Ages. Males. Fem. Total. | Males. Fem. Total. Males. Fem. Total. Males. Fem. Total. Males Fem. Total. 270.43 216.70 244 71 14.71 " 15 19 21.38 22.74 22.05 26.9 34.25 20 24 33.69 33.81 33.75 36.05 37.7 36.86 30 34 41.51 38.69 40.12 35 39 46.08 41.48 43.82 39.64 202.96 177.33 190.37 271.32 256.5 263.02 269.26 244.09 256.93 306.27 247.53 277.94 It would, of course, be premature to found any calculation on such returns at present. A few years must be allowed for the collection of facts, and science may then determine their practical application to the purposes of life. It is enough that the right system has at length been originated. Let it have fair play and adequate time, and it will accomplish all we desire. We must now advert to the subject of Marriage, on which we have a few things to say to our Dissenting readers, some of which may not be pleasing, though nevertheless just and salutary. It is proper for us to premise, that we hold marriage to be strictly and solely a civil engagement, and that we therefore approve in toto, so far as this point is concerned, of the Act of 1653, by which it was taken out of the hands of the clergy and committed to civil officers. Against the principle of this measure various 'objections have been urged; yet it is difficult to see,' remarks a late historian of Nonconformity, how any consistent Dissenter 'can sympathize with, or adopt them. Marriage is clearly a civil 'contract, pertaining to man as such, and not as the professory or 'advocate of any religious creed. It is equally valid, whatever 'be the views of the parties who form it; and as such, is enforced with impartial rigor on all classes of society. It is justly open 'to the profane as well as to the pious-a fact irreconcilable with the supposition of its religious character. In severing, therefore, the civil contract from the religious services ' with which individuals might think proper to associate it; the 'parliament acted consistently with its own principles, and in harmony with the soundest policy. It was equally their duty as 'legislators to enforce the former, and to leave the latter to the ' voluntary arrangements of the parties concerned."* Concurring as we do most thoroughly in this reasoning, we rejoiced in the recent alteration of the law of marriage, as another step in the dissociation of things secular and spiritual,-a practical homage to the growing intelligence and piety of the age. It may suit the policy of an unscrupulous faction to misrepresent our views, but we are not to be deterred by such palpable unfairness from their enunciation. Every religious man in forming so important a relationship will instinctively recur to the divine footstool for guidance and a blessing. It needs no human law to bind him to this. He feels it to be incumbent and every way advantageous, and he will therefore do it. But this a totally different thing from investing what is merely secular with a religious character, and then constraining all classes of the community-the immoral and the profane equally with the religious, the avowed infidel as well as the humble believer-to make professions which their Price's History of Nonconformity, ii. 505. conduct belies, and from which their hearts-if any generous feeling be left them-recoil with disgust. Such is the system. which our Established Church-the boasted bulwark of Protestant Christianity-has maintained for ages, and which it is still endeavoring to perpetuate in the land. Let the magistrate discharge the magistrate's duty, but let the house and altar of our God be saved from the desecration to which they have long been subjected. This is one of the vulnerable points of the endowed Church, and Dissenters would do well to make much of it. The glaring incongruity between the religious nature of the marriage service prescribed by the Church and the character of the great majority of those who from habit, and in thoughtlessness, perform it, is palpable to the dullest apprehension. But to revert to our more immediate object at present. By the recent Act of the legislature, the civil nature of the marriage contract is distinctly recognized, and provision is accordingly made for its performance without the intervention of compulsory religious rites. Due regard is at the same time paid to the prevalent feeling of the community, by allowing of the association of religious exercises with the marriage contract in all cases where they are desired. The old form is perpetuated for the use of the members of the Established Church, while Dissenters are at liberty to repair to their own places of worship, and to avail themselves of the services of their respective pastors. This is precisely as it should be, and the legislature is entitled to our grateful acknowledgment for the considerate wisdom which distinguishes the general features of the new system. We have no wish to compel others to adopt a mode which they disapprove; all we have ever asked for-and this we have now obtained-is to be relieved from the necessity of recognizing an authority which we repudiate, or of lending our temporary sanction to a Church which violates our convictions of religious duty. Let us now see how the new system has worked, and to what extent it has been brought into operation. The returns which Mr. Lister has given will enable us to do this with considerable accuracy. The number of Dissenting chapels in England and Wales registered under the new Act first claims our attention. In order to such registry it was prescribed that the following certificate should be signed by at least twenty householders, and be countersigned by one of the proprietors or trustees of the chapel in question; and that the same should be delivered to the superintendent-registrar of the district, to whom the sum of three pounds was to be paid. WE. the undersigned, being severally Householders, do hereby certify that a Building called is a separate Building, certified according to Law as a Place of Religious Worship, situate at in the County of in the Parish of and has been used by us during one year, at the least, as our usual Place of Public Religious Worship, and that we are desirous that such building should be registered for solemnizing Marriages therein. Witness our hands this day of 183 The registration commenced from the 31st January, 1837, though the solemnization of marriages was not legal till the first of the following July. The subjoined table will show the number of chapels registered up to December 31, 1838, in the several counties of England and Wales. Some The total number thus registered is 1,332, a small proportion it must be confessed of the 8,440 chapels, which, according to the calculations of our able contemporary the Congregational Magazine, are held by the Nonconforming sects of England and Wales. It must however be remembered, that nearly 3,000 of this number belong to the Wesleyan Methodists, a body which ridiculously repudiates the title of Dissenter, and apes with unseemly zeal, the manners of its favored rival. Still the proportion is small, and evidences a lamentable want of public spirit, and an ignorance of the legitimate bearings and wide scope of our principles. Various causes have operated in this case. have refused to avail themselves of the provisions of the Act, because it has not squared with their theoretic notions of perfection; others have been aggrieved-and we think with some justice -that a further tax of three pounds per chapel, should be imposed, on a people already burdened with the support of the state Church, in addition to the maintenance of their own forms. But still it must be confessed-and we crave the attention of Dissenters to our statement-that these returns convict them of what their enemies lay to their charge,-a clinging to the old forms of the Establishment while they discard its spiritual authority. Let our enemies make what use they please of this admission. We wish they could give it a thousand tongues, and make it vocal in every part of the kingdom. Some of our readers may be startled by it, and perhaps will deny its truth. But let them canvass it thoroughly, and our end will be obtained. It will lead to a selfsearching which will bring out the spiritual leaven that, a long dominant Church has diffused through the heart of these kingdoms. These are not times in which the iron and the gold must be mixed up together. Either our principles are scriptural, and should be followed out to their legitimate issues, or they bear the impress of error, and should at once and for ever be abandoned. Dissenters themselves, though in advance of their countrymen, have yet much to learn. The shadows of past ages linger around them, and they have need to purge and unscale their long 'abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance.' Let this be once accomplished-whether by the persuasions of friends or the taunts of enemies-and they will no longer hold fellowship, even for a moment, with the secularized and impure Church of England. Let us now see how the chapels registered are distributed. Returns have been obtained respecting 1,257 of them, and are exhibited in the following table, which we transcribe, simply premising that some of the names specified are unknown to us. |
