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cording to the ritual of the church , completely deprived the Dissenters of their before-enjoyed privileges . He ( Mr . Wm . Smith ) was one of the class of persons now praying to be relieved from the pressure of that Act , and it was important to those persons as a class , that , coming before Parliament , they should stand rectus
in curia . He begged then to aver , that the Dissenters were unarraigned of any crime , and that they had as good a title to worship God in their own way as any members of the Church of England . Marriage was the natural right of the human species , and neither man nor woman , without the grossest injustice , could be deprived of its benefits . Yet the act of
the 26 th Geo . II . said to the Dissenters , cc shall comply with terms which are contrary to the dictates of your consciences , or you shall forego the advantage of that natural right , " Such a holding was most unjust . It was not without precedent , because the same course had been pursued under Louis XIV ., towards the Protestants of France . The measure
in France , however , though unjust , was not so inconsistent as the law in England ; because the Government of that country recognized at the time no religion but the Roman CathoHc . To presume every Frenchman a Roman Catholic was most unjust ; but , such being the presumption , there was no inconsistency in saying that members of the Roman Catholic church
should be married according to its rites . In England , however , there was a gross and palpable inconsistency about the arrangement . At the very time when the Act of Geo . If . passed , the Dissenters had the benefit of the Act of Toleration . At that time it so happened that the Unitarian Dissenters were in small
numbers , so small , indeed , that they had not a place of worship ( so called ) belonging to them ; but the Jews and the Quakers were especially exempted from the provisions of the Act . The Jews could scarcely , perhaps , be called dissenters from the Church of England—( the Church of England might , indeed , more properJy
be called ditwemers from them , for they were the more ancient )—but the Quakers were , to all intents and purposes , a sect dissenting from the Church of England , and they could have no . right ro any exemptions in which the Unitarians were » ot entitled to participate . By the canon
law , marriage was nothing else but a civil contract . This was stated by high au ^ thority in this country , when , in 1813 , a question respecting the validity of a Scottish marriage was discussed . The opinion of the Lord Chancellor was , that the Scottish law was founded on the canon law , which was the foundation of the
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laws respecting marriage throughout feurope , and which regarded marriage as a contract . There was no doubt whatever
but the Scottish law considered a marriage by consent of parties , and in presence of witnesses , to be as valid as if it were by any clergyman . The Marriage-Act had for its object the prevention of clandestine marriages . With that obj ect he wished mot to interfere , and he woold therefore only propose the alteration of
the religious part . Some religious ceremonies were common to all nations , and were highly proper , but they were not necessary . As a proof Of that , he might refer to the decree of Pope Innocent III , in council , which declared the religions
solemnity not to be necessary to the validity of Marriages . But the religions ceremony ought to be in unison with the feelings of the parties . The ritual of the Church of England was derived from the Romish Church . Now to make that
ritual a necessary part of marriage , where religious objections existed to it , was a positive absurdity . . He proposed leaving out the whole of that part of the ritual which stated opinions on which the petitioners dissented from the Church of
England . As he understood from the noble Lord that his motion would uot be opposed , he thought it unnecessary to go into further discussion of the subject now . He might , however , mention , that the wisdom of our ancestors had enacted
burning alive as the punishment for Christians marrying Jews . When that law was repealed , and some time previously , more persons were found to contend for its justice , and even humanity , than could now be found to advocate the part
of the present law , which he wished to alter . He concluded by moving for leave to bring in a bill altering certain points in the 26 th Geo . II ., commonly called the Marriage-Act . The Marquis of Londonderry wished not to be understood to pledge himself to the support of the measure . Mr . H . Gurney did not see what
possible objection there could be to Unitarians being married by their own clergymen . The whole service would then be suited to their own sentiments , and , bans befng regularly proclaimed in the church , no inconvenience could arise from it . On the other hand , there were many objections to parties having the service perttorrs to parties having the service
performed by clergymen of a different persuasion . He wished , therefore , that instead of such a measure as was now proposed , the hon . and learned gentleman opposite ( Dr . PhiBhnore ) would embrace the subject in his bill . Mr . W . Smjth explained . Leave was given to bring in the bill -
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266 Intelligence . — Parliamentary
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 256, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/64/
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