§ MR. G. OSBORNE MORGAN (Denbighshire, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has received a letter from the Rev. Evan Davies, Wesleyan minister, of Conway, with reference to the burial of William Williams in the churchyard of 1330 Gyffon parish, directly contradicting the information supplied by the Rev. Thomas Ellis, rector of the parish, to the Home Secretary, that he (the rector) had received no notice of burial such as the Act of 1880 required when the relatives wish to dispense with the Church Service, and enclosing a copy of the notice of burial actually served on the rector; whether it is in such letter alleged, contrary to the statement of the rector, that he (Rev. Evan Davies), and not the rector, was authorised by the widow of the deceased to conduct the burial service; and whether, in view of the grave scandal occasioned in the neighbourhood by the incident above referred to, he will direct an inquiry to be made into all the circumstances of the case?
§ MR. MATTHEWSYes, Sir; I have received such a letter. When I stated, in answer to a former question, that "the rector had received no notice of burial under the Act of 1880," I appear to have misunderstood the words used in the rector's letter to me, which were that he had received no intimation that there existed a desire to bury the deceased under that Act. It now appears that the rector did receive such notice from Mr. Davies, but the deceased, being a non-parishioner, the Act of 1880 did not apply, and the notice was, therefore, in the rector's opinion, null and void. The rector, to whom I have referred Mr. Davies' letter, emphatically reaffirms that he was distinctly authorised by various relatives, but, not, as I understand, by the widow, to conduct the service; and it was to meet their earnest wishes that he finally consented to conduct the service according to the rites of the Church of England. The facts in my possession do not show that any breach of the law has been committed. There is, accordingly, no occasion for any futher interference on my part.
§ MR. G. OSBORNE MORGANAs a matter of law, is it competent for a clergyman to make the interment of any person, whether a parishioner or not, in the parish churchyard conditional upon his friends abandoning their legal rights under the Burials Act of 1880?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI think it would be safer to refer, upon a question of law, to the Attorney General.