MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER BILL. (Hansard, 11 February 1902)

§ * MR. SPEAKER

There are several Instructions on the Paper in regard to this Bill, and by the Standing Orders of the House I am bound to leave the Chair unless there is an Instruction which is in order. The first Instruction is a proposal to empower the Committee to extend the operation of the Bill to the legalisation of such marriages between persons related in degrees of affinity as were proposed to be legalised under the provision of the Bill of 1849, intituled a Bill to amend and alter the Act of the fifth and sixth years of King William 1112 the Fourth so far as relates to marriages within certain of the prohibited degrees of affinity. That Instruction is out of order, because I think, in the first place, an Instruction to the Committee ought, on the face of it, to state plainly and clearly what further alterations in the law the Committee are to consider; but mainly because the Bill proposes to amend one single alleged grievance in the Marriage Laws, and it ought not to be extended by Instruction to other and distinct Amendments of those laws. The next Instruction is one which proposes— To extend the Bill to the legalisation of such marriages between persons related in affinity as are lawful in the Dominion of Canada and the Commonwealth of Australia. This Instruction is also out of order for similar reasons. The next Instruction standing in the name of the hon. Member for South West Manchester is also too wide. Those which stand in the names of the hon. Member for West Bradford and the hon. Member for North Kensington are out of order because the Committee has power to deal with their subject matters without any Instruction. As all these Instructions are out of order I must now leave the Chair.