The measure, as he explained, was restricted to rhe legalisation 01 civil marriages only, so that no churchman's conscience need be offended, and no church >of England) could be violated by the .solemnisation of pro ceedings which were repugnant to the con sciences of pe-sons in holy orders. But the bench of bishops was not to be ap peased, and they set their lace uneompro misiuudy a.ainst any alteration in the civil law. ~ The "arguments of the opponents of the measure were astounding. Kail Percy, for example, urging that people's mora l : wa3 lower in France than here because what he chooses to call "'these irregular unions" were permitted there. He also declared it was nv> <■ w't/nl

to ask their lordship? to assent to a measure which they had rejected over and over again. Lord Herschell, replying, said he could not understand why the House should be supposed to be bound by the opinion which they had expressed on this subject in former years any more than he could understand why we should be asked to recognise the prohibition of these marriages by the early church while we re garded as valid other marriages which the early church equally prohibited. He denied that the legislation'of these marriages would tend to diminish the sanctity of marriage and the purity of family life. No one would contend that family life was not as pure in Germany and Scandinavia, where these mar riages were valid, as it was in England ; and the same assertion could safely be made of the United States and our own colonies. A majority'of twenty-nine ultimately passed the second reading. TOOTHLESS NEW ZEAT.AXDF.K-. A Nottingham gentleman contributes to the local 'Guardian' some extracts from a letter received by him from a resident at Wauganui, for the purpose, presumably, of warning our voters and legislators against copying the colony's legislative experiments. Hi 3 preface to the excerpts runs thus : "Our colonies try democratic experiments which have greatly spoiled ' the workmen's Paradise.' Australia and New Zealand have fettered mines with employers' liabilities and eight-hour Acts, which cause mines to be worked in a peddling way by co operators who are liable only to each other, and work with great disadvan tage and !os3 of life. 