§ Bill as amended (by the Standing Committee; further considered.
675§ Other Amendments made.
§ (5.20.) LORD HUGH CECILsaid they had now reached the last clause in the Bill, and he should like to renew his protest against legislation of this kind being treated in relation to national divisions. He could not see why the Bill should not be extended to Ireland equally with the rest of the United Kingdom. He understood that hon. Members for Ireland were greatly opposed to it because Roman Catholic feeling was very much against, cremation. No one proposed that Roman Catholics should adopt cremation. Local authorities had the option to leave matters as they stood now. It amounted to this, if Roman Catholics preferred burial to cremation no one in Ireland was obliged to have cremation; but however much an individual might have expressed his wish to be cremated that course was not to be taken. He did not think it was a reasonable or a logical position. He should have thought that the proper course was to treat the whole of the United Kingdom as one in this matter. It was too much the custom to make Bills easy to pass through Parliament by adopting illogical distinctions. He had no desire to wreck the Bill, but by way of protest he would move that Clause 16 be left out.
§ Amendment proposed, "To leave out Clause 16."—(Lord Hugh Cecil.)