§ MR. BRADLAUGH (Northampton)asked the hon. Member for the Knutsford Division of Cheshire, Whether, on Sunday, June 10, the usual annual Hospital Sunday collection was forbidden by the Metropolitan Board of Works on all the open spaces under the control of the Board; and, whether this is the first occasion on which such Hospital Sunday collections have been so prohibited?
§ MR. TATTON EGERTON (Cheshire, Knutsford)The Metropolitan Board of Works some time ago made, with the consent of the Secretary of State, a bye-law prohibiting the collection of money on the open spaces under the Board's control. Some of the persons holding religious meetings on the commons asked to be allowed to collect money for the benefit of the hospitals on Sunday, June 10. The Board, however, thought that objection might fairly be taken to the relaxation of the bye-law in favour of any particular body of persons or of any particular object.
§ MR. BRADLAUGHasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he would state the considerations that had induced him to approve the bye-law forbidding collections being made on the open spaces under the control of the Board?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)said, that, so far as his memory went, he knew nothing about it. It must, he 1829 supposed, have been approved by one of his Predecessors in Office.
§ MR. JAMES STUART (Shoreditch, Hoxton)asked, whether the right hon. Gentleman would look into the matter, and see whether such restriction could not be removed in cases of a collection for perfectly uninjurious objects?
§ MR. MATTHEWSsignified assent.