every stage with characteristic and indomitable
He spoke incessantly in the debates on
energy.
the measure, and he fought it with a spirit and
with a mastery of detail which aroused the
He
wonder even of those who knew him best.
opposed the measure first of all upon the high
ground of principle. He contended that mar-
riage was not only or mainly an arrangement of
the nature of a civil contract, like the hiring of
a house or the setting up of a mercantile partner-
ship. He refused to admit for a moment the
idea that marriage could be anything but a
mystery of the Christian religion. He appealed
to the law of God as to the inviolable sanctity
of the marriage tie. That bond, he said, could
not be severed in such a manner as to allow
either of the parties to marry again. This
was his first line of defense, and he sustained
his position with splendid eloquence and
perseverance.
Now, the House of Commons is not an assembly which is easily to be influenced or impressed
by considerations of so
exalted a nature.
usually and for the most
part a prosaic, man-of-
the-world, half-cynical
sort of assembly which
is inclined to take hu-
man beings pretty much
as they are commonly
found in clubs and
drawing-rooms and on
and is
race-courses,
rather impatient of any
appeal to what may be called the higher law. Yet it cannot be doubted that the
magnificence of Mr. Gladstone's eloquence enthralled the House for the time, although
it could not in the end carry the division. The most light-minded members of the
House listened in breathless admiration to those noble appeals to the higher law for
which nobody so well as he could have obtained a hearing. Every one must admit
that, whether he was practically right or wrong, he took in his argument the loftiest
position that statesmanship or morality could occupy. He fought his battle not only
in the House of Commons, but also in the public press. Mr. Gladstone has always
at every great crisis of his career championed his cause in the journals and the
reviews as well as on the public platform and in the House of Commons. He put
his principles very clearly and emphatically in an article which appeared in the
"Quarterly Review," in which he says: "Our Lord has emphatically told us that, at
and from the beginning, marriage was perpetual, and was on both sides single."
From these opinions Mr. Gladstone has never since receded in the least.
changed his views on many subjects, but on this question his opinions have under-
gone no change. When he had fought the bill on its main principle, and then
endeavored to have it postponed for fuller public examination and discussion, and
had been beaten on both those issues, he next applied himself to amend the bill in
its passage through committee. As every one knows, the actual principle of a bill
is determined on its second reading in the House of Commons.
That principle is
then taken to be established, and thereupon the bill goes into committee to be
VICTORIA TOWER
From an old drawing. The twin towers of Westminster Abbey are seen to the left.