The necessity of passing a general drainage bill has been stated in the report of 1819; in this opinion your Committee fully coincide, and trust that such a measure may be introduced into parliament during the earliest part of the next session. From the lateness of the period at which your Committee were appointed, they have not been able to investigate the subject so fully as they could wish, but they trust they may be allowed to resume their labours early in the next session. They cannot, however, conclude without again expressing their opinion, that the employment of the people of Ireland, and the improvement of their moral condition, is essentially necessary to the peace and tranquillity of that island, as well as to the general interests of the united kingdom. July 16, 1823. PARLIAMENTARY The Committee, sensible of the inconveniences that were experienced, and the dissatisfaction that was gene rally expressed, at the number and no. velty of forms and oaths that were introduced into the act of last year, the 3d of George IV. c. 75. for the pur pose of protecting the rights of pa rents in the disposal of their children, being minors, in marriage, have deem→ ed it expedient to propose to recur to forms of a much simpler nature, in which the public had been instructed by the practice of seventy years, and to which they were yet farther reconciled by their conformity to the still more ancient usages of the country. They therefore recommend to the House, to dismiss all such forms as were introduced in last year's bill, that were complained of as dilatory, vexa tious, and expensive; and particularly those that required a variety of oaths to be taken, by a variety of persons, as necessary preliminaries to the solem REPORT ON THE nization of marriage, together with the penal sanctions by which they were enforced. The general result of their consideration of this part of the subject has been, that, in the opinion of the Committee, it would be expedient to facilitate the access to marriage, by the adoption of more easy and conve nient forms of proceeding. LAW RELATIVE TO MARRIAGE. (Printed by order of the House of Lords.) By the Lords Committees appointed a Select Committee, to take into consideration the state of the Laws relative to Marriage; and whether any, and what amendment may be necessary to be made to the same, and to report to the House; and to whom were referred several petitions of persons and bodies claiming peculiar jurisdictions, and also of Unitarian dissenters, and also of other persons, relative to the Laws of Marriage. Ordered to report. That the Com. mittee, since their former report, have applied themselves to consider the de tails of provisions which, in their opinion, it may be expedient to recommend to the House for the future regulation of marriages. The Committee think it proper far ther to recommend an adherence generally to the arrangement of clauses in the act of the 26th of George II. c. 33.; deeming it commodious in point of order, sufficiently comprehensive in point of matter, and being that which long usage had rendered familiar in construction to those whose business it was, and would be, to apply it. With respect to bans, they do not consider any alteration necessary; but have been induced, by the increase and increasing number of churches and chapels, to recommend it as a proper provision, to empower the bishops, with consent of the patrons and incumbents of the mother churches, to authorise the publication of bans, and solemnization of marriage, either after bans or by licence, in such new churches or chapels where it may be deemed convenient, in order to prevent the necessity which has more than once occurred, of invoking the interference of the legislature to legalize marriages which had been erroneously solemnized in sacred edifices not possessing such privilege; and they recommend it as necessary, to provide proper forms for notifying and recording, in an authentic and public manner, the communication of the privilege. With respect to the grant of licences, which certainly in their origin were dispensations from bans, and were then intended exclusively for the use of persons, as the canon expresses it," clara ac illustris conditionis"-(persons of noble and illustrious quality,) the usage of two centuries has extended them to the convenience of other classes of society. The Committee, therefore, recommend to the House, that they be suffered to remain upon their present footing, with no alteration but the omission of the bond required to be taken from the person applying for the licence, which adds greatly to the expense, and little or nothing to the security, hardly any instance being known in which such bond has been actually put in force. With respect both to bans and licence, the Committee proposes, that if not acted upon within three months, it should be necessary to renew the bans or licences previous to the solemnization of marriage. The Committee like wise think it prudent to recommend, that provision be made against the improvident grant of licences, where caveats shall have been entered in the of fices out of which they are to issue. In the penal clause, respecting clergymen celebrating marriages in any way violating the forms indispensably required by law, (the re-enactment of which the Committee recommend,) the Committee are of opinion, that a provision should be inserted, subjecting to similar penalties persons falsely pretending to be in holy orders of the Church of England, and solemnizing marriages in that character,-a practice which has too frequently occurred, and never without producing much private uneasiness, as well as public inconvenience. The Committee are strongly im pressed with a sense of the necessity of maintaining the rights of parental control over the marriages of minors. It appears to them, that to withdraw all the legal sanctions of those parental rights, would be to withdraw the protection that is indispensably due to the minors themselves, as well as to abrogate just and recognized principles of the ancient laws of the country. By the act above-mentioned, those rights had received an additional security by an enactment, that the marriage of a minor, without parental consent, should be totally null and void. But it appearing to the Committee to be the sense of Parliament, in later discussions, that the total nullity of marriage of minors, solemnized without such consent, led to a great practical inconvenience, the Committee do not think it proper to propose to the House to recur to it; and they therefore recommend another, certainly less answerable to the demands of theory, but which appears to them to provide, in conjunction with other forms, a moderate security for those rights. And though no regulation can be devised upon such a subject totally free from the just objection of inconveniences, which, in the possible variety of hu man situations, may be produced, in order to meet the most obvious, and apparently the most considerable of them, they suggest, that provisions should be made to supply such correc tives of the evils as their nature would admit. The Committee do not wish to disguise their feeling, that the task of conciliating the just rights of parents with the proper liberty of children, in a matter which so much concerns the happiness of both, is by much the greatest difficulty which they have had to encounter in their consideration of the whole of this most important subject. Upon the foregoing considerations, for the eleventh clause of the abovementioned act, which imposed a total nullity on all marriages contracted without the proper consents, they propose to substitute a voidability; the suit for avoiding the marriage to be instituted by proper parties, within twelve calendar months after the solemnization; and they suggest that this provision should be followed by clauses which may appear proper to regulate some of the consequences that may probably take place in marriages contracted under such an enactment. The Committee trust they suggest a substantial additional security against the clandestine marriages of minors, effected for purposes merely mercenary, by proposing that the party guilty of any false oath, or any other fraud, in procuring the solemnization of marriage, should forfeit all property accruing to him or her from the marriage; and that the court of chancery should exercise the same equitable jurisdiction over it as it is in the habit of doing over the property of its own immediate wards marrying in violation of its authority. The Committee recommend, that the other clauses of the 26th Geo. II. with some variations, should be incorporated in any bill to be introduced upon this subject.. The Committee think it not proper entirely to omit, that their attention has been called to many other topics connected with the general subject of marriage, and that they have been laboriously employed in considering them, particularly the cases of Roman Catholic marriages, and those of other Dissenters, especially Unitarians, whick latter have been brought under their consideration in numerous petitions referred to them by the House; but, after inquiry and discussion, they have thought it more advisable, upon the whole, not to recommend, that specific provisions respecting them should be included in the proposed bill,-the cases of the various denominations of Dissenters being extremely diversified in their circumstances, and appearing to require a diversity of provisions much more proper to be suggested by communications of their own to the legislature. The Committee has therefore, upon the whole, thought, that a more satis factory discharge of their duty would be found to consist in suggesting regulations for the domestic marriages of English subjects according to the rites and ceremonies of the National Church. PRUSSIAN CONSTITUTION; Law rendered the 1st July 1823, for the Organization of Provincial States for the Mark of Brandenburg and the Margraviate of Lower Lusatia. We Frederic William, by the grace of God, King of Prussia, &c. In conformity to the general law pub:lished the 1st June last, relative to the establishment of the Provincial States of our monarchy, we fix, for the meeting of the States of the Mark of Brandenburg, and of the Margraviate of Lower Lusatia, the following particular dispositions. 1. and 2. Territorial limits of Brandenburg and Lusatia. 3. The Chapter of Brandenburg shall be represented in the assembly of the States by an authorized person chosen from itself; and the Count of Solms Baruth shall appear in person, being authorized, nevertheless, in case of any remarkable ground of detention, to send in his stead a member of his family, or a delegate from among the first rank of nobility. All the other orders shall be represented by deputies chosen by themselves. 4. We fix the number of the members of each of the orders as follows: In the Electoral Mark, first order, for the chapter of Brandenburg, one; for the Count of Solms Baruth, one; for the equestrian rank, twenty second order, or deputies from the cities, fourteen: third order, or small proprietors, hereditary farmers, and peasants, eight; in all forty-four members. In the New Mark, for the first order, six; for the second, four; for the third, two; in all twelve members. In Lower Lusatia, first order, for the lords, one; for the equestrian rank, five; second order, four; third order, two; total, twelve. Total, for the whole of this meeting of States, sixty-eight. The special distribution of the deputies of each order shall be regulated by a particular ordinance. 5. For the eligibility of deputies of all orders, the following conditions are required: 1. A landed property hereditary in the ascending or descending line, or acquired in another manner, and possessed ten years without interruption. In case of inheritance, the time of possession of the testator or deceased proprietor, and of the heir, shall be counted together. 2. To be in communion with one of the Christian churches. 3. To be thirty years complete. 4. An irreproachable conduct. 6. We reserve the power of dispensing with the condition of ten years pos session. For the other conditions there shall be no possible dispensation. 7. The right of being elected to represent the first order is founded upon the possession of a noble estate (bien noble) in the province, whether the proprietor be of noble extraction or not. We reserve, nevertheless, the power of taking duly into consideration the possession of considerable property in fidei commisso. 8. The possession of a noble estate in other four provinces shall be reckoned equal to the duration of ten years required above. 9. The ecclesiastical, civil, and military servants of the state, belonging to the first order by the possession of a noble estate, joined to the above conditions, shall be elected deputies; they shall require leave from their official 10. May be elected deputies of the second order, only the inhabitants of the towns, being landed proprietors, who are temporary magistrates, or exercise a town profession. For them, the landed property, joined to their employment, must form, according to the difference of the towns, an amount which the decree reserved (art. 4.) shall determine. 11. To be elected a deputy to the third order, it is necessary that the candidate possess and administer himself a landed property, of which the particular decree (art. 4.) shall fix the value. 12. The conditions prescribed for eligibility are equally so for the right of being elector, with this difference, that for electors it is enough to be twenty-four years of age, and to be really landed proprietors; but ten years possession, and the amount to be fixed according to art. 11, are not required. For the towns, the right of election is inherent in those who elect the magi strates. 13. When the nomination of the magistrates depends, as in some towns of Lower Lusatia, on a lordship (dominium,) or on any other private authority, the right of election shall be exercised by the landed proprietors in the town. But the right of the deputies depends in these cities also on the conditions of eligibility which art. 5 prescribes for the three orders, and on art. 10 for the terms. 14-18. (Minor regulations.) 19. For the first order, the elections shall be made in the assemblies of circles, as hitherto practised. 20. For the second, each of the towns which, in virtue of the particular decree mentioned (art. 4,) shall have circle votes, chooses its deputies out of its own citizens; all the towns, whether immediate or not, choose electors from among their citizens. The latter meet collectively in electoral assemblies by arrondissement, and choose the deputies. The number of electors shall be determined by the decree abovementioned, in proportion to the magni tude of the towns. 21. For the third order, each village commune chooses an elector, conforming itself to the mode followed for the other village concerns. The electors meet by circles, with the proprietors of the insulated properties (biens isolés) of the third order, which do not belong to any determinate village commune, but which must have the amount mentioned for eligibility; and they choose the elector of the circle. The electors of the circle shall then meet, and choose the deputies to the assembly of the States. 22. The particular decree (art. 4.) shall regulate the composition of the arrondissement, both for the cities which elect collectively, and for the third order. 23. The elections of the deputies to the assembly of the States, are made for six years, so that every three years, the half of the deputies of each order goes out, and they proceed to new elections. 24. For the first time, the lot shall decide, at the end of three years, the members going out. All the deputies that go out, are again eligible. 25. For each deputy, a supplementary one shall be at the same time elected. 26. If, in the choice of electors and deputies, there be an equality of votes, that of the oldest of the electors shall decide. 27. All the elections are made under the superintendence of the provin cial counsellor of the circle in which they take place. 28. The choice of the electors shall be notified to the provincial counsellor ;-that of the electors of arrondissement and of the deputies to the assembly, to the commissioner of the latter. This last shall examine if the elections are made according to the forms prescribed, and if the deputies named have the requisite qualifications. He is authorized to demand another election, only in so far as he finds the first defective in this particular. 29. We ourselves shall name, for the duration of each assembly, among the deputies of the first order, the president of the assembly, to whom we give the title of marshal, as well as the vicepresident. 30: During the first six years, we will assemble the Provincial States every two years; after that period, we will make a farther arrangement in this particular. 31. We will regulate each time the duration of the assembly, according to circumstances. 32. Our commissioner shall address, in due time, the invitation to the members to repair on the day fixed for the opening of the assembly. 33. The deputies must arrive, at latest, on the evening of the day of the |