§ LORD BROUGHTON moved the Second Reading of the Marriages in India Bill. In the month of April last, the Commis- 936 sioners appointed to inquire into the subject presented their second report to Her Majesty, in which they assigned their reasons for recommending some legislation on this subject. The necessity for legislation had been admitted by all the distinguished lawyers of the last half century, including Sir Samuel Romilly, Sir Arthur Pigot, Sir Christopher Robinson, and others. It had also been recommended by the present Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, and the Lord Chancellor. The report of the Commissioners to which he had alluded contained a recommendation that all marriages heretofore bad within the territory of the government of the East India Company, whether solemnised by any minister of the Church of Scotland, or any other minister, or by any layman, should be declared good and valid; and, secondly, that the marriage law of India should be made conformable in all respects to the law now existing in England. The Bill, which had been prepared on the subject with the greatest care, had been sent to India, where it was approved of by the Government, and had received the assent of the Commissioners, including the late Recorder of the City of London, the late Lord Advocate of Scotland, and Dr. Lushington. There were only at present in India 1,045 clergymen of all denominations, of whom 789 were ministers of the Roman Catholic religion, who wore competent to solemnise marriages. Besides these, there were laymen who had been in the habit of solemnising marriages under the authority of the Governor General; but these were the marriages which were most frequently called into question. Even so lately as the year 1849, an attempt had been made in the Supreme Court of Bombay to quash an action for criminal conversation, on the ground that as there was no marriage, no damage bad been sustained. The Court, in that case, decided that the marriage was good; but the Supreme Court of Madras, upon a precisely similar state of facts, held that the marriage was not valid. Now, as our population and our empire in that part of the world were daily increasing, it was not only expedient, but absolutely necessary, to render the law on so important a subject certain and satisfactory. There were at present only six ministers of the Free Kirk of Scotland in India; and every one of the marriages celebrated by those clergymen might be questioned. Certain regulations had been made by the local Government 937 of India to authorise those marriages; but to make the law generally operative, there must be legislation in England. It was in consequence of the many appeals, so well founded, which he had received from all parts of India, and in consequence of the numbers of persons, both in Great Britain and in India, who called for the application of a remedy to this acknowledged evil, that he now called upon their Lordships to read this Bill a second time. The Bill, as he before said, was drawn with the greatest possible care; but if their Lordships would now consent to read it a second time, he would be happy, when it was in Committee, to attend to any suggestions which might be made with the view of rendering it more effective.
§ The EARL of ELLENBOROUGHdid not object to the principle of the Bill, but entertained grave objections to many of its details. He was opposed to the details, because they were loaded with forms not compatible with the rules which regulated society in India.
§ Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the whole House on Tuesday next.