THE Committee of the present year came into office with peculiar instruetions from the last General Meeting, on two points of considerable importance, and they hope that credit will be given them for exertion, to the full extent of their power, in promoting the objects in view, though present success may not have been their reward.

On the point which has so long occupied their attention, an alteration in the Marriage Law, so far as compels conformity with the discipline and religious services of the Church of England, the General Meeting of last year expressed a strong opinion of the propriety of reviving the subject early and with effect in the then ensuing Session of Parliament, and it directed measures to be immediately taken towards the accomplishment of this object.

The Committee lost no time in carrying into effect the wishes of their constituents. Very early in the Session many petitions were presented, so many indeed, as to excite considerable attention and command general respect : and no opposition was made in Parliament to the introduction of the Bill.

On the maturest consideration, the Committee proposed the same measure as had been adopted on preceding occasions, even though they were apprised that considerable objections were likely to be raised to its plan. No precise scheme could probably have been devised, which should have escaped the opposition of those who were ashamed to contest the principle, and yet were willing to embarass, by objections to details. The Committee regarded the Bill already prepared as admirably calculated to effect the purpose sought, with as little of unreasonable scrupulosity, or civil inconvenience, as so important a subject could be expected to occasion. To enter upon the much more intricate provisions which a thorough change of place and system of solemnization and registration would require, seemed an unprofitable waste of exertion, while as yet the principle of relief of any sort was not conceded; and it therefore appeared to the Committee, in the first instance, most advisable to persevere in their former plan. They flattered themselves, that, even if rejected, it would draw forth a recognition of the principle of right and justice for which they were contending, and probably some suggestion as to the scheme most likely to be received with approbation. They are happy to see their expectations fully answered. They have heard from all quarters the most explicit admissions of the equity of their claims,

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and they feel encouraged by the pleasing assurance that their labours may now be usefully directed to some profitable end, and that the main object to which their attention is in future to be directed, is the maturing of the mode by which conscientious scruples can be best relieved, consistently with the important safeguards required by the civil institutions of the country.

On the first mention of the subject this Session, our parliamentary advocate, Mr. Smith, conceived it respectful and politic to submit the proposed Bill to the consideration of the highest authorities in the Church, and though the Committee are not enabled to communicate the particulars of correspondence, which perhaps was never intended to be of a public character, they are happy in being able to state generally, that no objection was started to the principle of granting of relief to Dissenters, from the operation of the law in question. The Committee however found, that any alteration or arrangement of the service in the Liturgy was likely to meet with considerable opposition, on the ground that it was an unnecessary and unreasonable interference with the established ritual of the Church; and they were sorry to see that their proposition was treated, not as an application for relief from compulsive conformity, but as an exaction of reform in the Church Services, and an attempt to obtain, at least, a negative impugnment of one of its essential doctrines.

About the same time appeared, in a periodical work usually considered as, to a certain extent, the organ of many important members of the Established Church, an article in the form of a proposed speech in Parliament, on what it calls the Marriage-Act Amendment Bill. In this paper the same ground was adopted as that taken by the dignitaries above alluded to, coupled with the bolder proposition, that the Legislature itself was transgressing its proper bounds in enacting any alteration in the formularies of the Church.

This course of reasoning seems undoubtedly rather singular, and at any rate requires from the advocates of such inviolability in the services and ordinances of the Church, scrupulous care that they do not, for secular purposes, impose obligations, which the secular power is to be told, at the same moment, it has no power to modify. It would have been well if the Church had always maintained that independence of civil authority which the following sentences seem to arrogate :

"The proposal to omit certain passages in the Marriage ceremony, although it is smoothed over in rounded periods as a slight innovation, is sufficient not merely to degrade and disgrace, but to destroy the Church of England. Her Book of Common Prayer, her Rites and Ceremonies and Articles, are her own, not yours. They were drawn up in her Convocations under the authority of her Bishops, and proceeded from spiritual, not from temporal authority. Parliament adopted them and gave them the support of the civil power; and of course the same Parliament might have rejected, or may

* The Christian Rebembrancer, No. 41.

+ This of course is addressed to the House of Commons.

-now repeal them. But the object of the present Bill is to alter the rites of the Church, without giving her a voice on the occasion. There is no saying what Parliament, in its legislative omnipotence, may not do. But you will overset every precedent in existence, you will violate the spirit and principles of the constitution, if you pretend to turn this House into a synod or council, and waste your time in what you do not understand, the discussion and the formation of Creeds, and Rites, and Rubrics. The King, as head of the Church, may appoint commissioners to take the subject into consideration. The Convocation may re-assume its ancient functions. But, until the Convocation has agreed to the proposed amendments, Purliamentary interference is tyranny and usurpation. The Church of England has been reproached, by its various adversaries, with being an Act-of-Parliament Church. The Papist has done this in his zeal for the power of the Pope; and the Puritan in his affected -attachment to the privileges of the people, has imitated the example. But up to this hour the imputation is scandalous and false. I trust you will not entertain a Bill by which the opprobious epithet would be justified and confirmed."

The Committee might ask, how the alteration, the splitting into aliquot parts, of the Articles of the Church, in subscription for civil purposes, is reconcileable with this her boasted independence: whether she is not obliged, contrary to her own rules of discipline and the directions of her Rubric, to administer her sacraments for civil purposes; and whether the Legislature -ever before found any difficulty in modifying her formularies and institutions, as a feeling of justice or a sense of its own interest has dictated?

But, with all the ignorant pride of this article, there is still the redeeming feature which appears in all recent discussions on this point. It is admitted on all hands, that the complaint ought to be heard, and that the relief may be granted; and the writer now under consideration even proceeds so far as to suggest a counter project, which the Committee give in his own words;

"Call upon the Dissenters to accommodate their wishes to the spirit of your Marriage Laws; and then inquire, whether those wishes are reasonable and can be complied with.

"That I may not be accused of recommending impossibilities, I will shew how the important objects just alluded to may be reconciled. Let the banns of marriage between Dissenters be published in their parish-church; let a certificate of such publication be given by the minister; let the parties be 'married on the strength of such certificate, by their own teacher; and let them bring a certificate of their marriage to the parish-register. This would provide against clandestine marriages, and would give sufficient facility of recording and proving them. Dissenters would not complain of being deprived of the privilege of marrying by license; since licenses proceed from Episcopal authority, which they do not admit or respect. I am not aware of any material objection to this plan: of its infinite superiority to that which is now before the House, I cannot think that one individual will doubt. I throw it out for the consideration of those whom it more particularly concerns; con

fident that we should not be justified in granting more, and that the petitioners themselves cannot expect us to require less."

Another antagonist has lately appeared in the Editor of a daily journal, (the New Times,) usually considered as speaking the most aristocratic sentiments of civil and ecclesiastical government, but in this instance too, an important concession is in the very outset made.

"We fully admit the existence and the magnitude of the evil which Mr. Smith proposes to remedy; perhaps we regard it as more obnoxious than he himself does: but our doubt is, whether the proposed mode of correcting the evil be not worse than the evil itself.

"Marriage is a contract natural, civil, and religious. It is quite clear that the civil law (that is to say, in England, the common and statute law) may put such restraints and limitations upon the law of nature, as may be required for the general good of the community. The general good of the community requires that the marriages of minors should not be clandestine. The statute called the Marriage-Act, (26 Geo. II. c. 33,) was passed to prevent such clandestinity; and the preamble of Mr. Smith's Bill declares, that the general policy of the Marriage-Act was wholesome, and ought not to be infringed.

"So far there can be no dispute; but among the means adopted by the Marriage-Act to prevent clandestine marriages, the principal is to compel all persons in England, except Jews and Quakers, to be married according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England. Now, this was a provision in no degree necessary to prevent minors from being married clandestinely. It might tend to produce that effect; but so might five thousand other measures which it is easy to devise. On the other hand, the preamble to Mr. Smith's Bill truly asserts that many persons entertain conscientious objections to the use of certain parts of the office of Matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer. The genuine and unaffected scruples of conscience, we trust, no one will ever be found more ready to respect than ourselves. We perfectly agree, therefore, that it is expedient to grant ease to scrupulous conciences in that respect.""

But the proposed Bill is objected to on the ground that the Established Clergy are by it "called upon to perform a sacred rite in a manner which to many of them may appear little less than a renunciation of their faith. They are required to abstain from so much as naming Christ at a Christian altar, and on an occasion which they consider as signifying unto them the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church.' What if a clergyman should refuse to join together a man and woman in holy matrimony,' with (as he might think) such unholy rites? Would his 'conscientious scruples' be accepted as a justification for violating a precise Act of Parliament? Or is conscience only to be treated with tenderness, while it is out of the pale of the Established Church?"

Undoubtedly the Churchman's scruples are to be attended to with as much solicitude as those of the members of any other sect; but he must excuse

our reminding him, that the assumption by the Legislature of his rituals and ordinances for purely civil purposes, is the sole cause of that Legislature's being again called upon to interfere with what he now calls his, but which the State has long ago marked for its own; that he must take the disadvantages with the advantages of the union with the State, which he has formed for better for worse; and that the true remedy for the grievances of all parties is co-operation with the Dissenter, in separating the civil institutions of the country from an inconvenient and unjust association with the opinions and services of any religious party.

In the meantime, the learned gentleman who conducts the publication last alluded to, has stepped forward to shew his sincerity in the professions he has made of a readiness to meet an admitted grievance, and is engaged in preparing, with the assistance of professional friends, a counter proposal, the basis of which, it is understood, will be the permission to all Dissenters to solemnize their Marriages in their own way, providing for due registration in the parish books by the Minister of the Established Church. This plan may, after consideration of the subject and attention to some difficulties which will suggest themselves to its practical operation, be adopted; and the Committee, trusting that the foundation is securely laid, and believing that a short delay will, in the end, accelerate the accomplishment of their wishes, are not inclined to lament that circumstances, which they could not controul, have occurred to defer the public discussion of the question in Parliament to so late a period of the Session.

From all that has passed on the subject, great good has arisen. The public mind has been successfully impressed, and is evidently propitious. It appears now obvious that Dissenters may obtain relief whenever they choose to ask for it; and that even to the Unitarians, standing individually and unassisted, it cannot be much longer delayed. The Committee rejoice to see the exertions of the Society thus producing their full effect. They are not bigoted to any peculiar plan, and their successors will doubtless (now that the groundwork is laid) cheerfully devote themselves to the task of completing the detail of the work.

The plan suggested by the friends of the Establishment grants more than the Committee would probably have thought it prudent to ask. They had expected greater opposition would have been made to any plan of imposing on a minister the duty of registering Marriages, not solemnized in his Church nor according to its rites, than to a modification of the service. There is, however, a precedent in their favour, in the facility with which the Legislature, for the purpose of collecting a Stamp Duty, once imposed on the Clergy of the Church the duty of registering Dissenting baptisms.

In the next place, the Committee received from the General Meeting a strong expression of opinion as to the absolute necessity of immediate measures being adopted towards the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, and a recommendation to avail themselves of any practicable means for reviving the question among all denominations of Dissenters. In this