§ MR. MURPHY (Kerry, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, having regard to the exhuming of bodies without authority at the Brockley Cemetery, and the action of the superintendent in allowing plates to be removed from coffins and Roman Catholics to be interred in the Protestant part of the cemetery, he will take steps to prevent such action in future by making the officials of the cemetery and mortuary responsible to only one authority.
§ * MR. AKERS DOUGLAS (for Mr. RITCHIE)The Secretary of State
† See page 999.1122 for the Home Department, to whom this question should have been addressed, is informed that in order to carry out the licence to remove the body of one of the paupers referred to in his answer of Monday last† it was found necessary, owing to the confusion which had occurred, to open two coffins. It was only to this extent that there was any exhuming of bodies without authority. The removal of coffin plates was most reprehensible, and the guardians have taken serious notice of the matter. He trusts that the regulations they have laid down will prevent the recurrence of such a scandal in the future; but he does not see how the case would be bettered by making the officials of the cemetery and the workhouse mortuary responsible to only one authority, even if that were practicable.