"Without proposing that banns should be prohibited, the commissioners recommend that the publication should not be required by law as a condition either of the lawfulness or of the regularity of marriage, being of opinion that 'every useful purpose which can be answered by the publication of banns in the Established Church may be equally answered by the mere fact of notice to the officiating minister.'"—Hammick, op. cit., 65. In general, on the present law of banns, see ibid., 62-80; Ernst, Treatise of Mar. and Div., 8; Geary, Mar. and Fam. Rel., 37-46, where the judicial decisions are cited; and Moore, How to be Married, 1 ff.
[1452] On asking leave to present the bill, March 17, 1834, Sir Robert Peel delivered an elaborate speech explaining the need of reform and giving a history of the attempts to remedy the hardships arising from the existing marriage laws since 1753. His speech was well received by all parties: see the summary of Peel's speech and of the debate on the bill in Oppenheim, in ZKR., I, 19-33. In general on the struggle for relief of dissenters see May, Const. Hist., II, 362-64, 392-95; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 391-401; Fischel, Eng. Const. (London, 1863), 84.
[1453] Lord John Russell's speech: Oppenheim, in ZKR., I, 34; cf. ibid., 31; and Beard, Notes on Lord John Russell's Mar. Bill (London, 1834), demanding full civil marriage for dissenters, not mere "relief" through the Church of England.
[1454] Molesworth, Hist. of Eng., I, 339; Walpole, Hist. of Eng., IV, 71, 72.
[1455] Oppenheim, in ZKR., I, 31, 32. The bill was not satisfactory to Lord John Russell; hence it was dropped when he superseded Peel as prime minister.
[1456] For a contemporary account of the debate on the bill see the Annual Register, LXXVIII, 122-34; a summary by Oppenheim, in ZKR., I, 33 ff.; also Molesworth, Hist. of Eng., I, 386-88; Walpole, Hist. of Eng., IV, 69-73. See Hansard, Debates, as cited above.
[1457] On marriage by certificate without license see Moore, How to be Married, 60 ff.; Geary, Mar. and Fam. Rel., 80 ff., 85 ff.; Hammick, Marriage Law, 118 ff., 127 ff.
[1458] By 19 and 20 Vict., c. 119, secs. 3-5.
[1459] By 19 and 20 Vict., c. 119, sec. 2. Cf. Robertson, in Britannica, XV, 566; Burn, Eccl. Laws, II, 433 x-y; Hammick, Marriage Law, 89 ff., 319, 320; Geary, Mar. and Fam. Rel., 80-85.
[1460] In the interval the notice was originally to be read by the clerk of the Board of Guardians at their sessions for three successive weeks: Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 416; Burn, Eccl. Laws, II, 433y. This provision is repealed by 19 and 20 Vict., c. 119.