‘It is Too Readily Assumed that all Those Who are Opposed to this Kind of Marriage are Idiots’

From the 1870s, there appears to have been a shift in the views of the wider public towards marriage with a deceased wife's sister (MDWS), as more and more dissenting voices in the media, Parliament and among the broader community questioned the churches' scriptural interpretation. Electoral reform heralded greater parliamentary and media scrutiny of public opinion. In Scotland, public meetings in defence of the status quo continued to be held and they produced the odd published pamphlet to ensure messages were disseminated as widely as possible. In 1889, Elliot introduced an MDWS bill into the House of Commons which sought to legalise MDWS in Scotland only. It seems likely that this was a diversionary tactic; a proposal to legalise MDWS throughout the United Kingdom lay on the parliamentary table at the same time. Parliamentary resistance was becoming harder, not least due to the diminishing role and importance of organised religion within politics.