CO129-247 - Acting Governor Fleming Governor Des Voeus - 1890 [10-12] — Page 254

and

validly

has been

210

licensed although there

publication. It is

simply to give information to the public. I think there is no

necessity

or in whatever in this case, all the

world knows that the Church of the Immaculate Conception is a place licensed by Government for the celebration of marriages.

If Your Excellency maintains publication advisable, I would suggest the republication in the

Gazette of the notice at page 109 of the volume for 1876 in its entirety, simply altering the description of Church as to locality, and that without

any

note or comment. I do not think, nor

will Your Excellency, that it would be advisable to allow the publication of anything that could excite the faintest suspicion as to the validity of the

marriages celebrated in this

Church. Your Excellency has here

253

another illustration of the defects of that awful Ordinance of 1875, the offspring of sectarian feelings put together by men who appear to know

little of the law with which they

are dealing.

Besides

being bad in

principle, the Ordinance is irregular and

defective in its framework.

The

sooner

Your Excellency

annuls it the better for the sake of

humanity

and the honour of the

English nation.

I have received information that many marriages

have taken place in this Church since its opening.

I have, &c.

I. T. Raimondi.

Bishop Vicar Apostolic.