[Footnote 773: _Ibid._, 160. According to COOK, "Colonel Byrd, writing about 1728, says that in North Carolina, 'for want of men in holy orders, justices of the peace and members of the council were empowered to celebrate marriage.'"--_Op. cit._, 355, 356.] A new law was passed in 1741, which, though it does not expressly forbid dissenting ministers from performing the marriage ceremony, at any rate, as Weeks insists, makes "dissent burdensome and humiliating," puts a "premium on conformity," and constitutes "religious persecution."[774] "To prevent clandestine marriages" it is enacted "that every Clergyman of the Church of England, or for want of such, any lawful magistrate, within this Government" may join persons in the "holy state of matrimony." By implication this provision widens the area within which a magistrate is empowered to act, for by the law of 1715 a layman may not perform the ceremony in any parish where a "minister or priest" resides, thus probably including dissenters, who in the present case do not count. The next clause gives still further chances for lay celebration; for, while a justice of the peace may not join in marriage "any persons whatsoever in any parish where a minister shall reside and have a cure," still by implication he may do so in any parish in the colony by obtaining permission from the minister, and, of course, in all cases turning over to said minister the legally prescribed fee.[775] Another provision of this statute may perhaps justify the inference that dissenting ministers are not absolutely excluded. To prevent "that abominable mixture and spurious issue" which would follow, it is enacted, "That if any white man or woman, being free, shall intermarry with an indian, negro, mustee, or mulatto man or woman, or any person of mixt blood, to the third generation, bond or free, he shall, by judgment of the county court, forfeit and pay the sum of fifty pounds, proclamation money, to the use of the parish;" and any persons, including dissenting ministers, are forbidden to solemnize such marriages, under the same penalty.[776] The marriage of servants indented or by custom is also dealt with. It is provided "That if any minister or reader shall willingly publish, or cause or suffer to be published, the banns of matrimony between any servants, or between a free person and a servant; or if any minister or justice of the peace shall willingly celebrate the rites of matrimony between any such, without a certificate from the master or mistress of such servant, that it is done by their consent; he shall forfeit and pay five pounds, proclamation money, to the use of the master or owner." Every servant so married without consent shall serve the master or mistress "one whole year, after the time of service by indenture or custom is expired."[777] [Footnote 774: WEEKS, _Church and State_, 244, 245.]