§ MR. THOROLD ROGERSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the fact that the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have undertaken for some time past the duty of examining and reporting on endowed public schools, on the application of such schools, and that the action of the Universities has had the most salutary effect on such schools as have come under examination and inspection; and, whether he has considered the expediency of providing that, in any future legislation as regards endowed schools, a clause should be inserted constraining the authorities of such schools to submit to the examinations which are conducted by the Universities, at once in the interests of the schools, the children educated at them, and the parents of such children, and that, as far as possible, these voluntary examinations should be made compulsory?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTSo far as the first part of my hon. Friend's 1656 Question goes, I entirely agree with him that the action of the Universities has had a most salutary effect upon such schools as have come under examination and inspection; and I believe that the schools and the managers are of that opinion, and that they are every year more and more using the machinery which the Universities have placed at their disposal. But as to the second part of my hon. Friend's Question, whether Her Majesty's Government are prepared to make that example compulsory in all endowed schools, without consideration of the character of those schools —whether they are of a humbler or a higher character—all I can say is that at present Her Majesty's Government have not come to that conclusion.