Page:A contribution to the settlement of the burials question.djvu/11

7 1. In regard to public worship. By 22 Car. ii., c. 1., any person present at any conventicle where five or more persons should be assembled was liable to be fined 5/- for the first offence, and 10/- for the second; the preacher was liable to be fined £20 for the first offence, and £40 for the second and subsequent offences; and the owner of the house where the meeting was held was liable to a penalty of £20. When this gross tyranny was abolished, and liberty was given to every subject to worship God according to his own conscience, by the Act of Toleration and subsequent Acts, the Legislature did not give Nonconformists power to have their own services in the Church, but allowed them to provide buildings for themselves. The Nonconformists did not say, We have a common law right to the use of the Church; we claim therefore as a right the free use of the Church for our own services, and our own Ministers; but they were content to provide chapels for themselves, and have been content to do so down to the present time.

2. Down to the year 1836, the only civil register of births was the Church Registry of Baptisms. Every citizen who wished to have the birth of his child registered was compelled to have that child christened by the clergyman of the parish, and registered in the parish register. When the Legislature remedied this grievance it did not give the right to officiate at baptisms in Church to the ministers of different denominations, but it established a system of registry of births and deaths wholly independent of Church or Dissent, leaving baptism to be administered as a religious rite by Churchmen and Dissenters in their respective places of worship, and according to their respective modes of service.

3. Down to the year 1836, no one could be married in England except by a clergyman, and with the service