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    Of Dissenters , ( as it ought to be under a good system in all cases , ) the fact to be selected for record ; ¦ . and so far the Dissenter , if he makes this out in > any tolerable way , has a better thing than the Churchman ' s Register can give him . But then it is obvious , that all . you can get for this purpose is a written declaration by the parents with an additional testification of the fact by witnesses ;

    and in a court of justice , the witness himself is always wanted , if alive , to prove a fact ,: and any written memorandum or declaration he has made is no evidence if he himself can be found , unless a specific law has made his declaration in some way ( as by an oath administered before a competent authority or in some other way ) evidence of the fact contained in it , without the necessity of calling the party himself .

    Now the system at Dr . Williams ' s Library has been this ; which ( with the imperfections necessarily attendant on such a voluntary establishment ) we maintain to be a most excellent plan , and one which it is highly important to encourage and recommend as an example , not only to the Dissenters , but to the Legislature for its imitation . The

    parent signs a declaration of the birth of the child;—the child is identified by every necessary circumstance with its parents , who are so described as to link all together in a pedigree ;— -and competent witnesses attest the whole ,, which they can , if alive , be called to prove in person . Now it is manifest , that if this

    document be not per se evidence of the facts , it is the best possible clue to actual and positive evidence of those facts , and such evidence as is afforded by no parochial Register when there arises a doubt as to the identity . If the parent be dead , it is the best evidence ( subject of course to the necessity of proving his handwriting ) of the facts he has declared ,

    and so far it stands on the same footing as entries in Bibles , &c , to which we are obliged every day to resort in courts of justice , with this essential preference over them , that the certificate at Dr . Williams ' s Library is indexed , recorded and preserved , out of the reach of

    all suspicion of forgery , collusion , or alteration . . It possesses , too , the advantage of affording the strongest moral and historical proof , and this very often prevents < jven the occasion or necessity for recourse to legal dispute . There are few persons of experience in such matters Avho have not known cases where such

    a Register of facts as that which these certificates afford would not have instautly settled or prevented disputes

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    which have produced endless litigation-In matters of title , too , it gives satisfactory information to a much greater extent than the Church Register . ¦ It is obvious that the original certificates are the documents which alone can be of legal use , but it is also obvious that these ought to be entered into a book and indexed ^ for common purposes , to prevent the hazard attendant on frequent recourse to an original document .

    - What is there , then , that is wanted to give the fullest and most absolute legal validity and facility to such a Registry as this , or to any such Registry as in our view ought to become general ? Merely this ; — that the declaration should be signed in the presence of some authority , say a Justice of the peace , or of the

    officer who we contend should be appointed as Registrar ; and should , after entry in a book kept by a proper officer in a suitable place , be received as evidence of the facts , as a parochial or other Register is ; and that copies , certified by the officer keeping it , or examined and proved to be copies by a-witness , should be evidence without bringing up the original .

    Are the Dissenters likely to get this for their private Register ? If they did , they would have a far superior system to that of the Church ; but it is plain that such a concession in favour of a voluntary institution is not likely to be made ; that if it were it would be attended with

    endless difficulties in its details ; and if it . were a Metropolitan Registry it would , be too expensive and troublesome for -general use , without effecting which it would hardly be thought worth while to set about it . We could scarcely think of establishing provincial establishments for Dissenters only . It would , moreover , provide only for births . The great object , we repeat , is not to patch tip an

    exclusive and partial system by setting up any new institutions founded upon It , but that a general system should be established , forming one common Register for all denominations ; and for this either some entirely new machinery is necessary , or much greater alteration in the ecclesiastical jurisdictions than , as we fear , the country will be prepared for , till it has taken steps in our favour on far more important subjects .

    Mean time , we again urge upon Dissenters the importance of adhering to the best system which can , without legislative assistance . of a much wider character than they are likely-to get , be devised for them—a system in its basis superior to that of the Establishment , and which gives every moral and almost all material legal evidence and certainty to the facts

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    76 Intelligence . —Register at Dr . fVilliamtfs Library .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1827, page 76, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1792/page/76/