ABSTRACT
The Liberal Party's electoral success had much to do with the Conservative administration's poor leadership, internal fighting and unpopular domestic and foreign policies. Developments in the colonies heightened the need for government intervention. Those parts of the British Empire which had legalised marriage with a deceased wife's sister (MDWS) had campaigned for many decades for their marriage laws to be legally recognised in the United Kingdom. The Liberal government brought out its big guns to ensure the bill's success in the Lords. The willingness of the government to make concessions–not least to accept an amendment making it optional for ministers to agree to celebrate MDWS without threat of church censure–helped to appease many peers. The legalisation of MDWS owed its success to intellectual, colonial, social and religious trends, but the decisive surge was provided by developments in the colonies and by the Liberal party's desire to reinvent and portray itself as a party that championed the case of the poor.
