nd
unnecessary. No person was to be regarded as a minister under the Act
until he had appeared before the Justices of the Peace in Quarter
Sessions, and had produced satisfactory credentials of his ordination.
He was also compelled to take the oath of allegiance. Even after
complying with all formalities, his functions were restricted to cases
where one or both of the parties to be joined together belonged to his
own religious society. Ministers of other denominations, including those
of the Methodist body, which was the most numerous religious community
in the Province, were not allowed the privilege of solemnizing marriage
rites till the year 1831. The ignominous disqualification was removed
by the statute 11 George IV., chapter 36, which was passed in 1830, but
which did not receive the royal assent until the following year. A
similar measure had repeatedly been passed by the Assembly in former
sessions, but had as often been rejected by the Upper House. Before the
law was finally and equitably settled as above mentioned, several
ministers of religion had been tried and banished from the Province for
having ventured to solemnize matrimony without legal authority. It is
said that in one case where a minister was tried on a charge of this
kind, the accused protested against his sentence, alleging that the
Chief Justice, who presided at the trial, had himself sanctioned the
performance of the ceremony. The Chief Justice, being called upon to
descend from the judgment seat and give evidence as to this fact,
declined to do so; but he afterwards procured a pardon for the
prisoner.[50]

The Compact always contained within its ranks a few persons of more than
average ability. Some of them doubtless believed that the course pursued
by their organization was for the advantage of the colony, though,
reasoning by the light of present knowledge, it is difficult to
comprehend how men of even moderate perspicacity and judgment could have
brought themselves to such a conclusion. It was, however, inevitable
that persons of such narrow and contracted views--persons to whom self
and pelf were the mainsprings of life--should degenerate, mentally as
well as morally. The persons composing the second generation were, with
very few exceptions, striking illustrations of the doctrine of the
descent of man. Their sires had been men of energy and force of
character. They themselves were--to borrow a phrase from the acting
drama--the mere walki