The Sun.
London, England, 1822-08-26 00:00:00

THE NEW MARRIAGE ACT.

The following is a legal opinion of Dr. PHI
LIMORE, upon certain queries submitted to him
connected with this act : •
" I will endeavour to answer the several questions in the
order in which they are put ; and to prevent any misapprehen-
sion, 1 will prefix to each answer my understanding of the
purport of the question.
First, Whether, in cases where the publication of bans
has been completed before the Ist of September, but the mar-
riage has not taken place, the bans must be republished ?
" To this I should reply, that 1 see no necessity for any
such republication. The new law, as far as it affects mar-
riages by bans, has no effect or operation whatsoever till the
Ist of September; in the case put, therefore, antecedently to
that day, the publication. will have been completed according
to the strictest provisions of the existing law ; and on proof of
their having been so completed, the clergyman, I apprehend,
will be fully justified in the performance of the ceremony.
Consequently, I am of opinion that a clergyman may securely
proceed to the solemnization of matrimony in all cases where
the bans have been published in exact conformity with the law
actually in force on the three Sundays preceding the Ist of Sep-
tember.

" Secondly, Whether, in cases where the publication of bans
has taken place on two Sundays previous to the Ist of Septem-
ber, the clergyman may proceed with the bans, and conclude
them on that day ?
" Perhaps there is rather more difficulty in answering this
than the former question, because, from the absence of any
precise provision as to this point in the statute, the clergyman,
to a certain extent, is called upon to exercise more discretion
in one instance than in the other; but in my judgment he will
exercise that discretion most soundly, if he gives effect and
validity to all the publications of bans which have taken place
in conformity' with the law as it subsisted on the three several
Sundays on which they were made. Every such publication
trust, I think, be considered as legally made. The two first
publications, therefore, would be pro tauto good; but the third,
not being made on the day on which the operation of the new
Act commences, must not be proceeded upon till the requisites
enjoined by that Act shall have been complied with.
" I am aware that, technically speaking, all the requisites
cannot by such a course of proceeding have been observed.—
The names, for instance, cannot have been affixed for three
Sundays to the church door ; but in cases of this description,
in acting upon the law, we must put a rational construction on
it, and approach, as nearly as we can, to an adequate execu-
tion of it.

" It may be satisfactory, also, both with respect to this and
the preceding question, to observe, that the validity of any mar-
riage solemnized under such circumstances can never be im-
pugned, or called in question, on either of these grounds, in-
asmuch as the 19th section precludes all inquiry as to the
sufficiency of these forms after the actual solemnization of any
marriage. . .

" Thirdly, Whether, as the living is within a peculiar juris,
diction, marriages can still be performed there by license?
" I certainly understand the 14th section of the new act, by
restricting the power of granting licences to Archbishops and.
Bishops, virtually to have excluded peculiar and exempt juris-
diction from issuing such instruments ; but the Act goes no
further : therefore, I presume, that, in your parish, as in all
other parishes situated within a peculiar jurisdiction, there can
be no doubt but that a license from the Archbishop of Canter-
bury must dispense with the publication of bans. In the mean.
time, it is extremely advisable that any person who, since the
passing of the Act, may have been married by a license, from
the peculiar jurisdiction, should forthwith be remarried, either
by bans or under a license granted by competent authority.
" Finally, In giving this opinion, I beg to explain that I
know nothing (as seems to be insinuated in the statement of the
case) of the intention of the framers of any one of the provisions
to which my attention has been directed. The interpretation
I have put upon them arises solely from the beSt con-
sideration I have been able to apply to the statute, and to the
general bearing of the marriage law of this part of the United
King_dom. . " JOSEPH PHILLINORE.
" D9ctors' Conimons; August 12, 1822."

This is the faith of the evil spirits that believe
but to tremble, and to any one that reads their
history, it must be a matter of surprise to what
an extravagant height of credulity men, like
Lord Herbert, of. Cherburg, have been carried
in the torrent of their fanatical zeal for infidelity.
How childish and credulous they have been with
regard to visions and dreams, and vagaries of the
imagination, to which they have shewn a most
superstitious attachment, while they bold it to
be a mark of the greatest folly to believe in evi-
dence like that of the Gospel, which they call
the cunning of wise men, operating upon the sim-
plicity of fools. These men, whom they allow
to deliver such a system of justice and benevo-
lence as never yet made its appearance in the
world, they can yet call Enthusiasts or Impos-
tors, and can have the simplicity to give the
fullest credit to old-wives stories or apparitions,
which inculcate neither justice nor benevolence,
and are supported by no evidence whatever but
the phantasenala of their ow n superstitious brain.
A proof the most convincing, that when once the
brain is suffered to ramble there are no excur-
sions, how ever wild, it may not take—no opinions,
how contrary soever it may not by turns enter-
tain. There is no end to the ckraisonnztmens of
Reason, when once set loose from the restraints
of common sense, and raised upon the stilts of
pride and arrogance. It is against these that
JusTus would have the advocates of the Church
direct their attacks—as the most dangerous En-
thusiasts that they can have to contend with.—
But as we have proved they are. not Enthusiasts,
so, if I am not mistaken, it will appear they are
not so dangerous as those who seem to us to de-
serve the name, and have been the constant ob-
jects of our hostility.
It has always been the policy of the Sectarist
to divert the efforts of the Church from himself,
by pretending that the time and talent spent upon
resistance to him who professes to believe in
Christianity would be much better engaged
against the Atheists, and those who so far from
believing, are ever reviling the very profes-
sion of the faith ; and our Saviour himself
says, " He that is not against us, is with us."
But the Sectarist, with whom we are more im-
mediately engaged, is not only not for us, but
against us, and against the greater part of man-
kind, as he condemns us all but the believers of
his own persuasion ; an inconsiderable number in
the contrast with the great body even of Christians
only, who can never reconcile to their notions of
friendship the anathema which this sect is ever
so ready to denounce against them of everlasting
vengeance.

Besides, these men presume to he of the
Church, and under the mask of amity, would
divide it against itself, to guard against which
we have the highest and most sacred authority ;
who declares that there are no enemies so formi-
dable as those of our own household.

When the same authority declares, " He that
is not against us is with us ;" it is addressed to
the disciples who entreated him to forbid one
who was not of their party, as they had to cast
out devils in his name, and he says, forbid him
not, for he that is not against us, Stc.
In that age of adversity and persecution, all
that did not act against him might be considered
to favour him, and whoever attempted to cast out
the enemy of mankind, though they might only
assume his.holy names and hate no real design

For this reason it is we have thought proper
to direct the chief of our attention in thessarne
spirit with the articles of our Church, not so
much against Jews, Turks, and Infidels, as
against those whom we consider far more im-
mediately dangerous, as they are gliding, or
sliding, or whatever may seem a more just
expression, into the bosom of our Church, and
by their serpentine wiles may be able to inflict
a wound, which all the daring and open attacks
of the Infidel ca❑ never inflict. To these the
sense of the people is in direct opposition, while
the others are armed with all the nonsense of the
cursed in their favour. Which, too, it has been
asked, would you most dread, the tiger roaring
in the forest, or the cat who is fastening at your
throat ; they may be of the same feline spe.;
cies, and one far more formidable in himself
than the other ? but against which Would you
be most upon your guard ? and yet because we
have been thus upon -our guard, we are, forsooth,
to be branded with the names of Libertines and
Infidels, which we feel we can as little deserVe
as JusTus can himself, unless it is libertinism to
check that liberty of the spirit which would
rise to licentiousness, or infidelity to restrain the
enthusiasm of faith that boasts to believe in the
truth of a proposition because it is impossible
to be true. Some few exceptions to this abuse,
JUSTUS condescends to make ; but it is not
clear •in what rank, according to his ano-
maly, they are to be found. The Libertines
and Infidels are said to hold the rear and some
to support the main attack, and are in the
second rank ; where .the❑ are the excep-
tions, if not in the second rank ? and yet the
Libertines and Infidels are also said to .be. fore.-
most, and.the exceptions are called an interme-
mediate body, or that rank between the se.
cond And.third, which is, i❑ fact, no rank atall,
unless there- is a division, as in some public
schools, between them, so as they may be said
to be neither in one nor the other, but in a state
between both—in a state of existence or non-
existence, alike destroying each other ; or
.perhaps if he has a classical head, he may be
inclined to place them in the centre, upon the
same principle which he would gladly, if lie
could, adopt, with old Nestor in the order of
his troops—w.%ou; Es-,u,Eova-1 EXa.;TE'v—but what-
ever maybe the real meaning of JusTus here,
it must be confessed - that he has been ingenious
enough to perplex, if not to conceal it ;—and if
we were inclined to suspicion, we might natu-
rally suspect, from his confused mode of rank-
ing these writers, he would rather not rank
them at all, but establish the character of the
Advocates of the Church, without any exception,
as Libertines and Infidels.

He seems, indeed, too deeply immersed in the
recent scenes that have been exhibited in Tur-
key ; and in his outrageous zeal against those
outrages, his humanity gets the better of his jus-
tice. Sir, what in the name of justice have these
scenes to do with his Essay on Enthusiasm;
or what ray of light does the contemplation
of blood and slaughter throw upon the differences
bet►veen the Established Church and the Sec-
tarians ?

The conduct of -this ycleped " intermediate
body" to the elect is compared to the con-
duct of the " Holy Alliancers, who are con-
federate with the Turks against the Chris-
tians ;—they call the deeds of the Turks murders,
but yet remain at borne, and take credit to
themselves for humane policy, while calmly con-
templating the field of battle smoking with the
blood and gore of their fellow Christians, with-
out an attempt to check the massacres committed
by the infidel host." In answer to this philippic,
it may fairly be replied, the motives of these
Holy Alliancers must be best known to them-
selves, as they are the best judges also of their
ptiwer to act up to the full measure of theii• feel-
ings. We have no right to condemn them un-
heard ; they certainly have not as yet she'wn
themselves to be knight-errants in humanity; or
come forward against the host without counting
the cost ; they have their feelings and thfiF
Oyes, no doubt—let us look to our ore i. We
are as inveterate as parties, can be against the
Turks, or against the libertines and infidels, and
would do all we can to assist our fellow. Chris-
tians in distress ; but this may not be the time
or the season—we have greater alarms and dan-
gers that appal us nearer home, where charity
begins, though there I allow it ()tight not, as it
too often does, to end. By unseasonably attempt-
ing to relieve others, and, in our rash zeal, not
caring for our own safety, we may be entirely
prevented from imparting that relief which, if
we had been more cautious, we might have been
able to impart; hut Id our eagerness, and by
blind temerity, heedless of cimiefinences, we are

BANKRUPTCIES SUPERSEIjED.

W. Boyd London, merchant—J. Oakley, Southampton,
bricklayer—T. Cruso;Norwich, linen-draper:
BANKRUPTS.

T. Golding and S. Golding, Ditton, Kent, paper-manufac-
turers, to surrender Aug. 31', Sept. 7, and Oct. 5, rt ten, at the
Court of Commiisioners, London. Attorney, Mr. Cranch,
Union-court, Broad-street, London.
R. Felton' senior, High-street, Southwark, hop-merchant,
Sept. 16, at five, 17, and Oct. 5, at eleven, at the Court of Com-
missioners. Attorney, Mr. Townshend, St. Margaret's-hill,
Southwark.

1. Candler, Jewry-street, Aldgate, flour-factor, Sept. 3, 10,
and Oct. 5, at twelve, at the Court of Commissioners. Attor-
nies, Messrs. Druce and Son, Billiter-square, London.
J. Porter, Swinford, Leicestershire, butcher, Aug. 29, at six,
30, and Oct. 5, at eleven, at the Spread Eagle Inn, Rugby.
Warwickshire. Attornies, Messrs. Harris and Wise, Rugb,'.
P. C. Fletcher and T. Fletcher, Queenhithe, coal-rnerchants,
Sept. 3,7, and Oct. 5, at twelve, at the Court of Commissionets.
Attornies, Messrs. Stevens and Wood, Little St. Thomas
Apostle, Queen-street, London.
S. H. Leah, Old-street, watch-maker, Aug. 28, at twelve.
31, and Oct. 6, at one, at the Court of Commissioners. Attor-
ney, Mr. Browning, Hatton-court, Threadneedle-street._
.„ _ .

S. Allen and T. C.. Noble, Bristol, hosiers, Sept. 4, 25, and
Oct. t, at twelve, g the, White Lion Inn Bristol. Attornies,
Messrs.. Poole and Greenfield, Gray's Inn-sgilare, London
and Mr. Pallin, Bristol.

Hayton and M. Douglas,. Sunderland near the Sea,
Durham, coal-titters,. Sept. 9, 10, and Oct. 5, at eleven, at
the Bridge inn, 13islkop Wearmouth, Durham., Attortues,
Mr. Blackiston, SlCxisnd's Inn, London ; and Mr. Thomp-
son, Bishop Wearnogt4h.
T. Stride, Quarley, -Southampton, dealer' Sept. 6,7, and
Oct. ti, at eleven, at the Three Swans Inn, New Sarum. At-
tornies, Mr. Edmonds, Exchequer Office, Lincoln's Inn,
London ; and Mr. Burt, Broughton, Hampshire.
J. Pasley, Bristol, master mariner, Sept. 5,. 6, and Oct. 5,
at one, at the Commercial Rooms, Bristol. Attornies, Messrs.
Vizard and Blower, Lincoln's Inn, London ; Mr. Heaven,
and Mr. Gregory, Bristol.
S. H. Leah, jun., Old•street, spirit merchant, Aug. ,28, at-
one, 31, at twelve_; and Oct. 5, at one, at the COurt of Cont..
missioners. Attorney, Mr. Hill, Rood-lane, Fenchurch-street.