DECEASED BROTHER'S WIDOW'S MARRIAGE BILL. (Hansard, 12 July 1921)

§ LORD MUIR MACKENZIE
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Newton, who-has had charge of this Bill up to to-day, asked me if I would undertake to move the Third Reading if he should be detained, and I presume he has been detained, at a meeting of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Smoke Abatement, of which he is Chairman. He thought it would be more convenient and more respectful to the House that the Bill should be dealt with to-day than that he should ask the House to postpone it.
I must ask your Lordships to be indulgent to me, as I am not so familiar with the matter as is Lord Newton. If he had been here he would have expressed, very earnestly, his hopes that a discussion would not be raised again on the merits of the words which were introduced into the Bill upon the last occasion. The matter was very fully debated then, and the noble Lord felt that he could not do otherwise than accept what was proposed by the 1040 noble and learned Viscount, Lord Haldane, supported by the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack. He thinks that any advantage that might result from that Amendment, however, is outweighed by the advantage which would be gained if the Bill were allowed to proceed safe and sound in the form in which it came from the other House, so that it would not have again to run the gauntlet in another place.
All that the promoters put in their Bill was already obtained before any Amendment was put down, and, therefore, as far as they are concerned, they would rather that the Bill remained as it was when first put down for Committee. I feel sure the noble Lord would not wish to do anything that could be considered discourteous to or even in disagreement with the noble and learned Viscount opposite or the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack, but he desires to appeal to the noble and learned Viscount, Lord Haldane, not to disagree with the Amendment which now appears on the Paper but to allow the Bill to proceed in the form in which it came to the House.
In regard to the Amendment which stands on the Paper in my name, supposing the House consented to what I propose, it would not have been in a position to go on with the matter unless there was an Amendment on the Paper. Therefore, that Amendment had to be put down. I trust that the course I have taken will be approved by the House, particularly by those of your Lordships who take a different view from others on this point. I hope also that the noble and learned Lord who has an Amendment on the Paper in the, same sense as mine will not disapprove of the course which I suggest.

§ VISCOUNT HALDANE
My Lords, my noble friend who is, for the present, in charge of this Bill, has made an appeal to me. He does not make that appeal in vain. The Bill is his, or Lord Newton's, and they are the persons who are entitled to shape it. Stimulated by the investigations of the right rev. Prelate the Bishop of Norwich, I thought I had found a flaw in the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act which I was desirous of amending. I still think so. At the same time, it is a flaw to which this Bill was not primarily directed, and I am quite willing to take 1041 the view, if those who are responsible for the Bill think that its progress would be facilitated by our not putting in any further Amendment, of assenting to the deletion of the words which I moved during the Committee stage of the Bill. Therefore, I am quite willing, if my noble friend who is in charge of the Bill moves to strike out these words, to assent to the proposal, and I will offer no opposition to it.

§ LORD PARMOOR
My Lords, perhaps I may say a word at this stage; it will probably prevent the necessity of my saying anything upon the Amendment which stands in my name to be moved after Third Reading. I have a letter from Lord Newton, to which he wishes me to refer if it is in order to do so, and I think it is so far in order. He says: "I hope you will carry your Amendment." That means that the Bill should he left in the shape in which it was when it was introduced into this House. Perhaps I may call your Lordships' attention to this point. Unless the Amendment which was brought forward by the noble and learned Viscount is omitted, as I shall propose it should be, the title of the Bill must necessarily be amended, and the Bill, in its amended form, might receive a very different reception in the other House from that which it received in its original form.
The title of the Bill is "An Act to amend the Law relating to marriage with a deceased brother's widow." If the Amendment which was carried is left in the Bill the Bill becomes not only "an Act to amend the law relating to marriage with a deceased brother's widow," but also "with a deceased wife's sister." Your Lordships will recollect that when the Bill was introduced into the House by the noble Lord, Lord Newton, he said that his only desire was to amend the existing law by bringing in the deceased brother's widow, and placing her in the same position as the deceased wife's sister. I do not desire to revert to the discussions which arose at an earlier stage when the Amendment was introduced, but I hope your Lordships will assent to the proposal made by the noble Lord opposite, and allow the words to be deleted.

§ VISCOUNT HALDANE
I do not agree on the technical part of the noble Lord's contention.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, as I took some part in the discussion on this matter, and your Lordships accepted the advice which I ventured to give, that the Amendment of the noble and learned Viscount should be adopted perhaps I may be allowed to say a word or two. The noble and learned Viscount and myself were impelled towards the course we adopted from a. desire to assist the right rev. Prelate in relation to an Amendment which he had put down. That was the beginning and the end of my association with the matter. In spite of that fact, I acquiesce in the course which your Lordships are now asked to adopt. The matter can be put in a nutshell. We were in a position to effect a slight improvement in the Deceased Wife's Sister Act by filling up an omission. The Amendment which was proposed produced that result.
On the other side two things are said. First, Lord Parmoor says that the title would require Amendment. I think he is right there. But it could very easily be amended. It is a technical point. It is said, in the second place, that that Bill has survived its career in the House of Commons—a circumstance astonishing to its critics—and having so survived, it is asked: Is it wise at this stage of the session to send it back once again, and expose this frail vessel to Parliamentary storms in another place and possibly jeopardise its fortunes? I suspect that the doubt of Lord Newton, who seems to have been establishing negotiations in the tenderest manner with both camps, is to be explained by his solicitous care for the fortunes of his Parliamentary bantling, and is not due to any reasoned and final conclusions entertained by the noble Lord as a result of the particular discussion. Where there is so much harmony, I am indisposed to introduce a jarring note. I am only concerned that your Lordships should be well aware that in my opinion the Amendment which was accepted by the House was an improvement, but I am bound to admit that its absence from the Deceased Wife's Sister Act has produced no practical mischief during the fourteen years that Act has been law, and I am informed, on a statistical basis, that the number of males who may be expected to avail themselves of the privileges of this Bill will be incomparably smaller than the number of persons affected by the earlier Bill.

§ LORD PARMOOR
I now move the Amendment standing in my name.

§ LORD MUIR MACKENZIE
I beg to move that this Bill be now passed.