On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
tU& ; $ Maniwefe with respect to special casein suah as . the admission on the re * ^ ler . oftv ^ h ^ se Mwbich have occurred abroad , the correction iofc erroneous entries , aqol a varietv cases which it is obvious that - any complete system mast'contemplate , and for which it can easily provide- when placed . under the superintendence of an efficient body of officers responsible for their acts . A register thus kept with vigilance , and preserved in duplicate , and carefully indexed in alphabetic order , both annually and decennially , seems to leave nothing wanting for the completion of a system fully adequate to all the exigencies of a well-regulated community . We shall now proceed to notice as briefly as we can the state in which
registration exists in this country , its imperfections , and the causes from which they arise . The only registers which are received as direct evidence of the facts they contain ( as coming from official sources ) are the books kept at the parish churches for recording the baptisms , marriages , and burials , there had and solemnized ; and we shall proceed to consider each in order , reminding our readers that the whole efficiency of such a plan depends on the assumption of what is known to be untrue , namely , that all the population are members of the Church of England . :
As to Births . —One fundamental objection to our system of registration is obviously this , that it is no proper record of birth at all . It is true that one may reasonably conclude a party to have been born at least some time or other before he was baptized , but how much sooner no one can tell ; and from this absurdity it has often resulted that , in fact , people have actually attained twenty-one , and exercised most important acts , when by the only known official record and evidence of their legal status , they were under
age ; and for safety and convenience , on proof , it has been considered advisable afterwards , on attainment of majority according to the evidence , to confirm what had been done . To meet this deficiency , the birth has been lately added to the register , in the entry of baptism ; but on np adequate authority , the minister ' s record of hearsay being thus made evidence of the fact , contrary to all ordinary rules . The form , too , in the register-books , is essentially bad , as not containing the mother ' s maiden name , without which no sufficient linking together of a pedigree can be effected .
But , supposing all this well done , what becomes of all those children of persons passing under the denomination of churchmen , ( among the poor especially , ) who neglect baptisms from various causes ? Where go all the Catholics , the Dissenters , and particularly the Baptists , who cannot be recorded even on the unofficial register-books of the Psedobaptist sects ? The law , in its dignified self-complacency , knows no such persons as these ; the
law supposeth every man to be churchman . The Dissenters , to remedy the evil as far as they can , have established , what it is disgraceful to every government that individuals should be left to provide for themselves—a register of births ^ kept at Dr . Williams ' s Library . This is formed on declarations , signed by the parents and competent witnesses present . But a record of this character ( though in its nature far better than the Church Register , and containing a clue to the best direct evidence ) has some legal difficulties to contend with , arising from the
nonofficial character of its keepers . / Is to Marriage 8 , ~* rSJ ! he better opinion decidedly is , that marriage by the old law of England , as of many other states , was essentiall a civil contract , and that it required no ecclesiastical sanction for its validity . * The' marriages of Jews and Quakers have no express sanction given them by the
Untitled Article
Review . —Parochial Registration . 539
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 539, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/27/
-