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    of the inconvenience of . enteringupon the discussion of subjects of which notice had not been previously given . He adverted to this inconvenience , as it had deprived htm of the advantage of the support of the Right Reverend Prelate at the head of the Bench of Bishops , who had attended that evening , at great inconvenience , for the express purpose of supporting the Dissenters' Marriage Bill , but who was prevented from remaining in the House by the state of his health . Their Lordships , who had remembered the sentiments of that Right

    Reverend Prelate ( the Archbishop of Canterbury ) on a former occasion , must bear testimony to the spirit of liberality displayed by him , which he hoped would always characterize the Clergy of the Established Church , and by which he was particularly anxious to see the Heads of that Church distinguished . He was instructed , however , by that

    Right Reverend Prelate , on his leaving the House , to say , that his sentiments 'remained unaltered upon this subject . With regard to the measure before them ' a few words were necessary . Bills , con * - taiuing provision for the relief of these Dissenters , had been two or three times sent up to that House from the House of Commons , and rejected by their

    Lordships , chiefly from difficulties which presented themselves in points of form ; " but he was happy to say that a very general feeling now prevailed amongst many of those who had formerly opposed those Bills in favour of the principle of giving some relief to the Dissenters ; and he believed he might even say , that several

    Right Reverend Prelates had expressed an anxiety , and had in fact contributed their assistance , to adopt some measure by which the Dissenters might be freed from the necessity of giving utterance , as a mere matter of form , to sentiments which they entertained not at heart ; and , at the same time , to avoid that scandal to the Church which resulted

    from having its creed and its ceremonies prostituted by calling upon Dissenters , for temporary purposes , to give a false and feigned assent to doctrines which they declared they did not believe . 'rha * t tyaa the situation of the Church , and the evil from wjuch the Right Reverend Prelate- and other members of

    the ecclesiastical body wished to be relieved ; and , he confessed , it was beyond his power to conceive how those personB who attached importance to the due and strict observance of all the fonnV and &oetrjites of the Ctech , ( could wiah to continue a State of things

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    under which those ceremonies were used for the purpose of extorting a consent , intended to evade , and not to fulfil , the purposes of the Legislature . He could easily conceive that the careless and indifferent could view these matters with little concern , but in proportion to the seriousness of a Churchman ' s convictions ought to be his desire to free the doctrines and services of his church

    from this compulsive conformity . Under the strong impression of the scandal which the law , as it stood at present , brought upon the Church , he could not but express a hope , that their Lordships would do something to meet the difficulties which presented themselves with

    respect to those laws . Different modes of meeting these difficulties had been suggested at different times . A Noble Earl , lately at the head of his Majesty ' s Government , ( Lord Liverpool , ) and who , he was authorized in saying , felt deeply the inconvenience which resulted from the

    state of the laws affecting the Dissenters , had expressed au opinion that the difficulty might be best met by allowing some alteration to be made in the service-of the Church of England , but the Right Reverend Prelate thought otherwise upon that subject , and no attempt was made to carry that suggestion into

    execution . Different plans had since been submitted to their Lordships and Tejected . The Bill which hd had now to bring under their consideration attempted to reconcile , as far as possible , the jarring opinions Which prevailed , and proposed to meet the objections which had been made at various times

    to the measures which came under their Lordships' attention . Its design was to unite two objects—that of nialring the ceremony of marriage a civil security , combined with attention and consideration for the religious scruples of the conscientious Dissenter . In this

    country , up to the times of the 26 th of George the Second , the object now contemplated by the law had been very imperfectly provided for ; but an innovation upon the existing law , commonly called Lord Hardwicke ' s Act , then received the sanction of the Legislature . At the time

    when Lord Hardwire intrbdueed that measure to their Lordship it became necessary , however , to eiehupt two classes of religious believers from its operation—the Jews and the Quakers ; but he ati ^ bhter ided tliat tib man could rise up in that house , and contend , that this exeriitJtion wtts \ nictuled to fix tiny Bfotr ^ tion the marriage of ftittde persons , dr MtaaWWto they Were ^© t ^ rre et ly

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    $ t 4 Intelligence . —Unkarian Marriage BUI .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/62/