§ MR. HAZELLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Rev. S. Turner, Rector of Coveney, Cambridgeshire, objected to the erection of a. monument in the churchyard of that parish over the grave of Mrs. Chambers on the grounds that it was in the form of an obelisk, which was of heathen origin, and that it had, as part of the inscription, the words ''Peace! Perfect peace!" instead of a passage from the Scriptures, or the Liturgy, which alone he could allow; whether he is aware that, on the removal of the monument by the rector, he was sued for damages by the deceased's husband in the county court at Ely, when the judge decided that the erection of an obelisk was not illegal, and that the monument might be re-erected; and whether steps will be taken to prevent such exercise of authority by incumbents as the custodians of parochial burial places.
§ *THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir M. WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolI understand that the facts are stated with substantial accuracy in the first paragraph of the question, but that no such legal decision as that indicated in 1439 the second paragraph has been given. I am not aware of any steps which it is possible for me to take in such a matter; but I may point out that the exercise of an incumbent's authority in such cases is, as I am advised, subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary and of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Courts.