he minor should have recourse for relief to the court of
chancery; that no suit should be commenced to compel a celebration of
marriage, upon pretence of any contract; that all marriages should be
solemnized before two witnesses, and an entry be made in a book kept for
that purpose, whether it was by banns or license, whether either of the
parties was under age, or the marriage celebrated with the consent of
parent or guardian, and this entry to be signed by the minister, the
parties, and the witnesses; that a false license or certificate, or
destroying register books, should be deemed felony, either in principal
or accessary, and punished with death. The bill, when first considered
in the lower house, gave rise to a variety of debates; in which
the members appeared to be divided rather according to their real
sentiments, than by the rules of any political distinction; for some
principal servants of the government freely differed in opinion from the
minister, who countenanced the bill; while on the other hand, he was
on this occasion supported by certain chiefs of the opposition, and the
disputes were maintained with extraordinary eagerness and warmth. The
principal objections imported, that such restrictions on marriage would
damp the spirit of love and propagation; promote mercenary matches, to
the ruin of domestic happiness, as well as to the prejudice of posterity
and population; impede the circulation of property, by preserving the
wealth of the kingdom among a kind of aristocracy of opulent families,
who would always intermarry within their own pale; subject the poor to
many inconveniencies and extraordinary expense, from the nature of the
forms to be observed; and throw an additional power into the hands
of the chancellor. They affirmed, that no human power had a right
to dissolve a vow solemnly made in the sight of heaven; and that,
in proportion as the bill prevented clandestine marriages, it would
encourage fornication and debauchery, insomuch as the parties restrained
from indulging their mutual passions in an honourable manner, would be
tempted to gratify them by stealth, at the hazard of their reputation.
In a word, they foresaw a great number of evils in the train of this
bill, which have not yet been realized. On the other side, its advocates
endeavoured to refute these arguments, and some of them spoke with great
strength and precision. The bill underwent a great number of alterations
and amendments; which