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    Newfoundland , where marriages have actually been solemnized by authorities deemed incompetent in this country , and the legitimacy of which was therefore doubted - The Methodist ministers , it appears , have performed

    this ceremony , arguing , that the marriage act of England did not extend to that colony ; and that it was therefore competent to them , or even to laymen , to officiate . The matter being of great importance , application was made to

    the government of England , from which the following official communication has been received at the colony , and has thence found its way into the mother country : — Provincial Secretary ^ Office , Halifax , Aug . 19 , 1817 .

    The following copy of a letter from Earl Bathurst to his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor , is published by authority : — " Downing-street , May 31 , 1817 . "My Lord , —Herewith I have the honour of enclosing to your Lordship

    an order of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent in Council , dated the £ 6 th ult ., disallowing an Act passed by the Legislature of the Province of Nova Scotia , in 1816 , entitled , * An

    Act to explain the Acts concerning Marriage and Divorce , passed in the thirty-second year of his late Majesty ' s reign , and the first year of his present Majesty ' s reign . ' 4 CI have the honour to be * &c .

    " BATHURST . " To Lieutenant-General the Earl of Dalhousie . " Immediately after the date of this letter , a bill to the above effect was proposed to Parliament by Mr . Goulbourn . and on the 27 th of June ,

    received the Royal assent . From this act it appears , that the interpretation of the Methodist ministers , upon which an act of the Provincial Legislature of Nova Scotia had been founded , has been set aside , and that the British marriage act has been averred to extend to the colonies .

    The subject is so interesting to the morals of society , that we are disposed to say something more upon it than what merely results from the occasion . ^ appears to us , that in situations where regularly ordained or licensed ministers cannot be had , the ceremony should be performed In such practi-

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    cable way as may be best calculated to give it solemnity ' and publicity , and that ' such marriages should be held valid . In Scotland , if we recollect right , the declaration of the parties that they are married , added to the

    notoriety that they live together as in a conjugal state , is a conclusive proof that the ceremony has been performed . The Quakers , who have no priesthood , marry by a simple declaration of the parties , which is afterwards signed and attested in their meetings .

    But it may be asserted as a general rule , that in every Christian country marriage has been esteemed a religious solemnity and a civil contract united , and has been performed in the face of the Church by the Established Clergy , with consequences as to settlement ,

    issue and relationship , prescribed and ordained by law . We confess that we shall be sorry to see any of these forms set aside , because we shall apprehend injurious effects to the purity and morals of our posterity . The Romish Church considers marriage

    as one of its seven sacraments $ and . when Christianity was interdicted in France , then , also , was the religious solemnization of marriage prohibited . Whatever respect , also , may be due to Dissenting ministers of various denominations and sects , whatever

    extraordinary purity we might , for argument ' s sake , be disposed to allow to their creed * , yet they do not themselves , under the existing state of things , pretend to put their public acts upon a level as to general effect , as to the power of exciting attention , or

    making an impression , with those of the Established Clergy ; and we are convinced that every thing of solemnity that can be added to that cererriony r , from which all the relations of life spring , is necessary to sanction and enforce the due observance of it *

    obligations . If it be asked , whether we would oppose the progress of Mr . Smith ' s bill through Parliament , we confess that we have such apprehension of raising the terrible howl of intolerance , that we should rather recommend it

    to the sound discretion of that gentleman to- relinquish his intention ; for if the Socinians are allowed to marry in their chapels , there is no reason why the same privilege should not be

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    Marriage Ceremony , as it respects Unitarians . 6 li

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1817, page 611, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2469/page/39/