able
stamp of Lord John Russell's zeal for political redress and religious
toleration. Early in the session he brought forward two measures for the
relief of Nonconformists. One of them legalised marriages in the
presence of a registrar in Nonconformist places of worship, and the
other provided for a general civil registration of births, marriages,
and deaths. His original proposal was that marriage in church as well as
chapel should only take place after due notice had been given to the
registrar. The bishops refused to entertain such an idea, and the House
of Lords gave effect to their objections, with the result that the
registrar was bowed out of church, though not out of chapel, where
indeed he remains to this day. The Tithe Commutation Act and three other
measures--one for equalising the incomes of prelates, rearranging
ancient dioceses and creating new sees; another for the better
application of the revenues of the Church to its general purposes; and a
third to diminish pluralities--bore witness to his ardour for
ecclesiastical reform. The first became law in 1836, and the other two
respectively in 1838 and 1839. He lent his aid also to the movement for
the foundation on a broad and liberal basis of a new university in
London with power to confer degrees--a concession to Nonconformist
scholarship and liberal culture generally, which was the more
appreciated since Oxford and Cambridge still jealously excluded by their
religious tests the youth of the Free Churches.

The Tithe Commutation Act was passed in June; it provided for the
exchange of tithes into a rent-charge upon land payable in money, but
according to a sliding scale which varied with the average price of corn
during the seven preceding years. In the opinion of Lord Farnborough, to
no measure since the Reformation has the Church owed so much peace and
security. The Irish Municipal Bill was carried in the course of the
session through the Commons, but the Lords rendered the measure
impossible; and though the Irish Poor Law Bill was carried, a different
fate awaited Irish Tithes. This measure was introduced for the fifth
time, but in consequence of the King's death, on June 20, and the
dissolution of Parliament which followed, it had to be abandoned.
Between 1835 and 1837 Lord John, as Home Secretary, brought about many
changes for the better in the regulation of prisons, and especially in
the treatment of juvenile offenders. By his directions prisoners i