The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-03-20 00:00:00

DISSENTERS' MARRIAGES.

Sir ROBERT PEEL, in introducing this measure, said that the
object of the bill which he should ask leave to introduce would
be to provide relief for those dissenters who objected to have
the ceremony of marriage performed in their own case accord-
ing to the rites of the church of England. The 26th Geo. I.
provided that no marriage ceremony should be performed unless
by a clergyman of the church of England, and according to the
rites of that church, except in the case of jews and ouakers.
To the provisions of this act the dissenters objected; they al-
leged they had conscientious objections to the use of forms and
ceremonies from which they dissented. The church of England
could obtain no benefit by compelling those who dissented from
her doctrines to solemnize their marriages according to her
rites. Under these circumstances it became necessary to con-
sider what mode of relief could be granted to the dissenting
body in this respect. To him it appeared there were only three
modes by which the objects of the dissenters could be attained.
The first an alteration of the ceremony; but this would be a
violation doua to the consciences of those who adhered to the
church and approved of that ceremony. The members of the
church of England, therefore, had a Lair right to object to the
alteration of a ceremony with which they were perfectly satis-
fied, and which was entirely conformable with their feelings
and doctrines, provided that any other mode of satisfying the
conscientious scruples of those who dissented from the church
could be discovered. The second mode by which it might be
possible to give relief to the dissenters, and a mode which Fad
been hitherto almost always tried, was to make some provision
by which dissenters should be able to perform the ceremony of
marriage within dissenting chapels. and various bills had been
submitted to the consideration of parliament since the year
1821, some of which had passed the House of Commons, founded
on the principle of giving permission to dissenters to celebrate
the marriage ceremony within their own places of worship. Sir
Robert then proceeded to analyze the bill ietroduced by the
noble lord, (Lord John Russell,) against which the dissenters
petitioned during the last session on the following grounds,-
1, because they objected to the celebration of marriages in
places of worship exclusively; 2, because they objected to the
publication of bans in parish churches, and to the granting of
licenses by surrogates; and 3, because they felt that the affix-
ing the license granted for the solemnization of marriage in
some conspicuous part of their places of worship would give rise
to feelings which it would be better to avoid exciting. It would
be seen, therefore, that very material, objections were enter-
tained by the dissenters to the measure proposed by the noble
lord. In his opinion the third objection was one of minor import-
ance; but still it must be remembered that it was put forward by the
dissenters themselves. Besides these objections, there were °there
which might be urged to the noble lord's bilk on general grounds.
He (Sir U. Peel) had already alluded to two modes by which it
might be supposed, on a first impression, that relief should be