§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether it is a fact that the Catholic children belonging to the Nottingham Workhouse are daily sent to a Board School, although there is a Catholic 1361 Public Elementary School within a quarter of an hour's walk by a quiet road; whether the same children are deprived of adequate instruction in their religion but have been several times illegally sent to the Protestant teaching given in the Board School; whether the Government Inspector has more than once animadverted upon this breach of the Law; whether the bishop and clergy of Nottingham have repeatedly, but in vain, remonstrated with the guardians upon their conduct; whether the Local Government Board have ineffectually declared to the guardians that the Law requires that the religion of the children should be recognized in the choice of their school; and, also, what steps he proposes to take to vindicate the religious liberty of the poor people entrusted to his Department?
MR. GEORGE RUSSELLSir, it is the case that Catholic children from the workhouse attend a school of the Nottingham School Board, and that there is a Catholic public elementary school within a distance of a mile from the workhouse. As to the religious instruction of the children, when this arrangement was last the subject of correspondence with the Guardians, we were informed that the Roman Catholic clergy were allowed to visit the children every Saturday at any time between the hours of 9 A.M. and 5 P.M.; that the children go to the Roman Catholic Church every Sunday morning; that the Board room is set apart for a Catholic Service each Sunday afternoon, the children never failing to attend the Service, and that the elder children attend Mass. As to attendance at Protestant teaching in the Board school, we received information in June last that some of the children had not been withdrawn from the religious teaching at the school, and we instructed one of our Inspectors to ascertain the facts by personal inquiry. It was found that some of the young children had not been withdrawn in consequence of the required notification not having been given. We were then informed by the Guardians that the superintendent had been instructed, in future, to give this information in every case immediately on the admission of a child; and as we have received no complaint on the subject since, we assume that these instructions have been complied with, We have endeavoured to 1362 induce the Guardians to send the children to the Catholic public elementary school, and it is a matter of regret to us that they have not done so. We have no reason to doubt that those mentioned in the Question have remonstrated. We have not, however, stated that the Guardians are infringing the law in the course which they have adopted. On the contrary, it appears to us that they are within their legal powers in sending the children to the Board school, provided that the children only receive secular instruction, and are altogether withdrawn from the religious instruction at the school.