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their fees , and retains the invaluable benefit of the parish-register ; a benefit chiefly to themselves , in the first instance , but ultimately a benefit to the community . There is robust sense in the case
put by the Reviewer : " We cannot at all understand why it is so wrong to abolish a law , which it would not only l > e enormous , but almost impossible , to enact . Suppose all Dissenters to have been excepted from the operation of the Marriage Act , and some
zealous orthogamist was , at this time of day , to propose its extension to heterodox love : the uproar , the rage , the activity of Dissenters , it is not difficult to conceive , nor the contempt with which such a proposition would be received by every man of common sense ; and the instant
and disgraceful defeat of such a measure could not be at all doubtful . Why then may not a law be suffered to die , which no human being would now think of bringing into the world ? Why is it perilous to repeal what it would be so unjust to enact ?"—Pp . 66 , 67 .
I he strong plea of the Unitarian Dissenter before the Legislature is , that the law declares that he shall be tolerated , but that there is in the requirements of the Marriage-Act an exception to this toleration , not contemplated at the time the Unitarian Toleration Act was passed , and that the removal of this exception is necessary to complete the wise and liberal design of the Legislature . The argument is taken up by the Reviewer in relation to Dissenters generally , and it applies with particular force to the case of the Unitarians .
Is it not a little inconsistent , that , on all the common occasions of life , a Dissenter should be allowed to worship as he pleases—that , on one of the most important occasions of his life , he must worship as other persons please—that , in the midst of a general system of
toleration , there should be this single exception—that you should give all men leave to build chapels—that you should protect their worship privilege their ministers;—and then ' , when they have been suckled and nurtured in dissent , suddenly , singly and capriciously , drag them to the Mother Church?—And for
what purpose ?—Not to prevent clandestine marriages , for they may just as well be prevented if the . service were omitted ; ~ not to promote piety , because it gives the most serious offence ;—not to secure the emoluments of the Church , for they
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may be secured by registration ;—not to increase the subjects of the Church , because it multiplies her enemies . The Marriage Act was never intended as any abridgement of religious freedom : the only two sects who asked for the exemt ) -
tiou had it ; and if other Dissenters had been as watchful of their civil rights then , as they are now , they probably would have been included in the exception ; but the carelessness of Dissenters in the time of George II ., cannot affect the rights er weaken the reasons of their descendants .
When men are asleep , they say nothing ; as soon as they are awake , and talk about their civil rights , they should be heard : it is nothing to the purpose why they did not wake sooner . " We utterly deride the idea of the Church being endangered by such sort of concessions . We believe that
Establishiwents , like individuals , are strengthened by the number of their friends and weakened by the number of their enemies ; and that it is utterly impossible that any man should not be the implacable enemy of an Establishment , which compels him to abjure his faith before it will allow him to marry . But we augur a better fate to the measure , and a more humane and rational conduct from the
heads of the English Church . We believe they will consider the hardships to which the Dissenters are exposed , as a mere omitted case in the Marriage Act ; and when they have secured , as they have a right to do , the emoluments of the Church , and , as they ought to do , the publicity of Dissenters' marriages , they
will hasten to expunge from the statutebook so disgraceful a relic of the spirit of persecution . Should we be disappointed in these expectations , we really think that the greatest of all theologians ,
the first Lord of the Treasury for the time being , should interfere as a teacher of moderation . The reasonable part of the public will go along with him in the measure , and will respect his mediation as the act of a maji of sense and
principle /'—P . 70 . " From " Dissenters' Marriages " the Reviewer is led by the contents of of our XlVth Volume to consider other grievances of the Dissenters , as set forth in our account of the "
Protestant Society / ' a : < d our report of Mr . Wilks ' s speech , ( pp . 330 , and 388 , ) which he pronounces " very eloquent an , d very impressive . '' He says with great truth that < f it is no mean triumph to the friends of toleration , to perceive how very little ( the Marriage question excepted "—there is an ( £ " theiHjreat exception stated by himse lf ,
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298 Review . — Unitarian Marriage Bill .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1821, page 298, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2500/page/42/
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