who. with fervid eloquence, supported the measure. The former is described as being buoyant ana keen-eyed when he started the attack, but by 6 a.m. he bore an almost haggard appearance when he made his final protest against the third reading. DIVISIONS AXD AMENDMENTS. Throughout the night there were many divisions on amendments raising points which have become familiar to thoso to have interested themselves in tht Bih year after year. Tho defeats were overwhelming — 200 odd on one side and2o, or thereabouts, on the other ; but still the zealous advocates of canon law kept beating up to the attack. As the debate wore on and the day dawned, it also seemer 1 to dawn upon the House that the deceased wife's sister was a very desirable person for her bereft brother-in-law to marry, Early in the debate Lord Robert Cecil asked members to suppose the caee when a man married a deceased wife's sister, and then went through a form of marriage with a, sister. He would theu have gone through a form of mairiago with two sisters. "To which sister was he married?" "To both," replied a voice, amid laughter. "Suppose," snid Lord Robert, a man had married his deceased wife's sister, got tired of her, and married another sister; now, he has married two eisters." "No ; three !" shouted several members. Lord Robert paused a moment, and then it dawned upon him that the imaginary case was even more involved than he supposed. He wanted to know which wife the man would have married under the Bill. Nest he applied himself to Canon Law, which took him back to the yePi 1603 ; what would happen in the case of j excommunication? The House laughed, and Lord Robert's orthodoxy was shock, ed, for he solemrly replied : "Hon. members seem to regtrd that as something I comic." He did not grudge them the trifling relaxation from the wearisonwnsss of being kept up to discuss 'this great change in the marriage law, bui he respectfallv reminded his' hearers that it was not his" fault that they were kepi up to discuss it. Mr. Haldane's terse reply to the weird customs of 1603 was. "We are not living in those da-ys now !" ' He continued : "This is not a Bill to compel a man U» marry his deceased wife's sisters , It is merely to leave him free to do so if he wants to. The only law we recognise as being enforceable by the -courts is tht law of the land" ; it was time Ui leave him free to marry his eister-m law if he choose. "SO-CALLED WIFE }To. 2." When Lord Robert Cecil sought -to exempt members of the Church of Engtond i from the Bill, Mr. Jesse Collings prompt. I ly asked : "Would you set up a rivalry between a man's love for the church and j his love for a woman? If you do, the I woman will prevail. It is only human ! nature." "Unfortunately there are men who love women without thinking of marriage," was Lord Robert's rejoinder, whereupon Mr. Collings excitedly replied : "No, no ; they would leave the Church to get married. There are thousands of good women," he went on,' "waiting with a pati°nce that amounts to pathos for this Bill, waiting to be ! put in the position they ought to be "in. This delay is a national scandal !" Even at this solemn adjuration, the bulk cf j the Radicals laughed, and once agair this ■ unseemintj levity appeared shocking to j Lord Robert, who had made the announcement that he hoped the "House, will not approach the deceased wife's sis. . ter in a post-prandial spirit. I About 3 a.m. a new phrase was coined I by Mr. Evelyn Cecil who called the de- , ceased wife's sister "the so-called Wife [No. 2." ! The difference of opinion on the Opposition side in regard to the merits of the Bill way strikingly shown by tho strong speeches in its favour by Mr. F. E. Smith, Lord Tumour, and Mr. Collings In trenchant fashion, Lord , Tumour criticised the methods of the i Government in regard to the Bill and j said "I am not surprised that almost every week a master of the horro or an ' ex-Libera' Prime Minister is shed by the Government." When the slorait, of cheers, laughter; and Radical protests I had abated, he added quietly : >"Tlie , only surprise to me is that the Govern I ment have still ,ieft behind them a , few hon. go;itlcnTen to support and cheer them if th^v choosa to do business at this hour of th* morning." A point of which much was' made by the Opposition was the absence of both law ofticars of the Crown, the necessary legal advice oeing tendered «by Mr. Huldane and Mr. Simon. Late in the sitting Sir W. Lawson Walton put in an appearance, but it way explained thai the Solicitor-Genwal had, under medical advice, 1-eft the Hoube at 11 p.m. TIME DRAGS WEARILY. ! Again Mr. Jesse Collings came to the tabla and appealed for the innocent children. Their parents, ho said, ivera good peoplt., add by t» -higher law than tho law of the church they were man and wife. Did anybody s>ay they 'had been 'iving in sin? "Yes!" eaicl Mr. Stswart Bowles. "No !" exclaimed Mr. Collings; "they are married in the sight of God, if not of man, and if it bo a sin it v of the kind described by Sterns, on which tho Recording Angel, when he writes it down, will drop a tear and wipe it out for ever." After tnis aomo of tho members tripped out for refreshment, and tho .debate- still dragged wearily on. It was not until 5.30 that Mr. Haldanc uicceedsd in getting the closure upon Clause 1, although he had several times made an effort to shorten the proceedings by this method. The result was that. 175 votes were recorded for the motion and only 17 against it. The report stage was got through at one minute to six, and amid a great ihout of "No!" the third reading of the Bill thero ana then was proposed. "I do not believe this Bill will promote either the morality or the peace of this country !" said Lord Robert Cocil who administered to it ona or two other parting kicks. He said it was a thoroughly bad Bill. There was some little spirit in it discussion about the rights of clergy to refuse to many people, but the oratorical honoui oi the night undoubtedly belonged to Mr. Jesse Collings, who sat, out the whole of the debate, and nt 6 a.m. was able to congratulate tho Government on the measure having safely passed all its ttages, so far ns tho House of Commons .was concerned.