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    berty y atiti nrc at any rate entitled to # atto that the ^ irvicelh Wh ich they are required to join , should not be oiie totally repugnant to their feelings and Opinions . It appears to the Committee indisputable , that by the anfclefifc law of this cmitttry , as well as

    of , perhaps , all other Christian states , marriage is essentially a civil contract ; and that though iti the progress < rf tfhe ecclesiastical spirit 6 tapjfropriaffeta , which sought to bring the properties and business of all mankind under its jurisdiction , atteinpts v ^ ere m&de , as far as the power of Che

    Church extended , to usurp the contt ^ ul and celebration of the marriage ceremony ; yet that in the eye of the fetiv , so far at any rate as it regarded the legal consequences of marriage , the subsistence of a binding contract between the parties was alone essential or material . The Dissenters ,

    therefore , of England were entitled to the celebration of their marriages , more especially after the date of the Toleration Act , which legalised their reHgioiis services , —and that these marriages were valid in law * is clear from the existence at the present dat ,

    of the same right asserted in actual practice among the Quakers , with regard to whom the legal question rests at this moment on precisely the same grounds as it did with respect to * tfta general body of Dissenters before the act of the £ 6 th George II .

    " It is however true , that the Dissenters in general did before that act tJonlfortti in practice to the ritual of the Church , and several reasons contributed to induce this . It was . in

    the first place , of extreme importance that publicity and regularit y should take place in celebrating ana recording the marriage contract : —in the next place , the Dissenters agreed for the most part in doctrine with the Church , and many of them felt little

    ' 6 t iio repugnance to occasional conformity ;—and lastly , though the cotntti 6 n law courts supported their marriages , and the ecclesiastical courts had iio power to annul them , yet the latter had in several ways the means

    6 f annoyance and inconvenience to those who did not submit to their regulations . * Iti this state of things the Marriage Act was parsed , mi appears to h % ve tmt faith no opposition frohi the

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    Dfasenters , « 8 r the satn * f ^^ dni < vhtcH had Induced them to contertn in pre ^ vibufi prtkiti ^ . Thfe Inefisurfe -m undoubtedly intended by ificie ^ brought it forward , as a itttfrfe mmtt of civil regulation : —in those ttom

    where it Appeared to cl ^ h with fgfc gious discipline or opinion , relief tva * readily extended by excepting the parties fr 6 m its operation , — -and upon the same principle the Unitarians of the present 4 ay &re ( especially ataete the extension in tfttir fevduf of the

    benefit rif the TofteHitten Acts ) m > titled to claim the same indulgence as one which , theyai ^ warranted ih irayiitg , it appears frtim the tenor < rf the Micrtim e Act , # o « W have be ^ n

    granted tftetn if they Irtd been of su £ ficieht political confcideratfcm to hkv * rendered it easy or prtdent for them to protest against it at the time it passed *

    " lUe Cotftiftittee mtedtea their attentfou In Ilie first pHcfe to fr « rttn » g a petition to the Legtsldtuif ^ , 'WbicbfMqr might recbmtifeftd to the adoption bf those who should be desirous to c&m forward on the wcasion . Several

    petitions have accordingly been signed by individuals of dfflerent cottgmg ^ tions , and forwarded for ] pr * sentftiettt to members of the t ^ e Houses of Parilatoe ? iit ; the prfncipftl 6 f those U the House of € oin £ ioti » being entrusted to WiHiai ** Smith , Esq ., *? U

    readily promised his assistance o& lite occasion . •« O » the subject of the relief to lie sborgtrii , different opfMtoA ^ toay , p ^ r ^ r hap ? , be formed , and have indeed e * - feted fn the Committee . It woald

    certainly be the fairest am d most Ttbenl ph » n to release eirery Diasenlfet' froiw a compulisfive contorttrity to the Established Church t atttf fo nfeike tftfe legal contract again in practice a » ^ ell as theory merely civil ; aecwriteg the essentials < rf regularity in ccfeb ^ atfeft and record , and lesivii ^ g' ^ aeh

    iittfiVidual ta add to the legal cotttr ^ et sttfdi religious riteisa « might appear to him * self expedient or proper . But unties the' genera * body of Dfosetfters w # e likely to trtrfte Makmslyfhfirwpp ^^ ^ » ach a pmposHSort ^ it Adfe sr rt ^ t siedtti at all probable so important * rf * afe # * in the civil polity of tfte cdoritry would be proposed wifh any <*** € «

    of stncr ^ Rs 5 - < rti « if t ! te ? y -arre i » giJirt ^ not . inclined tortfMfeKft to perform the

    Untitled Article

    Sfi Intdli ^ nce . U ^ nittxrian Asm ^ atioH

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1819, page 378, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1773/page/34/