§ Dr. PETERSasked the Prime Minister whether his attention has been called to the imprisonment of John Henry Stevens, of Hauxton, Cambridgeshire, by writ of attachment for contempt of a consistory court sitting recently at Ely Cathedral because he refused to pay money alleged to be owing by him to the Church of England; and whether he will introduce a Bill at an early date to deprive such Church of the power of sitting in judgment in a cause between itself and one of His Majesty's subjects, and especially to take away its power to order the imprisonment of any such person?
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The SOLICITOR-GENERALThe Prime Minister has asked me to reply to this question. The procedure employed in this case is sanctioned by law and practice of long standing, But, though I must not, as at present advised, be taken as accepting the facts and inferences set out in the question, I recognise that the procedure has a strange appearance when put into practice for the first time after a long interval, and I propose when time permits to consider whether the remedy applicable in this class of case is appropriate in modern conditions.