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Show ITALY TO ABANDON DIVORCE. Dowager Queen Margherita has carrieel her point, anel largely owing to her effort the crown and government in Italy have abandoned the project pro-ject of endowing the kingdom with a law of divorce, which it docs, not now possess. The late kind stood committed thereto, and so, too. did his ministers, by pledges made in the national legislature a short time before his murder in 1!)00. In fact, the bill had beeui drawn up Jby, Ministers Zanardelli anel Cocco-Ortu. But Vic'f 6r Emmanuel, yielding to his mother's entreaties, always managed to delay its submission to parliament, and now that the recent general election has returned a larger conservative majority than ever before, he has caused it to be announced an-nounced that the divorce bill will be relegated to oblivion. In doing this he is certainly acting in accord--ance with the wishes of his people. For there is at the chamber of. deputies a monster petition, with over 4,000,000 signatures protesting against the adoption of any divorce law, and, moreover, it constitutes con-stitutes a species of return to the Vatican for the assistance which the' hurch gave recently to the government in the general election. The papacy has of course been bitterly against the projected elivorcc law, anel its abandonment marks the existence exis-tence of more friendly relations between the quiri- nal and the Vatican than have existed at any time since Rome became the capital of united Italy. Queen Marguerite is a sincerely religious woman, wo-man, in every sense of the word. a daughter of the church, who has suffered cruelly from the antagonism antag-onism which' has existed between the Italian crown and the papacy. She is exceedingly regular in her attendance at mass, and is the only member of the reigning house of Italy who has crossed the threshold thres-hold of St. Peter since 1870; no official notice being be-ing taken of her frequent presence by the authorities authori-ties of the great basilica. She may be described as having fought tooth and nail against divorce, anel as she is amazingly popular and possesses un-t un-t bounded influence, not only over her son, the king, but likewise over most of the leading men in Italy, the abandonment of the bill may fairly be looked ; upon as her victory. All those American women who are unhappily married to Italian noblemen anel have been looking look-ing to the projecteel divorce law for release from their matrimonial bonds will, of course, now have to give up their hopes of securing a dissolution of their union unless they can induce their husbands to establish a full fledged legal domicile or to secure se-cure naturalization in some country where divorce figures on. the cods of laws. Any decree granted by an American court, unless the husband established estab-lished legal domicile here or became a citizen, would be invalid in Italy. I may add that in Ireland, too, divorce does not exist. It is the only part of the British empire where this condition . of affairs; a relic of old Catholic, times survives. Irish courts can arrant judicial separations, but. for divorce it is necessary to have recourse to the tribunals in England. Marepiise ele Lafayette in Chicago Tribune. |