Introduction 1. 'A Passage in Our History which We Could not Look back upon without Shame': The Roots of Discontent, c.1835-1848 2. Restraining the 'Devil in Our Sisters': James Wortley's Marriage Affinity Bills, 1849-1851 3. The 'Misery of Scotch Law': Legal Precedents, Political Discourses and Literary Representations, c.1851-1862 4. 'Sleeping while the Enemy is Busy Sowing His Tares.' The Challenge to Scripture, c.

1851-1888 5. 'The Man is Everything, and the Woman Nothing': Protecting, Purifying and Conceptualising the Family, 1862-1888 6. 'It is Too Readily Assumed that all Those Who are Opposed to this Kind of Marriage are Idiots': Public Opinion, Party and Personal Conscience, 1869-1906 7. 'It is Time this Controversy should End': Reform and Reaction, 1907 Conclusion: A Woman's Question, a Man's Need, a Class's Interest?.