§ MR. COURTNEYasked the Vice President of the Council, Whether it was not provided by the forty-eighth section of the Timberscombe School Scheme, approved by the Queen in Council on the 12th August 1876, that
no boy or girl shall, by reason of any exemption from attending prayer or religious worship, or from any lesson or series of lessons on a religious subject, be deprived of any advantage or emolument under the Foundation to which he or she would otherwise have been entitled;whether he is aware that, under the seventh clause of a Scheme of competitive examinations for Exhibitions drawn up by the Governors of the said School, it is provided that the examination shall include "Group IV. of the diocesan system in religious subjects," i. e. the creeds and catechisms of the Church of England; and, if he proposes to take any steps to protect children not attending religious instruction from the loss of advantage they suffer in the examinations for Exhibitions?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONSir, my attention has been directed to this case, and after looking at the Endowed Schools Act, 1869, and the Timberscombe School Scheme, I find that the only persons having jurisdiction in the case are the Charity Commissioners, whose decision is final; and they are not of opinion that the regulations for the 520 examination violate the School Scheme. I should add that this school is a Church of England foundation, and by Section 19 of the Endowed Schools Act is specially excepted from preceding clauses relating to religious instruction.