§ MR. CRAWFORDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the Government are aware that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have received from the Corporation of the City of London an offer
To undertake the charge of the Bunbill Fields burial ground as trustees for the public, defraying the cost of watching, maintaining, and keeping it in a proper condition, planting trees and shrubs, keeping up the gravel walks, and preserving the tombs, so that it may form, within proper hours, and under proper regulations, a decent and ornamental open space of the Metropolis, covenanting that, in the event of failure in these respects, it should revert to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners,and that such offer has been declined by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners?
§ MR. WALPOLEThere are some questions which it is hardly possible to answer with a single negative or affirmative, and this is one of them. I believe there was some such application made some time ago on the part of the City of London to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners with the view 212 of preserving the burial grounds as an ornamental open space; but, inasmuch as there are large claims made on the City of London with reference to that subject, and as a vast deal of negotiation has been going on with regard to it, I believe the best answer I can give to the Question is to inform the hon. Gentleman that an unopposed Motion will be made to-night for the production of all the Correspondence on this subject, which I believe will supply all the information which the hon. Gentleman desires to possess.