HC Deb 21 July 1890 vol 347 cc362-3
MR. SUMMERS (Huddersfield)

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Canon Law is in its entirety the Civil Law of Malta; and, if not, what parts of the Canon Law are the Civil Law of the island, and when and by virtue of what stipulations, proclamations, or enactments, have they become so; and whether he is aware that Mr. John Austin and Sir George Cornewall Lewis, who were sent out as Commissioners to the island in 1838, reported that "most of the law of Malta (like most of the law of many other-European Nations) is derived directly from the Roman Law?"

* MR. W. H. SMITH

The Crown Advocate at Malta has reported that— The matters which, in Malta, are governed by the canon law are marriages and ecclesiastical benefices (advowsons). The canon law on these matters was introduced in these islands by usage long before the British occupation, and has remained in force to the present day. This is the whole of his Report. The quotation from page 39 of Mr. Austin's. and Sir George Cornewall Lewis's Reports (which were laid before Parliament in 1839) is correctly cited by the hon. Member, but it is not inconsistent with the above statement by the Malta Crown Advocate.

MR. SUMMERS

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether it is intended to continue the practice of granting to the clergy of different denominations in Malta licences to celebrate mixed marriages in that island, as was the custom down to the time of the commencement of the negotiations between Her Majesty's Government and the Pope.

* MR. W. H. SMITH

It is understood that the Governor's licence for a marriage has not been granted when it was known to the Governor that one of the parties was a Roman Catholic and had not obtained a dispensation from his Church. The question of the law of marriage in Malta is engaging the anxious attention of Her Majesty's Government, and they are not at present in a position to give a definite answer as to the practice which will be adopted in future in respect of the issue of licences by the Governor.