HC Deb 08 August 1833 vol 20 cc438-40

On the order of the day for bringing up the Report on this Bill,

Mr. Shaw

proposed a Clause to prevent Catholic or Dissenting ministers from celebrating marriages between persons not belonging to their own flocks, rendering such marriages, if celebrated, void, and constituting the act a misdemeanor on the part of such ministers.

Mr. Perrin

said, that the present Bill was intended merely to repeal certain odious acts, and upon that ground alone he would oppose the introduction of the proposed clause into it. When the general measure on the subject of the Marriage Laws, of which notice had been given, should be brought forward next Session, it would be then for the hon. Member to propose that or any other clause relating to the general law of Marriage. The present was only a particular measure to remedy a particular evil.

Mr. G. Wood

opposed the clause.

The Solicitor General

also opposed the clause, on the ground that the Bill now before the House went to mitigate the penal code, and that this clause, if adopted, would aggravate it, as it would make that criminal which might be at present innocently done by Protestant Dissenting clergymen in Ireland.

The Clause negatived; Bill to be read a third time.