§ MR. A. GRIFFITH-BOSCAWEN (Kent, Tunbridge)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been drawn to a circular issued by the Registrar General to superintendent registrars on the appointment of registrars of marriages, stating, among other things, that the superintendent registrar is expected to take the most effectual means at his disposal, through the ministers of religion or by other means, for ascertaining the Nonconformist feeling of his district on this subject, and that no appointment can be approved with respect to which it might be shown that this important consideration had been overlooked; whether he is aware that great exception has been taken to the paragraph by many Churchmen in the country, on the ground that it will certainly tend to exclude Churchmen from appointments as registrars of marriages, which appointments are generally combined with that of registrar of births and death's, and whether he will cause the paragraph in question to be withdrawn?
§ MR. CHAPLINI have communicated with the Registrar General, arid I am informed by him that he has caused the circular referred to to be sent out on the occurrence of vacancies amongst registrars of marriages since March, 1896. He states that the circular is a reminder on a subject to which the attention of superintendent registrars was drawn when civil marriage in England first came into operation, viz.: in a circular dated January 1837. I am informed that he considers that there is no reason to suppose that the effect of the paragraph' would be to exclude Churchmen from appointments as registrars of marriages, since, as a matter of fact, Nonconformists have since the issue of the circular frequently requested that Churchmen might be appointed. I am advised that I have no authority in this matter, and no power to cause the withdrawal of the paragraph referred to. As regards the Question of the hon. Member for the Mansfield Division, one of the objects of the circular appears to be that to which he refers.