316 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 



party be a Catholic or not. The essential difference between the new law and the old, 

 between the legislation of Trent and the Ne Temere, is that, while the former made it 

 necessary that every marriage should be contracted in the presence of the parish priest 

 of one of the parties, the latter requires the presence of the parish priest of the place 

 in which the marriage is solemnised. In the famous Hebert case in Canada, the marriage 

 of two Catholics who had been married in the Province of Quebec by a Protestant clergy- 

 man was declared void, first by an ecclesiastical tribunal, and then by a civil court. 

 The marriage was in any case canonically void, because the law of the Council of Trent, 

 requiring the presence of the parish priest of one of the parties, prevails in Quebec, and 

 had not been complied with. The decision in the civil court was based upon the belief 

 that, upon the issues raised, the law of the Church and that of the State are identical. 

 The case was still in November 1912 waiting the decision of the Superior Court in 

 Montreal on appeal. The Ne Temere had nothing to do with this case one way or the 

 other. But the public controversies to which the Papal Decree had given rise had inflamed 

 public opinion, and the Hebert case became a party watch-word. While the Liberals 

 were still in power in Canada great pressure was brought to bear upon Sir Wilfrid 

 Laurier to induce him to bring in a bill in the Federal Parliament imposing a uniform 

 marriage law in all the provinces. It would have meant a struggle full of peril for the 

 peace of the Dominion, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier refused to consider the question, on the 

 ground that in the opinion of the minister of Justice, Sir Allen Aylesworth, the legis- 

 lation asked for would be ultra vires of the Dominion Parliament. After the election, 

 when Mr. Borden had taken office, the new minister of Justice, Mr. Doherty, being 

 faced with the same problem, gave the same answer, that questions concerning the 

 solemnisation of marriage fell under the exclusive jurisdiction of the provincial legis- 

 latures. That ought to have been decisive, but opinion ran high, and the hand of the 

 new Government was forced when a private member in the Parliament at Ottawa 

 introduced a bill on his own account. It was then decided to take the opinion of the 

 Supreme Court of Canada as to whether or not the proposed legislation would be 

 within the jurisdiction of the Federal Parliament. Four out of five of the Canadian 

 judges held that the proposed legislation in the Dominion Parliament was ultra vires. 

 As soon as the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada was known, it was at once 

 resolved to carry the case to the supreme arbitrament of the Judicial Committee of the 

 Privy Council. The importance which all parties in Canada attached to the immediate 

 settlement of these vexed issues may be measured by the urgency of the steps which 

 were taken to speed the case across the Atlantic. The Supreme Court gave its decision 

 on the 1 7th of June, and on the 22nd of July the case was being argued before the Privy 

 Council in London. The bill was declared on July 29 to be ultra vires. Though the 

 Ne Temere was freely invoked during the argument, it was not directly in issue. It 

 was, however, the probably unfounded fear that the Papal decree might be incor- 

 porated with the civil law of Quebec which gave a theological colour to the whole dis- 

 cussion. 



The elections for the German Reichstag in February 191 2 found the Catholic party, 

 the Centre, in a position of great disadvantage. The Borromeo Encyclical and the 

 " Motu Propria," Quantavis diligentia, had been used to create a cloud of 

 elections. prejudice. Then the high price of food, largely due to the prolonged 

 drought, was attributed by the Socialists to the Protectionist policy of the 

 Centre. They came back 93 strong, having lost nine seats; in fact, every party paid 

 tribute to the Socialists. In the Rhineland the Centre polled 19,000 more votes than in 

 1907. Taking the country as a whole, the Catholic poll showed a falling of something 

 like 100,000 votes. This loss, however, is seen to be more apparent than real, when we 

 note the number of cases in which the Centre abstained from setting up its own candi 

 dates, in order to avoid " false second ballots." It is estimated that between 250,000 

 and 300,000 votes were in this way given by the Centre to their allies of the Right. 



In Belgium the Catholic party, which had been in power continuously for twenty- 

 eight years, were in some apprehension as to their prospects at the general election in 



