HC Deb 01 May 1890 vol 343 cc1819-20
MR. DECOBAIN (Belfast, E.)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with reference to the communication appearing in the Malta Gazette, of the 27th March last, under the name of General Sir John Lintorn Simmons, Her Majesty's recent Plenipotentiary to the Papal See, indicating the intention of Her Majesty's Government to introduce a project of law in the Council of Government in Malta, to in-validate all marriages between contracting parties one of whom is a Roman Catholic and the other not so, which are not celebrated according to the form established by the Council of Trent, whether the issue of such marriages will be held in the legal sense to be illegitimate, and whether such regulations will come into force before the British Parliament has had an opportunity of expressing an opinion on the matter; whether one of the provisions of the Protocol between Sir John Lintorn Simmons and the Papal See is to extend this law in its application to all Her Majesty's subjects in Her African Possessions; and, if such be the case, will Parliament be permitted to review such provision before its final ratification; and whether he has any objection to submit to the House the substance of the concessions made by these Protocols to the Papal See?

*THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir J. FERGUSSON,) Manchester, N.E.

(1) The present law of Malta (which is the Canon Law) will be in no way altered by the proposed Bill as to marriages in which one or both parties is a Catholic; but, whereas it is believed that the present law throws doubts on the validity of marriages in which neither party is a Catholic and not celebrated according to the Decrees of the Council of Trent, the proposed Bill will remove those doubts and make the marriages absolutely valid. (2) There is no such provision in the Protocol. (3) Papers showing the arrangements made with the Papal See will be presented when the instrument is in complete form.

MR. H. H. FOWLER (Wolverhampton, E.)

Will the right hon. Gentleman lay on the Table a copy of the despatch of Sir Lintorn Simmons in reference to the validity of these marriages in Malta?

*SIR J. FERGUSSON

I must ask the right hon. Gentleman to repeat that question.