y important alteration; and the house of lords
passed it on the 15th of August, with several amendments, to which the
commons agreed. In the committee on the marriage bill, it was proposed
to continue the publication of bans in rural districts, as a more
effective means of giving notice to families interested in preventing
a clandestine marriage than a register, which would require to be
daily examined. It was also proposed to allow a dissenting chapel to be
licensed for marriage purposes on the application of ten householders
belonging to the congregation, instead of twenty, because there were
many such chapels which did not contain ten householders. Both these
propositions were rejected, as was also a motion for the rejection of
the clause which allowed persons who objected to marry in church, or
in a registered meeting-house, to marry at the office of the registrar.
This clause was objected to on the ground that it altered the whole
marriage law of England, and separated the contract of marriage from all
religious sanction; but a large majority decided in its favour. On the
third reading Mr. Goulburn moved the insertion of a clause requiring, in
all cases where marriages were not solemnized in a church or chapel, nor
according to the rites of the church of England, that the parties should
make the following declaration:--"I do solemnly declare that I have
conscientious scruples against the solemnization of marriage according
to the rites and ceremonies of the church of England." This motion,
however, was rejected by a large majority, and another was carried,
which went to reject the eighteenth clause of the bill, which required
persons married before the registrar solemnly to declare that their had
conscientious scruples against marrying in either church or chapel, or
with any religious ceremony. Sir Robert Peel said, that the bill thus
altered had assumed an entirely different aspect; while it provided
for the relief of the dissenters, it passed a gratuitous and most
intolerable insult on the feelings and principles of the members of the
church of England. Lord Lincoln, after making similar remarks, moved, as
an amendment, that the bill should be read that day six months; but the
third reading was carried by one hundred and four against fifty-four. In
the lords the second reading encountered no opposition, objections to it
being reserved for the committee. In the committee the Bishop of Exeter
moved, in order to avoid