HC Deb 26 February 1900 vol 79 cc1100-1
MR. SAMUEL SMITH () Flintshire

I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether his attention has been drawn to the affixing to the wall inside of the Board school of Church Coppenhall, Crewe, the parish almanack containing announcements that confessions are received every Sunday evening, when the rector will be found in church, and at other times by appointment, asserting the doctrines of the Apostolic succession of the clergy of the Church of England, advocating prayers for the dead, and deprecating the use of the word Protestant as applied to the Church of England; and whether the Education Department will interfere to have these placards removed.

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION (Sir J. GORST,) Cambridge University

My attention has been called to this almanack by the question of the hon. Member. The Education Department does not seem to have any power to interfere in the matter.

MR. SAMUEL SMITH

Can the right hon. Gentleman say if it is according to the law?

SIR J. GORST

That is not the question. It may be quite according to law, but the only things the Education Department has power to prohibit are a catechism or a formula. The almanack is neither the one nor the other.