Note 1393 — Chapter X · RISE OF CIVIL MARRIAGE

Speech of Mr. Bond, in Cobbett, op. cit., XV, 43, 44. Townshend (ibid., 57, 58) replies to the argument based on the laws of the Dutch. The people and the institutions are very different from the English and therefore afford no precedent. "In Holland not only every province but every town is a sort of sovereignty within itself; and their religion, especially with regard to marriage, is much the same as it was in this country in the days of Oliver Cromwell, when neither the marriage contract, nor the ceremony was supposed to have any sanctity or religion in its nature." Then follows this delicious bit of comparison: "The Dutch, sir, are naturally a cool, patient people, and not given to sudden changes, either in their tempers or passions; therefore the rendering a proclamation of banns necessary may do very well in that country; but in this, where the people are naturally sanguine, impatient, and as apt to change as the air they breathe, I am convinced that such a regulation would be the cause of numberless mischiefs."