HC Deb 01 August 1893 vol 15 cc1007-8
MR. PERKS (Lincolnshire, Louth)

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he had been able to obtain from Her Majesty's Representatives in Malta such information as would enable him to reply to the inquiry addressed to Her Majesty's Government on the 6th July last—namely, whether the Government would direct the Governor of Malta to resume the practice of issuing licences empowering the Protestant clergy in Malta to solemnise marriages in that portion of Her Majesty's dominions; and whether, should this course be deemed inexpedient, the Government will consider the advisability of recommending Her Majesty to issue an Order in Council under "The Foreign Marriages Act, 1892," extending the benefits of that Act to Her Majesty's subjects in Malta?

THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. W. E. GLADSTONE,) Edinburgh, Midlothian

The information I have received is this: In the first place, I think it is well known that the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on the important question referred to embraces the subject of mixed marriages in Malta, and is expected to be decided very shortly after the sittings in November have commenced. I understand the present Governor does continue to issue licences for the solemnisation of marriages by Protestant ministers. The marriages between Protestants continue; but the marriages would not embrace what are properly called mixed marriages—those marriages in which one of the parties belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. With regard to such marriages, it is undoubtedly the case that the conclusion of them, so far as the law is concerned, is suspended in Malta. Nor do I think that, viewing the nature of the question raised, the communications that have taken place, and the immediate proximity of the time when the question is to receive its legal decision, it would be judicious to enter into any measure of executive discretion, although everyone must regret that such a state of things should have arisen, and it ought as soon as possible to be put an end to.

* MR. PERKS

Then were the ancient rights of Her Majesty's subjects in Malta to have mixed marriages solemnised by the Protestant clergy suspended as a part of the contract made by Sir Lintorn Simmons with the Vatican?

MR. W. E. GLADSTONE

I cannot answer that question without notice.