Law -- England; Poor -- England; Poor laws -- England; Working class -- England
That, I suppose, shows us very fairly the pace at which the world moves
forward and the Church moves backward. In a great and necessary social
reform, such as this, the Church occupies the position of the
old-fashioned horse lorry strolling down the middle of the road amiably
blocking the modern traffic of the city. It is all very pleasant and
reassuring to those nervous folk who fear we are rushing like Gadarene
pigs into a sea of legalised vice and immorality, but to visionaries and
dreamers like myself who would like, as the children say, "to see the
wheels go round" in their lifetime, it has its mournful side.
There are two ways in which those who are satisfied that the world is the
best of all possible worlds meet proposals for reform. If they are backed
up by popular clamour and agitation they say with some show of reason
that it would never do to give way to threats of violence. If, on the
other hand, the campaign for reform is conducted by mannerly argument it
is commonly said that there is no demand for a change. Comfortable
clerical persons are never tired of telling you that there is really no
demand from the poorer classes for any reform of the divorce laws.
True, people do not go out in the streets and break the windows of Cabinet
Ministers or make themselves politically disagreeable after the fashion of
the middle classes who have grievances real or imaginary. But anyone whose
advice is sought by the poor in their troubles knows that the demand for
divorce exists if it were of any use uttering it aloud to our smug and
respectable rulers. Of course the demand or no demand is immaterial to
anyone who has grasped the fact that it is a principle of elementary
justice that the poor should have the same audience and remedies in all
our Courts as the rich.
The real demand for divorce is to be found in the circumstances of the
lives of the poor. I propose to set down a few typical cases drawn in
every instance from public published records.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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