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REPORTt OF THE Committee of tijc mniUxvuxn Q $0otuxtwn, TO THE GENERAL, MEETING, HELD AT THE LONDON TAVERN, ON THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1823.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Reportt Of The Committee Of Tijc Mniuxvuxn Q $0otuxtwn, To The General, Meeting, Held At The London Tavern, On Thursday, May 22, 1823.
REPORTt OF THE Committee of tijc mniUxvuxn Q $ 0 otuxtwn , TO THE GENERAL , MEETING , HELD AT THE LONDON TAVERN , ON THURSDAY , MAY 22 , 1823 .
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ADOPTING the same order in which former Committees have generally noticed the several subjects which have occupied their consideration , your Committee have in the first instance to recall your attention to the state in which the application for relief from the operation of the present Marriage Law of England as it affects Dissenters , came before the last Meeting , and to detail to you what has since occurred . In the last Report were stated the reasons why it had been found
expedient to abandon what , on the whole , the then Committee considered the most desirable and simple plan of relief . It pointed at the same time , to the increasing notoriety and importance which the continued efforts of this" Association had given to your claims on the notice of the Legislature , and to the remarkable fact that all the public opposition now given to their views , was confined to a disapproval of the mode of relief , not to the justice or even the expediency of extending it in an early and effectual manner . It was also stated , that a Civilian of some eminence , ( usually advocating
high doctrines both in civil and ecclesiastical policy , ) was understood to be engaged in preparing a draft of a proposed bill , the basis of which , it was understood , would be the concession to all Dissenters of the free liberty to solemnize their marriages in their own way , providing only for due registration in the parish books by the Ministers of the Established Church . This plan , ( it was then observed , ) though suggested by the friends of the Establishment , granted even more than the Committee would probably have thought prudent to ask ; for it might have been expected that greater opposition would have been offered to any plan of imposing on a minister the
duty of registering marriages not solemnized in his church , nor according to its rites , than to a modification of the service , in order to meet particular scruples . Soon after the present Committee entered upon their office , the draft of this new bill was communicated to them through Mr . W . Smith , to whom the gentleman by whom it was prepared , delivered it ; and after several considerable modifications which it appeared to the Committee expedient to
make , it was prepared under their direction for the House of Commons , and having been moved by Mr . Sririth , was read a first and second time and printed , the late period of the session preventing any further progress in a measure which was entirely new , and therefore occupied some time in preparation and discussion . This bill your Committee felt it their duty to print and circulate as widely
aa possible , and particularly to communicate it to the different bodies acting on behalf of Dissenters in general ; inasmuch as the measure was one whicf * went to meet the case of all , and was likely to be much facilitated by receiving the approbation and support of indidividuals , of more extended ^ infl uence than your Committee could expect to give to their single efforts *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1823, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1714/page/27/
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