The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-03 00:00:00

claims to property ; and deserves the attention of the
humblest artisan, as well as of the most philosophical and
statesmanlike inquirer.
3. That the existing law is imperfect and unjust, and
requires not merely partial amendment, but real funda-
mental reform.

4. That the present plan, even if improved and per-
fected, as applicable to the members of the Established
Church, being founded on religious rights, is exclusive and
intolerant; as it would not include a very considerable
portion of the reflecting, intelligent, and influential popu-
lation of the country, who are Protestant and Catholic
Dissenters from that Church, and 1,100 congregations,
who disapprove of infant baptism ; and must practically
punish them (including, too, the community who may
purchase or derive property from them) for claiming the
rights of conscience, and believing what their judgments
direct.

5. That even to many pious and worthy clergymen of
the Established Church the system is productive of pain
and regret, as it often induces a compliance, from mere
secular motives, with sacraments which they highly esti-
mate and devoutly revere; but

6. That even as to the members of the church it is
detrimental and absurd, since the registers are mere re-
gisters of baptisms, and not of births—of burials, and not
of deaths—since they supply no adequate proofs of pedi•
gree, or means of proving or tracing ancestral descent—since
they are often falsified, stolen, burnt, inaccurately inscribed,
and carelessly preserved—since the securities intended to be
given by the last General Register Act (62 George III.),
by directing the yearly and universal transcription of the
registers, their deposit with the diocesan records, and the
preparation of indexes to facilitate searches, have all ex-
perienced only a most limited fulfilment, as while one-
fourth of the parishes make no return, the returns that
have been sent are never indexed, and are subject to fire
and decay; and the directions of the Act have not been
and cannot be enforced, and since the value of property is
diminished by the difficulties incident to its transfer,
and the insecurity with which it is so often held and
acquired : and,
7. That great trouble, vast expense, utter uncertainty,
capricious charges, and local and general evils exist, while
no means are supplied to obtain the information other
countries possess, and justly value, as to the state of
disease, the operation of moral and physical causes on the
health of the people, the progress of population, and other
matters on which accurate knowledge can scarcely be too
highly appreciated or too intensely pursued.
From these considerations your Committee con-
clude that a national civil registration of births, mar-
riages, and deaths, should be established ; that such
registration should equally include all ranks of so-
ciety, and religionists of every class—that in the
forms such improvements should be made as, avoid-
ing perplexity and needless multiplication of state-
ments, might direct inquirers to the parents or last
ancestor of each person recorded, and assist medical
and statistical inquirers in useful research ; that a
parochial arrangement should be continued ; that a
duplicate of each register should always be made ;
that such duplicate should be periodically transmitted
to the metropolis, where a general national office
should be formed, a superintending authority should
exist, and alphabetical and accurate indexes and ab-
stracts should be prepared ; that the parochial
charges should be defrayed by moderate salaries or
small fees, payable by respectable inhabitants, and
out of the rates for persons in more indigent cir-
cumstances, or receiving relief; while the metropo-
litan office would be supported by payments on
searches, and an allowance of Id. on every entry
which each parish should send. To that metro-
politan office lists of all parochial registers now ex-
tant should be transmitted, but the present registers
they would continue in the parochial depositories,
with the registers that will hereafter be made. In
such an arrangement your Committee would not
interfere with any religious institutions among Dis-
senters or members of the Established Church.
The baptismal rite, tlae marriage ceremony, and the
burial service, might be fitly continued without the
smallest alteration, and the clergymen or other offi-
ciating ministers might, at the desire of parties,
continue optional registers of all the sacred services
they perform. To such a plan it may be objected,
that the people, arid especially the poorer classes,
would withhold the information of births and deaths
needful to its universal effect. But your Committee
are convinced that a register of depths (and even if
the malady arid cause of mortality be inscribed) will
be easily attained by prohibiting interment without
entry; and that even the labouring and most illite-
rate among the people will perceive the benefits of
the design, and will, as in France, and Geneva, and
Belgium, and on the continent, cheerfully help,
rather than obstruct, the improvement, and espe-
cially if information be required from midwives, and
parochial assistance be withheld for children whose
birth shall not be inscribed.

Your committee have been led to prefer a conti-
nuance of our parochial division, because it is de-
fined and existing; though they are not insensible
to the advantages of some improved and more equal
division of the country into other districts, and which
will, ere long, probably result from the introduction
of local law judges and courts, the improvement of
municipal and magisterial arrangements, a different
system for the management of the poor, and the
consequent appointment of such local offices and
officers as in other countries generally exist ; but
they would contemplate, for the purpose of registra-
tion, the consolidation of small and thinly populated
parishes, and the division of some large and popu-
lous parishes into different liberties or wards. Du-
plicates they prefer to copies, because duplicates
will be originals, and remain always as evidence to
prevent the falsification of parochial registers, and to
supply their accidental loss or destruction by fire;
and a metropolitan office they prefer to county or
diocesan depoiitories, because the metropolis is now
so easily and universally accessible—because searches
might be more promptly and economically made—
and because the general results for medical and sta-
tistical information might be so focally collected, ab-
stracted and ascertained.

But " Who should be the registrar ?" your com-
mittee are aware may be anxiously inquired. To
them three suggestions on that subject have been
made, and between them they do not presume to
decide. The first is, that a new civil officer should
be appointed in each parish to act as registrar. To
such proposal it has been objected, that in many
small agricultural parishes and districts no compe-
tent person could be found; and to the objection it
has been replied, that in every parish there are poor-
rates, and highway-rates, and assistant overseers,
surveyors, or clerks, who might also fulfil the func-
tions of registrars with care and success; and that
throughout France, where education and society are
generally less advanced than in England, such
officers are found in every parish and commune, and
the whole business is duly and ably performed. The
second suggestion is, that the duty of registration
should be continued to the parochial clergymen,
though purely as civil, and not as ecclesiastical
officers; and it has been urged that their education
and respectability would fit them best for its fulfil-
ment, while the church would so retain the emolu-
ments itat present enjoys. To this second suggestion
it has been objected, that Dissenters would not like
to wait on a clerical registrar and communicate
with him ; that he might abuse the influence
and authority; that in many parishes clergymen are
non-resident, and transitory; that the duties of the
office would interfere with their sacred functions,
already too multiplied and laborious to afford them
adequate leisure; and that very many would scru-
pulously, and from their consciences, be averse to
act merely as civil officers, and to record with an
implied approval any acts, especially of marriage,
that any Dissenting ministers might perform. But
to that objection it has been replied, that during the
reigns of William 111. and Anne, they did so act
as registrars of births and deaths; that on the
continent, in Austria, they act as civil func
tionaries, and record alike the births, mar-
riages, and deaths of persons not of their own
Christian communion; that in Prussia they make
the entries on the report of the baptisms,
marriages and interments, which from Dis-
senters from the established religion they are
enjoined
to receive; and that it would be absurd to
suppose that our clergy would be less liberal, catho-
lic, and enlightened than the clergy whom those
countries possess. The third suggestion is, that in