MR. CARVELL WILLIAMS (Notts, Mansfield)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 629 whether he has received from Mr. J. Latham, of Bryun, near Wigan, a confirmation of the statement that the Rector of Downall Green, Lancashire, on learning that, he intended to have a Nonconformist Service at the burial of his wife, refused to grant him a private grave, and that the interment, therefore, took place in a grave in which two bodies had already been buried; whether he has also received from several inhabitants of the parish a statement to the effect that the rector has in other cases refused to allow parishioners to be buried in private graves when the relatives have not required the Church of England Burial Service, and, as a consequence, Nonconformists to obtain private graves, have been obliged to surrender their right to a Nonconformist Service; whether be has received from the Rev. G. Jarman, tin; Nonconformist minister who was obstructed in the performance of a burial service in Whitchurch Churchyard, Somerset, on 9th July, a copy of a letter addressed to him by the Rev. E. J. Franklin, the Vicar, in which he expresses sincere regret that he interfered with the Funeral Service, he having previously assured the Secretary of State for the Home Department that he bad offered no obstruction; and whether, in view of such occurrences, he will consider the expediency of adopting some means for securing for Nonconformists the free exercise of their rights under the Burials Act of 1880?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQCITH,) Fife. E.As to the first two paragraphs, I have received the statements to which my hon. Friend refers, together with some comments by the rector upon them, and a. Petition signed by certain inhabitants defending the rector's action. I am satisfied that the rector claims and exercises the right of appropriating private graves to members of his own congregation, and of leaving Nonconformists to be buried in graves where one or more interments have already taken place, lie seeks to justify his action on the ground of the limited space; available for new graves in the churchyard. I am not prepared to say that the rector is not acting within his legal rights. I can only express my own strong opinion that such a discrimination as he seeks to exercise is in entire 630 variance with the intention and spirit of the Burials Act. 1880. The answer to the third paragraph is in the affirmative. As I stated on a previous occasion, I think that the Vicar in this instance violated the law, nor can I look upon the statement which he made to me in the first instance as a fair or complete account of the facts. As to the last paragraph, where the law is not broken it is obvious that no one can interfere with, however much he may condemn, the proceedings of the clergy. Where the law is broken it is open to anyone to prosecute.