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perly and without offence to the consciences of others , or to resign an office which their prejudices render them incompetent to discharge I Even in Catholic Austria , as the Bishop of Chester properly observed , there is far less bigotry on these points , the Catholic priests being obliged to register the marriages , baptisms , &c , of Protestants , on certificates sent them .
The form of the Marriage Register in the Established Church is far from perfect \ particularly in its omission of the names of the parents of the marrying parties , which all registers should preserve . It need not be added , that the marriage law leaves Jews and Quakers without any legal provision for the celebration and record of their marriages , or for the prevention of clandestine marriages ; and that it does not even
deign to state whether those marriages are valid . The legislature chooses to proceed on the absurd principle , that the use of the register would be a favour and premium on nonconformity . It ought rather to exercise greater vigilance to compel it , lest irregularities should take place , which the state should guard against for its own sake , not with any view to the merits or demerits of individuals .
As to Deaths , —The Parochial Register perhaps comprises a larger porportion of the deaths which take place than it does of the births . Few or no Dissenters are baptized at church , but many are buried there , because many Dissenting chapels have no burial-places . But in this respect , too , the register is very imperfect . The time of burial is only inferentially proof of the time or fact of death , and a record which contains ( as the French
system requires ) a deposition of the actual fact and time of death ( often of great importance ) is infinitely preferable . We have , in order in some measure to supply our deficiencies , an officer called the Searcher , whose duty would properly combine with that of the Registrar ; and both would connect themselves , under a well-regulated system , with the Coroner ' s interference when necessary , *
The registers of births , marriages , and deaths , are , or ought to be , copied and sent periodically to the diocesans ; but this duty is badly performed , and the returns thither are so kept as to be useless for all ordinary purposes . The general result of our system is , that , even to the extent to which it goes , it is singularly rude and defective ; and that ( from its being founded on the ordinances of a church which half the population has , since the system began , deserted ) it is radically and hopelessly partial and inefficient . It
appears to us disgraceful that in a country like ours a common pedigree cannot be hunted out without the greatest difficulty ; that a chasm must exist wherever heterodoxy has crept in ; that the data for any accurate census , or for proper statistic returns of population , are wholly wanting ; that even the defective returns of the neighbourhood of London , called the Bills of
Mortality , are a compilation for which we are obliged to be indebted to so sapient a body as " The Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks . " We hope none of our calculators of population venture to place reliance on such a return of births , for instance , as can be made up by the parish authorities , when perhaps half the children never come within orthodox observation at all .
The truth is , that this duty of registration will never be properly performed , until we can get fairl out of the dilemma , of either affronting the church by removing parts of its official duty , or of endeavouring to make it do its duty in a more catholic way . We want a municipal lay-officer having th , e conduct of this matter , independent of any religious preferences ; and there are vwy many duties which such an officer could discharge , which are
Untitled Article
Review . —Parochial Registration . 541
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 541, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/29/
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