§ MR. HARDCASTLEsaid, in the abscence of his hon. Friend (Mr. Hubbard), he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the stipend of the Rev. Pelham T. Maitland, Consular Chaplain at Naples, has been withdrawn; and, if so, then upon what grounds, and especially whether the reasons for such withdrawal affect in any degree the high character Mr. Maitland has always maintained at Naples as a Clergyman of the Church of England?
LORD STANLEYSir, what has happened at Naples is this. Very acrimonious disputes having arisen amongst the English congregation, and the parties concerned having refused to abide by the decision of the Ecclesiastical authorities, I thought it was not seemly that Her Majesty's Government should be mixed up with the affair, and I therefore felt it my duty to withdraw the grant which had been made under the Consular Act. I am glad, however, to have it in my power to state that what has occurred does not in the slightest degree affect the personal character of Mr. Maitland, whom I have always heard spoken of in the highest terms.