the emblem of plighted hearts, without a violation of the dictates of conscience." Perfect order and regularity were maintained, and great cheerfulness and unauimity were displayed throughout the evening. The party, which was large, broke up about half-past ten o'clock.* HOUSE OF COMMONS, Unitarian Marriage Bill. Mr. W. SMITH moved the third reading of the Dissenters' Marriage Bill. Sir THOMAS D. ACLAND declared, that, in the observations he was about to make, nothing was further from his intention than to throw any impediment in the way of his Honourable Friend, as to the attainment of his object. But this Bill, in its present form, had introduced a new principle, different from that upon which the Dissenters' Marriage Bill, for merly brought in by his Hon. Friend, had proceeded. The present Bil proposed to treat marriage as a civil contract only. Now, not only did the general feeling of this country, as well as the ritual of the Established Church, consider it as a religious contract, but it had been so declared to be, for he (Sir T. Acland) would not now enter upon the discussion of the religious bearings of the question, by some of the highest legal authorities in the kingdom, particularly by Sir William Scott, who, about twenty years ago, in a speech delivered by him on the Adultery Bill; and again, in his celebrated judgment in the case of "Dalrymple v. Dalrymple," recorded his conviction that it partook both of a civil and a religious nature. After suggesting that it might be possible to make very expedient regulations for the registry of such marriages, &c., the Honourable Ba ronet proposed that the third reading of the Bill should be taken on Thursday next, which would allow time for obtaining farther suggestions on these heads, and for ascertaining the opinion * In the preceding account we have made free use of the Reports of the proceedings of the Association given in the World weekly newspaper of the 7th and 21st of June, adding and altering in some instauces from our own notes taken at the time. The World is a newspaper conducted with considerable talent, and aiming to give full reports of the proceedings of religious bodies. It is therefore well entitled to the encouragement of such associations who wish to have their measures made public. of the House on that principle of the Bill which he thought so objectionable. Mr. W. SMITH contended that the Bill only restored the Marriage Law as it existed previous to the passing of Lord Hardwicke's Act, in 1752, when marriage among the Dissenters was merely a civil contract. If he thought he could obtain one vote more, or neutralize any hostility against the Bill, by postponing it, he would be satisfied to do so, as he would rather carry the opinion of the House with him, than carry his Bill now by ten to one. But as he thought he could do no good by deferring it, and as the session was far advanced, he felt it his duty to press the Bill forward. Sir C. WETHERELL opposed the Bill, on the ground that it was an outrageous violation of the ceremonies practised by the Established Church, and an imitation and Petion. of the revolting ceremonies of Cromwell The Bill would be, he formance of clandestine marriages. conceived, a great assistance to the per Mr. HUDSON GURNEY defended the Bill, and expressed his belief, that as few evils arose out of a system of civil as out of a system of religious marriage. Dr. PHILLIMORE supported the Bill, and contended, that it would give no by the whole people of Scotland. He greater privileges than were now enjoyed adverted to certain Catholic countries where the intervention of a Priest was not always necessary. In those Catholic countries, when the Council of Trent was not admitted, marriages, formed with out such intervention, were to all intents and purposes valid. He agreed that it was certainly convenient and proper to have all marriages registered in the pa rochial books. After adverting to the different modes that had been at various times proposed by the Honourable Member for Norwich, he observed that he and he did not think the House could act preferred the one now proposed by him, with consistency, and decliue to support the Bill. Mr. ESTCOURT said, that as such amendments had been made in this Bill as protected the consciences of the Established Clergy, he could no longer oppose it. He thought, however, it would be desirable that it should not be pressed forward this session. Mr. R. GRANT professed himself friendly to the principle of this Bill. He conscientiously differed from the creed of the Dissenters, but thought their scruples entitled to consideration and Legislative relief. He knew of no inconvenience arising from the practice of Roman Catholics and Dissenters in Ireland solem nizing their own marriages. In this country, too, Jews and Quakers had been exempted from the Marriage Act, and left to solemnize their own marriages. The only difficulty in the case was, with reference to registration; and he believed those two sects managed this part of their duty in a manner which the clergymen of the Established Church might sometimes very well imitate. One great error which stood in the way of a measure of this kind was, the notion that marriage solemnized before a Magistrate was not a religious ceremony. He considered, however, that the obligation of an oath contracted in the presence of a civil magistrate was, to all intents and purposes, a religious obligation. He hoped this Bill would not be postponed for forty-eight hours, as desired by an Honourable Member, seeing that it had already been postponed for so many years. Sir THOMAS ACLAND said, he was merely anxious to have the delay in question for the sake of an amendment in one clause. Did words, by the purchase of money the Honourable and Learned Gentleman, who was so great an enemy to the abuses of Rome, consider that the man who possessed the accident of riches, was authorized to do that which was denied to the poor man? Such arguments, he confessed, employed against the measure, could have no other effect than to confirm those who were favourable to it in their opinions. He could not vote for any farther delay of the measure, because he thought it would not be just to leave the consciences of the parties for whose relief this measure was intended, suspended in doubt and expectation, until a new session obliged them again to run the gauntlet of the old objections, and perhaps encounter some new one precisely at the moment when they were on the eve of success. If, on the contrary, it was now persisted in, it would pass to another place where he had the satisfaction of knowing that the principle was entertained by authorities, ecclesitical and legal, of the highest rank. If its provisions were to stand the test Mr. W. SMITH said, he felt no disposi- of severe examination, by persons of tion to postpone his motion. Sir C. WETHERELL explained. The Gallery was partly cleared for a division, when Mr. CANNING rose to declare his concurrence in the Bill. The various objections which had been urged to this Bill, were of a nature which, supposing the different parties to be sincere, shewed that there was but little objection to the principle of it. The arguments used by Some Honourable Members had been pushed too far. Indeed, he had felt his sentiments in favour of the Bill had been confirmed by the speech of the Honourable and Learned Member near him (Sir C. Wetherell) against it. But when he heard from such high legal authority, that marriages solemnized in any place but a church were illegal, he confessed that his conscience took the alarm; for it did so happen that he himself had been married not in a church. He was married, not certainly in a tavern, but in a room, and he had asked himself, how niany others there were in that House whose marriages had been contracted in that manner which the Honourable and Learned Gentleman considered as vitiating the contract. It certainly did strike him as remarkable that the Honourable and Learned Gentleman should argue so strenuously against a practice which was singular and peculiar to the sect to which he himself belonged. But the Honourable and Learned Gentleman said these were marriages by license-in other great learning and piety, it was satisfactory to know that there were talents, piety, and integrity, fully equal to combat all objections. He voted, therefore, for this measure, with the knowledge that he had with him the prepon-. derating part of the Church of England,, which entirely removed all difficulty from his mind. The gallery was then cleared, but the Bill was read a third time, without a division. passed the second reading in the House HOUSE OF LORDS. JUNE 8th. Corporation and Test Aots. THE Marquis of LANSDOWN presented petitions from Macclesfield, and a hundred in the county of Wilts, praying for a repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. Earl SPENCER presented a petition to the same effect from the town of North ampton. The petition was signed both by Protestant Dissenters and Catholics, and it stated that the imposition of civil disabilities upon people on account of their religious opinions, partook of the character of persecution, and would not be the means of making sincere converts to the Established Church, but that it would have a contrary effect. The Noble Earl stated, that upon a subject of such great importance, he had no wish to promote a discussion at present, but he must say that the general principle advanced by the petitioners was one in which he agreed. He did not mean to say that in no case it would be justifiable to impose civil disabilities on account of religious opinions, but he contended that their imposition must be justified clearly and unanswerably, on the ground that the religious opinions of the people who suffered from such disabilities were dangerous to the safety of Church and State. He said Church and State, because he thought that the interests of the Established Church and the interests of the State ought to be indissolubly united; and it was upon that principle that he should ever maintain the extreme expediency-nay, the necessity, of removing the restrictions placed upon the Catholics and Dissenters; for he thought the opinions they professed were not calculated to endanger the safety of the Established Church. Lord CLIFDEN sincerely rejoiced that there was a prospect of the Dissenters and Catholics uniting, in order to get rid of the disabilities under which both of those classes laboured. Whenever that union should take place, he thought that the Catholic question would find a different reception to that with which it had lately been met. He hoped and trusted that the day would soon come, when the word toleration would be erased from the statute-book,-when every man might pray to God according to the dictates of his own conscience. He never knew any thing more unwise or insane than the continuing of those unjustifiable and exclusive laws, which the whole of Europe had got rid of, with the exception of Spain, and which were a disgrace to the statute-book. If the Catholics and Dissenters had one grain of sense, every man of them would unite in one common cause. He believed, that if the Church had supported a measure to give a liberal provision to the Catholic clergy of Ireland, there would have been ten times more security to the Church in that country than there was at present. Lord HOLLAND had to present two or three petitions to their Lordships, praying for a repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. In presenting these petitions, he meant to confine himself to moving that they be read, and laid upon the table; and it was not his intention to institute, or to call upon their Lordships to institute, any thing upon those petitions during the present session. But though such was his intention, he thought it necessary to call their Lordships' attention to the character and merits of the petitions, as well as to the motives which had induced the petitioners to approach their Lordships' bar. The first petition came from the ministers of the three united denominations of Dissenters in and about the metropolis. These respectable persons were the successors and representatives of those who many years ago were excluded from the Church by the Act of Uniformity, which, whatever their Lordships might think of it now, was at that time passed in breach of the promises which had been made, and which was followed by all the cruel consequences with which their Lordships were acquainted. The petitioners were also the successors of those persons who had been consulted by Government at the time of framing that great Act called the Toleration Act. Since that period, the House knew that some of the clauses of that Act had been most beneficially and wisely altered. By that alteration, adopted by a decision of this House after having heard the admirable speech of Lord Mansfield, — a speech which it was impossible for any man to read, without feeling impressed with the great wisdom, justice, and love of toleration which distinguished that eminent man,-by the effect of that alteration and that speech, those persons became not only acknowledged by law, but he might even say, were established by law. On the merits of the individuals it would be invidious in him to dwell, but with respect to the merits of the body, no man could read the history of this country, at those peribds when its liberty and constitution were endangered, and at the time when the House of Hanover was called to the throne of this country, without finding these persons among the foremost defenders of the constitution of the kingdom. The petitioners complained of the stigma east upon them by those rigorous, unjust laws, which was entirely undeserved by any act of theirs, but cast upon them merely on account of the religious opinions which they conscientiously held. He did not wish to go into the history of those acts→ of the Corporation Act, which was passed in violation of promises held out to the people of the country, or of the Test Act, which was passed without any reference to the Dissenters, and which, whatever might be said of it as being a bulwark to the Constitution, and notwithstanding it might be spoken of as the wisdom of our ancestors, was passed under the influence of panic and disorder, ending at last in a scuffle, for the members of both Houses of Parliament actually came to blows. He did not wish to dilate for a moment upon those Acts, nor to point out the many objections which he had to them, in principle, in morality, and in policy; but he wished to advert to the opinions of those who held that the law, if supposed to be a grievance, was merely a theoretical grievance. But it surely would never be considered in their Lordships' House, of which honour was the essence, and where all the advantages of distinction between man and man were enjoyed, that the stigma of inferiority was no injury; and when the subject came before the consideration of Parliament and come soon it must and would-their Lordships would find that this class of people were prohibited from enjoying many of those advantages to which every subject in a free country was entitled, unless he had offended the laws of his country. The petitioners came before their Lordships without any wish at this particular time of pressing the question. Perhaps he might be asked why, holding the same opinions on this subject as he had formerly held during the whole period of his life, he did not institute an inquiry upon the subject. To such a question he would answer, that he did not do so for the same reasons which had induced him for twenty years past not to call upon their Lordships to institute an inquiry, because he thought such a motion would not be attended with success or advantage, and was not likely to promote the object he had in view, and because the petitioners did not call upon him to propose any such measure. He might also be asked, why the petitioners should now come forward to petition the House upon this subject, after having remained so long in silence. The cause of that was, because the silence and submission of those persons to the unjust and undeserved stigma cast upon them, were argued upon as proving them insensible to the insult directed against them. He held that this subject was totally He unconnected with the other great ques- tile and adverse to granting the Roman Catholic Claims. It was, however, but justice to say, that the individuals whom these petitions represented, asked nothing for themselves which they wished to be denied to other people; and he must say that he felt great satisfaction in being the interpreter of these opinions to their Lordships. Lord ELLENBOROUGH had heard with great satisfaction the last observation which had fallen from the Noble Lord, -that the petitioners were desirous that the same liberty for which they prayed might be extended to others. He wished that that feeling was universal. Of this he was convinced, that unless the Catholics and Dissenters cordially united, they never would succeed in gaining their object. The Bishop of CHESTER wished to reply to an observation which had been made during the discussion of to-night. It was far from his intention to enter at large into the subject, which was one of too great magnitude and importance to be discussed incidentally. He would, however, take the liberty of saying, that the Noble Baron who spoke last but one, had certainly unintentionally misrepresented the nature of the Test and Corporation Acts. The persons who, to use a strong term, claimed those Acts, did not intend to stigmatise any person, but to secure themselves, and not with a view of placing any class under any stigma or disqualification. What was the case, divested of all adventitious colouring? If the Legislature consi dered a certain form of faith and discipline worthy to be taken into alliance with the State, it became the duty of the Legislature to prevent the demolition of that Church, by the intrusion into places of power and trust of persons who, from the circumstance of their being sincere in their opinions, must of necessity wish to undermine the established order of things. Whether such was the wish of the Dissenters at large, he would not presume to give an opinion; and he most cordially gave his consent to the proposition advanced by a Noble Earl, whom he was happy to call his friend, that in no case ought any religious disqualifications to be imposed, unless they were necessary to secure the constitution as established. Whether the Test and Corporation Acts went beyond that point, and whether some other provision might not be discovered, was a question to which he would not at present reply; but he repeated that the Dissenters were excluded because the State took it for granted that the Church as established was the true Church, and its discipline the proper one, and did not put in power those persons who must be well disposed to overturn the Established Church. Lord HOLLAND then presented the petitions. The first came from the Ministers of the Three Denominations of Dissenters in and about the metropolis; the next was from the Wesleyan Dissenters of Manchester; and the last came from the Dissenters of the town and borough of Wareham. NOTICES. THE Twenty-first Annual General Meeting of the Unitarian Tract Society, established in Birmingham, for Warwickshire and the neighbouring counties, will be held at Alcester, on Wednesday, July 11, 1827. The Rev. J. R. Wreford will preach on the occasion. A dinner will be provided, at a moderate charge, for such of the subscribers and friends as may attend the Meeting. THE Annual Meeting of the Kent and Sussex Unitarian Association will be held at Canterbury, on Wednesday the 4th of July, when the Rev. Robert Aspland is expected to preach. A religious service, on occasion of the settlement of the Rev. B. Mardon, as Unitarian Minister at Maidstone, will be held there on the 6th July, when the Rev. L. Holden, of Tenterden, and the Rev. Robert Aspland, of Hackney, are expected to be engaged. THE Devon and Cornwall Unitarian Association, and the Devon and Cormicall Unitarian Missionary Society, will hold their Annual Meeting conjointly, at Honiton, on Wednesday, the 11th July next, when the Rev. T. W. Horsfield is expected to preach. MR. J. KETLEY, Student of Manchester College York, has accepted an invitation to become the Minister of the Bowl-Alley Lane Congregation, Hull. CORRESPONDENCE. The length of the preceding interesting reports leaves the Conductors no room for the notice of Correspondents, which they must postpone to the next Number. |