The reform of marriage, then, will be a very splendid and very hazardous
adventure for the Prime Minister who takes it in hand. He will be posted
on every hoarding and denounced in every Opposition paper, especially
in the sporting papers, as the destroyer of the home, the family, of
decency, of morality, of chastity and what not. All the commonplaces of
the modern anti-Socialist Noodle's Oration will be hurled at him. And he
will have to proceed without the slightest concession to it, giving the
noodles nothing but their due in the assurance "I know how to attain our
ends better than you," and staking his political life on the conviction
carried by that assurance, which conviction will depend a good deal on
the certainty with which it is made, which again can be attained only
by studying the facts of marriage and understanding the needs of the
nation. And, after all, he will find that the pious commonplaces on
which he and the electorate are agreed conceal an utter difference in
the real ends in view: his being public, far-sighted, and impersonal,
and those of multitudes of the electorate narrow, personal, jealous, and
corrupt. Under such circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that the
mere mention of the marriage question makes a British Cabinet shiver
with apprehension and hastily pass on to safer business. Nevertheless
the reform of marriage cannot be put off for ever. When its hour comes,
what are the points the Cabinet will have to take up?