LORD BROUGHAMpresented a Petition from the family of a respectable farmer in the county of Leicester, who had undergone extreme suffering through what he would call a legal misunderstanding on the part of the vicar of the parish. Towards the latter end of last week the father of the petitioners unfortunately committed suicide. An inquest was held the same day, and the jury returned a verdict of "temporary insanity." He regretted that none of the right rev. Bishops were present, as he should particularly wish to call their attention to this case. The verdict of "tem- 2 porary insanity" left no doubt as to the right of the deceased to sepulture in the parish church; and the refusal was the more cruel as the deceased had been born and baptized in the parish, had lived in it all his life, had filled church offices there, and was one of the largest ratepayers in the locality. Moreover, his wife had been buried in the parish church-yard. But when application was made to the vicar, to know at what hour it would be convenient to him to perform the burial service, to the astonishment and grief of his family he refused not only to perform the burial service, but would not allow the body to be interred in the church-yard. This resolution he persevered in, notwithstanding that the family offered to let their father be buried without having service read over the body, as he objected to do so. He (Lord Brougham) had made this statement from the Petition—having no other information on the subject. The churchwardens applied to the vicar but failed to shake his determination. The consequence was that 3 the body remained unburied, first at the inn for many hours, and afterwards at the dead-house, when the officer of health directed it to be removed. Some further delay took place, for it was requisite to seek out some other place of interment, and when, in the course of a day or two, the family had been able to purchase a piece of ground for the purpose, they were fortunate enough to meet with another clergyman who did not entertain the same scruples, or who was not labouring under the same hallucination, and he at once consented to perform the funeral service. The wishes of the family, however, that the remains of their unhappy parent might repose beside his wife in the burying-ground were frustrated. They therefore prayed their Lordships to render them any relief that might be in their power; or if it was unfortunately the case that any law existed which would justify the proceeding of this clergyman, then they prayed the House to make such alteration in it as would prevent the recurrence of a similar circumstance.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, if the right rev. Prelates were present, he was sure they would concur with his hon. and learned Friend and himself in deploring the mistake which the rev. gentleman had committed. No doubt whatever could exist that the vicar was altogether wrong in point of law, and that the person named in the petition was entitled to Christian burial, according to the rites of the Church of England. The vicar had no right to form and act upon his own opinion, contrary to that which had been expressed by the jury.
LORD BROUGHAMsaid he had purposely abstained from mentioning the name of the clergyman, who had acted, he had no doubt, from conscientious scruples.