The Home Office Baby was an 1884 publicity stunt

Publicity stunt

A publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs...

 perpetrated by the Rev. J. Mirehouse, the eccentric rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

 of Colsterworth

Colsterworth

Colsterworth is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The village, together with the hamlet of Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, had a population of 1,508 according to the 2001 census. It lies half a mile to the west of the A1, seven miles south of Grantham...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Mirehouse was in dispute with Home Secretary

Home Secretary

The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...

 Sir William Harcourt

William Vernon Harcourt (politician)

Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt was a British lawyer, journalist and Liberal statesman. He served as Member of Parliament for various constituencies and held the offices of Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone before becoming Leader of...

 over the proposed closure of a local graveyard

Graveyard

A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...

. Mirehouse mail

Mail

Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...

ed the corpse of a still born infant to Harcourt, marked "perishable". It arrived at the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 on 2 November.

Later that month, ecclesiastical lawyer Walter Phillimore

Walter Phillimore, 1st Baron Phillimore

Walter George Frank Phillimore, 1st Baron Phillimore PC , known as Sir Walter Phillimore, 2nd Baronet, from 1885 to 1918, was a British lawyer and judge.-Biography:...

 gave the opinion that Mirehouse had committed no offence known to the canon law

Canon law

Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...

 of the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

and could not be disciplined.