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    mar riages to be entered into by Protestant Dissenters , and solemnized by the Protestant teachers of their congregar tions , as good and valid to all intents and purposes—as such contracts would be , if celebrated by the clergy of the Establishe d Church . " This was signed h \ individuals holding the highest offices

    in the Irish Protestant Church at that time ; but their opinion was different from that of the Honourable Gentleman . This question was not to be put upon the same footing as the question with respect to the Roman Catholics , or the question as to the right of voting at elections ; but it was a question of religious toleration ; and two modes had been

    suggested to alter the law upon this subject , which had been objected to . The one was ta alter the Liturgy ; the other was to permit the Dissenters to be married by their own clergy . With respect to any alteration of the Liturgy , that would be repugnant to the feelings of the clerg y of the Established Church ,

    whose opinions on such a subject , the Hon . aud Learned Gentleman thought ought to be regarded . The other mode was objected to , because it was truly said , if you let in the Unitarian Dissenter to the privilege of being married by his own clergyman , other Dissenters wijl expect a similar boon ; and it would be impossible for human ability to form a

    marriage service to please alL In the earliest times , the solemnization of marriage was not conducted in the presence of a priest . That custom was first introduced in Popish times , and commenced under Pope Innocent I ., and he ( Dr . L . ) considered , it would be no violation of the religious scruples of the

    Church of England , to allow the marriage of Dissenters in the way pointed out by this measure . He would ask , could it be consistent with true piety , that a man should be obliged to utter with his mouth at the altar , that which he abhorred In his heart ? Nothing could be more disgraceful than the scenes that

    had taken place at the marriages of Dissenters . Nothing could be more injurious to the character of the Established Church , or to the feelings of it * ministers , than to be compelled to receive the protests of Dissenters to the established tonns of marriage . If it were not trespassing upon the patience of the House , « e could state four or five instances where

    protests had been made in the face of the Church , and at the moment when the marriage ceremony had been about to be «< w mniZCd ' Parties had openly avowed , We come here by compulsion ; and we re peat a form , which , in our conscience , we repudiate and reject . This form is a delatio n of our conscience , and we sab -

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    rait to it only , because , without it , we cannot enjoy a civil right , which ought to be common to all / ' How preposterous was this ; when , from this country , we had but to cross the Tweed , and throw ourselves on the mercy of a blacksmith , or a Methodist , and , when we

    came back , we had a good and valid marriage , giving our children all the benefits of inheritance , legetimacy , &c 3 the same as if the marriage bad taken place according to the most solemn rites of the Church of England I This shewed the Honourable and Learned Gentleman

    that the true principle of the Constitution was never to compel the Dissenters to submit to a ceremony revolting from their own principles of conscience . He did not approve cf the details of this measure , but he should . support th £ second reading of the Bill . He thought it ought not to be made subsidiary to the

    performance of secret marriages ; neither ought it to give just cause o f offence to the clergy of the Established Church . Upon the whole , he conceived the Marriage Law generally was a subject of deep importance to the country at large ; but he thought it was impossible to adapt the

    law to the religious persuasion of every man who took separate objections as to form , according $ o his own conscience ; aud , between the Protestants and Catholics , it would be a great advantage to adopt some measure which might have the effect of conciliating the prejudices of all parties .

    Mr . Peel said , that he would willingly concede to the proposition , for going into a Committee on the Hill ,, in order that the Hou . Mt > ver might havt > an opportunity of obviating the objections to which * it was at present liable ; HLe admitted ifce truth of the distinction taken la favour of

    marriage , as compared wath other ceremonies . It was a natural right , and therefore stood upon stronger grounds , but he should have felt much more gratified if the Unitarians , after an acquiescence of forty or fifty years in the marriage ceremony of the Church of Kngland , were still prepared to continue that

    acquiescence . There was , as he conceived , great difficulty in determining , to wj * at extent the state ought to admit religious scruples , Some time ago , a class o ( Christians had felt a scruple against the taking of an oath ^ and who could judge to what extent religious scruples might gp when the individual who felt them must be die

    only judge of them ? It was to be wished that the Bill had been so formed as to allow relief to all Dissenters , for then they would have a general principle before them , and would understand the full extent to which fch « measure was likely to operate . But so far was this from being

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    Intelligence . - ^ Parliamentary : Unitarian Marriage Bill . 507

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1825, page 507, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2539/page/49/