§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD KINNAIRD moved the Second Reading of the Parochial Schoolmasters (Scotland) Bill. It was a measure to enable the parishes to pay the Schoolmasters of Scotland the salaries they now receive, as 799 well as to clear up the question which had been mooted as to whether they had a right to any salaries at all. It was merely a Continuance Bill, introduced at the request of the Lord Advocate, who feared that it could not be passed through the other House in time to comply with their Lordships' Resolution as to not reading Bills after the 7th August.
§ Moved that the Bill be now read 2a.
§ LORD PANMUREsaid, he did not object to the second reading of the Bill. It was competent for the Scotch proprietors to refuse the payment of the schoolmasters, but, to their credit be it spoken, they had not done so, nor had they permitted the doubt to make any difference in their payment. He hoped the Bill would have the effect of keeping the subject before the public until a comprehensive measure on the subject of Education in Scotland should be passed.
LORD POLWARTHsaid, he would not oppose the Bill. He hoped that the schoolmasters to be appointed under the Bill would be made to feel that they held the same independent position that other schoolmasters enjoyed.
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the whole House on Monday next.