Gladstone, Mr. Redmond, and his Irish Nationalist colleagues voted
against, and defeated, an Ulster amendment which proposed to exempt
marriage and other religious ceremonies from the legislative powers of
the Dublin Parliament. It would be intolerable that such litigation as
in the Hubert case at present in progress in Montreal, arising out of
the Marriage Law of the Province of Quebec, should be made possible in
Ireland. No paper safeguards in a Home Rule Bill could prevent it.
Again, a most serious peril has just been disclosed in the publication
of the _Motu Proprio_ Papal Decree, under which the bringing by a Roman
Catholic layman of a clergyman of his Church into any civil or criminal
procedure in a court of law, whether as defendant or witness, without
the sanction previously ob tamed of his bishop, involves to that layman
the extreme penalty of excommunication. The same penalty appears to be
incurred _ipso facto_ by any Roman Catholic Member of Parliament who
takes part in passing, and by every executive officer of the Government
who takes part in promulgating, a law or decree which is held to invade
the liberty or rights of the Church of Rome.
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