The Sun.
London, England, 1823-05-14 00:00:00

PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, TUESDAY, MAY 13.
The Quorum Magistrates and Union Duties Bills were read
the second time; the other Bills on the table were forwarded
one stage.
LAWS RELATING TO iIARRIAGE.

The Archbishop of CANTERBURY presented the Re-
port of the Committee appointed to consider the state of the
' law respecting Marriage, which was read. The Report stated,
that the Committee having considered the dissatisfaction
which had been expressed by many Clergymen, on the sub-
ject of the various new forms rendered necessary by the Act
'of last Session, had deemed it expedient to recur to the forms
previously in use; they therefore recommended the discon-
tinuance of all such forms as were vexatious and nugatory,
more particularly those which regarded the oaths required to be
taken by parties, previously to the solemnization of marriage.—
On the general subject, the Committee recommended a better
arrangement of the clauses of the Act of 26th Geo. 11. With
respect to bans, they did not consider any alteration necessary,
except that permission should be given to have them published
in chapels. With respect to licenses, they recommend that they
should be suffered to remain on their present footing. Both
bans and licenses, if not acted upon within three months, I
Should be renewed. The Committee declare the great
culty they have had in reconciling the parental rights with a
due regard to the rights of minors ; and understanding that the
opinion of the house was fully expressed against the renewal
of that clause of the old law, by which marriages of minors, had
without consent of parents and guardians, were declared null
and void ; they suggest, therefore, that there should be apro-
vision, by which such marriages may be voided, if a suit be
commenced within 12 months after solemnization. The Court
of Chancery to have jurisdiction in thalike manner as it has in
cases of wards of that Court. The Committee had extended
their considerations to the marriages of Roman Catholics and
other dissenters, but were of opinion that it would not be de-
sirable to include them in the present bill. After the report
had been read,

Lord ELIAINBOBOUGH rose. It was not his intention,
he said, to provoke any discussion of' the measure at prtsent,
but he wished to state, as might be imagined, that he did not
concur in the principle that marriages of minors without consent
of parents and guardians should be void. He would only now
beg to call their Lordships" attention to the necessary conse-
quences if that principle were introduced into the marriage-law.
In the first place, it appeared to him to be entirely nugatory, for
a minor might form a valid marriage by means of bans (it was
only to marriages by licences that the principle was to extend),
and therefore need not have recourse to the marriage by license.
But though it was nugatory as to the end proposed, it did seem
to him to hold out a means by which profligate young men
might obtain possession of the persons of women by means of
a fictitious marriage. It contained a penalty applying only to
the weaker party, who, on every principle, was entitled to pro-
tection. For these and other reasons, with which he would not
trouble their Lordships then, but which he would state at length
when the Bill carne under discussion, he entirely dissented
front the provision recommended by the Committee, and ha
gave notice to the Noble and Learned Lord (Lord Stowell)
and the Right Rev. Prelate, whom he considered as the authors
of that clause, that he should oppose it in every way possible
consistent with the forms of Parliament.

The Archbishop of CANTEItIIURY then brought in the
Bill, founded on the Report of the Committee, which was read
the first time. His Grace observed, that the second reading
might be fixed for some convenient day after the holidays.
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY presented a Petition from
Samuel Thornton, Governor of the Russian Company, setting
forth that it had been the custom for two centuries to solemnize
the marriages of British subjects in Russia, but that doubts
had recently been raised as to their validity; he therefore prayed
the House to pass an Act to declare them valid.
Lord STOWELL considered it unnecessary to comply with
the prayer of the petition, as the marriages referred to had al.
ways been considered valid marriages in our Courts of Law.—
Petition ordered to lie on the table.—Adjourned.