CIVIL MARRIAGE IN IRELAND.
1T is undeniable that the purpose with which Civil Marriage was legalized in these kingdoms was nothing else than the relief of those classes of persons who declined to consider wedlock as a religious relation. Freethinkers of various shades of opinion, and several of the minor sects of Noncon- formists, were freed from a most degrading choice of alterl natives by the Act of 1836, which sanctioned a marriage before the Superintendent - Registrar without any religious ceremony whatever. It is not easy to understand what the value of the marriage before the registrar may be, if it be debarred from doing this service. A civil marriage requiring as indispensable conditions proof of regular attend- ance at a place of worship and reference to the officiating minister seems a sufficiently absurd institution, for one cannot see why a regular church-goer should entertain any objection to being married in a church. In Ireland, however, this anomaly actually exists, without even the excuse of antiquity, inasmuch as it dates from the enactment of a statute in 1864, which introduced a mischievous and apparently useless dis- tinction between the marriage laws of England and Ireland.
At the commencement of the present session, Mr. Gladstone very anxiously pleaded for the necessity of an alteration in the Irish Marriage Law, to obviate the consequences of disestablish- ment. " Without some legislation," he argued, "marriage would come to a stand-still" within the Disestablished Church. We have heard no more of this danger, nor of the suggested remedy. The danger, in fact, is chimerical, because after the 31st of next December the Anglican Church in Ireland will cease to be a part of the United Church of England and Ire- land. Accordingly, the prohibition which now restrains clergymen of the said United Church from becoming them- selves registrars of marriage will lapse, and all the Disestablished clergy may acquire the same power to ratify valid unions that is at present possessed by
the ministers of Dissenting bodies. But there is a real grievance which perhaps has not been brought to Mr. Glad- stone's notice, although the Irish Government is well aware of its existence. Marriage is actually at a " standstill " among considerable classes in Ireland, and great hardship is inflicted on many who are too poor and undistinguished to make their remonstrance heard with effect. The absurd anomaly in the law relating to civil marriage produced, as we have said, by the legislation of 1864, has been petitioned against by the Plymouth Brethren and by the Separatists. Mr. Pim, M.P. for Dublin, has, we believe, moved in the matter in behalf of the latter. The grievance was admitted by Mr. Attorney- General Warren, and a hall-promise was given of an amend- ment of the law, but as yet neither Conservatives nor Liberals have taken the trouble to do this simple act of justice.
The burden of the unequal law falls upon two distinct classes of persons, as will be evident from the objectionable provisions of the Act. Before a marriage can take place under 26th Vic., c. 27, the parties are required to send in to the Registrar a schedule, containing, among other particulars, the place of worship at which one or both of the parties usually attend, and the name of the minister usually there officiating. Subsequently, a solemn declaration is exacted in which the parties are required to affirm the above particu- lars, and without this affirmation no marriage can be per- formed before the registrar. Obviously, persons who do not usually attend any place of worship cannot without a discredit.. able subterfuge come under the provisions of the Act. Not only Deists and Atheists, but every conscientious adherent of the less important Protestant sects, would be unable in Ire- land to refer to any place of worship as that which he usually attended. But, furthermore, many small communities of Nonconformists, though indisputably attached to religion, have no recognized ministry ; they conduct their worship with regularity, but yield to no member of the Church any spiritual leadership over the rest. They allow laymen to take turn in praying and preaching, and regarding marriage purely as a civil contract, they would naturally claim to be married before the registrar. Being unable, however, to fill up the schedule with the required particulars of reference to the minister usually officiating at their place of worship, they are not allowed to avail themselves of the Act. To add to the injurious character of this hardship, two small classes—the Quakers and the Jews, the latter numbering no more than 300 in the whole of Ireland—are specially exempted in the Act from the pressure of this provision. We have heard of a case which actually occurred, and elicited a decided interpretation of the law from the legal advisers of the Irish Government, in which two members of a community of Separatists were unable to fill up the schedule required by the registrar with the name of the officiating minister. They gave in the name of a layman who generally con- ducted the service, but the authorities at the Castle decided that this person was not a minister in the sense of the Act, and the registrar refused to celebrate the marriage. The parties were both in humble life and narrow circumstances, yet they were compelled by this state of the law to come over to England at considerable expense, and to have the ceremony performed in this country. This course, we under- stand, has been resorted to by a considerable number of persons, both among the Freethinkers and Nonconformists.
The harshness of the law was at first mitigated by the lax interpretations put upon it by the Registrars. They regarded the schedules and declarations as mere matters of form. Bat after the matter had been brought to a teat by one particular instance of hardship, the law adviser to the Irish Government decided that the clauses were to be strictly interpreted, and the Registrars have received instructions to this effect. Thus Marriage is really at a standstill, not alone among Deists, Atheists, and conscientious sceptics, but among Separatists, Plymouth Brethren, and various other small sects. The persons suffering under these disabilities are compelled by this law either to undertake an expensive journey across the
Channel, or to feign conformity with some recognized Church, or to live in concubinage. There is a clear case for relief, and if Mr. Gladstone attempts next session to amend the Irish Marriage Law in the interests of the Anglican Church, it is to be hoped he will not forget to consider the case of those who are suffering under a more urgent and practical grievance.
The remedy needed is a very simple one,—an Act extending to Ireland the law of this country, regulating marriages before the Registrar.
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