CONSIDERATION. (Hansard, 9 August 1879)

§ MR. RYLANDS

I have a very high appreciation of the motives of my hon. and learned Friend (Mr. Wheelhouse) in promoting the Bill; but the Bill itself does not stand in the same position 656 as the Bill we have just now considered. It has never received any amendment at the hands of the Government, and appears to me to be very objectionable in its present shape. I do not object to the object; and if the hon. and learned Gentleman would draft a Bill on lines to carry out that object in a satisfactory manner I should be the last to oppose it. But the Bill, as it now stands, is in such a form that the Government ought to give him no assistance. It is opposed by the hon. Member for South Leicestershire (Mr. Pell), whose absence to-day is a thing we ought to consider. He had no expectation that this Bill would come on on a Saturday's Sitting, but he has put down a Notice against the Bill, and, no doubt, to-day he is enjoying a little well-earned relaxation out of London; therefore, I do think, in the absence of the hon. Gentleman, we should not proceed with this stage of the Bill. The Bill, as I have said before, is drawn in a very crude manner. I do not suppose for a moment the hon. and learned Gentleman considers what the proposal amounts to; but, as I read the Bill, he proposes that schools shall be provided for deaf and mute children of the religions denomination to which the parents of the children belong. Thus, if there are half-a-dozen of those children in a parish, and the parents of one are Wesleyans, two, say, Church-people, another a Baptist, and the others Primitive Methodists, then under the Bill the parish will have to provide a school belonging to the religious denomination with which each of these is connected. Of course, if certain benevolent people belonging to these religions are willing to undertake the establishing of schools for the education of these poor children, there can be no objection. But the Bill would provide that where schools are required to be established they shall be built out of the public funds, for the purpose of educating the few deaf and dumb children of the locality. The Bill is quite novel in legislation, and the effect of it would be that we should provide a number of denominational schools for the education of this afflicted class of the children of paupers. I have no desire to interfere with the religious scruples of parents; but there ought to be some arrangement which, while recognizing the rights of conscience, should enable us to congre- 657 gate these children for instruction and training whore it could be carried out more efficiently than is proposed under the Bill. My objection is very strong indeed, while I do not complain of the object—in itself a very estimable one. I have the greatest personal respect for the hon. and learned Gentleman (Mr. Wheelhouse), and I recognize his great benevolence of character; but, in drafting this Bill, he has not shown as much intellectual acuteness as great benevolence of heart. Here is a Bill of which I will venture to say that out of the Members now distributed over the Throe Kingdoms and the Continent, I do not suppose one Member in 50 contemplated the prospect of a Bill of this character being brought on at the very last moment when the Session is expiring, and owing to accidental circumstances at a Saturday's Sitting—a Sitting only held for important Business and the convenience of the Government. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reply to an appeal made to him by my lion. Friend the Member for Chelsea (Sir Charles W. Dilke), did express his entire concurrence with our opinion that, unless specially appointed, it is undesirable that Private Bills should be taken on Saturday. Therefore, in my judgment, there is not the slightest justification for breaking the rule in the case of this Bill; and I think that the hon. and learned Gentleman might consent to an adjournment of this debate. I will not move that it be considered this day three months, for I have no wish to meet it with an antagonistic Motion; but if he will consult with other Members of the House, and prepare a Bill upon arrangements agreeable to the views of the hon. Member for South Leicestershire, I have no doubt he will carry out his object next Session in an efficient manner for those whose interest he has at heart, instead of in the crude, objectionable fashion which I am sure would never work. I beg leave to move that the debate be now adjourned.