MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS. (Hansard, 7 February 1873)

§ MR. W. H. SMITH,
in rising to move the Address of which he had given Notice, said, that the Grey Coat Hospital now provided for twice as many boys as girls; but under the new scheme the endowment was applied solely to the education of girls, while it was intended to provide for the boys in the scheme for Emanuel Hospital. But this scheme had not yet received the sanction of Parliament, and might never do so, in which case the boys would be left unprovided for. He therefore desired that the two schemes should be considered together.

§ MR. W. E. FORSTER
trusted the hon. Member would not persevere with his Motion, because if the House should assent to it it would have the effect of rendering all the labour incurred in regard to the reform of the Institution referred to of no avail, and the whole process in respect to a scheme for its management would have to be gone over again. After several interviews between the Education Department of the Government and the Governors of the Institution that scheme was finally agreed to. It was true that the scheme made special provision for girls, a provision which was much wanted; but the interests of the boys now at the school 179 would not suffer in the end, and the object of giving them a free education would be kept steadily in view.

§ MR. J. G. TALBOT
said, he thought the hon. Member for Westminster had a strong case for asking the House, not to throw over the scheme, but to delay it, because the scheme for Grey Coat Hospital ran on all fours with the scheme for Emanuel Hospital. He did not at all repudiate the bargain which had been made with the Grey Coat Governors last year; but he asked for delay, in order that it might be seen whether the whole Westminster scheme, of which this was only a part, would receive the approval of Parliament. If, as had been suggested by his hon. Friend, and as was not improbable, the Emanuel scheme was not likely to receive the sanction of Parliament, half the entire scheme would be dropped, and provision would have been made for the girls, while the boys would be nowhere. The Endowed School Commissioners were now upon their trial, and if there was any case which could be a test case, it was that of Emanuel Hospital. This case of the Grey Coat Hospital was intimately bound up with that, and it was rather hard to call upon the trustees to give up half of the interests they were bound to promote in order to furnish a lever for the scheme of the Emanuel Hospital.

MR. ALDERMAN W. LAWRENCE
condemned the course pursued by the Government with reference to these schemes. Bills and Motions generally fell to the ground at the end of the Session, and he saw no reason why that rule should not apply to the Grey Coat Hospital scheme. The time expired to-day for the scheme to come into effect without any opportunity having been afforded of discussing it in Parliament.