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Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6953, 5 July 1929, Page 11

KING EDWARD’S INTEREST.

MARRIAGE REFORM BILL, A new volume of reminiscences by tho Marquis of Huntly, who is in ihis eighty-third year, contains an interesting passage, showing that the late King Edward, who was strictly a constitutional monarch, and accepted the advice of his Ministers, when Prince of Wales and a member of the House of Lords, did not hide his interest in various measurets.

i “He seemed, to chafe at not being able to join in the debates,” writes the Marquis of Huntly, “and at last an opportunity was found for him to address the House of Lords. Ho took great interest in the Marriage with Deceased Wife’s Sister Bill, and supported the Second reading of the bill after presenting an enormous petition in favour of the measufj.ifroan the eastern counties of England.; The bill was defeated .by a narrow margin, and I voted with' the mrijoyity against,it.-- _ “This breught'me.a letter from His Royal Highness,/dated 'from Marlborough House; Juno 14, 1882:— ’My dear. Huntly,—l was glad to see you looking so welLiiri.'rthe House, of Lords on Monday, not having, seen you for a year, but I that. you voted against your party! I admit that the bill was a social and not a political one; still, the Liberals have always voted for the bill, and I wish another year you would fed inclined -to vote with me on a question in which I take so deep an interest... / I am, yours very sincerely, Albert Edwari}.’’ “I had just; returned,” adds the marquis, “from a long tour in Greece, Albania, Aurlcey, the Caucasus, and Southern Russia, so that not having seen H.R.H. for 12 months, I had no idea that ho was so interested in the deceased wife’s sister.”