MARRIAGE MEASURE, 1930. (Hansard, 13 March 1930)

§ Mr. MIDDLETON

I beg to move, That, in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the Marriage Measure, 1930, be presented to His Majesty for Royal Assent. This Measure has passed through the Church Assembly and has been examined, reported upon and approved by the Ecclesiastical Committee and now, owing to the Enabling Act, it has to be submitted to the House. I understand there is a feeling in some quarters that this proposed legislation is of a special kind but I hope no opposition will be offered to it on those grounds, because whatever equity there might be in arguing that what is good for the Church is good for the Nonconformist Churches, the fact remains that the Church of England has no power to legislate for people outside its own communion. The Measure has been passed by the Church Assembly through machinery which was created under the authority of this House, and very serious difficulties would be created if any real opposition were forthcoming to a Measure of this kind. It does not take liberty away from anyone. It extends liberty. Its object is to allow people to get married in the church where they worship, and not necessarily in the church of the parish in which they reside. It preserves the right to use the parish church but its main effect is to extend it to the church where they worship. The same thing applies to the banns of marriage. The Ecclesiastical Committee have reported that it does not prejudicially affect the constitutional rights of His Majesty's subjects. I ask the House, therefore, to pass it.

§ Dr. PETERS

I rise to oppose this Measure, not that I have any real complaint as to its subject matter but it means that we are now considering a particular Measure under a particular 1657 Enabling Act passed in 1919, legislating for one particular section of the community. I have gone through the Debates that took place in 1919, both in November and later on when the Enabling Bill was before the House in December, and I can find nothing that would lend support to this House giving its sanction to this Measure going through. On the contrary, on the 5th December, 1919, there was suggested in this House an Amendment to a certain Section of the Enabling Act so as to define precisely and limit the measures which should be brought forward in this way. It was then stated that the Enabling Bill would only refer to matters of internal and purely ecclesiastical moment.

This matter refers to an alteration in the general marriage law of this Kingdom, and in my humble judgment the course to be adopted is for this House to produce a Bill in the ordinary way and alter the law of this land as to marriage, in order to do away with these anomalies and so bring in what hon. Members on both sides of the House want with regard to the Church of England, and that is to make it possible for all these people, no matter to what church or chapel they belong, to be married in the place in which they worship. On looking carefully at the Enabling Act, it does not appear to me that Clause 4 of the Report of the Ecclesiastial Committee is quite correct. Clause 4 reads as follows: The Measure does not affect prejudicially the constitutional rights of His Majesty's subjects and the Committee are of the opinion that it is expedient that it should proceed. If anyone looks at Section 3 (3) of the Enabling Act he will find these words: Especially with relation to the constitutional rights of all His Majesty's subjects. I would emphasise the word "all," in order to bring out this point, that this Measure is only dealing with one particular section and that section of His Majesty's subjects who are in reality members on the parochial roll of the Church of England. I submit that this is one of those Measures, without going further into details, which should never be passed through the House of Commons in this way. The Church of England in its wisdom may at a later date say, "We want to alter the general law as to 1658 divorce; it affects us. We want to alter the general law as to something else which affects us as a Church." I say therefore that this House should never pass in that way Measures which only affect a particular church in one particular capacity. Here you will find that you have a marriage law for the land which is general in its application, and that law should only be altered so as to affect the whole of the people whatever church or chapel they might attend, or whether they attend one or not.