§ [SECOND READING.]
§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD BELPERMy Lords, the object of this Bill is to remove disabilities due to various local circumstances. Doubts have arisen as to the validity of certain marriages solemnised in certain churches and places mentioned in the schedule of the Bill, and it is intended to remove those doubts. In some cases new churches have been used for the solemnisation of marriages without having been properly licensed. There is in the body of the Bill a reference to certain marriages which took place in the Church of St. Mary, Greenhithe, Kent. It was erroneously thought for some time that the two training ships moored in the Thames off Greenhithe were within the limits of the new parish of Greenhithe, and persons residing on board those ships had been married at that church. In October, 1899, the London Gazette contained an Order in Council properly comprising those ships within the parish of Greenhithe, and it is intended by this Bill to make those marriages legal which were performed before that date. Each parish concerned is specifically mentioned in the schedule of the Bill, as well as the dates of the marriages which it is desired to legalise.
§ Bill read 2a (according to Order), and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Monday next.