§ MR. OSBORNE MORGAN (Denbighshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the right of interment in a churchyard or (subject to the approval of the proper authorities) in a church, as distinct from the right to a religious burial service, is not independent of the ecclesiastical status of the deceased person; and whether he is aware that the late Sir Rowland Hill, although an un-baptized person, was buried in Westminster Abbey?
§ *MR. MATTHEWSI have no authority to give an opinion on a question of law, but I am advised that the Burials Act of 1880 gives the right of interment in a churchyard independent of the ecclesiastical status of the deceased person, but that this provision of the Act does not apply to burials in churches. The right to be buried in a church, depends on the consent or refusal of the incumbent, and in some cases is regulated by faculties granted by the ecclesiastical authorities. I am informed by the Dean of Westminster 11 that there is no discoverable trace in the late Dean's paper that Sir Rowland Hill was an un-baptized person. There are no signs of the question having been raised.