The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 87
Lord Palmerston
Lord Palmerston.
"It seems to me to be established and admitted, that the moral feeling of the community at large is not with this law,—that the law, in fact, is not obeyed, and that a great number of persons, not considering themselves to commit any moral offence, do contract marriages which the law prohibits. This is not a state of things which ought to exist; and not being of opinion that there is any moral objection to the contracting of these marriages, and believing that the law as it stands is the cause of a great deal of misery and social evil, especially among the middle and lower classes of the community, I shall with great pleasure give my vote to the motion."—Speech of Lord Palmerston.