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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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contract has been considered a * essentially of a civil nature-Accordingly , in some countries ifhe contract is , so rar as its legal consequences are considered , proved as a simple contract : and in this country the marriages of Dissenters , celebrated in the fece of their own congregations , appear after the date of the Toleration Act to have been
considered valid by our courts of law . ( See Hutchinson and wife v . Brooksbank , 3 Levinz , 376 . —Wigmore ' s case , Salkeld , 438 . ?) The marriages of Quakers stand , at the present day , entirely on this
footing , no direct sanction being given them by the Marriage Act , but merely an exemption from its operation , leaving their marriages to stand , as all nonconformist marriages then did , upon the old law .
In this state the Marriage Act passed , as a measure avowedly of civil regulation : and that it was never intended as a means of enforcing a compulsive conformity is , as the petitioners submit , evident from the circumstance before
stated , that the two classes of persons who objected to it were readily excepted from its operation . That other Dissenters did not oppose the extension of the measure to them the petitioners apprehend was owing to their having gradually acquiesced in the forms of the Church , 1 st . On account of
attempts made to disturb their marriages in the Ecclesiastical Courts . ( See Haydon v . Gould ; Salkeld , 119 . ) 2 dly . Because their religious opinions can scarcely be said to have differed much from the Church * 3 rdly . Because one general place of celebration , registration and permanent record , was of great importance to all sects in a civil point of view .
The second of these reasons does not now apply to the case of the petitioners ; and the civil advantages of the Marriage Act may , they apprehend , be secured to all by a very simple measure which they
take the liberty of suggesting as one which appears to them to meet the justice of their case , at the same time that it trenches upon the profits or privileges of no one . It will be best explained by
* In the latter case Lord C . J . Holt ' s opinion is thus rejjorted : — 6 y the canon law , a contract per verba de pros senti is a marriage , as , / take you to be my wife . So it is of a contract per verba my wife , so it is of a contract per verba
de futdro , viz , / uftU fake , &c . If the contract be executed , and he does take her , it is a marriage , and they cannot punish for fornication , but only for not soleninirfng the marriage according to the ! form * prescribed by law r but fcpt so as td declare the marriage void /*
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subjoining a copy of tlie veiy short Bill which was brought into the last Parliament by Mr . W . Smith at a late period of the session , and will be again submitted to the consideration of the Legislature . By referring to the Book Gf ^ pommon Prayer * it will be seen that every part of the service which is essential in a civil
point of view * would under this Bill be retained ; while , by the omission of the remainder , the objections of the petitioners , both as Dissenters and Unitarians , would be removed ; and no atteratimi whatever is proposed to be made in the part which is reserved , as many of the
clergy and other members of the Establishment would probably entertain strong objections to the principle of altering the Service , who would readily acquiesce in this measure , which has . only the effect of shortening it ; and the petitioners may venture to observe that omissions to a
certain extent are by no means uncommonly practised by the officiating minister on his own responsibility , and sometimes out of respect for the religious scruples which he knows to be conscientiously entertained by the parties . The just and liberal disposition of the Legislature manifested towards the
petitioners by the late Statute of the 53 Geo . III . c . 160 , which repeals in their favour the statutory penalties against the denial of the doctrine of the Trinity , encourages them to hope that their religious opinions present no sufficient objection to the
extension in their fevour of the recognized principles of toleration : and they must submit that such toleration is , in their case , necessarily incomplete while they are obliged to join in a service repugnant in many parts to their religious feelings and principles .
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Christian Tract Society . The Anniversary Meeting , which Was to have been held on March 9 th , but unavoidably postponed , Was holden on May 4 th at the Old London Tavern , Bishopsgate Street . William Frend , Esq . was called to the Chair at the meeting
for business ; when , on ihe Treasurer presenting his Report , ft appeared the Society was indebted to him £ 12 13 s . Od . The Secretary read the Commit tee ' s Report , in which It was stated that the Committee , with the view of meeting the
often-repeated call of the subscribers for new Tracts j hud , shortly after the last Anniversary , published an abridgement of Farmer Truemaks ' Adtrice to his Daughter Matty and that iiearty Kfrtf the impre&km had' already been sent out firotti the Society '** 3 ttate . ~ Ttois day the Committee were enabled to lay t&ree
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372 Intelligence . — Chrititen Tract Society .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1820, page 372, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2489/page/48/
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