and elsewhere call “ robbing God ” when
applied to Russia.
My friendly priest also discussed the marriage question with me. He is not a bit upset that the marriage rite is a civil matter, and here I must point out that in compelling marriages to be registered in a State or Communal registry office the Bolsheviks are only doing exactly what has been done in France and America for very many years. In our own country tens of thousands of people are married by the civil authority. In fact no marriage is legal in England except those which take place in an Anglican Church, unless a registrar is present. No Roman Catholic or Free Church service is recognised ; always it is the civil functionary whose presence gives legality to the proceedings. So why people should lie about Russia and say the Bolsheviks have destroyed the sanctity of marriage I cannot understand. A couple, desirous of being married, notify the proper civil authority, and if afterwards they desire to go through the religious ceremony which to them makes of their marriage a sacrament, they are perfectly free to do so.
I have dealt with the case of children elsewhere. I need only say in passing that the abolition of all questions concerning legitimacy or illegitimacy and the clearing out of the vocabulary of the wretched word “ bastard ” is
