The Sun.
London, England, 1822-08-08 00:00:00

FASHIONABLE ARRIVALS:

Prince Frederick of Holstein; at Gnillon's Hotel, Albemarle,
street; from a tour ;. James May'se,Esq. and Captain Berkeley, -
at the Ptilteney Hotel, front the Isle of Wight; the Hon. Mr.
Clinton and family, at Nerot's Hotel, Clifibrd-street.; the -Hon.
Mr. Grey, at the Claremont Ilotel,..from a tour.
DEPARTURES.-The Earl and Countess of Harrowby,- Lord
Bandon, Ladies Georgina and Mary Ryder, from - Grosvenor-
street, for the German Spa ;•.Sir John and Lady Robinson, for
Buckenden House, near Brandon, in Norfolk; Lord Stowell,
for Stowell Park, Gloucestershire.; Earl Radnor and Lord. Vi-
scount Folkestone, for Longford Castle, near Salisbury, in Wilt-
shire ; Right Hon. WilliamDundas, for Scotland ; Sir Wm.
and Lady 'Duff Gordon, for Scotland ; the Earl of Roeksavage,
and Lady Charlotte Seymour, for Cholmoudeley Castle; Cheshire;
the Dowager Countess Powlett, fur Powlett Lodge, TwiCkep-
ham ; Mr. Vansittart and Lady Turner and family, from the
Pulteney Hotel, for their teat in Yorkshire ; the Right Hon,
Lord Gort and Lord Dillon, from Nerot's Hotel, Clifford:street.

FASHIONABLE PARTIES.
Pascoe Grentell, Esq. 111. P., entertained the Earl of Essex,
General Keppel, and a distinguished party at dinner yesterday,
at his house in Charles-street,- St. James's-square.
Lord Holland had a select party at dinner yesterday at Hol-
land House.

P 0 E . T it V.

THE THIEF OVERTAKEN.

To Miss E * * * L * * * *.
From bough to bough, law bending to- their pow'r,
Flirt wanton breezes, wafting through the air,
The sounds I lately heard in joyful hour,
Which savage TIME, -remorseless, void of care,
Snatch'd from me ; took them to a distant shore,

To Devon's rocks ; he carelessly the while
Meaning to drown them'in the Ocean's roar,
And slur the gallantry of Britain's Isle.
Thus outrag'd lie each sadly pleasing thought,
The thrilling half and half 'midst care and joy ;
Quick press'ehe on, nor look'd behind, till caught
By Love's win& Minister, the darling Boy.
Old Time 'ere then had reacted the lofty rock,
For he had brush'd along, with strides, a mile ;
But now came on the check, like magic shock.
He stood aghast ; insensible awhile.
For faithful Cupid's fairy•piv.v'r and spell
Had sped before him, swift, to fix the toil ; -
The hardy Rocks then knew his cry so well,
That manfully they seiz'd the Robber's spoil.
Yes, the dear sounds the. Monster stole -from me,
Did, quick as spark from the struck flint, return ;
And Ici-ro, with her slow , sure haite and glee,
I heard, at distance,_ bid me not to mourn.
I dried my eyes ; in swelling tones, at last
The fond 'response, romantic rolling came ;
With truant haste around this Isle it past,
'Tis nigh—'is here—'tis gentic EMMA'S NAME
July 25, 1822. * •*. a
•

THE LONG SMITHFIELD TROTTER.
A singular match took ,place yesterday on the Croydon road.
A Mr. Melshani had purchased what was termed a long lazy-
boned trotter, and the price asked was seven sovereigns. Five
and Fin at you, said a flash caper, too fly within himself to give
away, a second chance while a knocker was at hand. Melsham
saw nothing but blood and bone about the horse, and he gave a
quid in earnest for the prod, which had lost all teeth coping
seven year:; .ago. A. good paddock, cleansing with showery
grass, with a feed of corn, brought the horse round; and symp-
toms were evident there was nothing amiss within. This was,
perhaps; the first chance the horse ever had of shelving quality;
as to quantity that was much disputed. The horse started with
two boys, weighing 17 stone, upon his back, to trot 14 miles
-within an hour, and he did it clerverly in two minutes within
time. The horse was bdughtin March last, and 100 gs were
bid for him after this match.

PIDDING and Co. No. 1,, Cornhill, remind the
Public that Next Tuesday, (Aug. 13) will be
the Last Day of. Drawing the present Lottery,
and the Conclusion of the Contract ; in that
One Day Two Prizes of THIRTY THOUSAND
POUNDS are to be decided, and probably they
are amongst the Numbers now on sale at the
Lucky Corner, 1, Cornhill.

MARRIAGE ACT AMENDMENT BILL.

FOR THE SUN.

TO TIIE RIGHT HON,ITHE EARL OF ELDON,
LOAD CLIANCELLOR Q# ENGLAND, &C. &C.

LETTER ,IV.

My Lonn,--r-I pass over the provisions of the
Act' relative to the persons who will be officially
connected with the-Rxecution of it, although 'I
think the provisiOns themselves extremely and
unnecessarily severe, and by no means explicit as
to the party or parties upon whom the punish-
ment inflicted by them will fall. The comfort
and safety of these persons are of trivial conse-
quence when put in competition with, the con-
venience and welfare of the public. I can, how-
ever, conceive cases of great individual hardship,
which. may and will occur under the Act to these
Gentlemen, but shall hasten to matters of more
importance.

The 14th Section of the Act provides, " that
44 no person shall, from and after the passing of
the Act, be deemed authorized by law to
" grant any license for the solemnization of any
" marriage except the Archbishops of Canterbury
" and York, according to the rights now vested
" in them respectively ; and except the several
" other Bishops within their respective Dioceses,
" for the marriage of persons, one of whom shall
" be resident at the time within the Diocese of the
" Bishop in whose name such license shall be
" granted, &c." In this Clause, my Lord there
is much more than meets the eye, and its opera-1
tion will be attended with no minor consequences.
it is well known that throughout the kingdom
there are a great number of peculiar jurisdictions
which have, for time immemorial, possessed the
power of granting licenses of marriage ; and many
of which are completely exempt from the jurisdic-
tion of the suffragan Bishop in whose Diocese
they are locally situate. Some of these jurisdic-
tions are of more ancient standing than even the
Sees themselves, and have their patent officers, &,c.
&c. the same as the Bishop's Courts. My Lord,
by the clause which I have just copied, the juris- '
diction of these peculiars to grant licenses of
marriage is taken away as from Monday the 9.,2d
ult. What notice did the officers of these pe-
culiar Courts receive, that their power of grant-
ing licenses was annihilated from the 22t1 ult.?
None—and therefore, before an intimation of
what the Act had done could possibly reach them,
a great number of licences would have been issued
under the authority of these Courts—every mar-
riage solemnized under which will be in jeopardy
until Parliament interfere to render them valid !
Surely, my Lord, it would have been far better
for all parts of the Bill to have taken effect at
one and the same time ;—as it is, some of th.rn
take effect from the time of its passing, while
others are dormant until the Ist September next,
and in the instance to which I have just referred,
the inconvenience and danger are apparent.—
Who, tool 1 ask, is now to grant licences of mar-
riages in Royal peculiars, exempt from the juris-
diction of both the suffragan Bishop and the pro-
vincial Archbishop, or in peculiars exempt from
the jurisdiction of the local Bishop, and where
the appeal lies to the Metropolitan ?
The 16th Section of the Act provides for the
manner in which publication of banns is to be
made from and after the Ist of September next.
Nothing, my Lord, can be urged against the
precautions which the Act provides in this par-
ticular ; but what can be said to the tremendous
-the sweeping confiscations of property which
will attend any false statements or affidavits
leading to the publication of banns ? These, I
take it, will be far more numerous than those
which will be produced by licence ; and, as pre-
cisely the same arguments apply to them as to
those connected with marriages by license, I for-
- bear to dwell further on so painful a subject.—
With respect, however, my Lord, to this part of
the Bill, I cannot resist observing that the 19th
section of the Act, which establishes the vali-
dity of marriages by banns, though the publica-
tion were made under false or assumed names,
appears to render the publication perfectly use-
less. Correctness as to names, both christian and
sirname, has hitherto been considered as of the
" essence, of publication ;" and surely this is rea-
sonable ; for if
.false names are to be adopted,
how can a parent or guardian exercise his right
of forbidding the marriage at the time of the pub-
lication of the banns ‘Vhat a cruel situation
will an affectionate parent or provident guardian
be placed in to be incapable of forbidding the
banns through a want of knowledge of the as-
sumed names of the parties, and then, when
too late, obliged to witness his darling child or
favourite ward, the object of his most fervent
affection, or most intense solicitude, dashed upon
the stones ofadversity by an imprudent marriage
Although the Act does not exactly use the term,
yet I should conceive that a " false description"
of the parties, or an erroneous.place of residence
r stated in the affidavit, would not, after solemni-
zation, vitiate a marriage. • If this be so, and the
false description he joined to the false or assumed
names, how will it be possible in large and popu-
lous parishes (the places which will be invariably
resorted to by parties having clandestine pur-
poses in view) for parents and guardians to exer-
cise their right of dissent ?
I now, my Lord, lay down my pen; having
ventured to obtrude upon your Lordship what
has occurred to me upon a perusal of the Mar-
riage Act Amendment Bill. Clear it is, that
such an Act, without explanation or amendment,
cannot long remain upon the Rolls of an English
Parliament. What are the precise provisions
necessary to be introduced, and the alterations to
be made, it is not for one of my limited sphere
in life to suggest. It is, however, tolerably ob-
vious, that unless parents and guardians are, in
some degree, restored to the situation in which
they stood previous to the passing of the late Act,
the consequences to society will be such as can
only be contemplated to be dreaded. I have
purposely, my Lord, avoided remarking upon the
effects attached to the retrospective clause of the
Bill ; as the protests which were entered by
certain Noble Lords against the passing of it so
clearly illustrate them ; and as I do not con-
ceive myself competent to trace its tendency
through its various ramifications. Now that the
law upon the subject has become a matter of

deep conalderation, and the danger • id loconve;
nience of any thing, like hasty or imperfect legis-
lation are 'so apparent; a .:hope .may -surety be
indulged,.that the combined exertions of those best
competent to appreciate and utgleptand the various
:conflicting and majeMicint4ests cittnnected with
the subject, will produce; a 49..con,summation de-
voutly to be wished" in
,theshspe. 9f a legislative
enactment, which, while it win protect the rights
of the parent and the interests of. the child—the
comfort of the ward and
,the quthority of the
guardian—will diffuse extepsive benefit, give
stability to property, sql,satiNfaption'to the com-
munity at large. ForenAst:jn,:the rattles of those
to whom the Englih,natiOn'yfill naturally look
for an accomplishment of •these desilible ends
your Lordship appears-; an ,indulging an earnest
hope that you may long be Awed to your coun-
try as a powerful assertor and vigilant guardian
of her laws, liberties, and religion, .1 have the
honour to subscribe inyself,,my Lord, your Lord-
ship's faithful and obedient servant,
August 5, 1822. BRITANNICUS.
. .