§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUasked the Chairman of the Committee on Public Petitions, Whether his attention has been drawn to the Petition from Ropley (App. 535, page 217), and to other Petitions in similar terms, which pray for an increase in the annual Parliamentary grants for inspection in religious instruction (for which no grants are now 249 given nor proposed to be given); and, whether those Petitions are in accordance with the Standing Orders of the House?
§ SIR CHARLES FORSTER,in reply, said, the Committee on Public Petitions had great difficulty in reference to this question, and he, as Chairman of it, advised them to take an enlarged view of the matter. Still, every case should stand upon its own merits; and while the Committee were prepared to take a liberal view of it, they came to the conclusion that the Petitioners should not ask for public money.