The Right Hon". W. E. Gladstone, M.P., Etc.

"He felt bound to do what he could to assist the honourable member in charge of the Bill. For many years he had felt the pressure of this subject to be extreme. Among certain classes, the change proposed would not be without a disturbing effect on domestic page 12 relations; but those classses were limited and select; and it was the mass of the community we must look to in dealing with such a question. When he considered the weight of testimony given by ministers of religion, among the most respected in their several communions—men among the Roman Catholics, the Nonconformists, the Established Church—High Church and Low Church—including such a man as Dr. Hook, who might, perhaps, be described as the first parish minister of his day—when he considered the pressure of motives which had induced so many persons who had practical experience of the consequences produced by the present state of the law, to support the proposed change, he did not shrink from the responsibility it would entail."—Debate on Mr. Chambers' Marriages Bill, July 21, 1869.