Erdinance, and for the promulgation in Hongkong of the marriage laws, that exist in British India and in the Straits Settlements,
That law makes such ample provision for the celebration and registration of marriages among all classes of Her Majesty's subjects in India and the Straits, and is at the same time so just and so liberal that I can with difficulty understand now it is that it is not in force throughout Her Majesty's dominions, from one extremity to the other, and now it is that with perfect law on the one hand, a law so unnecessarily large and important classes of Her Majesty's loyal subjects could ever have been introduced in Hong Kong.
I need not point out to Your Excellency that marriage among Roman Catholics is a Sacrament as well as a contract, or rather the contract of marriage is a Sacrament, that the Roman Catholic Church claims and exercises the right to administer that Sacrament or refuses to do it according to their own law, and that while the priests of the Roman Catholic Church will, as far as it is conscientiously possible, respect and obey the law of the land however severe and however unjust, still there always will be cases in which they would be compelled, no matter what the penalties, to disregard the law, and to marry or refuse to marry in accordance with the law of the Church.
That there should be a law in existence within Her Majesty's dominions, which makes a Roman Catholic priest punishable with two years' imprisonment for the performance of a duty enjoined by the Church.