found one case only, and in that case the man was "looked down upon," as my witness ascertained, the general feeling being very strong against such a marriage. I stated this in the House of Commons, in 1850, and a City Missionary of the same district wrote to the "Times" to say I had made a misstatement, for he had found two more cases! This was the result of our several, and, I believe, together very complete researches.
You will find many witnesses before the Commissioners dealing in vague generalities about the number of the poor who wish to make such marriages. Every body well knows the worthlessness of such generalities. A Clergyman wrote to me, in 1850, and said he knew amongst the poor many such instances, and that I was quite mistaken. I answered, "Send me the exact number you know, with an assurance that the case is within your own knowledge, and I will state the facts in an appendix to my speech which I am printing." I received no answer.
And now, sir, I have really gone through every alleged ground for the change. Assume, if you will, 5000 instead of 1648 persons who have so married, or desire to marry, I should not admit this as a ground for altering the condition of every other family in the kingdom[1].
- ↑ The evidence before the Commissioners of Inquiry of 1847 was analyzed, and its utter worthlessness exposed, in a very able letter of Alexander Beresford Hope, Esq., to Sir Robert Harry Inglis, published by Ridgway in 1849, which every one
