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PA ^ tAMENTARY . HOUSE OF LORDS ,
A * itit 2 d , 1824 . Unitarians Marriage Bill * On the order of the day for the second reading of the BiU for granting relief to Unitarian Dissenters ia the matter of their Marriages :
The Marquis of Lantsdowne , in rising to make his promised motion , coniinenced by observing , that he should not have felt it necessary to trespass on their Lordships * attention at any length , if it had not been intimated to him that an
opposition wa& intended . The Bill which he was now about to propose for a second reading had originated io the petitions presented by the tody of Unitarians to the Committee , which had sat last session , on the Marriage Laws , and complaining that the marriage ceremony of
the Church of Engiaud , to which they were obliged to submit , was such as , in their consciences , they could not approve . He could state to their Lordships that it was generally felt by the Members of
the Committee , as he hoped it would also by the House itself , that some relief ought to be afforded them . Before he proceeded to consider the relief now proposed , he would state the principle on which it was founded . There were two
duties incumbent on the Legislature in providing for the due regulation of marriages . One was entirely of a civil ria-r ture ; the other was compounded of civil and religious considerations . It was a civil duty to provide against clandestine marriages , and to provide for due
celebration and registration ; and next it was of importance that the contract involving such important consequences both to so * eiety and to the individual , should be performed in a manner the most likely to bind the conscience . The Legislature
had been called upon to provide against clandestine marriages ; and on the ground he had already stated , of giving the strongest religious sanction to marriage of which the contract was susceptible , they were bound to adopt the proposition which he should now make . The inea * -
sure had been misunderstood both within doors and without . It had been represented as an alteration of the Liturgy , by law established : this was entirely a mistake . Their Lordships , however , would not wish to violate the consciences of those who differed from them in reli *
gious opinion ,, or to > force them into tfhe Estab lished Church , in order ta make them signify a ; n approbation of its forms ^ which they would not acknowledge upon any othetf occasion , if . it wfcs of import *
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ance that the contract of main age should be as binding -as possible , with that view it should be solemnized in the manner most conformable to their religious feelings and belief , in short , in the manner most likely to impress itself 01 * tbs
mind . He should , therefore , propose , that the persons called Unitarian ' s should be authorized to celebrate marriages ia their own chapels , duly registered for that purpose , haviug previously given publicity by the publication of banns , and on the payment of dues iu the Established Church . He would have preferred
certainly to have brought in a more general measure , but he felt , after the experience he had gained on the subject , that great practical difficulty would arise from its extension to other Dissenters ^ Many persons might raise such objections to forms as the Legislature could not anticipate , and a laxity might possibly arise which would favour the evil of cktndesr
line marriages . Upon these grounds , he thought it best to limit the present Bill to the persons who had most reason , ift fovo conscientite , to object to the ceremony of the Church of England , it had been stated liberally in that House , and from the Right Reverend Bench on a former occasion , that some provision
ought to be made to save the consciences of those who differed so widely from the Church of England , the moment such a case was fairly brought forward . He therefore proposed , in this Bill , that after the publication of banns in the usual form in the parish church , persons
of the Unitarian persuasion should be allowed to have marriages solemnized iu their own places of worship , ( these places having been registered as such for a year at least , ) and by a minister of their own denomination . The parties who brought forward the measure were desirous to
give every civil security ,, and , therefore , if it were thought advisable that ministers should be specially licensed or registered also , he did not see any objection . It might also be thought expedient to add ^ as in the case of the ministers of the
Church , that the punishment of transportation should be visited upon any minister presuming to offend against these regulations . Though , in their pe * titions , the Unitarians considered the publication of bauns as the best security that could be given against clandestine
marriages , and though the Bill itself was founded upon that principle , he should not object , in case any better security could ? be devieedv to give the public the advantage . Though , amongst all the Dta * - senters , the class selected for the opera * timi of the present measure was the one which had differed most widely from the
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TM % lligehcv *^ Pmltameht < iry t Un itarians' Marriage BiU . 241 >
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voj .. xix . 2 i
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1824, page 241, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2523/page/49/
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