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    observance of these forms ) some sort of religious ceremony should be connected with so important an act as marriage . But for that very reason it seemed desirable that the religious ceremony should be the one most agreeable to the conscientious feelings of the parties , most binding in their views of

    religion , and most connected with their usual habits , worship , and opinions . Assuming that toleration was the recognized principle of the law of England , how could their Lordships wish to enforce conformity in such a matter as this ? The last exception which he would make to such a principle would be ,

    to require a compulsive and insincere acquiescence in opinions , which the party on other occasions disavowed , on his entering upon a ceremony which , above all others , ought to imply and require sincerity and opre ^ iness of heart . " Your Lordships , " said he , " cannot hope , your Lordships I am sure do not wish , at any other period , to compel a person to admit doetrihes which

    his conscience disavows ; and can you require that at such a moment , at a time least of all tolerating any sort of equivocation , and requiring perfect sincerity , the parties should trifle with their principles arid consciences , and pretend to conform to what they on all other occasions disavow , and which

    you allow them to disavow ? Surely I need not argue that no benefit can be derived to the Church , the State , or the cause of Morality from such b conformity as this . "

    On th ^ se grounds the Bill had been framed . Every thing had been regarded that could give civil security ; publicity of every sort , and the usual precautions required in other marriages , were recognized by it : all that was asked wtis , that after passing through all the forntfalities imposed on parties marrying at Church , the parties should be allowed to solemnize the religious ceremony in their own

    places of worship , according to their own religious rites , and afterwards to register their marriages in the palish books . Not professing that the Bill in its present form was perfect , —willing to listen to any suggestions for its improvement , especially from the reverend bench opposite , ( anticipating , however , one objection to the number and kind of places that might be

    registered , by saying that he had no objection to confine the privilege to buildings solely appropriated to religious worship , )—willing also to believe that there existed in the House no wish to impose a burthen on conscience , and no desire to retain any thing for the sake of mere power and influence , h 6 should confidently leave the Bill to their Lordships , and move that it now be read a second time .

    The Lord Chancellor regretted he was obliged to oppose the motion : ike was perfectly satisfied that such an important measure should have been brought in at a much earlier period . No man could look at it without

    seeing that the generality of its provisions marked that the parties themselves had not had time to give it the consideration it deserved . He begged now to state and repeat , that while he yielded to no man in an inflexible aft ^ chtnent to the Church as ealablisheti by law , he was fully as « jwh iMiienced by

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1823, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1714/page/52/