§ MR. DALRYMPLEasked the Tice President of the Council. Whether his attention has been called to the discouragement offered to Evening Schools throughout the country by the high standards required by the Code, and to the gradual diminution of the number of such Schools?
§ VISCOUT SANDONSir, I am not prepared at present, without further inquiry and consideration, to give an opinion as to whether discouragement has been offered to evening schools by the New Code. Considering the great interest which my hon. Friend has always shown in these schools. I am not at all surprised that he should be startled by the fact that while the average attendance at evening schools in 1870 was 73,300, the average attendance in 1873 fell to 45,900; and I think he is very right in taking notice of these figures. Without giving any opinion on this important Question, I can assure him that the subject has not escaped my observation, and that it will receive the best attention of the Lord President and myself.