§ House in Committee on the Registration of Births and Marriages Acts Amendment Bill.
§ Several clauses were agreed to.
§ Lord J. Russellobserved, that it had been on a former occasion stated by the hon. Member for the University of Oxford (Sir R. Inglis) as a case of great hardship, that the clergy should by this act be obliged to perform a civil duty uncon- 1383 nected with their sacred functions without receiving any remuneration. The hon. Member alluded to those parts of the Act which required the clergyman to make two copies of every entry of marriage, and to deliver four times in every year to the superintendent-registrar a certified copy of all the entries made by him in the marriage book since the date of the previous certificate. Since the subject had been brought forward he (Lord J. Russell) had on consideration framed a clause which, although it did not go so far as the hon. Gentleman proposed, would he thought, provide a remedy for the evil of which he had complained. The clause he had to propose provided that every clergyman should receive 6d. for every certified entry.
§ Clause added.
§ Various other clauses were added and amendments made.
§ The House resumed.