The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-05-08 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

THE CORONATION.
(From the East Riding Gazette.)
In the coronation affair, as in all others where good
taste, loyalty, generous feeling, and dignity are inter-
m i need, the "shabbiest of all shabby ministries" has
been obliged to give way. Lord Melbourne fixed the
anniversary of the death of the uncle for the coronation
of the niece, and an universal groan of scorn and con
tempt has compelled him to recede. More, however, at
the present moment, he dares not do. Lord kVestmin•
ster, and others of the Whig familie,,, demand their por-
tion of the public spoil ; and having an abundance of
mere wealth, they crave exaltation in conventional rank.
They know full well that they can hope to acquire it only
upon an extraordinary occasion, when the crown, with-
out the question of the nation, may give away honours.
Such an event is a coronation. They know, also, that so
wretchedly tottering is the present ministry, that it is ut-
terly impossible for it to go through the session in a re-
gular course of public business, and survive. Hence the
breathless haste : no coronation in June, no twenty-six
peerages, with eight or ten promotions, to gratify abase,
incompetent, and most tyrannical faction.
According, then, to Lord Melbourne, the whigs are to
have another " half crown-ation." And the popular
fame of our young Queen is to be blurred and blotted
throughout the land in order to promote the miserable
purposes of a shabby ministry. The public voice, how-
ever, has already given certain warnings; and, from
these and other proceedings which are in progress, we
verily believe that, even were the coronation to take
place on the first day in Jnne, it would not find Lord
Melbourne at the head of the Treasury.

EXPLANATORY NOTICE
RESPECTING REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS,

UNDRR THE NEW REGISTRATION ACT.
Vi and 7 Gulielmi IV., c. 86.]

By the news registration act, the parent of every child bon
after June, 1837, may obtain fur it the advantage of a legal re-
gistry of its birth, without payment of any fee, provided it be
registered by the registrar of the district in which the child was
born within six weeks after the birth. A birth may be register-
ed at any time within six months after the birth ; but, after six
weeks, the expence of registering it will be 7s. 6d., and after six
months it cannot be registered at all.
The new register of births is the only legal register which is
evidence of the time of a birth, and, consequently, of the precise
age of the child, and which is also evidence of the place where
the birth occurred.

It is of importance to all classes of persons to be able to prove
when and where they were born, which may be done in future
by means of the register of births. To the wealthier classes such
a register is especially useful for proof of pedigree, and for vari-
ous legal purposes connected with the disposition of property,
and for settlement of claims thereto, and also for life insurance.
To the poorer classes it is useful for the same purposes, and for
others also, particularly such as apprenticeship, employment in
factories, and admission to endowed schools and charities.
There are many schools, societies, asylums, and other charitable
institutions, very desirable for the children of the poorer classes,
tot which a proof of the age is required before the child can be
admitted.

Many trading companies will not take an apprentice without
a certificate of the age; and this is also sometimes necessary in
order to obtain employment in the dock yards, and other public
establishments. _ _

Those who live in manufacturing districts know how desirable
it is to be able to prove the age of children seeking to be em•
ployed in factories.
Registration is also of great importance to all members of
friendly and benefit.societies.

The new system of registration not only gives a register of
the age, which could not be obtained before, but makes it easier
to obtain the proof when wanted. Persons in the country may
obtain a certified copy of any entry of a birth Or death register-
' ed in the district, from the registrar or the supetintendent
reois-
trar; or by applying at the general register office iu Somerset-
place, London, or causing a friend or agent to apply for them,
they may have a certified copy 'of any entry of birth, death, or
marriage, that has been registered in any part of England and
Wales; and this certified copy-will-te'shilicient evidence, with-
out requiring an affidavit that the entry is correctly copied,
which is often required for the confirmation of extracts given
from church registers.
The difference between the new registers of births and the
ohurch registers of baptism, and the effect of the registration
Act, having been much misunderstood, it is right to explain—
That the one is not a" substitute for the other, but that they
are entirely different, the new register being a register only of
births, the church register being a register only of baptisms:
That registry of birth does not warrant neglect of the sacred
rite of baptism, nor is the fact that the child has been baptized
a sufficient reason for neglecting to register the birth:
That the church register of baptiSms is not affected by the
new act, but remains as before, a legal record of baptisms, but
not of births; for though births are sometimes entered in the
church registers, it has been decided by Judges in courts of
law, " that an entry of a birth made by a clergyman in the re-
gister of baptisms is not evidence of the time or place of birth."

The small pox continues very prevalent in Ripon, attended
with great mortalit) amongst children.