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legal . Some insinuations had , lie knew , been thrown out from an authority of great importance , that the marriage of those opulent , industrious people , the Quakers , a people remarkable for the purity of their lives , the excellence of their characters , and the extent of their good works , could not be legally recognized ; that they had only been excepted
from the Marriage Act , and left without any legal sanction ; but he apprehended that there could be no doubt upon the subject ; and some of the greatest and most learned lawyers of which this country could boast , had distinctly declared their opinion that the marriage of Quakers was perfectly legal . Sir Matthew Hale had distinctly given his
sanction to the legality of the marriage of Quakers . Burn eft , in his life of that great man , in alluding to the circumstances gives this account of the conduct and expressions of that eminent person on the occasion : — " In a trial that was before him , when a Quaker was sued for some debts owing by his wife before he married her , and the Quaker ' s
counsel pretended that it was no marriage that had passed between them , since it was not solemnized according to the rules of the Church of England ; Sir Matthew Hale declared that he was not willing , on his own opinion , to make their children bastards , and gave directions to the jury to find it special , which they did . " After some observations upon the nature of
the case , and the conduct of the parties , the learned ) eminent , and pious historian , goes on to add the weight of his own opinion by observing , " that if this judge had not been more their friend than one pf those they so called , their posterity , had been little beholding to
them . But he governed himself indeed by the law of the gospel , of doing to others what he would have others do to him ; and , therefore , because he would have thought it a hardship , not without a cruelty , if , amongst Papists , all marriages were nulled which had not been made with all the ceremonies in the
Roman ritual ; so he , applying this to the case of the sectaries , thought all marriages made according to the several persuasions of them , ought ; to have their effects in towf" The Noble Marquis , after some observations , upon the legality of the niarriagei ; of , jttje Quakers being . thus ,, clearly , pjr ^ ye ^ ,, . proceed to contend tjiat , fte $ rm , ep ^ e , d tip $ aim the same right for % he $ uifyr * ajis , and expressed a hope thafc tfaq , $ mq ) ya 8 ' npw come wjitm person ? , o ( $ M ntosu ^ ion should no longer te iqyi&q to approach
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the altar with falsehoods in their mouths , or be compelled to subscribe to principles which they could not respect , and thereby bring into contempt that faith which others hold sacred , for tlie gratification of mere secular and civil purposes . Adverting to the clauses of the Bill , the Noble Marquis declared that he
did not hold himself responsible for their perfection ; but he knew that those who framed them had had the assistance of some of those whose experience and information best qualified them for the task , and that the most anxious desire was felt to meet and obviate the objections which had been raised on former occasions . In the
first place , the banns were to be published , for the security of the public ; and then the parties , with a certificate of such publication , are to go before a magistrate , and go through the ceremony of marriage , in the mode pointed out ; and having procured his certificate thereof , the same is to be taken to the Clergyman for the purpose of being registered .
Some objections , he understood , were made to the imposition of this duty upon the Clergyman ; but he , for one , thought it was one of those inconveniences which could not be avoided . The Registry Act had been passed in the time of William the Third , as a tax , for the purpose of
raising money to carry on the war which was then waged against Louis the Fourteenth , and the clergy then had uot objected to registering the baptisms , &c , of all classes , as they were directed to do , for the purposes of the tax . Indeed , so beneficial had it since been found ,
and so important was it , in every point of view , for the interests of the public , that if the Bill now before the House did not contain a clause to make that registry imperative , he could not possibly consent to give it his support . The registration of one of the most important acts of our lives was , in every point of view , public or private , of such
infinite importance , that he thought the Bill must prove altogether inefficient , unless the clergyman was called upon to register the certificate . The Noble Marquis concluded by imploring their Lordships to relieve the Church of England from the effect of a state of things which was calculated , not to attract , hut to repel , converts to its doctrines .
The Earl of Eldon regretted the absence ot the Right Reverend Prelate £ the A rchbishop of Canterbury ) op this . occasion , b ecause it was his misfortune to be compelled to say , that he differed with him very mucji in the view he todk of this subject , and jt woutd have be «*
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Intelligence . — Unitarian Marriage Mil . i 615
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 63, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/63/
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