The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 5, 1844.

PRESBYTERIAN MARRIAGES.

The very serious difficulties lately raised touching
the legality of marriages celebrated by ministers of
the Presbytery, in the north and other parts of Ire-
laud, will probably be fresh in the recollection of our
readers. It having become necessary to test the va-

lidity of such marriages by an appeal to the Irish
Bench, the venerable judges of the sister kingdom—
(to the no small dismay of all persons comprised in
the Presbyterian connexion, and the surprise of most
people in England who had interested themselves in
the progress and decision of the question referred to
the arbitration of those learned persons)—concurred in
announcing their solemn judgment to be "that such
marriages, so performed by Presbyterian ministers,
would not he recognised as valid by the law of this
realm." A Bill, having for its object to remedy this
serious anomaly in our general Marriage Law in fu-
ture, and a Bill having retractive operation to validate
and confirm all de facto marriages of this nature
already celebrated, were the two measures which it
was judged necessary to propound, on this matter, for
the sanction of Parliament. There could be little
difficulty or hesitation in dealing with the latter,
which every principle of equity and policy appeared
equally to call for. The former measure, it was an-
ticipated, could not be devised without considerable
embarrassment as to the best methods of obviating
the recurrence of similar difficulties to those which
had just been brought under the consideration of our
Courts of Law, and, by appeal, under the review of
the House of Lords. These anticipations were fully
verified in the subsequent deliberations, long and con-
flicting as they were, of the Peers upon the Marriages
(Ireland) Bill. A copy of this Bill (as amended by
the Lords' Committee), entitled "An Act for Mar-
riages in Ireland ; and for registering such mar-
riages" (brought from the Lords on the 10th instant,
and ordered to be printed by the Commons on the
29th), is now before us.
This Bill consists of eighty-five clauses and seven
schedules. The preamble recites the expediency "of
amending the law of marriages in Ireland, and pro-
viding the means for a register of the marriages of
her Majesty's subjects," there. The want of a well-
digested, faithful, and carefully-preserved marriage
register is one of the most serious inconveniences
under which organised society at this time of day and
in this kingdom can labour. Such a register is
essential, as among the best authenticated documents
to govern the right descent of titles and honours, the
representation of property, &c., &c., in litigated cases.
Clauses 1 to 16 enact that after the 31st of March,

1845, all rules prescribed by the rubric concerning
the solemnisation of marriages shall continue to be
observed, except in the cases after provided for in this
Bill, by every person in holy orders of the United
Church of England and Ireland, who shall solemnize
any marriage in Ireland. The giving notice to the
registrar, and the issue of his certificate for
marriage without license, may be used, and shall
stand in lieu of publication of banns, to
all intents and purposes, wherein such publi-
cation shall have been made, provided the
marriage be solemnised within his district, by whom
the certificate is issued; seven days notice to be
given to the Surrogate before any license granted, not
being a special license, the new rights of the Arch-
bishop of ARMAGH and his successor, and his and their
proper officers to grant marriage licenses—and mar-
riages by any Roman Catholic priest which may be
now lawfully celebrated, nor the registration of any
Roman Catholic chapel being in any wise affected—
but remaining, on the contrary, unaltered by this
Bill. Marriages between parties, one or both of
them Presbyterians, may be solemnized in certified
meeting-houses between eight in the morning
and two in the afternoon, in presence of
two or more credible witnesses, and with
open doors, always provided there be no lawful im-
pediment in the way of such marriages—by license
from a Presbyterian minister or by banns. Where
both parties are Presbyterians, banns shall be pub-
lished in presence of a Presbyterian minister, in the
Presbyterian meeting-house, certified as above, fre-
quented by the congregation whereof the parties
are members ; six days' previous notice, at the
least, to be given to the Presbyterian mi-
nisters before the publication of banns. Each
presbytery is to appoint a minister to certify
meeting-houses; such minister to send to the regis-
trar a certificate signed in duplicate by him of the
particulars of every such marriage (after a form in the
schedule) ; the registrar will remit them to the Regis-
trar-General, who shall cause such meeting-house to
be entered in a book, to be kept for this purpose, at
the general registry-office. Every minister so
appointed and approved is authorised to grant licenses
for marriages in any Presbyterian meeting-house so
certified, being within his presbytery after a certain
form presented in one of the schedules ; but he shall
previously to exercising the power give security to
the Registrar-General in 1001. for the due and faith-
ful execution of his office. Before any such license
is granted by such minister, one of the two parties
to be married must appear before him to take an oath
in the usual forms required by the existing Marriage
Act (as to the absence of legal impediment by reason
of consanguinity or otherwise ; and, in cases
of minors, the written consent of parents or other
lawful guardians duly appointed, &c.) The
applicant for license to produce from the minister of
the congregation, whereof he or she is a member, a
certificate in the form set forth in Schedule D, which
certificate is to be in all cases fairly copied by the
officiating minister into his "Marriage Notice Book."
A caveat may be lodged with the minister against
grant of a license in any case, duly signed by party
entering the same. Marriages of Quakers and
Jews may continue to be solemnised after manner
respectively observed with regard to them under the
present law. Notice of every intended marriage
must be given to the registrar of the district, who
will enter all such notices in a book, and afterwards
publish them, and after expiration of seven days, if
marriage is to be solemnised by license, or twenty-
one days, if without license, the registrar shall, on
demand, grant his certificate of notice, fee Is.
Clauses 17 to 32 regard the forms of the certificates
to be furnished, and state in what manner certificates
for marriage by license are to be distinguishable from
other certificates ; when the issue of registrar's cer-
tificate may be forbidden; who shall give consent
where parties are under age, and who, in the case of
incapacity in such parties, every registrar empowered
to grant licenses for marriages, or any buildings re-
gistered within his particular district, but such license
shall not extend to marriages to be solemnised ac-
cording to the rites of the United Church of England
and Ireland in any church or chapel thereof. The
certificate of the applicant's appearance before regis-
trar to be produced before grant of license ; and no
marriage, except by license, to be solemnised until
twenty-one days filler entry of notice; and where
such notice or license is not acted on for three months,
notice, &c., must be renewed. Forms to be observed
in delivery of such certificates, and solemnisation of
such marriages, in presence of a registrar and two
witnesses, and amount of fees payable to minister and
registrar. After any such marriage shall have been
solemnised, proof of residence of parties, or of consent
of guardians, &c. (where one or both parties still
minors, shall not be necssary to establish validity of
such marriage.)—Cl. 32.
This clause is one of the best, we think, in the whole
Bill. The true policy of the Legislature should be to
affirm that which our highest authorities in the canon
and spiritual law, in dealing with the law of marriage,
have held to be essential to the true interests of so-
ciety; namely, to keep up a broad and well-defined dis-
tinction between marriages void, and marriages
voidable ; rigorously to restrain within its pre.
sent limits, that class of marriages which from "law-
ful impediments" or other disqualifying circumstances
are, as it were, ipso facto, or ab initio, illegal and
void ; and jealously to discourage any attempt to mul-
tiply the cases in which, by appeal to the legal tribu-
nals of the country, marriages are sought to be ren-
dered void from informality, irregularities sanctioned
by custom, though not recognised by law, omissions or
oversights in personal description, or other accidents
and contingencies not affecting the moral status of,
nor necessarily implying in, the parties themselves
any guilty knowledge of, or connivance at, such in-
formality or irregularity (as the case may be).
Clauses 33 to 39 enact " that, in order to relieve the
parish church, or any chapel mar-
riageswedhaecrcceohirnudrincgh
inhabitants of populous districts remote from the
ceremonieslawfully
of the rites m aayn dbe lawfully
toof

England and Ireland," Bishops, with consent of
patrons and incumbents, may license chapels
for the solemnisation of such marriages ; but
patron or incumbent may appeal to Archbishop
against such licenses ; notices of such license to be
affixed on walls of such chapels; ceremonial to be the
same as that of our parish churches ; Bishop, with
consent of Archbishop, may revoke such licenses;
steps to be thereupon taken, &c. By clauses 43 to 47
persons on duly entering caveats are declared liable
to costs and damages ; persons making false declara-
tions, &c., are guilty of perjury; persons unduly
solemnising marriages in Ireland, or any other place
than a church or chapel of the Church of England
and Ireland, or a Presbyterian meeting-house or
registered building certified under this Act, except
by special license from the Archbishop of Armagh,
or otherwise solemnising marriages, without publica-
tion of banns or license, or any registrars unduly
issuing certificates, shall each and all of them be
guilty of felony. By clause 51 it is enacted that in
cases of fraudulent marriages, the guilty party shall
forfeit all property accruing from the marriage, as in
4 Geo. IV., c. 76. The other clauses of the Bill appear
to regard, principally, details of registration, salaries
of officers, &c., penalties, and the means of receiving
them, for the falsification or wilful defacement of re-
gisters. The 83d clause comprehends the retroacting
confirmation, we' have mentioned, of " certain mar-
riages that have, in divers instances, been bad, and
celebrated in Ireland by Presbyterian, and other
Protestant or Dissenting ministers or teachers, or
between persons of the same or different religious per-
suasions." It declares these to be valid "as if such
marriages had been solemnised by clergymen of the
United Church of England and Ireland."
Upon the whole, and with some few exceptions
only, we think this is a large and fair Bill, well cal-
culated to relieve the parties for whose benefit it is
especially intended, from the effects of the anomalies
complained of in times past, and to protect them from
the recurrence of such vexations in times to come.

SWEDEN.

SPEECH OF THE KING OF SWEDEN ON OPENING
THE ASSEMBLY OF THE STATES-GENERAL,
JULY 20, 1844

The position which I occupy in this sacred place, in the
midst of the States-General of Sweden, brings to all our
minds the recollection of a great and irreparable loss, and
the first words that I have to utter, are accompanied with
unaffected grief and deep regret. These feelings must ever
be yours as well as mine, and they are no more than a just
tribute to him who now reposes in the peaceful tomb, my
venerated father. His memory is dear to the two States
that he by his power and genius united in ties which are in-
dissoluble. By their union he established for the north a
new source of strength and glory. It is in the firm main.•
tenance of that which has been accomplished, and in bro-
therly concord and sameness of object, that we ground our
future hopes, and find the best security for the independence
and the welfare of the Scandinavian people.
The first meeting of a monarch with the representatives of
a nation, in order to concert what may be necessary for the
future, is always an important and solemn proceeding. Much
depends upon intimate communication. From that springs
confidence in vows and pledges, just actions are assured,
and, with the assistance of Providence, the repose and
prosperity of the country we love will thus be promoted and
established.
In the temple of God we have invoked the protection of
the All Powerful. His strength is indispensable to the ac-
complishment of the high duties imposed upon us all; we
rely upon it for the performance of our mutual obligations
and attachments; for fidelity, benevolence, and concord. I
promise you, Gentlemen, to defend and maintain justice and
truth, to help onwards the progress of knowledge, and to
encourage and promote, by my efforts, the development of
all those noble and endearing qualities that are to be found
in the manly character and energies of the natives and inha-
bitants of the hardy north. These are my resolves :to you I
look for a sincere co- operation, and for reliance upon the
purity of my exertions for the good of our country—for the
welfare of a magnanimous people.
In calling you together, Gentlemen, in an Extraordinary
Diet, I do but gratify my lively desire to meet the AsSembly
at an epoch which is a solemn one both for me and for you,
that you may, at the earliest possible moment, be prepared
for the consideration of those important arrangements for the
benefit of the State which are the objects of my solicitude,
and regarding which I bespeak your prompt attention and
deliberation. The great social questions that were before you
in the last session will again come before you and re-claim
your particular attention and investigation. I shall cause to
be brought before you, in due course, various matters of deep
interest, and one of the earliest of these will be a project for a
new criminal code, in conformity to the times in which we
live, wherein we should studiously endeavour to combine with
the severity needful for the repression and punishment of
offences the respect and tender regard which, as rulers and
law-makers, we owe to the dignity of man.
Appreciating the importance and necessity of amending
and simplifying the administration of our internal concerns
and the completion of our system of defence, I commend to
your instant attention the consideration of these vital ques-
tions. With regard to the accomplishment of the public
works to which I intend, at a future period, to invite your
concurrence, I propose to make them one of the subjects to
be submitted to you in a new Extraordinary Diet.
It is with the most lively satisfaction that I communicate
to you the fact that ny accession to the throne has been
viewed by all the Foreign Powers with the most gratifying
friendship and good wishes. I shall take an early occasion
to make to you the necessary communications on this and
other points of interest.
The relations of these united kingdoms with the States of
Northern Africa, and the payment of an annual tribute, are
injurious to our commerce, and incompatible with our, na-
. .

tional dignity. I have firmly resolved to break through an
exaction which all the Powers of Europe, except ourselves,
have long since refused to pay. My feeling on this matter
is strong ; and I have reason to expect that the negotiations
which have been opened with reference to it will terminate
pacifically, and to your satisfaction.
The patriotic sentiments and feelings with which you are
all animated, Gentlemen, will guide you in your delibera-
tions, and influence and facilitate your decisions. I pray the
Almighty to be with you, and assure you all of my royal
regard and affection.

UNITED STATES.
ARRIVAL OF THE GREAT WESTERN.
LIVERPOOL, SUNDAY EVENING.

The Great Western, Captain Matthews, which left New
York on the 20th of July, arrived here to-day, at noon,
with sixty-five passengers, after a run of fourteen days
and sixteen hours.

The treaty for the annexation of Texas, although
thrown out by the Senate during the late session, is in-
tended by Mr. Tyler to be the ground upon which he
again claims to be continued during another term in the
Presidential chair. The candidates in the field, Messrs.
Clay and Polk, are both, if not opposed to, neutral on
the subject of annexation, but it is a darling scheme with
the retiring President, and accordingly, he has pub-
lished in the Government paper, the Madisonian, a
number of " secret" documents hich he sent to the
Senate while that body, with closed doors, was debating
the project, with a view to induce them to pass it. First,
there is a " a message," from Mr. Tyler to the Senate,
in which he strongly expresses his own opinion in favour ,
of the treaty, as the only remedy of keeping Texas out
of the clutches of England ; the message also shows, 1
that General Jackson entertains the same sentiment as '
Mr. Tyler himself, and all this is strengthened by the
testimony of Mr. President Houston. A letter from a I
Mr. Allen to a Mr. Walker, dated Houston, March 1,
1844, shows the feeling in Texas in favour of the annexa-
tion, and that "if the effort fails, President Houston
will make a free trade treaty with England." Finally,
there is a " circular," addressed to the French, Spa-
nish, English, and Russian Ministers, by an employe of
the Mexican Government, in which the Santa Anna
version of the project is put forth. This document goes
at considerable length into the subject, and shows that
the treaty, if effected, would be an act of gross injustice
to Mexico, as that country has never acknowledged the
independence of Texas, and still regards it as a province
of the mother country.
The floods on the Mississippi had receded ; not, how-
ever, without doing serious injury. In many districts
what are called by the Americans " bottom lands" had
been much injured by the great deposit of sand, amount-
ing in some instances to five feet deep, having been left
when the floods receded.
The riots in Philadelphia continued to be discussed in
every part of the union, eliciting a variety of opinions,
according to the views of the respective parties. An in-
vestigation had taken place, and the circumstances will
the attention
party ofha thed
diedi
courtsn
theof justice.interim Someand t
ho
ef
affair appears to have left behind a rankling feeling
between the Irish and the native American people, the
the
results of which will, in all probability, lead to serious
collisions hereafter in other quarters. One of the pri-
mary causes of the riots—the absence of a police force
occupy
wounded
sufficiently strong to keep the peace—appears to have
been overlooked in the discussions with which the Ame-
rican papers teem.
The Toronto Examiner of July 17th contains a long
account of what might have proved a very serious and
bloody riot, between a number of Orangemen and a large
party of Roman Catholic labourers, who assembled in
the neighbourhood of that city. It appears that the
Orange party had formed the intention of going on board
a steamer, with their party colours, music, and deadly
weapons, to the Falls of Niagara, where they intended
to have passed a gala day, and dined at the hotel, on the
British side of the falls. The Roman Catholic labourers
assembled, to the number of 1,500, and declared that
unless the badges of the Orange party were suppressed,
the arms thrown away, and every symptom of tin offen-
sive character taken from them, they would prevent the
excursion. The Orange party, fearing the consequences,
consented, and thus a breach of the peace, which, had it
occurred, would have been of a deadly character, was
prevented. The labourers were armed with muskets,
bayonets, scythes, reaping hooks, and every imaginable
instrument of destruction. These party broils between
the Catholic and the Orange ;parties are giving much
annoyance to the local authorities in Canada.
The following is the commercial summary of the New
York Commercial Advertiser for the week ending the 20th
of July :
" The appearance of business indicates greater activity
in the commercial circles than has prevailed for the last
few weeks, and there is every prospect that the commu-
nity will be actively engaged at a period earlier than
ordinary in corresponding seasons. The imports for
the fall trade are now coming in quite freely, and as the
West and South have hitherto bought but moderately,
and are not supposed to have large stocks of merchandise
on hand, it may reasonably be expected that the sales to
the country will exceed those of either of the two or
three previous years.
. _ _

" During that time the country has been recovering
from the effects of the great revulsion, and progressively
improving its condition."
The New York Express says:—
" The weather since the sailing of the Britannia has
continued fine, and there has been nothing received in
the city in relation to the harvest to lessen the prospect
of a most abundant crop of wheat, corn, &c. The far-
mers will thus be able to send a large amount of pork
and beef to market."
In Canada the crops are represented as being above
an average, a part of which will go to swell the large
amount of grain and produce generally, that can be
exported to Europe, in the event of a demand in that
quarter.
EXCHANGE.—There has been a fair amount of busi-
ness in foreign bills for transmission per the Great
Western. The transaction in bills on London have been
at from 109 to 1091. The latest quotations are 1094
to 1091. Some drawers ask 109/1, and some small bills,
with first-rate names, have been purchased at 1094, but
the market cannot fairly be quoted at over 1094. On
Paris we quote at sf. 27k to sf. 264.

Her Majesty's Attorney-General, Sir W. Webb
Follett, and family embarked at the Blackwall pier on Satur-
day morning on board the General Steam Navigation Com-
pany's Mail steam-packet Giraffe, Capt. R. Stranach, for
Rotterdam. _

FILTRATION OF FOUL WATER.—The chief bleach-
ing firms in this neighbourhood, have, we understand, re-
ceived during the week large packages of machinery and
sponge for the purpose of adopting " Stuckey's Patent
System of Filtration," in preference to the troublesome and
expensive sand-beds hitherto in use. We have heard much
of the wonders of this invention from Lord Brougham in the
House of Lords, and our metropolitan contemporaries. We
shall soon see for ourselves.—Bolton Free Press.

ARRIVAL OF THE lOIVA INDIANS IN LONDON.—
A party of Indians, of the lowa tribe, whose hunting grounds
are some hundreds of miles west of the Mississippi, arrived in
town last week, at the terminus of the London and Birming-
ham Itaihvay, Euston-square, from Liverpool, where they de-
barked from the Oxford, American packet-ship, on Monday.
The party consists of the aristocracy of the tribe, and includes
the principal chief of the lowas, the " Great Medicine," or
"Mystery Man," who, as his title implies, is the " medical
adviser" of the tribe, and who is en attendant on the party in
case of sickness or accident, a third chief, five " braves" or
warriors, four squaws or wives, a little boy and girl, and a
" pitpoose," or infant.
FORTNIGHTLY DISPATCH Of MAILS TO INDIA.—
We are informed on good authority that her Majesty's Go-
vernment are industriously engaged in the consideration of
some important arrangements, tending to facilitate the over-
land communication with India, and the establishment of
mails once a fortnight to and from our possessions in the east,
infisold of goutbly al at pregnt.

MAGAZINES-(CON TIN UED).

HOOD'S MAGAZINE.

As usual, we received this Magazine at so la'.e an
hour that we were unable to include it yesterday
among our Monthly Notices. We have cast our eye
hastily over its contents, and have been amused with
the spirit and ingenuity that not a few of the articles
exhibit. The first is from the pen of the Editor, and
is a continuation of a tale entitled " Our Family."
The sketch of the parish apothecary, Postle, is the
best thing in the present chapters, and contains
several racy touches of character. in the "Festival
at Basle" an account is given of a desperate battle
fought by the Swiss against the French and Austrians
in the year 1444, the anniversary of which has ever
since been held by the patriotic mountaineers. The
"Boy and the Angel" is a quaint and somewhat
mystical poem by Mr. Browning, who is but too apt
to deal in the obscure and the mysterious. The
"Polka" is a lively prose sketch, in which occur one
one or two smart hits at the politics of the party of
Young England. We subjoin the following pleasing
and unaffected sonnet, which is the production of a
lady who signs herself " Gertrude":—
Oh! not for cities' smoke and sultry toil
Is the fresh glory of this summer day:
Tlaste, spread thy wings, and from the vain turmoil

Spring like freed bird from prison-cage away!

Whitt halcyon life awaits thee-in the woods,
The tangled deep luxuriance of green shade,
Where the mind revels in those rainbow moods
By thousand links of thought and feeling made!
...

Go, fling thee down in somesequester'd nook,
Where the glad stream in chequer'd sunlight flows :
No need hast thou of comrade or of book,
Whose heart responsive still to Nature glows:
Let but a wild flower at thy feet be springing,
And all thy poet's soul will break forth into singing !