§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY, in asking the Lord President, Whether school boards have any legal right to exact home lessons, and to dispose of the time of children attending board schools out of school hours; and, if so, under what section of what Act of Parliament? said, that he regretted having to trouble his noble Friend again with the Question, after the satisfactory reply which he had given on a former occasion. He (Lord Stanley of Alderley) was, however, compelled to do so, because the most important part of the reply of the Lord President on a former occasion had failed to reach the Reporters' Gallery, and, because, a few days later, the Vice President in "another place" had spoken in rather a different sense, and used words which would harden the hearts of those who were over-driving the children. Moreover, at Todmorden, the School Board 1609 had again refused admission to Mr. Shackleton's sons; whilst they appeared to shrink from committing themselves to a written refusal, for, on the 17th instant, they had not replied to a letter of Mr. Shackleton's of the 13th, although there had been a meeting of the Board on the 16th instant; and as the term of office of this Board expired on the 25th, they might wish to ignore the ease. On a former occasion, the Todmorden School Board sent away the reporters when discussing the matter. He would observe that the Education Office had made a singular mistake, and misled the Lord President into repeating it in this House—namely, that Mr. Shackleton had given no reasons for refusing to allow his sons to do home lessons. When that was alleged by the Education Department letter of January 19, 1882, signed by Mr. Palgrave, Mr. Shackleton wrote to the Todmorden local paper to show that this statement was entirely inaccurate, and The School Board Chronicle had reprinted the letter, and commented upon it, and supported Mr. Shackleton against both the School Board and the Education Department. Since he last addressed the Lord President on this subject, he had heard of complaints of overwork and home lessons from various parts of the country, and he had received remonstrances against the assertion of the Lord President that the New Code was less severe than the Old Code.
§ LORD CARLINGFORD (LORD PRESIDENT of the COUNCIL), in reply, said, the answer he had to give was, that he had no authority, as President of the Council, to decide the legal rights of the school boards. Any such question as the present could only come before him under the Code, and when it did so he should be very happy to give it his attention, and decide it; but he was bound to add, that he was not prepared to say it would be the duty of the Education Department to refuse the annual grant to a school board, simply because that board had declined to admit a child, the parents of which had refused, without showing reasonable grounds or excuse, to permit the child to go through the home lessons prescribed by the school board. He was not prepared to say that the Education Department would refuse the grant on any such ground as that.