§ SIR THOMAS BAZLEYasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether it is true that the Guardians of the Poor at Oldham advertised for a religious attendant upon their paupers without distinction of sect at the rate of £ 20 per annum, that no clergy of the Established Church had applied to be appointed, but that the Rev. Mr. Davies, a Non-conformist minister, offered his services, which were accepted; and, whether he had not de- 626 clined to ratify the appointment of this gentleman?
§ Mr. SCLATER-BOOTHThe Question of the hon. Baronet scarcely gives an accurate account of what has recently occurred at Oldham. The Guardians, as I am informed, addressed, through the master of the workhouse, a circular to the clergy and ministers of other denominations, inviting them to undertake the Sunday services in succession. The payment of £ 20 was not to have been in compensation for such services, but was to have been made to the funds of the Town Mission, and that would not have been a legal charge upon the rates. It is true that I have declined to sanction the appointment of Mr. Davies, in accordance with the invariable practice of the Local Government Office, which holds that the chaplain of a workhouse must be a clergyman of the Church of England. This view is in accordance with the opinions given so long ago as when Lord Campbell and Lord Cranworth were Law Officers of the Crown, and was confirmed more recently in the time when Lord Coleridge and Sir George Jessel held the same appointments.