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
silence , the calumny that this application to Parliament is darkened by even the faintest shadow of a desire for the pelf ; that it has in the slightest degree the character of a struggle with the hireling shepherds of the establishment for the fleece of the flock . We all know how the Catholic priests of Ireland ; and priests more zealous , laborious , enduring , or attentive to the poor , have
never walked the earth ; how they have been blamed on the suspicion that the fee-system , trifling as their fees are on such occasions , has made them accessories to those early and improvident marriages amongst the peasantry , which have helped to identify in Ireland the increase of populatibn , and the increase of suffering . The enlightened ministers of all denominations , would , no doubt , act on philanthropic principles , and so , no doubt , do many
enlightened members of the Irish priesthood ; bat in the one case , as in the other ^ a taint may attach to the order , from the conduct of individuals , ignorant , mercenary , or mistaking with the best possible intentions . On every account it is desirable to aim at the total disunion ( except as a subsequent , unnecessary , and perfectly voluntary appendage ) of the religious service from
the civil contract ; only by so doing can the Dissenters establish their principle , that marriage is a civil contract . It were desirable , therefore , in their seventh reason , to strike out * the ministers , ' and leave the ' magistrates , ' who will ratify and register the agreement of the parties as satisfactorily as they did in the days of the commonwealth .
vBy the magistrate being the only person known to the law in the formation of the marriage contract , the registration will be ** better provided for than it can be , if dissenting ministers be the agents . Chapel registries have never yet been admitted to the rank of legal evidence . They are peculiarly liable to the evils of being irregularly kept , and occasionally lost . A known servant of the state must be the best registrar of a transaction which the interests of society require should have an authentic record
carefully preserved , and always accessible . Unitarian ministers , notwithstanding their heresies , are as good clerks as their orthodox brethren , and yet their marriage bill suffered shipwreck on this very question of registration : a failure never to be regretted , if it shall have , in any degree , prepared for and facilitated the adoption of a more liberal and comprehensive measure , and one based on a principle , which , however true and important , could not have been put forward by them without ensuring the defeat of their application .
Should the Dissenters obtain the legislative sanction of that principle , the beneficial results will soon extend to the members of the establishment . They will not be priest-ridden along the road where nonconformist millions are walking unburdened and unfettered . They will not continue to have imposed upon them ft semi-sacrament ) where Dissenters are only contracting a social
Untitled Article
140 The t ) issenting Marriage Question .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 140, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/72/
-