§ MR. G. BERKELEY, seeing his right hon. Friend the Secretary for the Home Department in his place, begged to bring a circumstance under his knowledge, and to ask a question on it of considerable importance to a great portion of his constituents. It appeared that, some time since, a Mr. Cook, resident at Gloucester, was appointed coroner for the district comprising the Forest of Doan. This officer resided fifteen miles from the nearest point of his duty. A change was subsequently made, and Mr. Cook was appointed to another district, comprising the town of Cheltenham; and a Mr. Barnet, resident at Cheltenham, was appointed to the district comprising the Forest of Dean. This placed the coroner still further from his duties, and made the nearest point at which he could be reached from the forest about twenty-eight miles. Now, when it 247 was known that the forest was a mining district, where accidents might be said to be rife, such a distance from the coroner was of considerable disadvantage; the more so, from a superstitious feeling among the working classes, as to not labouring in a mine where an accident had happened while the body lay unburied. He (Mr. Berkeley) had been told of instances of five days' delay of an inquest, during which time no work, was done, creating much loss to both the employer and the employed. He therefore wished to know from his right hon. Friend in which way the grievance was to be remedied, as it was one exciting considerable attention in the forest district?
§ SIR G. GREYwas not prepared to say. He apprehended that it was not within the province of the Government to interfere directly in such a matter.