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they extend to baptisms , are regarded as nublic records , and examined extracts from them are admitted as sufficient proofs on the matters to which they apply . But Dissenting registers and entries at the library of births are but secondary evidence , and the original books or entries must be produced , and
other testimony must be given as to the signature of the " parties and their identity to render them availing ; and from which , in many cases , Baptists also , who never baptize their infants , are precluded from the benefit of parochial registers which extend only to the baptized . To obviate such inconveniences and meet
the wishes of numerous congregations , the Committee have communicated with the Government , and sought the attention which the great body of Dissenters and Methodists are entitled to expect . Their sanction they thought desirable before any appeal was made to the
Legislature for relief ; and the liberal re-Spect they have ever experienced from Lord Liverpool , Lord Bexley , and their ministerial friends , encouraged confident expectation of just support In such application they felt more confidence , as in cases of settlement , entries of
Baptism are not evidence of birth ; as in a recent case Mr . Justice Bayley had decided that an entry of birth in a Register of Baptism was not evidence of birth ; as the present entries of Baptism not only supply no proof of birth , but are much less useful to supply proofs of
descent aud identity than they might be made ; aud as all classes , whether Churchmen or Dissenters , are interested , that on this matter some improvements should occur . The remedy we propose ,
avoiding all interference with Registers of Baptisms , and thereby leaving clergymen and Dissenting ministers in possession of their present rights , is to obtain a voluntary registration of Births as a Civil and not Ecclesiastical affair .
Such Registers are to contain ample information of the parents of the children , and the day of their birth , and , being duly verified and entered , shall be regarded as public records belonging to the State . Of those records , we propose that the Clerks of the Peace in their several cities and counties should have the
care , and that for certain small fees they should make the entries and . supply co-P *? s and information in form * to be prescribed . As the Registry would be optional , no person could be thereby vexed , and as no interference was contemplate d with baptisms , no ecclesiastical persons could complain , and security m $ u be obtained *> y parents as to their cmidren , which would lessen future li"gation and relieve the anxious heart .
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Lord Liverpool made no objection to the measure aud appeared willing to lend J * his concurrence , but at this time intimated that it belonged particularly to the province of the Secretary of State for the Home Department . , An interview was obtained with Mr . Peel . It cannot be
said that he greeted the suggestion with the same cordiality as Lord Liverpool had shewn . Mr . Peel hesitated much about the expediency of the proposed alteration ; he said he should be obliged to consult many persons , declined to legislate on a matter so important without much consideration , but at last doubted
whether a universal Registry of Births should not be required and by compulsory enactments be enforced . The result was , however , a promise that when Parliament was dissolved , he would give the matter more attention , aud either bring forward a Bill in the next Session or apprize the Society of the objections he entertained . That communication the
Committee will await , and expect that propositions so just and needful cannot be repelled ; but if that expectation be disappointed , they must apply to the Parliament for their protection , and trust
that although they may meet some rocks and shallows in their course , and find some ebbing currents or opposing gales , they shall obtain the co-operation of the Deputies and all their Rev . friends , and be enabled to steer the vessel securely
into port . In conclusion , Mr . Wilks took a general view of the cause of liberty throughout the world . He thus pleaded the cause of the Greeks : Some , forsooth , say they are
insurgents ; but are they on that account to be condemned ? What is light ? What the Reformation ? What our glorious Revolution ? What Creation ? Are they not all insurrections ? What is light but an insurrection against darkness ? What was the Reformation but an
insurrection against Popery ? What the Revolution but an insurrection against a race of wretched tyrants ? What Creation but an insurrection against chaos ? And what was Alfred when he chased away the Danes ? What were the Barons who on the plain of Runnymede extorted from the reluctant John the great
Charter of our Rights ? All , aJl insurgents . Mr . W . finished his speech by saying , — Throughout the world , and in that assembly , the love of liberty did not decline . Many whom 1 see around me
have grown grey , devoted to her cause ; and the manly bosoms of our vigorous youths beat gladly at her name . Still shall it be tau ^ lit by bur pastors to the people , and by our matrons to the ^ r noble boys : and if we might raise a temple
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Fntelligence . —Protestant Society : Mr . JVilks ' s Speech . 3 / 6
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1826, page 375, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2549/page/59/
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