§ "That a sum, not exceeding £548,073, be granted to Her Majesty, to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1894, for Public Education in Scotland."
§ MR. BARTLEYsaid that, as hon. Members had not been allowed to discuss the question of English education, he should like to say a few words on this Vote. This was the first year in which the House had had a Report it could discuss concerning free education. The statement made by the Secretary for Scotland, and the Reports issued by the various Scotch Inspectors, showed that the result of free education had been in no way to increase the attendance or the regularity of attendance at school, notwithstanding the enormous increase which had taken place in the expenditure. The practical result had been to increase, to a certain extent, the number of infants under five years of age who went to school. He was prepared on Friday to draw attention to some of these matters on the Scotch Vote, but thought it better to wait until the English Vote came on. But although the country was now spending £10,000,000 on education, Members were not allowed to discuss the expenditure in more than the perfunctory manner permitted that evening. It had been impossible on the Scotch Vote to consider 979 in any way the great question of religious education. He himself was most anxious to review the whole working of free education. He took a somewhat prominent part in the discussion in 1888; he had been connected with the Education Department for more than 20 years, and he was associated with Mr. Forster in passing the great Act of 1870. Therefore, the question was one with which he had some personal acquaintance. It did seem strange to him that when the whole system of education in Scotland and England had been revolutionised Parliament could spend week after week and month after month on one part of the country which had a population of only 5,000,000, and yet Members were not allowed to discuss at all adequately a Vote of £10,000,000, affecting the interests of a population of 30,000,000. He had felt bound, considering what had happened that evening, to cuter his protest at that stage. He knew, of course, that the Scotch and English Votes were taken separately; but they were practically one and the same thing, and hon. Members were bound to make a solemn and serious protest at not being allowed to bring forward questions which were burning ones in the country, and a neglect of which would do more to displace the Government than even the Irish Government Bill.
§ SIR R. TEMPLE (Surrey, Kingston)said, he desired, in the first place, to thank the right hon. Baronet the Secretary for Scotland for his action on Friday last in sustaining the Public Accounts Committee in the performance of their duty, which was to see that the public money was spent according to the intentions of the House. The late Lord Advocate and the late Solicitor General had questioned the action of the Committee in refusing to allow items that had been claimed by certain schools in Scotland in respect of compensation grants until the opinion of the English Law Officers had been obtained. He did not dispute their title, as Members of the House, to criticise the acts of the Committee; but he denied their right to offer criticisms by reason of the fact that they had been Scotch Law Officers. The action of the Committee was, he considered, perfectly justifiable under the 980 circumstances; and he had appealed to, and had received, the hearty support of the Secretary for Scotland. For that he thanked the right hon. Gentleman.
§ Resolution agreed to.