§ MR. BERESFORD HOPE(for Mr. Raises) asked the Vice President of the Council, What number of the Returns of Her Majesty's Inspectors, embodying the results of the first examination of the schools they had visited last year, were sent back to them by the Department for revision; and, whether he has any objection to lay upon the Table of the House the instructions communicated by the Department to the Inspectors, when such Returns were sent back?
§ MR. MUNDELLAAt the end of May last year, when the first month's Reports of examinations under the New Code had been received, it was found that in some districts some Inspectors had misinterpreted the "instructions" of the Department with respect to the mode of assessing the annual grant. In these cases the Reports were returned for reconsideration. Great part of these returned were sent back without being considered by the Department. There is no record of the exact number so returned. We should have been wanting alike in our duty, and in consideration for the schools, had we not, at the beginning of such a change of method, watched very narrowly the mode of its administration. The instructions were of the usual confidential character, and were not such as could be properly laid on the Table of this House.