§ The MARQUESS of BREADALBANEpresented a petition from the Commission of the Free Church of Scotland, praying, that marriages celebrated in India by Protestant Dissenting Ministers should be legalised, and for regulating the marriages of native converts there. At present, marriages celebrated by Dissenting Ministers were invalid, unless celebrated by a Roman Catholic priest, or clergyman of the Church of England. There ought to be a uniformity respecting the laws of marriage amongst Her Majesty's subjects here, in India, and in the Colonies.
§ LORD BROUGHTONsaid, the attention of Her Majesty's Government had for some time been directed to this very important subject; and it was his intention shortly to introduce a measure which he thought would be approved of by their Lordships, with a view to remove those evils of which the petitioners complained.
§ Petition read, and ordered to lie on the table.