§ MR. CARVELL WILLIAMS (Nottingham, S.)asked the Secretary of 598 State for the Home Department, Whether he has seen a statement in The Daily News of 27th March to the effect that, at the burial of the daughter of a Wesleyan Minister at Tarporley, Cheshire, the Reverend Canon Cooper, the Rector, vehemently protested against the performance of a service in the churchyard by a Wesleyan Minister, and that, the front gates of the churchyard being locked, the mourners had to
tramp through the mud of a dirty lane to a back gate, where they found awaiting them, instead of a bier used on such occasions, a rough, rude bench, which the bearers of the little coffin declined to use;and, whether he will inquire into the facts of the case; and, if they are found to be as stated, he will consider the propriety of instituting proceedings against the Rector for obstructing the burial?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CHILDERS) (Edinburgh, S.)Yes, Sir, my attention has been called to the statement in question; but I am glad to say that I have since received a communication from the clergyman himself, in which he tells me that there is no truth whatever in the allegations made as to any undue interference on his part with the proper conduct of the burial; but, on the contrary, he has reason to believe that the Wesleyan minister was quite satisfied that everything was done as he desired. The front gates of the churchyard were not locked; as a matter of fact they have no locks. The gate that the procession passed through was the one selected by the father himself. The bier was the same as is always used by Church people and Nonconformists alike, and no complaint has ever been made about it. I am afraid it was not in the power of the clergyman to obviate the muddiness of a Cheshire lane in the early part of March. Under these circumstances, I can find no fault with the rector of Tarporley.