PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
ELIC.O.
חון
.885
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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trade without having paid the license prescribed by the Samoan Government. That Sir J. Thurston was of opinion that, under the existing Orders in Council, that would not be within his power, but that he stated that it would be advisable that such penalties should be imposed, and that he was unable to see, should he be correct in his view, who would be able to enforce them against British subjects outside of Apia.
That Sir P. Currie was to request that we would take the papers transmitted with his letter into our consideration, and that we would favour your Lordship with our opinion on the questions submitted therein, and with any general observations which we might have to offer on the case.
We have taken the matter into our consideration, and in obedience to your Lordship's commands, have the honour to
Report
That, in our opinion, it is competent to the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, under Article 7 of the Western Pacific Order in Council, 1879, to impose penalties upon British subjects, and that Sir J. Thurston would therefore be acting within his legal power in issuing a regulation which would enforce in its entirety the regulations as to taxes agreed upon by the the three Consuls.
We are not prepared to say that the imposition of penalties upon British subjects for breach of fiscal regulations could properly be held to place them in a different position from that of German subjects and American citizens, and it must be assumed that these two signatory powers will take adequate steps for enforcing upon their subjects the regulations which have been agreed to.
It might, however, be desirable that the penalties should, if possible, be similar in all three cases, and be simultaneously prescribed.
The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G.,
&c.
&c.
&c.
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We have, &c.,
(Signed)
RICHARD E. WEBSTER.
EDWARD CLARKE.
23,819.
}
No. 195.
(MALTA.)
THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY to COLONIAL OFFICE. MY LORD,
I HAVE now the honour of transmitting to your Lordship Dr. Tristram's Report
Lambeth Palace, S.E., December 4, 1890. to me on the facts and law bearing on the questions lately raised in relation to Maltese marriages, which your Lordship has asked for.
Dr. Tristram has, as appears by his report, treated the subject most exhaustively, and from his long experience as Chancellor of London, and as a civilian, in considering questions of this nature I cannot but think that his report will be of material assistance to your Lordship in dealing with the question under consideration.
ft is not the validation of past marriages which is required to meet the case of the Protestant population in Malta, but the confidence that there shall be no legislation of such a nature as to imply that their marriages in the past have been invalid, or that the celebration of similar marriages will be invalid in the future.
The Secretary of State for the Colonies.
MY LORD ARCHBISHOP,
I have, &c., (Signed)
EDWARD CANTUAR.
12 King's Bench Walk, Temple, November 26, 1890.
In compliance with your Grace's request, I have inquired into the facts and considered the law bearing on the questions lately raised by the Crown Advocate of Malta, in relation to the Maltese Marriage Law, and I have now the honour to submit to your Grace my report thereon.
The questions for consideration are two in number: (1) whether the unmixed marriages (that is the marriages in which both the parties were Protestants); and, (2) whether the mixed marriages (that is, the marriages in which one of the parties was a Protestant and the other a Roman Catholic) which have been celebrated in Malta by the clergy of the English church, and by the Presbyterian and Wesleyan ministers during the British occupation of the island and its dependencies, are valid or invalid.
For the purpose of ascertaining the facts material for the consideration of these two questions, I placed myself in communication with the Bishop of Gibraltar, with Sir.Victor Houlton, G.C.M.G., late chief Secretary to the Government of Malta, with Archdeacon Hardy, the Archdeacon and Government Chaplain of Malta, and the Rev. his assistant chaplain; with the Rev. George Wisely, minister of the Scotch Presbyterian church at Malta, and with the Rev. J. Laverick, Wesleyan minister at Malta.
Thurlow,
The Bishop of Gibraltar has been bishop of the diocese since 1874. Sir Victor Houlton was Chief Secretary to the Government of Malta for 28 years, namely from 1855 to 1883.
Archdeacon Hardy has been officially resident in the island since 1878, Mr. Wisely since 1854, and Mr. Laverick from 1874 to 1877 as junior, and from 1880 to 1890 as senior, Wesleyan minister
By my request Archdeacon Hardy, Mr. Wisely, and Mr. Laverick, have carefully examined the registers kept for marriages celebrated in Malia by them and by their predecessors in office, and after such examination, they have furnished me, in answer to my inquiries, with important information, to which I shall have occasion in this report to refer.
The position of ecclesiastical affairs in Malta is as follows;-
The Roman Catholic Church was the established church of Malta prior to the British occupation of the island, which took place in September 1800, and has so continued up to the present time.
Since the British occupation there have been always some clergy of the English Church officially resident in Malta; one as Government chaplain, and some five or six Inore as military chaplains, and since the consecration of the two Anglican churches in Malta, there have been the officiating clergy of these churches also resident.
There has also been, for 53 years, a resident Presbyterian minister, who has acted as a Government chaplain to the troops and to the sailors in the port, and since 1874 there has been a resident Wesleyan minister, who has acted in a like capacity. There is also a priest of the Orthodox Greek Church at Valletta.
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Reference :-
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There are two consecrated English churches in the island, St. Paul's, which was consecrated in 1843, and the Holy Trinity, consecrated in 1870; and a consecrated Greek church of long standing at Valletts.
Since the British occupation, marriages have been celebrated by the Roman Catholic clergy, both publicly in their parish churches and secretly in private houses; by the clergy of the English Church publicly in the Government chapel and in their churches, and by the Presbyterian and Wesleyan ministers publicly in their chapels or churches, and by the priest of the Greek Church in the Greek church at Valletta.
From 1801 to 1805 the marriages celebrated by the English chaplains were celebrated by the permission of the Commander-in-Chief.
From 1805 up to the present time, all marriages celebrated by the English clergy, with two exceptions, were celebrated under the authority of marriage licences.
The two exceptions relate (1) to military marriages, which were celebrated from 1814 to 1878 by the military chaplains, by leave of the commanding officer. (2). To marriages celebrated since June 1847, after publication of banns in the two Anglican churches.
These licences were granted from 1805 to 1813 by the Chief Civil Commissioner, and after the first appointment of Governors of Malta, in 1813, up to 1844, by the Governor, from 1844 to 1874 by the Surrogate of the Bishop of Gibraltar, and from 1874 up to the present time by the Governor.
The earliest licence to be found is dated November 9th, 1805, and is in the following form :--
By his Excellency Sir John Alexander Ball, Baronet, his Majesty's Chief Civil
"La Valetta, Malta. Commissioner for the Affairs of Malta.
44
"I hereby grant licence for the solemnization of marriage between
Given under
and hand at La Valetta, Malta, this ninth day of November one thousand eight hundred and five,”
my
(Signed) "J. ALEXANDER Ball."
In, and since, 1811, the granting of a marriage licence has been preceded by an affidavit, sworn to by the parties, deposing to their age, and that they know of no legal impediment to the celebration of the said marriage, either by the contraction of a former marriage or otherwise. The application for the licence is made to the Governor by the minister who is to celebrate the marriage.
In 1811 a printed form of licence was adopted for general use in the following terms:-
By his Excellency Lieut.-General Oakes, &c. &c. &c. "Licence is hereby granted for the solemnization of marriage between aged
and. second day of February 1811.
+
•
·
aged.
Given at the Palace this twenty-
"By me, H. Oakes,
"Lieut.-General, &c."
The form of licence was subsequently altered to the form following, which is copied from an original licence forwarded to me by Mr. Laverick.
64
By his Excellency Sir J. L. A. Simmons, &c. &c. &c., Governor and Commander- in-Chief over the Island of Malta and its Dependencies.
"Whereas application has been made to us by the Rev. J. Laverick, Wesleyan Methodist minister, for a licence for marrying. upwards, and
of Valetta, Malta, aged twenty-one years and upwards; and aged twenty-one years and whereas the parties have severally declared upon oath that they know of no legal impediment to such marriage, licence is hereby given that the same be solemnised according to the rites of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, in the Wesleyan Methodist chapel, Floriana, Malta.
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Given under our hand and the seal of the Government at the Palace of La Valetta,
in the Island of Malta, the twenty-third day of November, in the year 1387."
#
*(Seal.)
་་
By Command,
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EMILIUS DE PETRIS,
(6
Acting Chief Secretary to Government."
"J. L. A. SIMMONS,
"Governor.
After the foundation of the bishopric of Gibraltar in 1842 (Malta being included within the diocese of Gibraltar) was notified by the Governor in the Gazette (Feb.
3
8th, 1843) that henceforward marriage licences in Malts would be granted by the surrogate of the Bishop of Gibraltar instead of by the Governor.
Licences for marriages to be celebrated in the English churches were, from that date up to 1874, issued solely by the bishop's surrogate. Since Bishop Sandford succeeded to the See, in 1874, no bishop's surrogate has been appointed by the bishop to issue marriage licences in Malta, and the Governor in 1874 resumed, and has since continued, the practice of issuing Governor's licences for marriages in the Anglican churches.
The practice of publishing banns in the Anglican churches, and, where they have been published, of marrying without a licence, was introduced in June 1847, after the consecration of the first Anglican church, St. Paul's, in Malta, and has been continued up to the present time.
The practice of granting licences for marriages to be celebrated by the Presbyterian ministers, was introduced in 1848, by the then Governor, Sir Richard More O'Ferrall, a Roman Catholic. But for many years before and after 1848 it was the practice for the Presbyterian minister, in his capacity of a military chaplain, to marry soldiers by permission only of their commanding officers, without a Governor's licence.
The practice of granting licences for the celebration of marriages by Wesleyan ministers was introduced in June 1869, by the then Governor, Sir Patrick Grant.
The practice in regard to the celebration of marriages in the Orthodox Greek Church is as follows:-Where both parties are Greeks, the priest marries on the authority of a certificate of the Greek Consul that they are unmarried; where one is a Greek, and the other is a Roman Catholic, on the Greek Consul's certificate that the Greek is unmarried, and on the certificate of the parish priest of the Roman Catholic, that the Roman Catholic is unmarried. marriages, and there is direct evidence of these having been celebrated since 1816.
No Governor's licence has ever been required for these The following registers of marriages have been kept in the islands.
The parish priest keeps & parochia! register, containing entries of the marriages publicly celebrated in his parish according to the rites of his church, but he does not, and is not required to, keep a register of secret marriages, open to public inspection, celebrated by him.
The Senior Chaplain of the forces formerly kept a register of all military marriages celebrated by the chaplains from 1814 to September 1878. Since 1878, all military marriages have been celebrated in St. Paul's Anglican church by licence, or after publication of banns.
The English clergy of the two Anglican churches, and the Presbyterian and Wesleyan ministers, have kept registers of the marriages celebrated in their respective churches.
The priest of the Orthodox Greek Church keeps a register of the marriages celebrated in the Greek church. The present register dates from 1816.
There is also a civil register for marriages celebrated in Malta, established under Ordinance XI. of 1862.
By this Ordinance, acts of all marriages publicly celebrated by a Roman Catholic priest, and of all celebrated by the English clergy, and by the Presbyterian and Wesleyan ministers, and by the priest of the Orthodox Greek Church are required to be registered in the Public Register Office, in accordance with a prescribed form, and there is a penalty for non-registration. Secret marriages celebrated by the Roman Catholic priest are not required to be registered in the Civil Register.
Archdeacon Hardy, Mr. Thurlow, Mr. Wisely, and Mr. Laverick have, by my request, care'ully examined the registers of the Protestant inarriages at Malta, and also some of the licences which have been preserved, and have transmitted to me extracts from them, which are embodied in or accompanying this report.
The marriages which have been celebrated at Malta from 1814 to 1878 by the Chaplain to the Forces, are 773, and those celebrated from 1820 to 1890, by the chaplain to the Government and the clergy of the two Anglican churches in Malta, are about 1,050.
There is no complete record of the number of marriages celebrated there from 1800 to 1815, the register during that period being missing.
I am assured that every Maltese man or woman who appears by these registers or licences to have been married, may be assumed to have been a Roman Catholic, and such a narriage is therefore taken to be a mixed marriage.
In the mixed marriages entered in the registers, the names of Maltese women by far exceed those of Maltese men, and very many of the mixed marriages are between British soldiers and Maltese women.
In forming the following estimate of the number of mixed marriages, it has been assumed that any party to a marriage who is described in the register as resident in Malta and who bears a Maltese name, was a Roman Catholic,
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