X.
INDEX

OF THE NAMES OF THE SEVERAL SPEAKERS IN BOTH
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, from 1753 to 1765.

Lyttelton, Sir George, [created Lord Lyttelton Walpole, Horatio, sen. 150, 360.

Parliamentary History.

Parliamentary History.

26 GEORGE THE SECOND, A. D. 1753.

SIXTH SESSION

OF THE

TENTH PARLIAMENT

OF

an end to an evil which has been long and grievously complained of, an evil by which many of our best families have often suffered, and which our laws have often endeavoured to prevent, but always hitherto without success; and yet it is an evil which, one would think, should rarely GREAT BRITAIN. happen, if we consider that duty and re[Continued from Vol. XIV.] spect which children ought to shew towards their parents, and that indulgence DEBATES in the Commons on the and affection parents ought to have for Clandestine Marriage Bill.] May 7, their children, especially in that affair of 1753. A Cause having been brought be- their marriage, which is generally the first fore the House of Lords by appeal, which step that people of all ranks make into the was founded upon an alleged Clandestine world, and a step upon which their future Marriage, it set the bad consequences of happiness, prosperity and success almost such marriages in so strong a light, that entirely depends. In this step the happitheir lordships ordered the judges to pre-ness both of the parents and children is so pare and bring in "a Bill for the better intimately concerned, that children ought preventing of Clandestine Marriages;" never to make it without the approbation which they accordingly did: but the Bill of their parents, nor ought the parent to met with so many alterations and amend-refuse his approbation, when the match ments in that House, that it was not sent down to the Commons till this day.

May 14. The said Bill was read a second time, and on the motion that it be committed, the following Debate took place :†

Mr. Attorney General Ryder:

Sir; the Bill which has been now read a second time, is designed for putting

*From the London Magazine.

"A Bill, passed this session, met with much opposition. This was the Bill for the better preventing Clandestine marriages. The fatal consequences of clandestine marriages had been long complained of in England, as rendering the succession to all property unsecure and doubtful. Every day produced hearings of the most shocking kind in the court of Chancery, and appeals in the House of Peers, concerning the validity of such marriages; and [VOL. XV. ]

proposed is not such as apparently tends to the dishonour of his family, or may probably bring on the ruin of his child. Yet we often find the passion called love triumphing over the duty of children to their parents, and on the other hand we some. time find the passion of pride or avarice triumphing over the duty of parents to their children. And when a young gentleman or lady happens to be born to a good fortune, they are so beset with selfish design

sometimes the innocent offspring was cut off from succession, though their parents had been married, bona fide, because of the irregularity of such marriage. On the other hand, both women and men of the most infamous characters, had opportunities of ruining the sons and daughters of the greatest families in England, by conveniencies of marrying in the Fleet, and other unlicensed places; and marrying was now become as much a trade, as any mechanical profession. Some recent instances of these evils coming before the House of Peers, it was [B]