§ MR. A. M'ARTHURasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been directed to a paragraph which appeared in several Leicester papers in which it is stated that at the interment of Mrs. Pratt who, according to the verdict of a coroner's jury, committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity, the Rev. J. Brookes, Rector of Croft, Leicestershire, instead of reading the Burial Service read only a few verses of a psalm and then abruptly concluded with the benediction; if the statement is correct; and, if so, whether the action complained of is not illegal?
Mr. ASSHETON CROSSMy attention has not been drawn to the paragraph which appeared in the Leicestershire papers, but I have received information from the rev. gentleman referred to from which it appears that the facts are accurately stated in the Question. I should have thought that the one thing which the clergyman might have done was to read the full service in such a case instead of a part of it. The verdict of the coroner's jury would have been, I should have thought, a sufficient justification for anybody to have read the full service, and I think it would have been more consonant with common sense and Christian charity.