according to the rites of the Book of Common Prayer, but subject nevertheless in all other respects to the restrictions and regulations imposed by law relative to the granting of marriage licences; and that no greater fee or reward shall be demanded or received from any person on account of the said affidavit or licence than now is or hereafter may be legally demanded and taken from a person of the like degree or estate in the case of a licence to marrry in a parish church, and according to the Rites of the Book of Common Prayer.

And be it further enacted, that no person or persons shall solemnize matrimony in a place registered for that purpose under this Act, unless it shall plainly appear to him or them, by the exhibition of such certificate or certificates, as herein-before mentioned, that the banns of marriage between the parties have been duly published according to law, in some church or chapel within ten statute miles of the said registered place of marriage, and that such publication of banns was completed within three calendar months next preceding the day of the solemnization, and that no just impediment to the said intended marriage hath been declared; or unless a licence for the solemnization of such marriage, without previous publication of banns, duly granted under the provisions of this Act, within three calendar months immediately preceding such solemnization, shall have been exhibited to him or them; nor shall any such marriage be proceeded in, if at the time of solemnization any person present shall declare a just and lawful impediment to the same, and shall be bound with sufficient sureties to prove the same.

And whereas, in order to preserve the evidence of marriages solemnized under the authority of this Act, and to make the proof thereof more certain and easy, it is expedient to subject such marriages to the same or the like provisions in respect of registration, as marriages solemnized according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England; be it therefore further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in any case in which a marriage shall be intended to be solemnized under the provisions of this Act, and in which the banns of marriage shall have been duly published and certified as hereinbefore directed, or a licence shall have been duly obtained for such solemnization, notice thereof in writing shall be given, twelve hours at least before the intended solemnization, to the officiating Minister of the parish or chapelry, or one of the parishes or chapelries, within which such banns of marriage shall have been published, or of the parish or chapelry which shall be appointed in any such licence for the registration of such marriage, as the case may require, or in the absence of any such minister, then to the parish clerk or chapel clerk of such parish or chapelry; and such minister or clerk respectively is hereby authorized and required, immediately on the receipt of such notice, or as shortly thereafter as may be, to appoint a convenient time and place for registering the said marriage, before seven o'clock in the evening of the day of its solemnization, in the usual register book of marriages, for the

D

said parish or chapelry, at which time and place the said officiating minister, or in his stead some other minister of the Church of England, by him deputed for that purpose, shall attend with the said register book; and the married parties, after the solemnization shall have taken place, shall appear before the said minister, and acknowledge such marriage, and shall produce their certificate or certificates of banns, or their licence, as the case may be, and also the certificate of registration, for the purposes of this Act, of the place of worship where their marriage has been solemnized, and two credible witnesses at the least, who shall have been present at the solemnization of the marriage, shall declare that they were so present; and thereupon an entry shall be made in the register book, and shall be signed by the parties married, and by such two witnesses as aforesaid, and likewise by the said minister, with his proper addition; which entry shall be made in the form or to the effect following, with such variations as circumstances may require; that is to say,

according to the Provisions of the Statute 4th Geo. IV. Ch.

And the said minister in every such case is thereby directed, empowered, and required to make such alterations in the printed forms required by law for the registers of marriages as are specified and authorized by this Act, and to number every entry of a marriage under the provisions of this Act progressively, in like manner as if such marriage had been solemnized according to the Rites of the Church of England.

Provided also, and be it further enacted, that nothing in this Act contained shall prevent or preclude the parson, vicar, minister, or curate and clerk respectively of the parish or chapelry within which any marriage solemnized under the provisions of this Act shall be registered, from demanding and receiving such and the same (but no other fees) duties and emoluments as they would have been entitled to by law or custom to demand and receive, if the said marriage had been solemnized in the parish church or chapel of the said parish or chapelry.

Provided also, and be it further enacted, that in ease any marriage duly solemnized according to the provisions of this Act shall in consequence of any accident, neglect, inadvertence, or wilful default, be prevented from being registered on the day on which it is solemnized, it shall be lawful for the Court of King's Bench, on application of either of the married parties, or their respective parents or guardians, and on due proof of the facts within six calendar months after the solemnization, to order the said marriage to he registered in the proper marriage register, in such form as to the said Court shall seem meet.

Provided also, and be it further enacted, that all marriages which shall have been solemnized and registered according to the provisions of this Act, shall be as valid, binding, and effectual in the law, to all intents and purposes, as if they had been solemnized in the parish church or public chapel of the parish, chapelry, or ecclesiastical district within which the same shall have been registered, and had also been solemnized by a parson, vicar, minister, or curate of the Church of England, and according to the office of matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer, but no further or otherwise: provided also, that after the solemnization of any marriage under the provisions of this Act, it shall not be necessary, in support of such marriage, to give any actual proof of the previous residence of the parties required by this Act, nor of their or either of their Nonconformity to the Church of England, nor that the place wherein such marriage was solemnized was duly registered for the solemnization under this Act, nor that the same, in any case of a marriage by banns, was situate within ten statute miles of some church or chapel where such banns had been duly published; nor shall any evidence in any of the cases be received to prove the contrary in any suit touching the validity of such marriage.

Provided also, and be it further enacted, that nothing in this Act contained shall operate or be construed to alter or affect any of the provisions contained in a certain Act passed in this present session of Parliament, intituled An Act for amending the Laws respecting the Solemnization of Marriages in England, or in any other Act or Acts of Parliament relative to the due publication of Banns, for granting of licences, or for the grant of special licences by the Archbishop of Canterbury and his successors, or for the prohibition of suits to compel celebrations of marriage in Facie Ecclesiæ, further or otherwise than as the before-mentioned provisions, or any of them, are expressly or necessarily altered by this Act; and that the same or the like forfeitures, pains, and penalties, shall be incurred in consequence of procuring a marriage to be solemnized under this Act, by means of any false oath, or other fraud or contrivance, and also in relation to making, or procuring to be made, or assisting in making, or entering, or publishing as true any false, altered, forged, or counterfeited register of marriage, or a copy thereof, or any altered, forged, or counterfeited licence of marriage, with intent

to elude the force of this Act, as are imposed by the said Act of this present session on the like offences if committed with intent to elude the force of that Act: provided always, that this Act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend to the marriages of any of the royal family.

Provided also, and be it further enacted, that the several ecclesiastical courts of this realm shall have and exercise such and the same or the like jurisdiction with respect to every or any marriage to be solemnized under the provisions of this Act, as if such marriage had been solemnized in the church or chapel belonging to the parish or chapelry within which the same shall be registered as aforesaid.

Provided also, and be it further enacted, that this Act shall only extend to England and Wales and to the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

And be it further enacted, that this Act shall be deemed and taken to be a Public Act, and shall be judicially taken notice of as such by all judges, justices, and others, without specially pleading the same.

And be it further enacted, that two printed copies of this Act shall, as soon as conveniently may be after the passing thereof, be provided by his Majesty's printer, and transmitted to the officiating ministers of the several parishes and chapelries in England and Wales and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed respectively, one of which copies shall be deposited and kept with the book containing the marriages of such parish or chapelry in the chest or box provided for the custody of the same.

II.

An Act to relieve certain Persons dissenting from the Church of England, from some parts of the Ceremony required by Law in the Celebration of Marriages.

WHEREAS several persons dissenting from the Church of England as by law established entertain conscientious objections to the use of certain parts of the office of matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer, and it is thought expedient to grant some ease to scrupulous consciences in that respect, without infringing upon the wholesome policy of the Act passed in the 26th year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Second, intituled, An Act for the better preventing of Clandestine Marriages:"

Be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Com

day of

mons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the 18 it shall and may be lawful to and for every parson, vicar, minister, or curate, entitled by law to solemnize marriages, and such parson, vicar, minister, or curate, is hereby authorized and required from time to time, upon receiving a written declaration in the form specified in the schedule to this Act, signed by the persons proposing to be married, to proceed to solemnize the marriage of the parties signing and delivering such declaration, by using such part only of the office of matrimony, contained in the Book of Common Prayer, as begins with the worts [I require and charge you both] and ends with the words [and thereto I gve thee my troth] according to the directions of the Rubric relative thereto; and thereupon to cause an entry of such marriage to be made in the parochial register, and subscribed in the form prescribed by the said Act in the 26th year of his late Majesty; and that all marriages so to be celebrated as aforesaid, shall be as valid, binding, and effectual in the law, to all intents and purposes, as if the whole of the said office of matrimony had been employed in the celebration thereof, and no further or otherwise; and that it shall not be necessary thereafter to give in evidence the delivery of such written declaration in support of the validity of any such marriage upon any occasion whatsoever.

Provided nevertheless, and be it further enacted, that nothing hereinbefore contained shall operate or be construed so as to annul, defeat, or alter the provisions of the last-mentioned Act, or any other existing law relative to the previous publication of banns, or the obtaining of licences, or any other qualifications, ceremonies, forms, or proceedings whatsoever, requisite to the validity of marriages, except so far as the same are expressly altered or dispensed with by this Act, in the cases aforesaid.

Provided also, and be it further enacted, that nothing in this Act contained shall be construed so as to defeat, prejudice, alter or affect the right of the officiating parson, vicar, minister, or curate and clerk respectively, to their accustomed fees, duties, or emoluments, payable upon the celebration of marriages in any of the cases provided for by this Act.

The Schedule to which this Act refers:

We, the undersigned A. B. and C. D., do hereby declare, that we are Dissenters [or that the undersigned A. B. or C. D., as the case may require, is a Dissenter] from the Church of England as by law established, and that we are desirous of taking the benefit of a certain Act, passed in the his present Majesty's reign, intituled, "An Act to relieve certain Persons dissenting from the Church of England, from some parts of the Ceremony required by law in the Celebration of Marriages." As witness our hands,

year of

A. B.

C. D.