MR. BRUCEsaid, he wished to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, Whether, the Government having withdrawn their Education Bill, it is their intention to propose the repeal or alteration of Article Eight of the Revised Code, so as to admit Secular Schools to the benefit of the Parliamentary Grant?
§ MR. BAINESsaid, he would beg to ask the noble Lord, Whether he is aware that the Congregational Board of Education have decided to alter its Trust Deed in reliance on the assurances received from the Committee of Council; and that that Board, with its Training College and affiliated Schools, would be subject to great inconvenience if those assurances should not be fulfilled?
§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUreplied that the Government had determined to give effect to the wishes of the congregational bodies or of other religious bodies by means of a general Bill on the sub- 953 ject of education, which had been introduced into the other House by the Lord President of the Council, and it was thought that the scheme contained in that Bill would have been satisfactory to all parties. The circumstances of the present Session had, however, obliged the Government to drop that Bill for this year; and they thought it would not be advisable, by means of a Minute, to deal with one part of that general scheme to the exclusion of the others. In answer to the Question of the hon. Member for Leeds, he had to state that he had been informed by him that the Congregational Board had altered its trust deeds, and he feared that in consequence they would be put to some inconvenience.