LORD CAMPBELL, after recounting the efforts which he had made during the last two Sessions to carry through Parliament a Bill improving the law on this subject, and having mentioned his success in that House, and his failure in the other, reminded the Earl of Aberdeen, who had strongly opposed all his efforts, that he had stated in the last Session of Parliament, that, so great were the evils of the present state of the law, if no one else proposed a measure competent to remove them, he would himself do so in the present Session. He therefore rose to ask the noble Earl when he proposed to lay that measure on the table of the House? To encourage the noble Earl in his attempts to improve the law, he would read to their Lordships a letter which he had that morning received from Berwick-upon-Tweed:—
I have been here for some days on a visit to a friend. Hard by I saw advertised in large letters, upon a board, 'Marriages celebrated at Lam-berton-toll. For further particulars inquire within.' Yesterday I went to the toll to inquire about the particulars, and found that 300 couples had been married there last year. The ordinary fee was 8s. 6d., but sometimes a fee as low as 2s. 6d. was taken.The letter writer then proceeded to state a fact with which he thought that the Duke of Wellington, as Commander in Chief of the Army, ought to be acquainted, and that was, that fifty soldiers of the 33rd Regiment of Foot, now in garrison at Berwick, had been wedded within the same time. It was also stated that in the last month five bodies of infants had been 337 picked up on the banks of the Tweed. Such were the evils of this demoralising system. He hoped that the noble Earl would persevere in the plan which he seemed to have had some time ago under his consideration, and that their Lordships would soon find it embodied in a Bill, which he should have much pleasure in supporting.
§ The EARL of ABERDEENobserved that it was true that he had felt it to be his duty to oppose the Bill for the Registration of Marriages which the noble and learned Lord had introduced in the last two Sessions. In doing so, he had admitted the great extent of the evil to which the noble and learned Lord had adverted, and had stated his anxiety to support any measure which was calculated to correct it. But it was an evil arising from the desire of the natives of England to evade the law of their own country by going to Scotland; and to that extent he joined in supporting the Bill which attempted to put a stop to such a practice. He did not, however, wish the noble and learned Lord to improve the social condition of the people of Scotland with regard to marriage in the way which he had proposed. The people of Scotland were satisfied with their law of marriage—and no wonder—for it was preferable to the law of marriage in England, Last year he had said that he should be most happy, and was most desirous, to see one of the noble and learned Lords in that House introduce a Bill to amend that law, and had referred to a Bill which his noble Friend near him (Lord Brougham) had introduced in 1835, and again in 1846, as one with which he should be completely satisfied. In despair of seeing any of the noble and learned Lords introduce a Marriage Bill with that limited object, he did undoubtedly say that he would himself propose a new one. But he knew the weight and influence of the law Lords in that House so well that he would not introduce such a Bill until he had previously secured the support of the noble and learned Lord near him (Lord Brougham), and also of the noble and learned Lord opposite (Lord Campbell). He believed that he could already reckon upon the support of one of them; and if he could only be sure of the support of the other, he should not be unwilling to proceed.
LORD BROUGHAMthought that the limited measure alluded to by his noble Friend near him did not go far enough; if he would enlarge its provisions, he should be most happy to support it.