§ MR. A. M'ARTHUR (Leicester)asked the right hon. Member for the University of Oxford, as an Ecclesiastical Commissioner, Whether it is correctly stated in The Daily News of July 19, that the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, after having offered to place a statue of the late Earl of Shaftesbury in Westminster Abbey, have required the payment first of £400 and then of £250 before permitting its erection, and that, as the Memorial Committee have no funds available for the purpose, the statue remains in the studio of the sculptor; and, whether the claim is made at the instance or with the concurrence of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, as receivers of the Abbey revenues; and, if so, whether, in consideration of the valuable services rendered to the nation by the Earl of Shaftesbury, the claim will be waived?
§ SIR JOHN R. MOWBRAY (Oxford University)I know nothing, as an Ecclesiastical Commissioner, of the statement in The Daily News. No such claim has been made at the instance, or with the concurrence, of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The Question relates to a matter with which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have nothing whatever to do, beyond seeing, under the provisions of the Westminster Abbey Act just passed, that any fees received by the Chapter for the erection of monuments have been carried to the Fabric Fund.