§ MR. COBB (Warwick, S.E., Rugby)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can now state the full result of the inquiries into the case of the Rev. Edward Burdett Hawkshaw, the Chairman of the Ross Bench of Magistrates; whether Mr. Hawkshaw has been asked if it is or is not true that for a number of years he knowingly wore the hood of 530 a Master of Arts in conducting the services of the church, although he knew that he was only a Bachelor of Arts, and what reply he made; whether Mr. Hawkshaw has also been asked if he continued this practice until he was obliged to take the degree of Master of Arts in order to qualify himself for the prebendal stall in Hereford Cathedral; and if in the first instance he accepted the offer of the stall without disclosing to the Bishop that he was only a Bachelor of Arts, and what reply he made; and whether, if no information has yet been received as to these allegations, further inquiries will at once be made?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS,) Birmingham, E.I must refer the hon. Member to an answer I gave him on the 23rd of last month, to which I have nothing to add. The Lord Chancellor informs me that he has not made the particular inquiries suggested by the hon. Member, and he does not propose to make them; considering that they should, if made at all, be made through the Ordinary.
§ MR. COBBIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the opinion which he gave us on the 23rd of last month on the Fifteenth Canon is contrary to the opinion of the Archbishop of Canterbury? May I also ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he can give any other instance in which a clergyman, who has for years practised such a deception, and has rendered himself liable to suspension, has been allowed to remain on a Bench of Magistrates?
§ MR. MATTHEWSIf the Archbishop of Canterbury has expressed a different opinion from that which I have given as to the interpretation of the Fifteenth Canon, I have no doubt that he is right and that I am wrong. But the hon. Member goes on to ask whether, assuming certain things, I approve or do not approve of something. All I have to say is that it is no part of my duty as Home Secretary to express any opinion as to breaches of the Canon Law.
§ MR. COBBPerhaps the right hon. Gentleman will ask the Lord Chancellor 531 to express an opinion as to whether a man who has practised a gross deception for years is fit to be the Chairman of a County Bench of Magistrates.
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!