THE DISSENTERS’ MARRIAGE ACT.
Sir Robert Peel introduced the first important measure of government on the 17th of March, being a bill to provide relief for those dissenters who objected to have their marriage rites performed according to the ritual of the English church. The measure provided that a civil marriage should take place before a magistrate, who should refer the certificate to the parish clergyman, by whom it was to be inserted in the parochial registry. The various bodies of dissenters might, by arrangements of their own, provide a religious form as a sort of addendum to the civil ceremony. This brief affair was stated by Sir Robert in a very verbose speech, in which he showed a desire to conciliate all parties, and an apprehension that he would fail to conciliate any. Leave was given to bring in a bill.