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to add this to them , and to " bond and warehouse" this bill too for the present ; and he assured the . House that next session , let who will be minister , he would , if they determined that it should be done , do his best to make the Bill what it should be , on the principle which they might please to lay dawn . He moved that instead of " now , " the Bill
be committed " that day three months . " Lord Caltho&pe said , that the chief reason for his supporting the Bill was not exactly that which had been given by the Noble Lord who had proposed going into a Committee . He ( Lord Calthorpe ) was inclined to think that the great practical grievance was what
the Church itself laboured under as long as the law continued in its existing state . With reference to the arguments urged by the Noble and Learned Lord about the Bill being a measure of partiality to the Unitarians , as a sect distinguished from all other Dissenters , he had overlooked the fundamental difference which
existed between the Unitarians and all other religionists whatsoever , except , perhaps , the Jews , Upon this ground alone , the Unitarians might not have any claim upon the consideration of Parliament ; but the public had strong claims that the Legislature should relieve the Established Church from what he might call the species of blasphemy or profaneness committed by its ministers in being called upon to pronounce , in the most
solemn manner , services founded on the doctrine of the Trinity , to persons who did not believe in it , and to exact from such persons an implied assent to a faith which they did not entertain . He did not imagine that human ingenuity could have conceived a more certain means , in the present state of society , which rejected coarse and vulgar blasphemy , to make the Church degrade and pollute itself by mixing profaneness with its most sacred and solemn service . He
thought the House owed it to the honour and dignity of the Church itself , not to allow the present law to continue another year . The Unitarians were stated by the Noble and Learned Lord , to be asking of Parliament what was not granted to Jews or Quakers ; but the fact was , that neither of the two latter sects were
obliged to submit to the marriage ceremony of the Church of England . The Church was , therefore , bound at present to carry on the imposition with respect to Unitarians ., whilst it was relieved from the degrading duty with respect to Jews and Quakers . Was It a' proof of the high reverence of the Church for that sacred
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doctrine j which was the vital principle of her faith , that she should call upon her ministers to declare her doctrines , and to oblige individuals to repeat them ,, who were known not to entertain any . such tenets ? It would be most disadvantageous to the Church itself to suffer another session to pass without putting an end to the existing state of things
with respect to Unitarian Marriages . He begged in what he said not to be misunderstood , —no one had a deeper sense than he had of the religious errors of the Unitarians ; but , speaking of them as individuals , ( and he spoke from personal knowledge of many , ) he must say that in feelings of humanity , liberality , and justice , in all social and moral virtues , they would not suffer in comparison with those whose religious opinions were ,
as he believed , purer ; and , for the sake of the Church Establishment itself , as well as for their sakes , the grievance of which they complained ought to be redressed . Several amendments in points of detail might be necessary , but he had much rather pass the Bill at once in an imperfect state and correct it next session , than leave a matter of so much importance to the Church as well as to the parties , unredressed to another session .
Lord Farnham was willing to grant relief to the Unitarians as far as was consistent with religious propriety . He fully agreed that the law was in a most inconvenient state . He thought that the Unitarians might be allowed to marry before their own ministers ; but he wished that all marriages should have a religious sanction , and a Bill of that kind he would support . This was the first time that it had been proposed to
divest marriage altogether of its religious character , and as to this he felt great difficulties . He felt also considerable objection to forcing a magistrate , who was a clergyman , to perform the ceremony according to this Bill . He regretted that bills of this kind were frequently hurried on at the close of a session ,, when it was impossible to give them due consideration . On such subjects their Lordships ought to legislate with the greatest circumspection . .
The Lord Chancellor observed , that it was with considerable diffidence he addressed the House , after the very able speech of his Noble and Learned Friend Lord Eldon , a speech , . indeed , one of the most able and efficient perhaps that had ever been delivered in that House—for the object which the Noble Earl had in view . But he was apprehensive that it might be thought that he did not do his
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620 Intelligences— Unilarian Marriage BUI .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 620, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/68/
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