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grievous burden . A brief statement of the Dissenters * case has been laid before his Majesty ' s Government , and a Deputation from your Committee has had an interview with Earl Grey upon the subject . —His Lordship stated , that he should confer with the other Members of the
^ Govel ' imTent , and should ~ "bB "" h ~ appy at any time to receive any further communication from your Committee . The following is a copy of the statement : — Brief Statement of the Case of Protestant Dissenters , seeking Relief from the Obligations imposed by Law , for the Celebration of Marriage according to the Form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer *
The Committee of Deputies , appointed to protect the Civil Rights of Protestant Dissenters , having received intimations from various parts of the kingdom ,-of the great interest which' is excited relative to the mode of solemnizing marriages , and of the determination of many
Congregations to petition Parliament for an alteration of the law in that respect , feel constrained to bring this subject , without further delay , under the notice of his Majesty's Government ; and tKey , therefore , beg leave to submit the following statement of the principal reasons for the desired alteration .
For the present purpose , it does not appear necessary to go further back , than to the period immediately preceding the passing of Lord Hardwicke ' s Act , 26 Geo . II . cap . 33 . Antecedently to that statute , the contract of marriage was considered to be a civil contract , and in 1053 ,
the celebration of it was committed to the hands of civil functionaries ; and subsequently to the Toleration Act—( I William andMary ) Quakers and Baptists solemnized their marriages , without adopting the ecclesiastical ceremony , and such marriages were recognised as valid by
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the courts ' of law . . See , Hute-hinson and Wife v . Brooksbank , 3 Levinz , 376 , and Wigmore ' s Case , Salkeid , 438 . Lord Hard wick e ' s celebrated Act inadvertently worked a violent
change in the state of the law , and , without being intended by its framers—to—operate ™ oppressively—upon any class of individuals , it has virtually occasioned much oppression on Dissenters , arid , by means of it , religious liberty has been grievously interfered with . The act was deemed
necessary , in consequence of the occurrence of hasty and improvident marriages , surre ptitiously performed by clergymen unworthy of the name . It was passed ' to prevent clandestine marriages , ' and its oppressive cousequences were occasioned by its constituting Episcopal clergymen the
only persons who can carry its provisions into effect ; and they being bound to use , on all occasions * the rites and ceremonies prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer , the form of marriage there / prescribed
has , in fact , become the [ only form in use . Thus by what has been aptly termed a kind of Ecclesiastical Usurpation , a violation of the rights of conscience has been committed , and a positive infringement of the Toleration Act effected .
The Act of Toleration fully recognises and allows the rights of all Protestant Dissenters , complying with its requirements , to worship God in such manner and by such forms , as their consciences approve . But Lord Hardwicke's Act enjoins that all persons in England , not only
Conformists but Dissenters also , ( with the exception of Quakers and Jews , ) shall not be allowed to contract legally valid marriage , unless they go to a parochial church or chapel , and worship , or pretend to worship God in the way prescribed by the Church of England , using the form contained in the Book of Common Prayer . This Act , therefore , so far as relates to the celebration of
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60 UNI TAE ' IAN CUROMCLE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1833, page 60, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2607/page/28/
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