REMARRIAGE OF WIDOWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10419, 17 April 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

REMARRIAGE OF WIDOWS.

" Ought widows to marry ?" This question is the subject of controversy in England and France just now, and a great diversity of opinion on the subject has been developed. In the English public prints there have been many citations of the example of Queen Victoria in remaining faithful to the memory of the late Prince Consort), and the long widowhood of the Queens Regent of Spain and Holland ie also held up as further example. So is the case of Princess Beatrice, widow of Prince Henry of Battenberg. But the rules of conduct that govern the lives of Royal personages do not apply to ordinary mortals, and even Princess Beatrice may be embarrassed at some future time at being reminded of the inscription on a wreath she laid on her husband's coffin : " Until death do us part; until death reunites us." On the Continent, the opinion is generally held that widows should not condemn themselves to perpetual solitude, and it is sustained by —of all things, in each a sentimental subject—the statistics of suicide. According to M. Mortelli, who is an authority on the subject, out of 365 menwhohavocommitted suicide in Italy, 100 were married, 108 were bachelors, and 157 were widowers. In France it is among the widowen that suicide finds the most victims. As regards married women, oat of every hundred who commit suicide in Italy and France the majority are widows. In France the number of widows who commit suicide is twice as great as that of women whose husbands are living. From these statistics M. Morselli concludes that widows and widowers are far more likely to be driven to despair and death than other men and women, and that, therefore, it is the duty of society to encourage them to marry again, On the other hand, M, 6. LabadieLagrave does noli think much of them statistic*. "The conclusions arrived ■t," he says, "teem to be very much exaggerated. If jo many widows we unable to support the burden of life, it in not chagrin at the loss of their husband* whiob drives them to commit suicide, but rather anxiety us to how they shall support themselves and their children. And it li very probable that the reuon why they remain widows is not because they deeire to remain true to their husbands, but bettnie they cannot find men who are willing to harden themselves with the support of them and their children."