DIVORCE

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14836, 29 November 1913, Page 16

DIVORCE

Tho question of divorce was discussed at St. Albans dioctisan conference at Watford last month. In his belief, said the Bishop, they were coming to a time when it would be necessary for the. State to have'its law and the Church its law, when the Church would be almost obliged to demand , that its law should not be considered necessarily to bo in accordance with the statute law. Ho once talked tho matter over with tho late Bishop Westcott, 'and found that they had , independently come to the opinion that events were tending towards a universal civil marriage. He did not sco how they were to maintain the Church's law as fully as they ought to do unless there was either complete separation of Church and State, or unless the State had its own marriage law and permitted the religious body to supplement that marriage according to its own laws. Certainly, if there was any kind of extension of the • grounds of divorce he did not see at all how they could avoid such a result. A resolution declaring that tho conference, while it heartily approved the minority report in resisting tho recommendation of - additional grounds of divorce, could not accept any proposals tending towards an increase of divorce facilities, was carried.