§ MR. KINNAIRDasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether, in consequence of the closing of the Protestant cemetery at Florence, obtained through the intervention of the late King of Prussia, permission has been granted for the use of another cemetery purchased in part by foreign Protestants; and, if not, what reason has been assigned by the Italian Government for refusing such permission?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDSir, the ground purchased by the Protestant Burial Ground Committee at Florence, as the site of a new cemetery, although only a mile from the town, is within the jurisdiction of another Commune, that of Gallazzo, from which permission to use it had to be obtained. The Communal Council desired to withhold its decision, in consequence of a project to create in the same Commune a general necropolis for the city, of which a part would be set aside for non-Catholics. Pending the realization of this plan, which seemed far distant, the Government was urged to use its influence on behalf of the Burial Ground Committee with the Commune, which yielded so far as to allow a temporary use of the ground, on condition that it should be abandoned when the necropolis was opened. These conditions were refused by the Committee, and the Communal Council, with which, the Government cannot interfere, so long as it acts within the law, refused positively in October last to permit them to commence their works on the ground. The question still remains unsettled, depending apparently on the creation of the new necropolis. Meanwhile the old cemetery has not been closed, and a general cemetery existed four miles from Florence, at Trespiano, where non-Catholics may be buried.