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.
Untitled Article
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.
f he publication of banns and the registrations of the marriages , as the wis ~ dom of the Legislature may suggest /* Your Committee cannot doafct that irach a £ ta $ e <^ notoriety to mi ^ t mtk | m > p er ^ Oitholic brethren as likely to become useful auxiliaries in the promotion of a common cause ; an ( J they can hardly conceive that the patience with which Protestant Disgenters have submitted to the arbitrary requirements of the law , will entitle
them to less favourable notice than those will receive , whose more tenacious adhereuce to their peculiar religious rites , have induced them to overlook to such an extent the policy of complying with the municipal regulations of the country . Finding that the Committee of the Lords , ( although they w ^ re understood to entertain no hostility to the views either of the Catholics or Dissenters ,
when presented in a separate form to their notice , ) were not disposed to make their case a branch of the general measure before them , or to adopt any other than the basis of the act of the 26 th George II ., your Committee were obliged to await the result of their labours , with the intention of embracing the earliest opportunity , which , a knowledge of what vva 3 likely to form the permanent code of the country would afford , for bringing forward their individual claims in a distinct shape . i
This period has not yet arrived , and the Committee has only within a few days seen with sojne degree of satisfaction , the Report of the Lords , in which their claims are noticed in the following terms : " The Committee think it not proper entirely to omit , that their attention has been called to many other topics connected with the general subject of marriage , and that they have been laboriously employed in considering them ,
particularly the cases of Roman Catholic marriages , and those of other Dissenters , especially Unitarians , which latter have been brought under their consideration in numerous petitions referred to them by the House ; but after inquiry and discussion , they have thought it more advisable , upon the whole , not to recommend that specific provisions respecting them should be included in the proposed bill ; the cases of the various denominations of Dissenters being extremely diversified in their various circumstances , and
appearing to require a diversity of provisions much inore proper to be suggested by communications of their own to the Legislature . "The Committee has therefore upon the whole thought that a more satisfactory discharge of their duty would be found to consist in . suggesting regulations for the domestic marriages of English subjects , according to the rites and ceremonies of the National Church . "
It may be fairly gathered from this that the noble Lords who framed this Report , see no objection in principle to the claims either of Protestant Dissenters or Catholics , and that they are likely to be received with attention when introduced in the form suggested . It may perhaps be not undeserving too of remark , that the Unitarians are in the Report ( probably for
the first time in any official or legislative document ) recognized by that name ; and apparently designedly , inasmuch as none of the petitions themselves so described the parties presenting them . It may be proper to recall to the meeting , that a ' t the last general meeting of this Society , the following resolutions were passed :
" That the Committee be instructed to convey to the Committee of the Deputies and-the Committee of the Protestant Society , the strong and decided feeling of this Association , that the present period imperiously calls upon Dissenters of all denominations to concur and persevere in applications to Parliament , for a repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts , and of every other restriction upon the
< this expression of opinion be accompanied by an earnest . request to these bodies to co-operate in agitating the question in Pariiaine » t during the ensuing Session , and that , if necessary , the Committee ; ca | l another general meeting of the Association , previous , to the Session , to jreport progress in pursuance of this resolution , aad adopt such measurSa fl & cir ~ cumstunces may then require . "
6