HC Deb 24 July 1901 vol 97 cc1432-539

Considered in Committee.

(In the Committee.)

[Mr. J. W. LOWTHER (Cumberland, Penrith) in the Chair.]

Clause 1:—

MR. YOXALL (Nottingham, W.) moved after the word "Class" in line 8, to insert "or any higher elementary school or class according to the Higher Elementary School Minute, 1900." He thought that these higher elementary schools were placed in jeopardy by the Bill. At any rate, some doubt was felt on the matter as a result of the Cockerton judgment. It was very important if these schools were to continue to exist that their position should be legalised.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 8, after the word 'class,' to insert the words 'or any higher elementary school or class according to the Higher Elementary School Minute, 1900.' "—(Mr. Yoxall.)

Question proposed, "That those words be there inserted."

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Sir J. GORST, Cambridge University)

said he could assure the hon. Member that his Amendment was unnecessary. There was no doubt that the higher elementary schools were public elementary schools under the Act, and that the school fund might be properly applied to the maintenance of such schools.

DR. MACNAMARA (Camberwell, N.)

said he was sorry the right hon. the Vice-President did not accept the Amendment. The higher elementary schools were not in the Bill, although he believed the Bill permitted, or sanctioned, night schools.

SIR J. GORST

Both day and night schools.

DR. MACNAMARA

said that there was no specific mention in the Bill of the higher elementary schools, and the Cockerton judgment laid it down that these schools were not sanctioned except based on the Whitehall Code of 1898—not the Code of 1900. He could assure the right hon. Gentleman that there was a great deal of anxiety about this matter, and what they wanted to secure was the allaying of that anxiety, and the placing of the legitimacy of the higher elementary schools beyond doubt or question.

SIR J. GORST

said the hon. Member did not seem to appreciate the matter.

If there was any such alarm as he said there was, application could be made to the local authorities, and it would be found that these schools were sanctioned under the Bill as it stood.

MR. CORRIE GRANT (Warwickshire, Rugby)

said that if the Government were not going to argue Amendments proposed from that side of the House, it would be more convenient if the right hon. Gentleman were to say so, and that no Amendments whatever would be accepted. The Opposition would then know where they were. He really suggested that the Amendment was necessary to bring the higher elementary schools within the scope of the Bill. From the position the right hon. Gentleman had taken up, there would necessarily be some doubt in the minds of the school boards as to the exact meaning of the Bill. If the school boards went to the local authorities to find whether the higher elementary schools came within the Act, the local authorities would say that they could not find them in the Act. Then the school board would say that in the debates in the House of Commons the Vice-President of the Council said that the higher elementary schools were within the Act, whereupon the legal adviser of the County council would say that any assurance given by the right hon. Gentleman across the floor of the House of Commons had no legal force whatever, that it could not bind the county council, and that if the Government had wanted to make that assurance effective they would have put it in the Bill.

Question put.

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 93; Noes, 110. (Division List No. 354.)

AYES.
Abraham, William (Cork, N. E.) Caldwell, James Duncan, J. (Hastings)
Asher, Alexander Cameron, Robert Elibank, Master of
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Causton, Richard Knight Farrell, James Patrick
Bayley, Thomas (Derbyshire) Channing, Francis Allston Fenwick, Charles
Boland, John Condon, Thomas Joseph Ferguson, R. C. Munro (Leith)
Broadhurst, Henry Craig, Robert Hunter Flynn, James Christopher
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh) Cullinan, J. Gilhooly, James
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Davies, M. Vaughan- (Cardigan) Grant, Corrie
Burt, Thomas Doogan, P. C. Grey, Sir Edward (Berwick)
Buxton, Sydney Charles Duffy, William J. Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton
Hayden, John Patrick Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) Spencer, Rt. Hn. C. R. (Northants.
Hayne, Rt. Hon. Charles Seale- Nussey, Thomas Willans Strachey, Edward
Helme, Norval Watson O'Brien, Kendal (Tipperary Mid Sullivan, Donal
Hemphill, Rt. Hon. Charles H. O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) Taylor, Theodore Cooke
Hope, John Deans (Fife West) O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.) Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.
Horniman, Frederick John O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) Thomas, David Alfred (Merthyr
Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) O'Dowd, John Tomkinson, James
Joyce, Michael O'Mara, James Trevelyan, Charles Philips
Kennedy, Patrick James O'Shaughnessy, P. J. Tully, Jasper
Kinloch, Sir John George S. Partington, Oswald Wallace, Robert
Langley, Battey Paulton, James Mellor Warner, Thomas Courtenay T.
Layland-Barratt, Francis Pirie, Duncan V. Wason, Eugene (Clackmannan
Leigh, Sir Joseph Rea, Russell White, George (Norfolk)
Lewis, John Herbert Reddy, M. White, Luke (York, E. R.)
Lundon, W. Redmond, John E. (Waterford) Williams, Osmond (Merioneth)
MacNeill, John Gordon Swift Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.) Wilson, Henry J. (York, W. R.)
M'Kenna, Reginald Robertson, Edmund (Dundee) Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.)
Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarthen Roe, Sir Thomas
Morley, Charles (Breconshire) Scott, Chas. Prestwich (Leigh) TELLERS FOR THE AYES.—Mr. Yoxall and Dr. Macnamara.
Morton, Edw. J. C. (Devonport) Shaw, Thomas (Hawick, B.)
Murphy, John Sheehan, Daniel Daniel
Nannetti, Joseph P. Shipman, Dr. John G.
Nolan, Col. J. P. (Galway, N.) Soares, Ernest J.
NOES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir A. F. Guest, Hon. Ivor Churchill Purvis, Robert
Anson, Sir William Reynell Hain, Edward Randles, John S.
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Hamilton, Rt. Hn. Lord G. (Mid'x Rankin, Sir James
Arroll, Sir William Hardy, Laurence (Kent, Ashf'rd Reid, James (Greenock)
Bain, Colonel James Robert Haslett, Sir James Horner Renshaw, Charles Bine
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J. (Manc'r) Hoare, Edw Brodie (Hampstead Renwick, George
Balfour, Rt. Hn. G. W. (Leeds) Hobhouse, Henry (Somerset, E. Ritchie, Rt. Hn. C. Thomson
Bathurst, Hon. A. Benjamin Hope, J. F. (Sheffield, Brightside Rollit, Sir Albert Kaye
Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol) Hoult, Joseph Ropner, Colonel Robert
Bignold, Arthur Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse Rutherford, John
Blundell, Colonel Henry Jeffreys, Arthur Frederick Sadler, Col. S. Alexander
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex) Jessel, Captain Herbert Merton Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse
Campbell, Rt. Hn. J. A. (Glasgow) Johnston, William (Belfast) Sharpe, William Edward T.
Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbyshire Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex) Spear, John Ward
Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop.) Stanley Lord (Lancs.)
Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich) Keswick, William Stone, Sir Benjamin
Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. J. (Birm. Law, Andrew Bonar Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Chamberlain, J. Austen (Worc'r Lawson, John Grant Talbot, Rt. Hn. J. G. (Oxf. Univ.
Coghill, Douglas Harry Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Thornton, Percy M.
Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Leveson-Gower, Frederick N. S. Tollemache, Henry James
Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) Long, Rt. Hn. Walter (Bristol, S. Tomlinson, W. Edw. Murray.
Crossley, Sir Savile Lucas, Reginald J. (Portsmouth Valentia, Viscount
Dalkeith, Earl of Macdona, John Cumming Warr, Augustus Frederick
Denny, Colonel Maconochie, A. W. Wason, J. Cathcart (Orkney)
Dickson, Charles Scott M'Killop, James (Stirlingshire) Webb, Col William George
Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Malcolm, Ian Welby, Lt-Col A. C. L. (Taunton)
Fardell, Sir T. George Maxwell, W. J. H. (Dumfriesshire Wentworth, Bruce C. Vernon-
Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edw. Middlemore, J. Throgmorton Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne Mitchell, William Willox, Sir John Archibald
Fisher, William Hayes Mount, William Arthur Wills, Sir Frederick
Flower, Ernest Mowbray, Sir R. Gray C. Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Foster, Philip S. (Warwick, S. W. Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath) Wodehouse, Rt. Hn. E. R. (Bath)
Gardner, Ernest Nicholson, William Graham Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm
Godson, Sir Augustus Frederick O'Neill, Hon. Robert Torrens Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Gordon, Hn. J. E. (Elgin & Nairn Percy, Earl
Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir John Eldon Platt-Higgins, Frederick TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Goulding, Edward Alfred Powell, Sir Francis Sharp
Gretton, John Pretyman, Ernest George

MR. YOXALL moved to amend the clause by inserting before the word "maintenance" in line 3 the words "provision or." He said that "maintenance" had a technical meaning, and referred to the current expenses of upkeep. If it had been illegal in the past, and was now, to use the school fund for the purpose of "maintaining" the school, it was equally illegal to use the school fund for "providing" a school or class, for the purchase of the land, for the cost of the building and the furniture.

THE CHAIRMAN

said that if there was any real distinction between "provision" and "maintenance," then the hon. Gentleman's Amendment ought to be in the third line of the clause—after "maintained out of" to insert "or provided by."

ME. YOXALL

said he preferred his own form of the Amendment.

SIR J. GORST

said that the Amendment was quite unnecessary.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 8, after the first word 'the' to insert the words 'provision or.' "—(Mr. Yoxall.)

Question put, "That those words be there inserted."

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 104; Noes, 143. (Division List No. 355.)

AYES.
Abraham, William (Cork, N. E. Helme, Norval Watson Paulton, James Mellor
Asher, Alexander Hemphill, Rt. Hon. Chas. H. Pirie, Duncan V.
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Holland, William Henry Power, Patrick Joseph
Bayley, Thomas (Derbyshire) Hope, John D. (Fife, West) Rea, Russell
Boland, John Horniman, Frederick John Reddy, M.
Broadhurst, Henry Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) Redmond, John E. (Waterford)
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh) Joyce, Michael Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.)
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Kay-Shuttleworth, Rt. Hn. Sir U Robertson, Edmund (Dundee)
Burt, Thomas Kennedy, Patrick James Roe, Sir Thomas
Buxton, Sydney Charles Kinloch, Sir John George S. Scott, Chas. Prestwich (Leigh)
Caine, William Sproston Langley, Batty Shaw, Thos. (Hawick B.)
Caldwell, James Layland-Barratt, Francis Sheehan, Daniel Daniel
Cameron, Robert Leigh, Sir Joseph Shipman, Dr. John G.
Carew, James Laurence Logan, John William Soares, Ernest J.
Causton, Richard Knight Lough, Thomas Spencer, Rt. Hn. C. R. (Northants)
Channing, Francis Allston Lundon, W. Strachey, Edward
Condon, Thomas Joseph Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J. Sullivan, Donal
Craig, Robert Hunter MacNeill, John Gordon Swift Taylor, Theodore Cooke
Cullinan, J. M'Kenna, Reginald Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.)
Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan Morgan, J. L. (Carmarthen) Thomas, David Alf. (Merthyr)
Dewar, J. A. (Inverness-sh.) Morley, Charles (Breconshire) Tomkinson, James
Doogan, P. C. Morton, E. J. C. (Devonport) Trevelyan, Charles Philips
Dufty, William J. Murphy, J. Tully, Jasper
Duncan, J. Hastings Nannetti, Joseph P. Wallace, Robert
Elibank, Master of Nolan, Col. John P. (Galway, N. Warner, Thomas Courtenay T.
Parrell, James Patrick Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) Wason, Eugene (Clackmannan)
Fenwick, Charles Norton, Capt. Cecil William White, George (Norfolk)
Ferguson, R. C. M. (Leith) Nussey, Thomas Willans White, Luke (York, E. R.)
Flynn, James Christopher O'Brien, K. (Tipperary, Mid) Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Gilhooly, James O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) Williams, Osmond (Merioneth)
Grant, Corrie O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) Wilson, Henry J. (York, W. R.)
Grey, Sir Edward (Berwick) O'Dowd, John Wilson, John (Durham, Mid)
Griffith, Ellis J. O'Kelly, J. (Roscommon, N.)
Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton O'Mara, James TELLERS FOR THE AYES—Mr. Yoxall and Mr. Herbert Lewis.
Hayden, John Patrick O'Shaughnessy, P. J.
Hayne, Rt. Hn. Charles Seale- Partington, Oswald
NOES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir Alex. F. Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse
Agg-Gardner, James Tynte Bignold, Arthur Corbett, T. L. (Down, North)
Anson, Sir William Reynell Blundell, Colonel Henry Cranborne, Viscount
Arkwright, John Stanhope Boulnois, Edmund Crossley, Sir Savile
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex) Dalkeith, Earl of
Arrol, Sir William Campbell, Rt. Hn. J. A. (Glasgow) Denny, Colonel
Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbysh. Dickson, Charles Scott
Bagot, Capt. Josceline FitzRoy Cayzer, Sir Charles Wm. Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P.
Bailey, James (Walworth) Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich) Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers-
Bain, Col. James Robert Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J. (Manch'r Chamberlain, Rt. Hn. J. (Birm. Fardell, Sir T. George
Balfour, Rt. Hn. Gerald W. (Leeds Chamberlain, J. Austen (W'rc'r. Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edw.
Bathurst, Hon. Allen B. Coghill, Douglas Harry Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst
Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne Long, Rt. Hon. W. (Bristol, S.) Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander
Fisher, William Hayes Lucas, Reginald J. (Portsmouth Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse)
Flower, Ernest Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred Saunderson, Rt. Hn. Col. Edw. J.
Foster, P. S. (Warwick, S. W.) Macdona, John Cumming Sharpe, William Edw. T.
Gardner, Ernest Maconochie, A. W. Smith, Abel H. (Hertford, East)
Godson, Sir Augustus Fredk. MacIver, Sir L. (Edinburgh, W. Smith, James Parker (Lanarks)
Gordon, Hn. J. E. (Elgin & Nairn M'Killop, Jas. (Stirlingshire) Smith, Hn. W. F. D. (Strand)
Gorst, Rt. Hn. Sir John Eldon Malcolm, Ian Spear, John Ward
Goulding, Edward Alfred Manners, Lord Cecil Stanley, Lord (Lancs.)
Green, Walford D. (Wednesb'y) Maxwell, W. J. H. (Dumfriesshire Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Greene, W. Raymond-(Cambs.) Middlemore, John T. Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Gretton, John Mitchell, William Talbot, Rt. Hn. J. G. (Oxf'd Univ
Groves, James Grimble Montagu, G. (Huntingdon) Thornton, Percy M.
Guest, Hon. Ivor Churchill More, R. Jasper (Shropshire) Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray
Hain, Edward Mount, Wm. Arthur Valentia, Viscount
Hamilton, Rt. Hn. Lord G. (Mid'x Mowbray, Sir Robert Gray C. Wanklyn, James Leslie
Hardy, Laurence (Kent, Ashf'd) Murray, Rt. Hn. A. G. (Bute) Warr, Augustus Fredk.
Haslett, Sir James Horner Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath) Wason, John Cathcart (Orkney)
Higginbottom, S. W. Nicholson, William Graham Webb, Colonel William Geo.
Hoare, Edw. Brodie (Hampst'd) O'Neill, Hon. Robert Torrens Welby, Lt.-Col. A. C. E. (Taunton)
Hobhouse, Henry (Somerset, E.) Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay Wentworth, Bruce C. Vernon
Hope, J. F. (Sheffield, Brightside Palmer, Walter (Salisbury) Whiteley, H. (Ashton-u.-Lyne)
Hoult, Joseph Percy, Earl Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Howard, J. (Midd., Tottenham) Platt-Higgins, Frederick Willox, Sir John Archibald
Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse Powell, Sir Francis Sharp Wills, Sir Frederick
Jeffreys, Arthur Frederick Pretyman, Ernest George Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Jessel, Capt. Herbert Merton Purvis, Robert Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks.)
Johnston, William (Belfast) Randles, John S. Wodehouse, Rt. Hn. E. R. (Bath
Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex) Rankin, Sir James Wylie, Alexander
Kenyon, Hn. Geo. T. (Denbigh) Reid, James (Greenock) Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop. Renshaw, Charles Bine Yerburgh, Robt. Armstrong
Keswick, William Renwick, George
Law, Andrew Bonar Ritchie, Rt. Hon. Charles T. TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Lawson, John Grant Rollit, Sir Albert Kaye
Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Ropner, Colonel Robert
Leveson-Gower, Fredk. N. S. Rutherford, John

MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.) moved in line 9 to leave out "is" and insert "has been declared by the Board of Education to be." He could not help seeing that in many localities the present state of things could not go on. He put it to the right hon. Gentleman whether, by way of reparation for the grave mistake which the Education Department had made in allowing the present state of things to continue so long the Department, should not make it perfectly clear to the school boards and the local authorities what was legal and what was not legal. He knew that the reply of the right hon. Gentleman would be that the Evening School Minute of 3rd July made it quite clear what the school board could do during the coming year. That might be so, but they had not yet had an opportunity of discussing that Minute, and they could not deal that day with the matter on the assumption that that Minute would become the law of the land. But even if that were so, what about the higher grade schools? In the interests both of the Department and of the higher grade schools of the country he hoped the right hon. Gentleman would accept his Amendment.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 9, to leave out the word 'is, and insert the words 'has been declared by the Board of Education to be.' "—(Mr. Herbert Roberts.)

Question proposed, "That the word 'is' stand part of the clause."

SIR J. GORST

said he hoped the hon. Gentleman would not press his Amendment when he reflected what this Bill was. This was an emergency Bill, and intended as an emergency Bill, to enable certain schools to be carried on whose work would otherwise be upset. If this Amendment were carried the operation of the Bill would be seriously delayed, for no local authority could make an order with regard to the evening continuation and higher grade schools until the Board of Education had gone into the accounts of these schools and declared that some part of their expenditure was illegal. That would involve the examination of no fewer than 2,000 accounts, which would wreck the intention of the Bill, and prevent the schools being carried on.

MR. ALFRED HUTTON (Yorkshire, W. R., Morley)

said that right hon. Gentlemen alleged that it was perfectly impossible for the Board of Education to carry on this new work; but, surely, with all the machinery at their command, and with all their experience and knowledge, they might determine the question very quickly if they chose to do so. The right hon. Gentleman had told the Committee that this was an emergency Bill. Well, that was his own view; but they had also been told that by this Bill they were going to establish the principle of the new secondary education authority. They were, however, going to give considerable powers to the new authority in matters which were not secondary education, and they ought to have some indication from the Department as to where the new authority was justified in interfering with schools which were not secondary. The Board of Education could very easily, with their knowledge and experience, make some declaration which would be for the guidance of the new authorities, and not permit them to wander at large and interfere with all the standards and grades which might be carried on. It was not fair or right that under this emergency Bill they should not only lay down the principle of establishing the county councils as the new secondary education authority, but at the same time give them very considerable powers in regard to elementary education as well. Everybody knew that the Board of Education had evaded their responsibility and shirked their duty in regard to the higher grade evening continuation schools in the past; and the Board ought to indicate to the new authorities what their duty was. This Amendment was very important, and would let the Committee see whether the Department was going to shirk all responsibility.

MR. BRYCE (Aberdeen, S.)

said that the Vice-President of the Council had placed a construction on the Amendment which his hon. friend did not intend. What his hon. friend desired was that some guidance should be given to the school boards and local authorities as to the cases covered by the Cockerton judgment. His friend did not intend to suggest that the Board of Education should, as the Vice-President alleged, go through every case in which school boards had maintained higher grade or evening continuation schools, but that the Board should lay down general rules stating the effect of the Cockerton judgment, and what schools were covered by that judgment as elucidated by the competent legal authorities at the command of the Board themselves. In fact, what was wanted was that the Department should issue a circular to the local authorities and the school boards in order that these might have in their possession materials which they did not now possess, and had no means of acquiring, to guide their action and enable them to come to a decision. The airy way in which the Vice-President disposed of the Bill would lead the Committee to believe that there was no difficulty arising out of the Cockerton judgment. That judgment had only settled two things—first of all, that the education of adults could not be paid for out of the rates; and, secondly, that the payments should be given within the scope of the Whitehall Code. Now, how far did these two propositions carry the school boards in knowing whether or not they were to go cap in hand to the local authority and ask leave to carry on these schools? We were in a most difficult impasse, which was not to be got rid of in the airy way of the right hon. Gentleman. What was the alternative? It was that every school board should take legal advice as to what classes and schools which they had been maintaining came within the Cockerton judgment. That would take some time, and probably the legal advice would not be the same in all cases, and a great deal of variation in the practice of the school boards in different districts would be the outcome. Then, the local authorities would also probably take legal advice in their turn as to whether the cases brought before them came within their jurisdiction or not. He did not see how all that could be done without loss of time and great benefit to the legal advisers. The Government were in the position that they ought to give some help to the local authorities and the school boards, and if they did not like the particular form embodied in his hon. friend's Amendment, let them suggest words of their own which would settle a real and substantial difficulty. The right hon. Gentleman had called this an emergency Bill. It was more than that. It was a confusion Bill, and he thought that the Government ought, even in the short time at their disposal, to lend their best help in order to extricate the school boards and local authorities from the greatest possible confusion.

MR. LAMBERT (Devonshire, South Molton)

said that, speaking on behalf of the county council of Devon, he would press the acceptance of this Amendment. They absolutely did not know what was legal and what was not legal. The Board of Education itself had evidently not known what was legal or illegal. The technical education committees should not be compelled to go into these legal questions, which might put them in conflict with a powerful school board. Who was to settle the difficulty? Were they going to have more litigation? Were the Board of Education going to abrogate the whole of their functions and put them on the county councils? The Department ought to do its duty, and bring out regulations showing what schools had been continued legally or illegally. He thought the right hon. Gentleman was not treating the Committee or the county councils fairly in attempting to put on to them this litigation business.

MR. GEORGE WHITE (Norfolk, N.W.)

said that either the work put upon the county councils would be merely formal, or it would create a good deal of friction. The Vice-President said that it was impossible for the Department to accept the Amendment, because they would have to go through 2,000 school accounts; but had the right hon. Gentleman quite taken into consideration the difficulties the borough and county councils would be in in this matter? Probably many of the borough councils were sitting this week for the last time until the middle of September, and how they could deal with the question in an intelligent manner he was entirely at a loss to understand. They must treat it perfunctorily, and leave it absolutely in the way in which it was left by the Education Department. He thought the difficulties which the Department would encounter would be nothing like the difficulties the local authorities would have to encounter if they attempted to deal with the matter in an intelligent way. The Amendment was a reasonable one, and unless the right hon. Gentleman was determined that no single letter in the Bill was to be altered, it should be accepted.

DR. MACNAMARA

said he desired to make a suggestion to the right hon. Gentleman. If he would not accept an Amendment, why should he not send out a circular to the local authorities stating what was legal and what was not legal? That would relieve the local authorities from many difficulties. He objected strongly to the manner in which the Vice-President of the Council brushed aside all serious difficulties. In the Night School Minute it was laid down that evening schools might get grants, but when the right hon. Gentleman was asked to state what subjects could be legally given he declined. When he himself asked the right hon. Gentleman how were the school boards to know he replied, "They had better ask the hon. Member for North Camber well." He did not think that would help them much, but it was not a serious way of treating a difficulty. Within the last few days the Cardiff Town Council spent several profitless hours in trying to decide what was a school fund, and if several hours were spent in attempting to define that, Heaven only knew what time would be required to decide what was legal and what was not legal. Where a school board and a municipal body were of the same political view, he had no doubt the council would give the school board carte blanche; but where the school board was of one political view and the municipal council of another, he foresaw interminable wrangling. The First Lord of the Treasury stated that next session he intended to give an early and honourable place to an Education Bill, but the animosity which would arise as a result of the Bill before the Committee would prejudice that, not perhaps in the House but certainly in the country. If the right hon. Gentleman set a Progressive majority on a school board and a Moderate majority on a municipal council by the ears, the result would be that the Education Bill of next year would be prejudiced by the difficulties which would arise. He understood there was to be no Amendment to the present Bill. He did not complain, as the Government had a majority; but if the Government desired the Bill to be worked in a harmonious manner, he would suggest that the practice of the Department in past years of sending out explanatory circulars should be adopted. Unless that were done there would be endless friction, and unless a circular were promised he should be compelled in the interests of peace and harmony to vote for the Amendment.

MR. NORVAL W. HELME (Lancashire, Lancaster)

said he should like to illustrate the point before the Committee. The Lancashire County Council Technical Committee, finding a difficulty in understanding some of the arrangements for the management of evening continuation classes which they would have to conduct, communicated with the Board of Education, and received the following reply— Adverting to your letter of the 11th inst. and your telegram received this morning, I am directed to state that the Board of Education cannot undertake to answer hypothetical questions turning upon points of law. The local authorities throughout the country required guidance in the matter, being desirous to act not in any sense of hostility to the law they would have to administer, but to enable them to prevent their business being thrown into a state of illegality. The Government should either frame a schedule explaining the meaning of the Act, or the Department should send out a circular as had been suggested.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT (Monmouthshire, W.)

What I think the Committee is waiting for is that the Government should tell us how we are to meet what they cannot deny is a real difficulty. It cannot be denied that cases may, and probably will, arise in which there will be a conflict of opinion. Supposing the school board takes one view and the local authority takes an other, how is the deadlock to be met in that case? That is the difficulty, and we have received no reply from the Government as to how it is to be met. Surely that is a fair question, which the Government ought to answer. I hope the right hon. Gentleman will really tell us how he thinks it can be met. If it cannot be met by the Amendment before the House, the right hon. Gentleman should suggest means to prevent, as a consequence of this Bill, a conflict between the two jurisdictions. Therefore, I appeal to the Leader of the House to dispose of this question by pointing out how that probable and certainly possible conflict of opinion is to be dealt with if it arises.

THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, Manchester, E.)

I could understand the position of hon. Gentlemen opposite, though I could not agree with them, if they made a demand that in this Bill there should be a definition of what is and what is not elementary education. That I could perfectly understand, although I think it would be quite impossible to accede to it in a measure of this character. But that is not the request that is being made. The request is that where the school board and the county council are in difficulties in determining the law the Education Department should determine it. But the Education Department has no more right to determine the law than either of the other two bodies. The right hon. Gentleman put a specific question to me. He asked, Is it not the business of the Government to tell the Committee how a conflict between a school board and a local authority should be dealt with, should it arise, as in certain cases it probably will arise? I apprehend that one of two courses may be taken by the bodies themselves. I can understand the county authority saying, "We think that the continuation schools and the higher grade schools should be continued for next year very much in the way they have been going on." If that were done, evidently there would be no conflict. Or the school board might go to the local authority and say, "Will you sanction this school, and that school, and the other school, or this class, and that class?" and the local authority might say either yes or no. If the latter course were adopted, and if the school board were in error in admitting some schools which ought to be excluded, there is no doubt that they could be surcharged, but there could be no conflict between the authorities, and the danger of being surcharged would of course be avoided by any school board which followed, for example, the advice given to the London School Board by the legal luminaries consulted by that board. I understand that eminent lawyers were consulted by that body, and that they laid down, without saying what or what was not the law, that if the school board kept within certain limits they were quite safe. That is all they need know or care about. I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that, from the information we receive as to what is going on between the local authorities and the school boards in the country, there is no insoluble or difficult problem to be dealt with. The actual Amendment before the House would lead to the greatest inconvenience, and I do not believe any evil exists which requires a remedy of that character. Certainly on its merits we could not ask the Committee to agree to the proposal of the hon. Gentleman, and I hope they will not agree to it.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

said that the right hon. Gentleman had referred school boards in the country to the opinion given by Mr. Asquith and Mr. Llewellyn Davies to the London School Board. But the right hon. Gentleman had evidently never read that opinion. It was an opinion as to the age of children who should be in the schools, and nothing else whatever. The right hon. Gentleman expected country school boards to know what advice had been given to the London School Board by their legal advisers, and he assumed that the authorities had legal ability and knowledge which they did not possess.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

Will the hon. Gentleman forgive me for a moment? All I suggested was, which is surely a common-sense suggestion, that in cases of douht the school board had better ask the opinion of the local authorities.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

said that evidently the right hon. Gentleman had never served on a local authority. What commonly happened was that in such matters county councils and county boroughs were advised by solicitors or barristers. Nearly all the clerks of the peace in the counties were barristers, and all the town clerks were solicitors or barristers. Many of the school boards had clerks who were not lawyers, but were trained educationists, who knew the Education Acts only. Therefore, in the consideration of that question, they would have a man with trained legal knowledge on the one hand, and a man of trained educational knowledge on the other. He would ask any lawyer, was there any more difficult client to advise than the client who had worked up the law with reference to his own particular case, and who could not be brought to grasp broad legal principles at all? That was the position the right hon. Gentleman asked them to accept.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

That is not the position. I do not ask these gentlemen to go into elaborate considerations of judgments or of statutes; all I ask is that one body when in doubt should consult the other, not on questions of law, but as to whether they would permit such and such a school, about which there was a doubt, to go on.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

said that if the right hon. Gentleman had ever discussed one of those questions on a committee of a local authority he would know that he could not get men with strong opinions to give way in that manner. The school boards, first of all, would ask themselves which of their schools and classes required authorisation from the local authority. They would then present the list to the local authority, and what would happen in a great many cases would be that the local authority would say that for some of the schools and classes the school board did not require their authority at all, and the school board would reply that if they did not get the authority they would be surcharged. Then would follow a discussion as to the meaning of the Act and the judgment in the Cockerton case. The right hon. Gentleman never had to deal with the class of men frequently to be found on local authorities.

They were men who had given a great deal of their time to local work, and who over-estimated their own capacity in dealing with it. Their obstinacy in holding to the opinions they had formed was not to be conquered by knowledge or wisdom, but only by the gentle suavity of the man who had to deal with them. The Vice-President said that the Cockerton judgment would apply to 2,000 schools, but the right hon. Gentleman's inspectors could tell him within twenty-four hours, certainly within three days, every one of the schools to which, in their opinion, the Cockerton judgment applied. The county councils and the town councils were adjourning for the holidays, and for six or seven weeks there would be no authority to which the school board could go, and when the local authorities met they would be absolutely ignorant of the subject, and would have to be instructed by the school boards as to their position. Where there was friendly feeling between the two bodies there would be no difficulty. The local authority would say to the school board "God bless you!" But in a town where the rates were heavy and the ratepayers were complaining of their burdens, as they almost always did, and where the local authority were anxious to cut down the rates, they would certainly use the opportunity given them of criticising the demands of the school board, and would cut down the estimates submitted to them by the board. The Amendment raised a question which the Government would have to face in another form. That was, whether they were going to leave those two authorities to wrangle it out between themselves, or whether guidance would be given to them. If no guidance were given to them there would be added to the feeling already growing up in connection with the Bill a feeling of personal antagonism between members of two local authorities, which would be very deplorable.

SIR WILLIAM ANSON (Oxford University)

said he could not help thinking that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to work the Amendment as it stood. He was quite prepared to recognise the difficulty in which the local authorities might find themselves in interpreting the law, and he was not quite so sanguine as the First Lord of the Treasury in hoping that they would immediately set to work and find out what was and what was not legal. He had sometimes heard the First Lord with admiration mingled with amusement when he described what he was pleased to call the "legal mind." But it was not the legal mind which was the technical mind in such cases as the present. When legal questions came to be dealt with among laymen it would be found that the attitude of mind in which the average layman approached legal questions was in the assumption that laws were passed not to facilitate action, but to create every conceivable difficulty. Therefore he recognised that the local authorities would find themselves face to face with the difficulties which had been mentioned, and which would largely be of their own creation. The Committee had had what might be called an authoritative account of the Cockerton judgment from the right hon. Gentleman the Member for East Fife. The right hon. Gentleman said that the Cockerton judgment decided two things, and two things only. One was that a school board might not give education to adults, and the other was that it might not give education, as a school board, outside the limits of the Whitehall Code. The first question—what was a child—had already been settled by the London School Board to their own satisfaction after consulting eminent legal authorities; but it might be that other local authorities might not accept what was regarded as satisfactory by the London School Board. After all, no great harm would result if, during this year of emergency, different local authorities decided this question in different ways. Then as to giving education outside the limits of the Whitehall Code, was there any great difficulty in ascertaining what was or what was not in the Whitehall Code? He would suggest to the Vice-President to lend a favourable ear to the suggestion of the hon. Member for North Camberwell. If there was any difficulty in ascertaining what was in the Whitehall Code, why should not the Board of Education send out a circular giving the neces- sary guidance, as was done constantly by the Home Office to those who had to do with the administration of the law in counties and boroughs? If the Vice-President would regard that suggestion favourably, he could not but think that the only real difficulty would be met, and that hon. Members opposite and the local authorities might set aside some of their rather exaggerated fears.

MR. WALLACE (Perth)

said he desired to know what elementary education was. The First Lord of the Treasury had stated that that was a reasonable request, though he added that it might not possibly be granted on the present occasion. If a schedule were added to the Bill defining elementary education, he was quite sure that his hon. friend would withdraw his Amendment. The Amendment, if accepted, would, however, get them out of the legal difficulty altogether, and neither the school board nor the local authority would have to consider what elementary education was, as the declaration of the Education Board that schools came under the operation of the Bill would be sufficient. That was a simple solution of the matter, and the Amendment was one which ought to be accepted.

MR. TAYLOR (Lancashire, Radcliffe)

said he was afraid the Vice-President had somewhat misapprehended what was desired. He said that the Board of Education would have to go through 2,000 accounts to see what kind of education had been given in each case. What was required was a schedule which the school boards could apply themselves. He thought it was too bad of the First Lord of the Treasury to complain that they had not asked for a very much larger Amendment.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I am very unfortunate in my mode of expression. I never suggested that. What I said was that I could understand the attitude of hon. Members in asking for a definition of elementary education, but I did not think it was appropriate to the Bill.

MR. TAYLOR

said that, at any rate, the First Lord thought that it would be less objectionable if they asked for that, instead of moving the Amendment, and it was too bad that the right hon. Gentleman should complain.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I did not complain.

MR. TAYLOR

said that his hon. friends were showing their confidence by asking the Education Board to define the rules. If the Cockerton judgment had been full, final and complete, there would have been a full statement of the case. But that decision, as he understood, was not a full and final deliverance, and he thought they were entitled to ask for guidance in the working of the Bill. The Amendment was not an obstructive Amendment. They did not approve of the Bill, but they desired that it should work as well as possible, and there was no reason why they should not endeavour to remove as many causes of friction as they could. They were the friends of education, and not its enemies. The Amendment had been discussed as if in all cases there would be friction between the local authorities and the school boards. But he submitted that the Bill would not be a workable measure, even in cases in which the two authorities were agreed. The Bill only enabled them to carry on a school if it were unlawful. Supposing a school was attended by young people who were in that peculiar category of being neither children nor adults—persons, say, about sixteen or seventeen years of age—he could easily understand that both the board school and the local authority would desire to carry on such a school. Why should not the central authority save the local authorities the time and trouble and expense of ascertaining what was legal and what was not legal? He would support the Amendment.

Question put.

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 185; Noes, 138. (Division List No. 356.)

AYES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir Alex. F. Arkwright, John Stanhope. Bagot, Capt Josceline FitzRoy
Agg-Gardner, James Tynte Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Bailey, James (Walworth)
Aird, Sir John Arrol, Sir William Bain, Colonel James Robert
Anson, Sir William Reynell Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John Baird, John George Alexander
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J. (Manch'r Hermon-Hodge, Robert T. Penn, John
Balfour, Rt. Hn. Gerald W. (Leeds Hickman, Sir Alfred Percy, Earl
Bathurst, Hn. Allen Benjamin Higginbottom, S. W. Platt-Higgins, Frederick
Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol) Hoare, Edw. Brodie (Hampatead Powell, Sir Francis Sharp
Beckett, Ernest William Hobhouse, Henry (Somerset, E. Pretyman, Ernest George
Bignold, Arthur Hope, J. F. (Sheffield, Brightside Purvis, Robert
Blundell, Colonel Henry Houldsworth, Sir W. Henry Randles, John S.
Boulnois, Edmund Hoult, Joseph Rankin, Sir James
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex) Howard, J. (Midd., Tottenham) Reid, James (Greenock)
Brodriok, Rt. Hn. St. John Hudson, George Bickersteth Renshaw, Charles Bine
Campbell, Rt. Hn. J. A. (Glasgow Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse Renwick, George
Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edw. H. Jeffreys, Arthur Frederick Ritchie, Rt. Hon. Chas. T.
Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbyshire Jessel, Capt. Herbert Merton Rollit, Sir Albert Kaye
Cayzer, Sir Charles William Johnston, William (Belfast) Ropner, Col. Robert
Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex) Rutherford, John
Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich) Kenyon, Hn. G. T. (Denbigh) Sackville, Col. S. G. Stopford-
Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. J. (Birm. Kenyon, James (Lancs., Bury) Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander
Chamberlain, J. Austen (Worc'r Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop. Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse
Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. King, Sir Henry Seymour Saunderson, Rt. Hn. Col. Edw. J.
Coghill, Douglas Harry Knowles, Lees Seely, Capt. J. E. B. (Isle of Wight
Cohen, Benjamin Louis Law, Andrew Bonar Sharpe, Wm. Edward T.
Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Lawson, John Grant Shaw-Stewart, M. H. (Renfrew
Corbett, A. Cameron (Glasgow) Lee, Arthur H. (Hants., Faren'm Smith, Abel H. (Hertford, E.)
Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Smith, James Parker (Lanarks.
Cranborne, Viscount Loder, Gerald Walter Erskine Smith, Hon. W. F. D. (Strand
Cripps, Charles Alfred Long, Rt. Hn. W. (Bristol, S.) Spear, John Ward
Crossley, Sir Savile Lowe, Francis William Stanley, Lord (Lancs.)
Dalkeith, Earl of Lucas, Col Francis (Lowestoft) Stone, Sir Benjamin
Dickson, Charles Scott Lucas, Reginald J. (Portsmouth Stroyan, John
Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P. Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers- Macdona, John Cumming Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Doxford, Sir William Theodore MacIver, David (Liverpool) Talbot, Rt. Hn. J. G. (Oxf'd Univ.
Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Maconochie, A. W. Thornton, Percy M.
Fardell, Sir T. George M'Iver, Sir Lewis (Edinburgh W. Tollemache, Henry James
Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edward M'Killop, James (Stirlingshire) Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray.
Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst Manners, Lord Cecil Valentia, Viscount
Finch, George H. Maple, Sir John Blundell Wanklyn, James Leslis
Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne Maxwell, W. J. H. (Dumfriessh. Warde, Colonel C. E.
Fisher, William Hayes Middlemore, John Throgmort'n Warr, Augustus Frederick
Fitzroy, Hon. Edward Algernon Mildmay, Francis Bingham Wason, John Catheart (Orkney)
Flower, Ernest Milner, Rt. Hon. Sir Fredk. G. Webb, Colonel William George
Foster, Philip S. (Warwick, S. W. Mitchell, William Welby, Lt.-Col. A. C. E. (Taunton
Gardner, Ernest Molesworth, Sir Lewis Welby, Sir C. G. E. (Notts)
Godson, Sir Augustus Fred. Montagu, G. (Huntingdon) Wentworth, Bruce C. Vernon-
Gordon, Hn. J. E. (Elgin & Nairn) More, Robt. Jasper (Shropshire) Whiteley, H. (Ashton-und-Lyne
Gordon, Maj. Evans (T'rH'mlets Morgan, David J. (Walthm'w Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Gorst, Rt. Hn. Sir John Eldon Morris, Hon. Martin Henry F. Willox, Sir John Archibald
Goulding, Edward Alfred Morrison, James Archibald Wills, Sir Frederick
Gray, Ernest (West Ham) Morton, Arthur H. A. (Deptford Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Green, Walford D. (Wednesbury Mount, Wm. Arthur Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks.)
Greene, Sir E. W. (B'ryS. Edm'nds Mowbray, Sir Robert Gray C. Wodehouse, Rt. Hn. E. R. (Bath)
Greene, W. Raymond-(Cambs.) Murray, Rt. Hn. A. Graham (Bute Wrightson, Sir Thomas
Gretton, John Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath Wylie, Alexander
Groves, James Grimble Nicholson, William Graham Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Hain, Edward Nicol, Donald Ninian Yerburgh, Robert Armstrong
Hardy, Laurence (Kent, Ashf'd) O'Neill, Hon. Robert Torrens
Harris, Frederick Leverton Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay TELLERS FOR THE AYES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Haslett, Sir James Horner Palmer, Walter (Salisbury)
Holder, Augustus Parkes, Ebenezer
NOES.
Abraham, William (Cork, N. E.) Brunner, Sir John Tomlinson Cawley, Frederick
Allen, C. P. (Glouc., Stroud) Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Channing, Francis Allston
Asher, Alexander Burns, John Condon, Thomas Joseph
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Burt, Thomas Craig, Robert Hunter
Bayley, Thomas (Derbyshire) Buxton, Sydney Charles Cullinan, J.
Beaumont, Wentworth C. B. Caine, William Sproston Davies, Alfred (Carmarthen)
Bell, Richard Caldwell, James Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan)
Boland, John Cameron, Robert Delany, William
Broadhurst, Henry Carew, James Laurence Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh.)
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh) Causton, Richard Knight Doogan, P. C.
Duffy, William J. Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J. Robson, William Snowdon
Duncan, J. Hastings MacNeill, John Gordon Swift Roe, Sir Thomas
Elibank, Master of M'Arthur, William (Cornwall) Scott, Chas. Prestwich (Leigh)
Farrell, James Patrick M'Dermott, Patrick Shaw, Thomas (Hawick B.)
Fenwick, Charles M'Kenna, Reginald Sheehan, Daniel Daniel
Ffrench, Peter Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarth'n Shipman, Dr. John G.
Flynn, James Christopher Morley, Charles (Breconshire) Sinclair, Capt John (Forfarshire
Fowler, Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Moulton, John Fletcher Soames, Arthur Wellesley
Gilhooly, James Murphy, John Soares, Ernest J.
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. H. J. Nannetti, Joseph P. Spencer, Rt. Hn. C. R. (Northants
Grant, Corrie Nolan, Col. J. P. (Galway, N. Strachey, Edward
Griffith, Ellis J. Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) Sullivan, Donal
Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton Norton, Capt. Cecil William Taylor, Theodore Cooke
Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir Willian Nussey, Thomas Willans Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.
Hardie, J. Keir (Merthyr Tydvil) O'Brien, James F. X. (Cork) Thomas, David Alfred (Merthyr
Harwood, George O'Brien, Kendal (Tipperary, Md Thomas, J. A. (Glamorgan, Gower
Hayden, John Patrick O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) Tomkinson, James
Hayne, Rt. Hon. Charles Seale- O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.) Tully, Jasper
Hayter, Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur D. O'Connor, James (Wicklow, W. Wallace, Robert
Helme, Norval Watson O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool) Warner, Thomas Courtenay T.
Hemphill, Rt. Hon. Charles H. O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) Wason, Eugene (Clackmannan)
Holland, William Henry O'Dowd, John Weir, James Galloway
Hope, John Deans (Fife, West) O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.) White, George (Norfolk)
Horniman, Frederick John O'Kelly, James (Roscommon, N White, Luke (Yorks, E. R.)
Jacoby, James Alfred O'Malley, William Whiteley, George (Yorks, W. R.
Jones, William (Carnarvonsh. O'Mara, James Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Joyce, Michael O'Shaughnessy, P. J. Williams, Osmond (Merioneth)
Kay-Shuttleworth, Rt. Hn. Sir U. Palmer, Sir Charles M. (Durham Wilson, Chas. Henry (Hull, W.
Kennedy, Patrick James Partington, Oswald Wilson, Henry J. (Yorks, W. R.)
Kinloch, Sir John Geo. Smyth Paulton, James Mellor Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.)
Lambert, George Philipps, John Wynford Young, Samuel
Langley, Batty Pirie, Duncan V. Yoxall, James Henry
Layland-Barratt, Francis Power, Patrick Joseph
Leigh, Sir Joseph Rea, Russell TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Mr.Herbert Roberts and Mr. Alfred Hutton.
Lewis, John Herbert Reddy, M.
Lloyd-George, David Redmond, John E. (Waterford)
Lough, Thomas Redmond, William (Clare)
Lundon, W. Robertson, Edmund (Dundee)
MR. HENRY HOBHOUSE (Somersetshire, E.)

said his object in moving his Amendment was to secure that the local authorities which dealt with the schools and classes under the Bill should be of a distinctly educational character. He understood that the view of the Government was that the work of supervision should be entrusted to an authority as nearly akin as possible to the new local authority which it was proposed to set up for secondary education next year. He wished to remind the Committee that all the good work which had been attributed to the county and borough councils had been done almost entirely by the technical instruction committees. In the second place, those technical instruction committees were very often of a composite character. The London Technical Instruction Committee had a majority of members of the county council, but also representatives from all the great educational institutions in the country, and included also a small number of members of the London School Board. He had a list of no less than forty-one committees which had been constituted on the composite principle, and he found also that their members in certain cases included representatives of university colleges, secondary schools, and very often school boards. It seemed to him that the arrangement contemplated under the Bill could be far better carried out by such a body than by a body containing no other elements than members of county or borough councils. He himself was chairman of a composite technical committee of a county council, and he recognised to the full the great value of its co-optative element. It was all very well to decry experts, but experts were men who represented either a special body or who had a special knowledge of a question, and in dealing with educational matters experts were of the highest value. The technical instruction committee of which he was chairman included the chief inspector and the district and diocesan inspectors, who were in touch with all the elementary schools in the county, and in that way had a knowledge that did not fall to the lot of the local authorities. The committee also included members of non-county boroughs, and he found that that method of co-operation was most useful. The Government themselves had adopted the composite principle, as they had established in more than half the county and county borough council organisations for promoting secondary education. Those organisations were usually the technical Instruction committees of the councils, and were generally of a composite character. Then the Secondary Education Commission recommended that a third of the members of each educational body should consist of members of the county council, a third of members of the school board, and that a third should be co-opted. He did not care what was the exact proportion, but his point was that a large element should consist of what were called experts, who had given special interest to educational matters. In the Government Education Bills it was always contemplated that the work should be done by bodies containing other members than members of the county and borough councils. That principle seemed to be recognised by the Government and also by the Royal Commission, and was therefore a principle which ought to be applied to the present Bill. He had no doubt that the Vice-President would say that the county and borough councils could and would delegate their powers to the technical instruction committees, but there seemed to be very considerable doubt whether, under the Bill as it stood, the councils could delegate their powers. At any rate, there was very great doubt as to whether they could make the technical instruction committees executive. He would not argue the point of law, but he would ask his right hon. friend to consider whether it would not be necessary, if the power of delegation was to exist, and if the technical instruction committees were to be made executive, that some special words should be inserted. He contended that the simplest way was to give powers to the technical instruction committees. Some of the county councils were in a very awkward-position. His own county council were asked to consider the matter on the day that the Bill was introduced. How could they possibly take action then? It seemed to him somewhat unconstitutional for the Board of Education to send round circulars to various bodies with reference to a Bill which had not even been introduced. No doubt they did it from the best motives, but it was impossible for the county councils to delegate to the technical instruction committees their powers under a Bill which they had not seen. Were the eighty-eight members of his council to be brought together to delegate powers under the Bill, and to be called together again in September for the sole purpose of approving the recommendation of the technical instruction committee? Then there were county councils which would not delegate their powers to technical instruction committees, and who would decide the matter off-hand themselves. What would be the result? It would be, that where the majority desired to discriminate between schools that ought and ought not to be carried on, they would only be able to deal with them en masse. If the Government wished to advance the cause of education, if they wished really to stop schools which were useless and extravagant, and to continue only those which were in the best interests of the public, let them accept his Amendment. If they desired to exclude as far as possible mere party spirit, mere political considerations, from this matter, and to resolve the question in the true interests of education; if they desired to obtain the best practical results, and to make a further advance towards that ideal authority they intended to set up in a future Bill, let them accept his Amendment, or some similar proposal.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 9, after the word 'applicable,' to insert the words 'the technical instruction committee of.' "—(Mr. Henry Hobhouse.)

Question proposed, "That those words be there inserted."

SIR J. GORST

said that, while he agreed with the hon. Member that technical instruction committees were bodies to which educational functions might most properly be delegated he was compelled to point out that the Government had two objections to the Amendment. First—and this objection was, he believed, almost insuperable—every local authority had not set up a technical instruction committee. Consequently, if the Amendment were accepted, the Government would have to make provision in the Bill for cases in which no technical instruction committee existed. At this time of the session the hon. Member would admit that it was impossible to accept an Amendment requiring so great an alteration in the Bill. The second objection was that the function which the local authority had to exercise under the Bill was to authorise the application of the ratepayers' money. The whole principle of the Bill was to take an authority which generally represented the ratepayers, and to leave to that authority the power of saying whether the ratepayers' money should be applied to these purposes. The position, in a word, was this. The school boards had schools to which they had no power to apply the ratepayers' money. The Bill provided that they should get the consent of those who represented the ratepayers, and then they might apply the rates to these schools. The technical instruction committees, however excellent they might be as educational bodies, had no authority over the rates. They could not spend a sixpence of the ratepayers' money without going to the county or borough council, which had the authority to direct the expenditure of the rates. The Government, therefore, had selected, to give this sanction, a body representing the ratepayers and having a general right to spend the ratepayers' money. Indeed, it would not be consistent on their part to take that power out of the hands of those who directly represented the ratepayers and to give it to a committee which, however excellent it might be for educational purposes, had no power whatever over the rates. He was sorry that the Government were, for these reasons, unable to accept the Amendment.

SIR ALBERT ROLLIT (Islington, S.)

said it had been suggested that the Government were indisposed to accept any Amendment, in order that they might facilitate the passage of the Bill by avoiding the necessity for a Report stage. He was not inclined, however, to accept that view. Still, even if it were so, he was sure that there were many hon. Members on the Ministerial side of the House who would place education far above party feeling and would do their best to improve the Bill. The sole question with them was whether Amendments put forward would really improve the Bill, and in the present instance he thought the answer was conclusive, for the proposal to substitute technical instruction committees as the local authority would be absolutely unworkable, inasmuch as those committees, were the creation of the Technical Instruction Act, 1889, the provisions of which Act were permissive in their character. Although the power of appointing technical instruction committees had been largely used with beneficial effects, the practice had been by no means universal, and consequently in many cases additional machinery would have to be set up in the Bill to deal with the places where these committees were non-existent. The Amendment could not therefore be assented to on principle, and he was disposed to hope on the whole that, in the future, the Government would adhere to the Technical Instruction Act of 1889, by keeping the addition of experts and others by co-option permissive. In the late Bill that permissive character was changed into one of compulsion, contrary to the Bill of last year, and he happened to know that that provision was not generally acceptably regarded by those who took an interest in these matters. They had had some experience of the presence of experts upon these technical instruction committees, and, while not saying a word against their co-operation—for he believed they were much indebted to them for their aid—he would point out that the value of their work was largely attributable to the fact that their co-option was permissive, and he was afraid that to make their presence compulsory might be to add an element of friction. There was, as he had admitted, a great deal to be said in favour of the principle of having educational experts; but still he would like to point out that the self-called educational experts were chiefly responsible for the present condition of education, as they had by no means kept it up to date from a general or mercantile point of view. Again, he doubted whether they ought to extend the principle of co-option and indirect election; and he held that the local authority which had the expense to bear should be the final authority. He also doubted whether the technical instruction committee should become, like a watch committee, a statutory committee not reporting, and irresponsible to the council. The real value of experts was as advisers when their advice was sought, and why they should not go through the process of election like other public men, and so add to the power of the councils as a whole, he did not know.

THE CHAIRMAN

Order, order! The hon. Gentleman is now going rather beyond the Amendment before the Committee.

SIR ALBERT ROLLIT

said he had only desired to point out the way in which the presence of educational experts had been beneficial or otherwise, which was one end sought to be gained by the Amendment. The Amendment had been supported on the ground that it was in accord with the recommendations of the Royal Commission, although the hon. Member had made the admission that the distinction drawn by the Commission between boroughs and counties was wrong in principle.

MR. HENRY HOBHOUSE

was understood to say his argument had been that it was necessary to lay stress upon the Report of the Royal Commission.

SIR ALBERT ROLLIT

said he understood his hon. friend to say that the authority of the county council was one which might well have been maintained, although he would not contend that the distinction drawn in the Report between county and borough councils should be maintained. At any rate, it was useless to cite to the boroughs the decisions of the Royal Commission, for at the very outset they protested strongly against the composition of that Commission, on which there was large county council but no municipal representation, and they could scarcely be expected therefore to accept views which were in favour of county councils and against borough councils. At any rate, he believed that the distinction drawn by the Commission had to a large extent been falsified by experience. In the rural districts education was largely behindhand. Again, while many boroughs had already rated themselves for these purposes, he had yet to learn that a single county had taken the same position, and rural education was comparatively most backward. Therefore he repeated that the recommendation of a differential system as against boroughs and in favour of counties was not likely to be accepted by the municipalities. And in next year's Bill he urged the Government to give the most careful consideration to the case of the non-county boroughs, many of which had done the best educational work. Those which had rated themselves had been assured by the Vice-President that they should have control of their schools as of right, and they would also claim, in the interest of education in their localities, that any borough which could satisfy the Board of Education that it had the means and the wish to conduct its own education, and that it would be to the interest of education in its locality, should also, with the sanction of the Board of Education, be able to be treated a local authority. Lastly, were the councils in future legislation to delegate their powers to the technical instruction committee, and were those committees to become statutory committees irresponsible to the council, both financially and otherwise? He admitted that there might be considerable objection to that. But if the council could not delegate to the committee the detailed examination of a question for report, objection might be taken to all the work which the councils had to delegate. At present they did practically refer most subjects to the bodies likely to give experienced advice, properly reserving for themselves the final authority to decide whether they would act in one direction or another. He did not agree that the adoption of this policy would lead to friction. He believed that both the local authorities and the technical instruction committees would be prepared to deal with these questions in a broad spirit, and that the local authorities would place at the disposal of the educational body the large municipal resources which they possessed, and that they would do their best to save these schools, the value of which he was the first to acknowledge.

MR. LAMBERT

said that the insuperable objection in the view of the Vice-President to the Amendment was that many local authorities had no technical instruction committee. That, however, could easily be got over by the insertion of certain words entrusting the duty in such cases to the councils themselves. He cordially supported the Amendment. In his own county he had had some experience of the technical instruction committee, and they there had great difficulty in preventing the county council from using the whisky money for the relief of the rates instead of applying it for the purposes of technical education. The chairman of that committee was a brother of the late Education Minister, Sir Arthur Acland, and it was only through the efforts of a very powerful technical instruction committee they were able to get the money used for its proper purpose in the county of Devonshire. That was a concrete case, showing that oftentimes the technical instruction committee was more educationally inclined than the whole council. This would naturally be the case, because the councils in selecting their committee very properly would select for the technical education committee the men most interested in education. It would, therefore, be much better in this temporary Bill to place the control in the hands of this committee. Another point which the Vice-President had not appreciated was the summoning together of the county councils for the purpose of delegating the authority. In the case of the Devonshire County Council 103 voters would have to be summoned from all parts of the county, some of whom would have to start the night before the meeting to be present. Surely it was hardly worth while for the sake of a temporary measure to put the county council to so much inconvenience. Why should the right hon. Gentleman prefer that the technical instruction committee should not settle the question, when they were the best educational authority? He would give a precedent. The Standing Joint Committee was a statutory committee, and could settle matters without reference to the county council. It could even requisition money. All this technical instruction committee would have to do was, not to requisition money, but merely to sanction expenditure incurred by another authority. He therefore strongly supported the Amendment, believing that it would add to the value of the Bill.

MR. BROADHURST (Leicester)

under stood that, in the opinion of some Members, the fatal objection to the Amendment was that the technical education committees now in existence had no power to issue precepts direct for educational purposes. But neither had any other committee of the county council, such, for instance, as the Foot and Mouth Committee or the Swine Fever Committee. He was afraid that if this Amendment was not carried, in many cases before the county councils could get to work the year would be over, and in the meantime the people would be starved of their education. He quite agreed with the hon. Member for East Somerset in the complaint he made with regard to the circular issued to the county councils. Nobody knew of it, and therefore many interested in educational affairs had already lost three months in this way. Great injury would be done to the secondary education of this country unless some such provision as that now under discussion was agreed to by the Committee. He was not in favour of the education committees of county councils as they were now arranged. He entirely disagreed with co-opted head masters of endowed grammar schools being members of the committee; he thought it was a highly improper arrangement, and ought to be stopped. He did not think that the right hon. Gentleman had made any case at all against the Amendment. He had only argued as to the form of it. If the Government did not intend to accept any Amendment at all, then he thought it would be convenient if the First Lord of the Treasury would inform the Committee of that fact as soon as possible.

MR. BRYCE

said he regarded the Bill purely as a temporary measure, intended to save the country from an immediate and pressing difficulty in which they had become involved in consequence of school boards having spent money in a way which the courts of law had declared o be illegal. Therefore any views he expressed as to the Amendment would not be influenced in the least degree by the notion that it laid down any principle for the future. He should deal with the Amendment simply from the point of view of desiring to adopt the most practical and convenient course—the course which would enable the question to be dealt with most quickly and by the bodies which would bring the best knowledge to bear upon it. Two objections had been taken by the Vice-President. The first was that some local authorities had no technical instruction committee. That was quite true, but their number was not large, and the matter could be remedied by the Amendment being amended by the insertion of the words "where such committees exist." As he looked upon the matter as purely a question of convenience, he did not think the fact that one rule would apply to cases where there was a technical instruction committee and another where there was not, need be regarded as a fatal objection to the Amendment. The second objection was that the power of authorising the expenditure of the ratepayers' money ought not to be given to any body but the local authority. That objection was not consistent with the position taken up by the Government in their previous Bill, because then the Government proposed to give a rating power to an authority which was not composed entirely of representatives of the ratepayers. Many Members, doubtless, would have objections to such a power being given to any but an elected authority, but in any case that objection was not one to be raised by the Government after the line they had taken in their previous Bill. Moreover, on the technical instruction committee there was a majority of elected members, so that the voting of the ratepayers' money would be controlled by the ratepayers' representatives. That was the view taken by himself and others on the Secondary Education Commission. They thought the secondary education authority ought to have the power to issue a precept to the local authority who imposed the rate, although there were to be on the secondary education authority persons not directly elected. Therefore he felt that the Vice-President had given no real ground for rejecting the Amendment. There was, however, a third point which might possibly be of some importance, and that was whether there was any precedent for an Act of Parliament giving a statutory power to a committee which was not a statutory committee. This was a committee chosen by the local authority themselves, to enable them the better to discharge the duty which the legislature had thrown upon them, but so far as he knew that was not recognised by statute. That would be a grave objection if this Bill were not a temporary measure, but really he regarded the Bill as being so abnormal and exceptional a case that it ought not to lay down any precedent for the future, and that any arrangement now made was an arrangement which could not properly be appealed to hereafter as being an instance of a decision of Parliament in regard to any particular policy. On the whole, as at present advised, he was inclined to think that the balance of convenience lay in accepting the Amendment, because it would put the power in the hands of an authority who had more knowledge of the matter in hand than the local authority itself could have, and also because it would enable the matter to be more promptly dealt with, instead of exposing it to the long delays which must ensue before it could be dealt with by the county council.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I hope that the Committee will come to a decision shortly upon this Amendment. The fundamental reason why the Government do not feel themselves able to accept it is, that if it were accepted it would practically make a technical instruction committee, where it existed, an authority over the county council, from which it derived all its powers, in such an important matter as the expenditure of the rate.

DR. MACNAMARA

said that he cordially endorsed everything the hon. Mem- ber for East Somerset had said about the extraordinary educational value of the work done by technical education committees. The Amendment raised the whole question of the form of municipal control of education. If they were to have municipal control at all, it must be a genuine and not a spurious form of municipal control. The House had been invited to consider this control in the Bill of 1896, and the Vice-President said then that the Committee would be like a watch committee, largely consisting of co-opted members, but such an arrangement as that was not proper municipal control. If they were to have municipal control let them vest the power in the county council, the parent council directly responsible to the ratepayers. He thought the line which the Committee ought to take was that they could not allow any direct statutory powers to be handed over to any body not responsible to the ratepayers. London had had a very bitter experience of handing over powers in that way in the case of the old Metropolitan Board of Works. Let the parent council have the powers vested in them; they were quite prepared to delegate all the executive powers they held to any delegated body, but the right of the parent council to direct the manner in which this money will be spent must be preserved.

MR. ERNEST GRAY (West Ham, N.)

said he had been told that many county councils would hesitate to place these powers in the hands of their technical instruction committee. He would like to know whether these words intended to imply that this duty must be exercised by the county councils themselves, or whether a county council would have power to delegate it to its technical instruction committee with power to act.

MR. NORVAL W. HELME

said he wished to make a suggestion to the Government. The words in the Bill seemed to suggest that the initiative should come from the school boards, and not from the county council. At the present moment there was a large amount of work conducted by the school boards which if they declined to carry on would be thrown upon the county council, or it must stop. The county councils were sufficiently interested in education to undertake this work if put on them by Parliament; but the time between the date when this Bill would become law and that when the arrangements for the continuation schools must be completed was so short that he appealed to the First Lord of the Treasury to give a distinct assurance to the Committee and make it clear that nothing in the Bill would compel a school board of necessity to go to the county council first, but that the county council if it chose might take the initiative and pass a resolution empowering school boards to carry on their work for this year, and so save the amour propre of those now responsible for it.

THE SOLICITOR GENERAL (Sir EDWARD CARSON, Dublin University)

said that as he understood the Bill the county council must as a whole be responsible for the ultimate decision. They must be the body responsible for the striking of the rate, and for seeing that it was divided in the proper way. There was no doubt that the council could delegate to the technical instruction committee the operation of finding out to what extent they ought to allow the same system of education to be carried on, though they must remain responsible to the ratepayers for seeing that the work was properly carried ont and the rate properly struck. It was clear, also, that the county council not only had the right but the duty of saying whether they would empower the school boards to carry on the work which they had been hitherto carrying on, subject to certain conditions; but where a county council was satisfied that the work as carried on by the school board was properly carried on, and wished to see it continued, they might pass a resolution without any application from the school board and without limiting conditions.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

pointed out that there was no duty cast upon the county council at all; it was the school board that had to raise the rate.

SIR EDWARD CARSON

said the school board raised no rates.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

(who spoke amid continued interruption and cries of "Divide") was understood to say what happened was that the school board, having ascertained what their expenditure was likely to be, asked by way of a precept the amount which they required, and the overseers struck a rate; so that it was not the county council which struck the rate at all. What he rose, however, to point out was the difficulty in which the critics of this Bill were placed by really not knowing what the Bill was. The First Lord of the Treasury had stated that it was a Bill to establish a broad principle, but the Vice-President said it was a mere emergency Bill.

SIR J. GORST

I did not say it was a mere emergency Bill; I said it was an emergency Bill.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

said that the Bill could only be described as a "first aid to the wounded" Bill. Nobody knew what it was to do except that it was to do harm. If the Bill contained a prin-

ciple, then he was opposed to the Amendment upon the ground which had been laid down by the First Lord of the Treasury that, if they were to have direct control, it should be as direct as possible; but if it was only an emergency Bill he was not opposed to the Amendment, because, as a piece of mere machinery, it was justified and helpful. So that they came back to the position that some more information ought to be given with regard to the Bill. As he understood, this was a Bill—

THE CHAIRMAN

The hon. Member is not entitled to discuss the character of the Bill.

MR. HENRY HOBHOUSE

asked leave to withdraw the Amendment, but leave was refused.

Question put.

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 94; Noes, 293. (Division List No. 357.)

AYES.
Abraham, William (Rhondda) Helme, Norval Watson Power, Patrick Joseph
Asher, Alexander Hemphill, Rt. Hon. Charles H. Rea, Russell
Bayley, Thomas (Derbyshire) Hobhouse, C. E. H. (Bristol, E.) Redmond, William (Clare)
Brigg, John Hope, John Deans (Fife, West Robertson, Edmund (Dundee)
Broadhurst, Henry Horniman, Frederick John Roe, Sir Thomas
Brown, Geo. M. (Edinburgh) Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) Schwann, Charles E.
Brunner, Sir John Tomlinson Jacoby, James Alfred Scott, Chas. Prestwich (Leigh
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Jones, David Brynmor (Swan'sa Shaw, Chas. Edw. (Stafford)
Burt, Thomas Jones, William (Carnarvons.) Shaw, Thomas (Hawick B.)
Buxton, Sydney Charles Kay-Shuttleworth, Rt Hn Sir U Sinclair, Capt. John (Forfarsh.
Caine, William Sproston Kennedy, Patrick James Soames, Arthur Wellesley
Cameron, Robert Kinloch, Sir J. George Smyth Soares, Ernest J.
Causton, Richard Knight Lambert, George Spencer, Rt Hn CR (Northants.)
Cawley, Frederick Langley, Batty Strachey, Edward
Condon, Thomas Joseph Leigh, Sir Joseph Taylor, Theodore Cooke
Crombie, John William Lough, Thomas Tennant, Harold John
Davies, Alfred (Carmarthen) M'Arthur, William (Cornwall) Thomas, Abel (Glamorgan, E.
Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan Mather, William Thomas, David A. (Merthyr)
Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh. Mellor, Rt. Hon. John William Trevelyan, Charles Philips
Doogan, P. C. Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarthen) Tully, Jasper
Duncan, J. Hastings Morley, Charles (Breconshire) Wason, Eugene (Clackmannan
Farrell, James Patrick Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) Weir, James Galloway
Fenwick, Charles Nussey, Thomas Willans White, Luke (York, E. R.)
Flynn, James Christopher O'Connor, James (Wicklow, W. Whiteley, George (York, W. R.)
Foster, Sir Walter (Derby Co.) O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool) Whitaker, Thomas Palmer
Gilhooly, James O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.) Williams, Osmond (Merioneth
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. Herbert J. O'Mara, James Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.)
Griffith, Ellis J. Palmer, Sir Charles M. (Durham Yoxall, James Henry
Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton Paulton, James Mellor
Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir William Pearson, Sir Weetman TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Mr. Warner and Dr. Macnamara.
Hardie, J. Keir (Merthyr Tydvil Phillips, John Wynford
Hayne, Rt. Hon. Charles Seale- Pickard, Benjamin
Hayter, Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur D. Pirie, Duncan V.
NOES.
Abraham, Wm. (Cork, N. E.) Allen, Charles P (Glouc., Stroud Arnold-Forster, Hugh O.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir Alex. F. Anson, Sir William Reynell Arrol, Sir William
Agg-Gardner, James Tynte Arkwright, John Stanhope Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John
Bagot, Capt. Josceline FitzRoy Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne Long, Rt. Hn. Walter (Bristol, S
Bain, Col. James Robert Firbank, Joseph Thomas Lonsdale, John Brownlee
Baird, John George Alexander Fisher, William Hayes Lowe, Francis William
Balcarres, Lord Fitzroy, Hon. Edward A. Lowther, C. (Cumb., Eskdale
Baldwin, Alfred Flavin, Michael Joseph Lowther, Rt. Hn. J. (Kent)
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J. (Manch'r Flower, Ernest Lucas, Col. Francis (Lowestoft
Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornsey) Foster, P. S. (Warwick, S. W. Lucas, Reginald J. (Portsmouth
Balfour, Rt. Hon. G. W. (Leeds) Gardner, Ernest Lundon, W.
Banbury, Frederick George Garfit, William Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Gibbs, Hn A. G. H. (City of Lond. Macdona, John Cumming
Bartley, George C. T. Godson, Sir Augustus Fredk. MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A.
Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol Gordon, Hn. J. E. (Elgin&Nairn MacIver, David (Liverpool)
Beaumont, Wentworth C. B. Gordon, Maj Evans (T'rH'mlets MacNeill, John Gordon Swift
Bell, Richard Gore, Hn G. R. C. Ormsby-(Salop Maconochie, A. W.
Bentinck, Lord Henry C. Gore, Hn. F. S. Ormsby-(Linc. M'Dermott, Patrick
Bignold, Arthur Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir John Eldon M'Iver, Sir L. (Edinburgh, W.)
Blundell, Colonel Henry Goulding, Edward Alfred Majendie, James A. H.
Boland, John Grant, Corrie Manners, Lord Cecil
Bond, Edward Gray, Ernest (West Ham) Maple, Sir John Blundell
Boulnois, Edmund Green, Walford D (Wednesbury Maxwell, W. J. H. (Dumfriesshire
Bousfield, William Robert Greene, Sir E W (B'rySEdm'nds Middlemore, John T.
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex) Greene, W. Raymond- (Cambs.) Mildmay, Francis Bingham
Bowles, T. Gibson (King's Lynn Grenfell, William Henry Milner, Rt. Hn. Sir Frederick G.
Brassey, Albert Gretton, John Mitchell, William
Brodrick, Rt. Hon. Sir John Groves, James Grimble Molesworth, Sir Lewis
Burns, John Guthrie, Walter Murray Montagu, G. (Huntingdon)
Caldwell, James Hain, Edward More, R. Jasper (Shropshire)
Campbell, Rt. Hn. JA (Glasgow Hamilton, Rt Hn. Ld. G (Midd'x Morrell, George Herbert
Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Hardy, Laurence (K'nt, Ashf'rd Morris, Hon. Martin Henry F.
Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edw. H. Harris, Frederick Leverton Morrison, James Archibald
Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Harwood, George Morton, A. H. A. (Deptford)
Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbysh. Haslam, Sir Alfred S. Mount, William Arthur
Cayzer, Sir Charles William Haslett, Sir James Horner Mowbray, Sir Robert Gray C.
Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Hayden, John Patrick Murphy, John
Chamberlam, Rt. Hn J. (Birm.) Heath, James (Staffords. N. W. Murray, Rt Hn A. Graham (Bute
Chamberlain, J. A. (Worc'r) Heaton, John Henniker Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath)
Channing, Francis Allston Helder, Augustus Nannetti, Joseph P.
Churchill, Winston Spencer Hermon-Hodge, Robt. Trotter Newnes, Sir George
Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Hiekman, Sir Alfred Nicholson, William Graham
Coghill, Douglas Harry Higginbottom, S. W. Nicol, Donald Ninian
Cohen, Benjamin Louis Hoare, E. Brodie (Hampstead Nolan, Col. John P. (Galway, N.
Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Hoare, Sir Samuel (Norwich) O'Brien, James F. X. (Cork)
Corbett, A. Cameron (Glasgow) Hobhouse, Henry (Somerset, E. O'Brien, Kendal (Tipperary Md
Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) Holland, William Henry O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny)
Cox, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Hope, JF (Sheffield, Brightside) O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N)
Craig, Robert Hunter Horner, Frederick William O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.)
Cranborne, Viscount Houldsworth, Sir Wm. Henry O'Dowd, John
Cripps, Charles Alfred Hoult, Joseph O'Kelly, Jas. (Roscommon, N.)
Cross, Alexander (Glasgow) Hozier, Hon. James Henry Cecil O'Malley, William
Crossley, Sir Savile Hudson, George Bickersteth O'Neill, Hn. Robert Torrens
Cullinan, J. Hutton, John (Yorks, N. R.) Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay
Dalkeith, Earl of Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse O'Shaughnessy, P. J.
Dalziel, James Henry Johnston, William (Belfast) Palmer, Walter (Salisbury)
Delany, William Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex) Parkes, Ebenezer
Dewar, T. R. (T'rH'mlets, S Geo. Joyce, Michael Peel, Hn Wm. Robert Wellesley
Dickson, Charles Scott Kenyon, Hon. G. T. (Denbigh Percy, Earl
Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P. Kenyon, James (Lancs., Bury) Pilkington, Lieut.-Col. R.
Dimsdale, Sir Joseph Cockfield Kimber, Henry Platt-Higgins, Frederick
Dorington, Sir John Edward King, Sir Henry Seymour Powell, Sir Francis Sharp
Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers- Knowles, Lees Pretyman, Ernest George
Doxford, Sir Wm. Theodore Labouchere, Henry Priestley, Arthur
Duffy, William J. Lambton, Hon. Frederick W. Purvis, Robert
Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Laurie, Lieut.-General Randles, John S.
Dyke, Rt. Hn. Sir William Hart Law, Andrew Bonar Rankin, Sir James
Elibank, Master of Lawson, John Grant Reddy, M.
Elliot, Hon. A. Ralph Douglas Layland-Barratt, Francis Redmond, John E. (Waterford
Evans, Sir Francis H (Maidst'ne Lecky, Rt. Hon. William E. H. Reid, James (Greenock)
Fardell, Sir T. George Lee, Arthur H (Hants., Fareh'm Renshaw, Charles Bine
Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edward Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Rentoul, James Alexander
Ferguson, R. C. Munro (Leith) Leveson-Gower, Fredk. N. S. Renwick, George
Fergusson, Rt Hn. Sir J. (Manc'r Levy, Maurice Rickett, J. Compton
Ffrench, Peter Lewis, John Herbert Ridley, S. F. (Bethnal Green)
Field, William Llewellyn, Evan Henry Ritchie, Rt. Hn. Charles T.
Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst Lloyd-George, David Roberts, John H. (Denbighs)
Finch, George H. Loder, Gerald Walter Erskine Robinson, Brooke
Rollit, Albert Kaye Stroyan, John Wentworth, Bruce C. Vernon-
Ropner, Colonel Robert Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley White, George (Norfolk)
Round, James Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier Whiteley, H. (Ashton-u.-Lyne
Rutherford, John Sullivan, Donal Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Sackville, Col. S. G. Stopford- Talbot, Rt Hn J. G. (Oxf'd Univ. Whitmore, Chas. Algernon
Sadler, Col. Samuel Alex. Thomas, J. A. (Glam'gan, Gower Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse) Thorburn, Sir Walter Willox, Sir John Archibald
Saunderson, Rt. Hn. Col. Edw. J Thornton, Percy M. Wills, Sir Frederick
Seely, Capt. J. E. B. (I. of Wight) Tollemache, Henry James Wilson, Henry J. (Yorks, W. R.)
Sharpe, William Edward T. Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Shaw-Stewart, M. H. (Renfrew) Tritton, Charles Ernest Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks.)
Sheehan, Daniel Daniel Valentia, Viscount Wodehouse, Rt. Hn. E. R. (Bath
Shipman, Dr. John G. Vincent, Sir Edgar (Exeter) Wrightson, Sir Thomas
Sinclair, Louis (Romford) Wallace, Robert Wylie, Alexander
Smith, Abel H. (Hertford, East) Wanklyn, James Leslie Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Smith, James Parker (Lanarks) Warde, Col. C. E. Yerburgh, Robert Armstrong
Smith, Hon. W. F. D. (Strand) Warr, Augustus Frederick Young, Samuel
Spear John Ward Wason, John Cathcart (Orkney
Stanley, Hn Arthur (Ormskirk) Webb, Col. William George TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Stanley, Lord (Lancs.) Welby, Lt.-Col. A. C. E. (Taun'n
Stone, Sir Benjamin Welby, Sir Charles G. E. (Notts.
MR. LLOYD-GEORGE (Carnarvon Boroughs)

, who had on the Paper a series of Amendments to constitute as the authority in Wales "the county governing body appointed under the Intermediate Education (Wales) Act," said the Amendment he first proposed to move was preliminary to one which stood a little lower on the Paper. The right hon. Gentleman would probably see his way to accept this Amendment, having regard to the fact that in Wales there was already such an educational board as the Government desired to establish by this Bill. In Wales the principle for which the right hon. Gentleman was contending had already been adopted and applied, and therefore he hoped the right hon. Gentleman would accept this Amendment. The one great difficulty with regard to the application of this Bill was that there was no local information in the county council; but in Wales the county governing body had been adopted; they had their local bodies, and those local bodies would advise the local governing body as to what ought to be done by the local bodies representing both the board schools and voluntary schools. There was a perfect organisation already in Wales, and it was therefore unnecessary to set up a separate organisation. Did the right hon. Gentleman propose to accept this Amendment?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

No. It is similar to the Amendment we have just disposed of.

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE

expressed his regret that the Amendment could not be accepted. He reminded the right hon. Gentleman that the very body he desired to establish in England already existed in Wales; that the Education (No. 1) Bill, which had been withdrawn, and from which this Bill before the Committee was taken, was itself modelled upon the Intermediate Education Act for Wales, which had been carried through by a Unionist administration; and that that scheme was working at the present moment without difficulty, and giving perfect satisfaction. He contended, under those circumstances, that it would be a cruel thing to dislocate the whole educational system in Wales by setting up a new authority. He therefore appealed to the right hon. Gentleman not to place any difficulty in the way of Welsh education, and, when they had already a perfect system, set up a crude system of this kind. Nobody could doubt that one of the difficulties would be the lack of local knowledge in regard to the conditions of each school. In a large county such as Glamorganshire, how could the county council possibly advise as to the conditions to be imposed on a continuation or a higher-grade school in a corner of the county? The opinion of the local representative might, it was true, be taken, but that would practically be delegating to one individual work which had hitherto been carried on by a whole body elected by the ratepayers. If, however, the matter was referred to the county governing body, that body could consult with its local governing body in the particular district—a body composed of men elected for their local knowledge, and than whom there could not be a better body for the purpose. It could not be contended that the county council could do the work as well as the county governing body. Why then should not the Amendment be accepted, unless it was that every Amendment, whether good or bad, was to be refused? He begged to move.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 9, after the word 'applicable,' to insert the words 'in England.'"—(Mr. Lloyd-George.)

Question proposed, "That those words be there inserted."

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I think the hon. Gentleman somewhat mistook the purport of the interruption I made in the course of his speech when I said that this Amendment was similar to the one we have just disposed of. I did not at all mean to imply that the county governing body in Wales occupied a position similar to that of a technical instruction committee in England. I quite admit that there are great differences, and I am prepared most cordially to agree that the educational work done by the county governing bodies is worthy of very high praise. But I would point out that there is one fundamental parity between this and the last Amendment, which goes to the very root of the matter. The chief reason why we thought it impossible to accept the last Amendment was that it proposed to give the technical instruction committees independent powers of rating or of authorising the levying of a rate over the head of the county council. It appears to me that that would also be the case with the county governing body in Wales, and I do not think such a proposal could be assented to by the House. The hon. Member laid it down that the local authority could not consult the county governing body—

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE

What I said was that the county governing body had local governing bodies which might be called into consultation, and which could give advice in regard to local circumstances. That is the advantage of the system.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

At all events, if we retain the local authority, as I hope we shall, because it is the rating authority, I would point out that that authority will be able to take the advice of the county governing body, which I quite recognise is a body whose advice would be valuable in any case that might arise. Under these circumstances, I hope the hon. Member will not think it necessary to press his Amendment to a division.

MR. HERBERT LEWIS (Flint Boroughs)

deeply regretted the refusal of the right hon. Gentleman to accept the Amendment. The effect of the Bill would now be practically to set up two different secondary education authorities, a course which would not tend to smoothness of working or to economy or efficiency. The right hon. Gentleman had done them the justice to say, as others in official positions had already said, that these county governing bodies had been remarkably successful in the work they had undertaken. He himself had been chairman of one of these bodies for ten years, and to those who generally considered that Wales was a seething hotbed of political, religious, and sectarian passion he might say that during those ten years, although religious instruction according to the principles of the Christian faith was given in their schools, that body had not had one division on party or sectarian lines. On both the county governing body and the local governing bodies the members had joined heart and soul in furthering the work of secondary education, and there could not have been more complete concentration on that particular work anywhere. To him, who had been so closely connected with the work, not only on the county governing body, but also on the Central Board of Wales, it was a matter of the utmost pain that practically another secondary authority was being set up. The county councils, who were the rating authority, in this connection had trusted the county governing bodies absolutely.

ME. A. J. BALFOUR

That can still go on.

MR. HERBERT LEWIS

said that that was where the right hon. Gentleman was mistaken. The county councils had no power to delegate this work to the county governing bodies. The only objection raised by the right hon. Gentle- man to the Amendment was on the question of rating, and, as far as that was concerned, the county councils had invariably trusted the county governing bodies. The Government also had trusted them, because in the Bill of last year the authority for education then proposed was specifically stated in the Bill as the county governing body in Wales. If the present Bill was intended to be a precedent for the future it would be absurd indeed, under the circumstances, to create a new body to deal with secondary education in Wales. If, on the other hand, it was not to be a precedent, but merely an arrangement for one year, he appealed that the duty should be placed for that year in the hands of the county governing bodies, who were the most trusted educational authorities in Wales.

MR. BOUSFIELD (Hackney, N.)

thought the hon. Member had really given away the case for the Amendment. He had not at all answered the point as to the county authority being the rating authority, but had said that the county authority and the Government had had the utmost confidence in the county governing body, and that the county authority could not delegate their power to the county governing body. It was, however, a question not of delegation, but of consultation, which was a very different matter. Just as in England the county council would consult the technical instruction committee, and, if it was wise, take action in accordance with the report of the committee, unless there was good reason to the contrary, so in Wales the county councils would consult the local governing bodies and act upon their advice, but they would remain the local authority responsible for the rating.

MR. HERBERT ROBERTS

desired to associate himself with all that had been said in regard to the admirable work done by the country governing bodies in Wales and the complete confidence the country reposed in them. In the Education Bill recently withdrawn the county governing bodies in Wales were specifically made the education authority. If the right hon. Gentleman could give an assurance that in the Bill to be introduced next year, under which a secondary system throughout the country was to be established, there would be a similar provision, it would to a great extent relieve the minds of those in Wales who were deeply interested in the question, and who were most anxious that nothing should be done to interfere with the usefulness of the work at present done by the county governing bodies.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

In response to the appeal of the hon. Member, I can assure him that there is no ground whatever for thinking that the scheme to be introduced next year will differ in the respect to which he refers from the previous proposal. I think the position there given to the county governing bodies in Wales is probably the right one.

MR. ELLIS GRIFFITH (Anglesey)

thought it very significant that although Wales had a few Conservative Members the Welsh representatives were absolutely unanimous in this request. What real harm could the Amendment do? If the Government were desirous of assisting education in Wales, why could they not meet the Welsh Members in this respect? The right hon. Gentleman had admitted that the principle for which they were contending was the right principle.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

If this Amendment brought the present Bill into the precise position of Bill No. 1 there would be a strong argument in its favour; but under the present Bill it would make the county governing bodies the rating authority. That was never contemplated in Bill No. 1, nor could we possibly contemplate it.

MR. ELLIS GRIFFITH

said they desired to avoid this duplication of authorities for the next twelve months, and perhaps after. In the small counties in Wales, in addition to the voluntary schools and the board schools, there would be the county governing bodies under the Act of 1889, and the county councils under the present Bill. Surely it was not beyond the wit of man to do now that which it was admitted would be possible in twelve months time.

MR. BRYCE

was not certain that Scotch Members and others fully appre- ciated the position occupied by the county governing bodies in Wales. It was there the secondary education authority. The theory of the Government was that the education given in the continuation and higher grade schools was secondary education, and ought, therefore, to be under the authority having charge of secondary education. The county governing bodies

were the authorities charged with secondary education in Wales, and consequently, prima facie, they were the bodies whose opinion ought to be taken in this matter.

Question put.

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 157; Noes, 241. (Division List No. 358.)

AYES.
Abraham, William (Cork, N. E. Hayden, John Patrick Philipps, John Wynford
Abraham, William (Rhondda) Hayne, Rt. Hon. Charles Seale- Pickard, Benjamin
Allen, C. P. (Glouc., Stroud) Hayter, Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur D. Pirie, Duncan V.
Asher, Alexander Helme, Norval Watson Power, Patrick Joseph
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Hemphill, Rt. Hon. Charles H. Price, Robert John
Bayley, Thomas (Derbyshire) Hobhouse, C. E. H. (Bristol, E.) Priestley, Arthur
Beaumont, Wentworth C. B. Holland, William Henry Rea, Russell
Bell, Richard Hope, John Deans (Fife, West) Reddy, M.
Blake, Edward Horniman, Frederick John Redmond, John E. (Waterford
Boland, John Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) Redmond, William (Clare)
Brigg, John Jacoby, James Alfred Rickett, J. Compton
Broadhurst, Henry Jones, D. Brynmor (Swansea) Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.)
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh) Jones, William (Carnarvons.) Robertson, Edmund (Dundee)
Brunner, Sir John Tomlinson Joyce, Michael Roe, Sir Thomas
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Kay-Shuttleworth, Rt Hn Sir U. Schwann, Charles E.
Burns, John Kearley, Hudson E. Shaw, Charles Edw. (Stafford)
Burt, Thomas Kennedy, Patrick James Shaw, Thomas (Hawick, B.)
Buxton, Sydney Charles Kinloch, Sir John Geo. Smyth Sheehan, Daniel Daniel
Caine, William Sproston Lambert, George Shipman, Dr. John G.
Caldwell, James Langley, Batty Sinclair, Capt. J. (Forfarshire)
Cameron Robert Layland-Barratt, Francis Soames, Arthur Wellesley
Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Leigh, Sir Joseph Soares, Ernest J.
Carew, James Laurence Levy, Maurice Spencer, Rt Hn C. R. (Northants
Causton, Richard Knight Lewis, John Herbert Strachey, Edward
Cawley, Frederick Lough, Thomas Sullivan, Donal
Channing, Francis Alston Lundon, W. Taylor, Theodore Cooke
Condon, Thomas Joseph Macdonnell, Dr. Mark A. Tennant, Harold John
Craig, Robert Hunter MacNeill, John Gordon Swift Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.)
Crombie, John William M'Dermott, Patrick Thomas, David A. G. (Merthyr)
Cullinan, J. Mather, William Thomas, J A (Glamorgan, Gow'r
Davies, Alfred (Carmarthen) Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarthen) Thomson, F. W. (York, W. R.)
Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan Morley, Charles (Breconshire) Tomkinson, James
Delany, William Murphy, John Trevelyan, Charles Philips
Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh. Nannetti, Joseph P. Tully, Jasper
Doogan, P. C. Newnes, Sir George Wallace, Robert
Duffy, William J. Nolan, Col. John P. (Galway, N. Walton, John L. (Leeds, S.
Duncan, J. Hastings Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) Warner, Thomas Courtenay T.
Dunn, Sir William Norton, Capt. Cecil William Wason, Eugene (Clackmannan
Elibank, Master of O'Brien, James F. X. (Cork) Weir, James Galloway
Evans, Sir Francis H (Maidst'ne O'Brien, Kendal (Tipper'ry Mid White, George (Norfolk)
Farquharson, Dr. Robert O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) White, Luke (York, E. R.)
Farrell, James Patrick O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.) Whiteley, George (York, W. R.)
Fenwick, Charles O'Connor, Jas. (Wicklow, W.) Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Ferguson R. C. Munro (Leith) O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool) Williams, Osmond (Merioneth)
Ffrench, Peter O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) Wilson, Chas, Henry (Hull, W.
Field, William O'Dowd, John Wilson, Hy. J. (Yorks, W. R.)
Flavin, Michael Joseph O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.) Wilson, John (Durham, Mid)
Flynn, James Christopher O'Kelly, J. (Roscommon, N.) Young, Samuel
Forster, Sir Walter (Derby Co.) O'Malley, William Yoxall, James Henry
Gilhooly, James O'Mara, James
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. Herbert J. O'Shaughnessy, P. J. TELLERS FOR THE AYES.—Mr. Lloyd-George and Mr. Ellis Griffith.
Grant, Corrie Palmer, Sir Charles M. (Durh'm
Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton Partington, Oswald
Harwood, George Paulton, James Mellor
NOES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir Alex. F. Anson, Sir William Reynell Arrol, Sir William
Agg-Gardner, James Tynte Arkwright, John Stanhope Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John
Aird, Sir John Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Bagot, Capt Josceline FitzRoy
Bailey, James (Walworth) Green, Walford D. (Wedn'sb'ry Morrell, George Herbert
Bain, Col. James Robert Greene, Sir E W (B'rySEdm'ds. Morris, Hon. Martin Henry F.
Baird, John George Alexander Greene, W. Raymond-(Cambs.) Morrison, James Archibald
Balcarres, Lord Grenfell, William Henry Morton, Arth. H. A. (Deptford
Baldwin, Alfred Groves, James Grimble Mount, William Arthur
Balfour, Rt. Hn. A. J. (Manch'r Guthrie, Walter Murray Murray, Rt Hn A Graham (Bute
Balfour, Rt. Hn. G. W. (Leeds Hain, Edward Murray, Charles J. (Coventry)
Banbury, Frederick George Hamilton, Rt HnLordG. (Mid'x Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath)
Bartley, George C. T. Hamilton, Marqof (L'nd'nderry Nicholson, William Graham
Beach, Rt Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol) Hardy, Laurence (Kent, Ashf'd Nicol, Donald Ninian
Beach, Rt. Hn. W. W. B. (Hants Harris, Frederick Leverton O'Neill, Hon. Robert Torrens
Beckett, Ernest William Haslam, Sir Alfred S. Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay
Bentinck, Lord Henry C. Haslett, Sir James Horner Palmer, Walter (Salisbury)
Bignold, Arthur Heath, James (Staffords, N. W. Parkes, Ebenezer
Blundell, Col. Henry Heaton, John Henniker Peel, Hn. Wm. Robt. Wellesley
Bond, Edward Helder, Augustus Penn, John
Boulnois, Edmund Hermon-Hodge, Robt. Trotter Percy, Earl
Bousfield, William Robert Hickman, Sir Alfred Pilington, Lieut.-Col. R.
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middl'x) Higginbottom, S. W. Platt-Higgins, Frederick
Brassey, Albert Hoare, Edw Brodie (Hampste'd Powell, Sir Francis Sharp
Brodrick, Rt. Hon. St. John Hoare, Sir Samuel (Norwich) Pretyman, Ernest George
Bull, William James Hope, J. F. (Sheffield, Brightside Purvis, Robert
Butcher, John George Horner, Frederick William Randles, John S.
Campbell,RtHnJ.A.(Glasgow) Houldsworth, Sir Wm. Henry Rankin, Sir James
Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edw. H. Hoult, Joseph Rasch, Major Frederick Carne
Cautley, Henry Strother Hozier, Hon. James Henry Cecil Reid, James (Greenock)
Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Hudson, George Bickersteth Renshaw, Charles Bine
Cavendish, VCW. (Derbyshire) Hutton, John (Yorks., N. R.) Rentoul, James Alexander
Cayzer, Sir Charles William Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse Renwick, George
Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Johnston, William (Belfast) Richards, Henry Charles
Cecil, Lord H. (Greenwich) Kenyon, Hon. Geo. T. (Denbigh) Ridley,S.Forde(BethnalGreen
Chamberlain,Rt.Hon.J.(Birm Kenyon, J. (Lancs., Bury) Ritchie, Rt. Hon. Charles T.
Chamberlain,J.Austen(Worc'r Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop) Robinson, Brooke
Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Kimber, Henry Rollit, Sir Albert Kaye
Coghill, Douglas Harry King, Sir Henry Seymour Ropner, Colonel Robert
Cohen, Benjamin Louis Knowles, Lees Round, James
Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Lambton,Hon.FrederickWm. Rutherford, John
Corbett, A. C. (Glasgow) Law, Andrew Bonar Sackville, Col. S. G. Stopford-
Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) Lawson, John Grant Sadler, Col. Samuel Alex.
Cox, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Lecky,Rt.Hn. WilliamEdw.H. Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse
Cranborne, Viscount Lee, A. H. (Hants, Fareham) Saunderson, Rt Hn. Col. Edw. J.
Cripps, Charles Alfred Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.)
Cross, Alexander (Glasgow) Leigh-Bennett, Henry Currey Seely, Cap. J. E. B. (Isle of Wight
Crossley, Sir Savile Leveson-Gower, Frederick N. S. Sharpe, William Edward T.
Dalkeith, Earl of Llewellyn, Evan Henry Shaw-Stewart, M. H. (Renfrew
Dewar,T.R.(T'rH'mlets,S.Geo Loder, Gerald W. Erskine Simeon, Sir Barrington
Dickson, Charles Scott Long, Col. C. W. (Evesham) Sinclair, Louis (Romford)
Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P. Long, Rt. Hn. Walter (Bristol, S, Smith, James Parker (Lanarks.
Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers- Lonsdale, John Brownlee Smith. Hon. W. F. D. (Strand
Doxford, Sir William Theodore Lowe, Francis William Spear, John Ward
Duke, Henry Edward Lowther, Rt. Hon. J. (Kent) Stanley, Hon. Arth. (Ormskirk
Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Lucas, Col. Francis (Lowestoft) Stanley, Lord (Lancs.)
Elliot, Hon. A. Ralph Douglas Lucas, Reginald J. (P'rtsmouth Stone, Sir Benjamin
Fardell, Sir T. George Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred Stroyan, John
Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edward Macdona, John Cumming Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley
Fergusson, Rt. Hn. Sir J. (Manc'r M'Iver, David (Liverpool) Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst Maconochie, A. W. Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Finch, George H. M'Arthur, Chas. (Liverpool) Talbot,Rt.Hn.J.G(Oxf'd Univ
Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne M'Iver, Sir Lewis (Edinb',W. Thorburn, Sir Walter
Firbank, Joseph Thomas M'Killop, James (Stirlingsh.) Thornton, Percy M.
Fisher, William Hayes Majendie, James A. H. Tollemache, Henry James
Fitzroy, Hon. Edward Algernon Malcolm, Ian Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray
Flannery, Sir Fortescue Manners, Lord Cecil Tritton, Charles Ernest
Flower, Ernest Maple, Sir John Blundell Valentia, Viscount
Foster,PhilipS.(Warwick,SW Massey-Mainwaring,Hn W F. Vincent, Sir Edgar (Exeter)
Gardner, Ernest Maxwell, RtHnSirHE(Wigtn Wanklyn, James Leslie
Garfit, William Maxwell, WJH(Dumfriesshire Warde, Lieut.-Col. C. E.
Gibbs,Hn.A.G.H(CityofLond. Middlemore, J. Throgmorton Warr, Augustus Frederick
Godson,SirAugustusFrederick Mildmay, Francis Bingham Wason,JohnCathcart(Orkney
Gordon,Hn.J.E.(Elgin&Nairn Milner, Rt. Hn. Sir Fred. G. Webb, Colonel William George
Gordon,MajEvans-(T'rH'ml'ts Mitchell, William Welby, Lt.-Col. ACE (Taunton
Gore, Hn. G. RC Ormsby-(Salop Molesworth, Sir Lewis Welby, Sir Charles G. E. (Notts.
Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir John Eldon Montagu, G. (Huntingdon) Whiteley, H. (Ashton-u.-Lyne
Goulding, Edward Alfred More, Robt. Jasper (Shropsh.) Whitmore, Charles Algernon
Gray, Ernest (West Ham) Morgan, D. J. (Walthamstow) Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Wills, Sir Frederick Wrightson, Sir Thomas TELLERS FOR THE NOES— Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Wilson, John (Falkirk) Wylie, Alexander
Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks.) Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Wodehouse,Rt.Hn.E.R.(Bath
MR. DUNCAN (Yorkshire, W.R., Otley)

said he desired to move an Amendment under which the school board would be allowed to carry on the work unless the local authority intervened. For a number of years he had been a member of the West Riding County Council and of its technical instruction committee. That county council had to deal with a very large number of authorities. In addition to the continuation classes already sanctioned by the technical instruction committee, there would be many classes carried on by the school board which were not at present in conjunction with that committee. Under the Bill as it stood, the whole of those authorities would have to come to the county council for permission to carry on the schools. The county council would just now be finishing its year's work, and adjourning for the holidays. The committee which would have this matter to consider already had a very large amount of work to do, but it was absolutely essential that this question if it was to be decided at all should be decided quickly. It was not possible for the West Riding County Council or its technical instruction committee to discuss adequately with 100 authorities all the details of this complicated subject in the short time within which it was imperative that a decision should be arrived at. Under the Bill it appeared to him that a county council which was not in earnest over educational matters would be able to hang up the question almost indefinitely, and unless the classes were begun before Christmas they were of very little use at all. If a school board started a class without consulting the county council, and they could not legally carry it on, the decision as to whether or not the class could be carried on would be apparently left to neither the school board nor the county council, but to the Government auditor, and the whole question of the Cockerton judgment might be again raised in regard to a particular class. It was not desirable to place between the school boards and the local authorities any cause of friction. Whatever public feeling on behalf of education existed had been cultivated by the school boards, who had been wiser than the Legislature in preparing for what they felt to be an immediate need of the country. If the Amendment were accepted there would be no need for a county council to interfere; the authority would be still retained; but any cause of friction between the two authorities, which would be most disastrous to the proper educational progress of the country, would be removed.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 9, to leave out all the words after the word 'applicable,' to the end of the sub-clause, and insert the words, 'The school board may carry on for the period of one year from that day the work of such school or class, and may apply to the maintenance of such school or class such sum out of the school fund as may be necessary, unless objection to such expenditure be made within thirty days of the passing of this Act by the council of the county or county borough, or any other local authority under the Technical Instruction Acts, 1889 and 1891, within whose area the school or class is held.'"—(Mr Duncan.)

Question proposed, "That the words 'the council of the county or county borough' stand part of the Clause."

SIR J. GORST

Of course the Government cannot accept this Amendment, as it is entirely subversive of the scheme they are inviting the Committee to adopt. It appears to me that the Amendment, if adopted, would lead to inconvenience, and cause friction. The principle of the Bill is very simple. It is that the schools conducted by the school boards are to be carried on continuously under the authority of the body which represents the ratepayers, and it is the duty of the representatives of the ratepayers, either on the application of the school board or on their own initiative, to determine which schools should be carried on. The Government feel confident that if the Bill is adopted in the form in which it is presented there will be no friction, and that the schools which it is desirable should be continued will be continued in every part of England and Wales. As an alternative to that scheme the hon. Member opposite proposes that, in the first place, there should be a delay of a month, during which nobody will know where he is. Suppose a local authority does not at once determine which schools are to be carried on. In that case the school board will not dare to engage teachers or to make the arrangements which are so urgently required to be made immediately for the coming session of the continuation schools. They would have this sword of Damocles hanging over them, which might destroy every kind of preparation they had made.

MR. DUNCAN

They have the same sword of Damocles hanging over them now.

SIR J. GORST

Not at all. At present what they have to do is to come to terms immediately with the local authority, and then they can go on. In many cases that has already been done, in anticipation of the Bill being passed. A large number of important school boards have already made their arrangements.

DR. MACNAMARA

Where?

SIR J. GORST

I need not give the list, but the Committee may take it from me that arrangements have been made in many cases. Is the hon. Member giving the local authority a really reasonable power? The objection must be made within a month, but the hon. Member has told us that in many parts of the country the local authorities have already adjourned, or are about to do so. They, therefore, will have no chance of exercising the power this Amendment proposes to give them; certainly they will not have a reasonable opportunity of determining whether certain schools should be continued or not. Lastly, even supposing a local authority desires to make an objection, the Amendment does not say how or to whom the objection is to be made, or by what procedure effect is to be given to it when made, or what is to happen afterwards. The scheme which the hon. Member has elaborated is an extremely inconvenient one, and the words by which he seeks to give effect to it are wholly inefficient and ineffective.

DR. MACNAMARA

said the Vice-President had declared that this Amendment was entirely subversive of the scheme of the Bill, whereas, as a matter of fact, it did not touch the local authorities at all. Instead of the school board going to the local authority with full details as to every school or class, and haggling over which should be continued and which should not, the Amendment provided that the school board should go ahead subject to the ultimate challenge of the local authority. It simply broke the fall of the school board. The right hon. Gentleman claimed that the scheme of the Government presented no opportunity for friction, but refused to give instances in which arrangements were being amicably made. He would give a case the other way. He had received a letter from the Leeds School Board, in which it was stated that— A deputation of the school board have had a very painful interview with the Technical Instruction Committee of the City Council, which dearly foreshadows the strongest kind of friction between the school board and the City Council. He hoped the Committee would agree to the Amendment. It was simply a proposal to let the school boards down gently instead of subjecting them to the indignity, after their thirty years experience, of going to an authority which had had only ten years experience in a small field of education, and submitting to that authority details which it was not competent to understand. The municipalisation of education would be made incalculably more difficult by the refusal of the Government to accept any modification or compromise.

MR. HERBERT LEWIS

said the objection of the Vice-President to the Amendment on the question of form could easily be met. If, instead of leaving out the words from "applicable" to the end of the paragraph, the hon. Member inserted the principle of his Amendment, and stated that objections to such expenditure should be made by the council to the Board of Education within thirty days, and then at the end of the Amendment added the word "whereupon," that particular objection would be overcome. Where there was a will there was a way, and if the Committee were dis- cussing the Bill in the ordinary manner, with the prospect of a Report stage, all the right hon. Gentleman would have to do if he desired to accept the Amendment would be to promise to consider the matter with a view to introducing an Amendment on the Report stage of the Bill. But it was perfectly well known there was to be no Report stage. Any Bill relating to education was to be treated as a sort of inspired Scripture; not a letter, syllable, or word was to be altered. Another objection of the Vice-President was that under the Amendment these bodies would have a sword of Damocles hanging over them for a month. But what was the present position? There must, first of all, be a reference to the county council.

SIR J. GORST

No.

MR. HERBERT LEWIS

No application to the county council?

SIR J. GORST

I think the hon. Member could not have been in the House when the Solicitor General said it was absolutely unnecessary.

MR. HERBERT LEWIS

said, surely there must be a sanction given to the continuance of these schools or classes, and in order that that sanction may be given an application must be made and the county council must meet. There were counties in which the councils met only once in three months. It was true that resolutions might be passed at once, but the whole state of the case would not then be adequately considered. The matter would have to be considered by a committee; that committee would have to communicate with the school boards; and the county council would have to meet again, because, as the Solicitor General had pointed out, it could not delegate the power of settling the matter to the committee. By the time all this had been done, where would be the one month of which the right hon. Gentleman had spoken with so much horror as the sword of Damocles? The real objection was that there was to be no Report stage.

MR. BOUSFIELD

sympathised to a certain extent with the object of the Amendment, and thought that a clearer declaration on the part of the Government of their intention would remove the possibility of any practical difficulty. By many of the speeches, the object of the Bill and the duty the Government desired to lay upon the county councils had been rather obscured. The Bill did not tell county councils exactly what was expected of them. He believed the Government simply intended that these schools should go on in all cases except where there was overlapping. If that were the policy of the Government, and if that policy were clearly enunciated, he believed that every practical difficulty and every cause of friction would disappear.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

The Vice-President has made a statement at which we were all astonished, namely, that there is no occasion for the school boards to go to the local authorities.

SIR J. GORST

I did not make it.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

It is very difficult to get a definite statement at all. We all understood the right hon. Gentleman to say that certain difficulties which had been suggested could not arise, because it had been stated by the Solicitor General that there was no occasion for the school boards to go to the local authority at all. Is that the fact?

SIR J. GORST

That is what the Solicitor General said.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

Yes, but is it what the Vice-President says?

SIR J. GORST

assented.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

It is rather important, because we have understood that the whole basis of this Bill is that the school boards, if they are to continue that education which they have been carrying on with so much advantage to the community, must go to the county councils under the words of this Bill. Are we now to understand that the Vice-President, on the authority of the Solicitor General, states that the school boards may do this without going to the local authority at all? It would be a great relief if we thoroughly understood that to be the case.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I think the right hon. Gentleman cannot have been in the House when the Solicitor General spoke, or he would have seen that there is really no confusion or contradiction in this matter at all. What the Solicitor General said was that it was entirely in the power of a local authority to pass a resolution, quite apart from any application from the school board, authorising the school board to go on with the work they had been doing, or a certain portion of it. The local authority need not wait to be set in motion by the school board, but they may do this on their own initiative. That was the opinion of the Solicitor General, and I think it would probably be the opinion of most gentlemen who have read the Bill. There is really no obscurity or difficulty in the matter. I do not think, at any rate, that this branch of the discussion on the Amendment need continue. I would respectfully ask the Committee to help us to get on with the details of this single-clause Bill. We have discussed the principle of it on the Second Reading, we have discussed the great alternative suggestion on the first Amendment, and I think it will be for the general convenience that these relatively insignificant matters should be disposed of without any undue discussion.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

I do not think that the right hon. Gentleman has removed the objection we take. The difficulties which have been raised are that, from other causes, it may be extremely difficult for the school board to apply to the local authority, and there ought to be some alleviation of those difficulties provided for in the Bill. What the First Lord of the Treasury says has not touched that point at all. The argument of the Vice-President of the Council is that no such difficulties arise, because school boards need not go to the local authority at all. The question is whether it has done the thing that is wanted. The right hon. Gentleman appears to have thrown a responsibility upon the Solicitor General which it does not seem to me that the Solicitor General at all merits.

MR. MATHER (Lancashire, Rossendale)

said a case had arisen which affected the interests of education and which did not affect party discussion. Supposing a school board had hitherto carried on its schools and classes, and it did not agree to apply for the continuance of its schools to the local authority, and the local authority was not sympathetic? Town councils, were not all enlightened bodies of men, and they were not, as a rule, so ardent for the education of the country that they would rush out of their way to spend money. There were not many of this class he knew, but there were a few. Supposing in this particular case a school board not having applied for money, was, so to speak, held up by this Bill, and the county or town council of that school district being indifferent took no action at all, what would become of the thousand children in that district who hitherto enjoyed the higher grade teaching? What would become of those children during the coming winter? There was nothing in the Bill to enforce, either upon one authority or the other, the necessity that such education should be carried on. Under the Education Act, 1870, the Board of Education had laid upon it the distinct duty by Parliament that, in the case of a defaulting school board not carrying out its functions, the Board of Education was bound to come in. Where there was an ignorant school board not doing its duty, and not maintaining its schools, it was the duty of the Board of Education to come down upon that district and see that the children were not neglected. In relation to this class of education which they were now considering, he understood the Government did not wish to destroy it. All the Ministers who had spoken had said that this education was to be continued, and that they were in sympathy with it, provided some extraordinary extravagances were disallowed. The case he quoted was one where the Board of Education had no power to control the local authority under this Bill. They had no power to control a school board, and, between the two, what was going to become of the thousand children who had hitherto enjoyed the benefits of this education? The case he had put was not a hypothetical one, but it had actually happened. Fortunately he might be able to control this case in the right direction, but that did not affect the principle. If the Government would only give way on this point, the simplest method would be that the Board of Education should enjoy the same power in the coming year in controlling the higher grade education that it had hitherto enjoyed under the Act of 1870. He put it to the Committee that there would be a dilemma arising in more districts than one, and a great wrong would be done to education if something of the kind were not done.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

The hon. Gentleman has stated that the Bill does not give power to the Education Department to compel an adequate supply of secondary education. That is perfectly true, but I wish to point out that the Department would have had no such power either under the Amendment of the hon. Gentleman or under the Amendment now before the Committee. I do not, however, think it is desirable to throw upon the Education Department the duty suggested.

MR. MATHER

said he had framed his Amendment with a view to placing this power in the hands of the Board of Education.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I do not think the terms of this Amendment require the Board to insist on an adequate supply of secondary education. That, however, is not a matter relevant to the Amendment before the House. I have greater confidence in the good sense of the local authorities than some hon. Members appear to have. I do not believe that all these children will be left uneducated owing to petty squabbles between the school board and the local authority. On the contrary, I think that the responsibility placed upon the local authority is so great that in its own interest, quite apart from its public duty, it will never think of taking a course in the matter which would give great offence to its constituents, Therefore, if the matter is not relevant, the fears which have been expressed are entirely without foundation.

MR. BRYCE

I admit that this is not quite relevant, but, as it is a subject which has been entered upon, perhaps I may be allowed to say that there is, at any rate, a probability that a certain number of children who have enjoyed this education will be deprived of the opportunity of enjoying it in the future. If it is true, as my hon. friend says, that there is a considerable number of children who will be deprived of this education owing to friction between these two authorities, there is surely a case for the intervention of the Board of Education. The right hon. Gentleman cannot wish that in any town even 1,000 or 2,000 children who have hitherto enjoyed this education should be deprived of it. I sympathise with the desire expressed by the right hon. Gentleman that we should get on with this Bill as fast as possible. I think that, up to the present, the whole of the discussion has been strictly relevant to the Bill, but I am sure that it would very much abridge our labours if the right hon Gentleman would take this opportunity of giving to us some indication of the Amendments which he is willing to accept. As instances I may mention the Amendments of the hon. Member for Oldham and the hon. Member for East Somerset. If the right hon. Gentleman would indicate his willingness to accept these or any other Amendments which would give the Board of Education a locus standi, I think we should get through the Bill much faster.

MR. CHANNING (Northamptonshire, E.)

said he wished to bring before the House the suggestion made by his hon. friend the Member for Rossendale. The First Lord of the Treasury had just stated that he did not expect the town councils would shut up the schools. What was going to be the result of this Bill? It was either going to allow the schools to go on or else it would limit them. In certain cases, where serious fault could be found with the administration and the usefulness of these schools, this Amendment would create a locus standi, and an opportunity would be afforded to the local authority to interfere and say that that particular kind of school should not go on. In such a case as that the suggestion made by the hon. Member for Rossendale came in. This was a very reasonable Amendment, and it was one which would minimise cases of friction such as had arisen at Leeds and other places, and which he feared would arise at a great many other places.

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE

said he thought the Committee were entitled to some indication of the opinion of the right hon. Gentleman on this particular question. What was proposed would strengthen the Bill and would not in any way overthrow the principle which the right hon. Gentleman was laying down. There was one point which ought to be made clear on this Amendment, and that was with regard to the powers of county councils of their own initiative to decide which schools should proceed. It was a very extraordinary doctrine to lay down that they could act on their own initiative. It was very important before deciding upon the Amendment to thoroughly understand this. It was all a question of time. His hon. friend who moved the Amendment wished, in order to save time, that it should be laid down that all schools which the county council did not interfere with in the course of thirty days should be able to carry on their work. The only answer which the Minister of Education made to that was that it would take less time to carry out the arrangements by the machinery provided in the Bill. The right hon. Gentleman said the county council could act on their own initiative, without waiting for an application from the school board. If that was true, it might be done in ten days, and it would save time. He did not think the right hon. Gentleman had read his own Bill, or he would not have laid down that doctrine. The Bill said that the council of the county or the county borough— may empower the school board to carry on for the period of one year from that day the

work of the school or class to such extent and on such terms as may be agreed on between such council or local authority and the school board, and to apply to the maintenance of the school or class such sum out of the school fund as the council or local authority may sanction."

How could a county council and a school board come to an agreement without ever having met? That was the only way in which the work could be done. Some hon. Members said it was to be done by the school board writing a letter, but the whole argument was that no application need be made at all. He would point out to the First Lord of the Treasury that the Bill said that the whole basis of action was an agreement between the school board and the county council. Assuming that the school board sent a letter, the county council might not agree to what was proposed. The fact of the matter was that time would be required to come to an agreement. A very careful calculation was required on the part of the school board to know the sum of money spent on continuation schools, and, if that was so, how could the county council act on their initiative? The First Lord arrived at the conclusion that Amendments must be rejected whether good or bad, and then he endeavoured to find arguments to support that course. The real reason for the attitude of the Government had been given by a member of a school board, who said this was the Bill which the Church party desired to pass, and who expressed the hope that the measure would curtail, truncate, and almost destroy the existing school boards, because he thought they were not only doomed, but rightly doomed, to extinction.

Question put.

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 261; Noes, 164. (Division List No. 359.)

AYES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir Alex. F. Bailey, James (Walworth) Bartley, George C. T.
Agg-Gardner, James Tynte Bain, Col. James Robert Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol
Aird, Sir John Baird, John George Alexander Beach, Rt. Hn. W. W. B. (Hants.
Anson, Sir William Reynell Balcarres, Lord Beckett, Ernest William
Arkwright, John Stanhope Baldwin, Alfred Bentinck, Lord Henry C.
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Balfour, Rt. Hn. A. J. (Manch'r Bhownaggree, Sir M. M.
Arrol, Sir William Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornsey) Bignold, Arthur
Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John Balfour, Rt. Hon. G. W. (Leeds Blundell, Col. Henry
Bagot,Capt.Josceline FitzRoy Banbury, Frederick George Bond, Edward
Boscawen, Arthur Griffith- Hamilton,RtHnLordG(Midd.) Morrell, George Herbert
Boulnois, Edmund Hamilton,Marqof(L'nd'nd'rry Morris, Hn. Martin Henry F.
Bousfield, William Robert Hardy, L. (Kent, Ashford) Morrison, James Archibald
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middl'x) Harris, Frederick Leverton Morton, Arthur H. A. (Deptford
Brassey, Albert Haslam, Sir Alfred S. Mount, William Arthur
Bull, William James Haslett, Sir James Horner Mowbray, Sir Robert Gray C.
Butcher, John George Hay, Hon. Claude George Murray, Rt. Hn. A. G. (Bute)
Campbell,RtHnJ.A.(Glasgow) Heath,James(Staffords,N. W.) Murray, Charles J. (Coventry)
Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edw. H. Heaton, John Henniker Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath
Cautley, Henry Strother Helder, Augustus Nicholson, William Graham
Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Hermon-Hodge, Robt. Trotter Nicol, Donald Ninian
Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbysh. Hickman, Sir Alfred Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay
Cayzer, Sir Charles William Higginbottom, S. W. Palmer, Walter (Salisbury)
Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Hoare,EdwBrodie(Hampste'd Parker, Gilbert
Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich) Hoare, Sir Samuel (Norwich) Parkes, Ebenezer
Chamberlain,Rt.Hn.J.(Birm.) Hobhouse, Henry(Somerset, E. Peel, Hn. Wm. Robt. Wellesley
Chamberlain,J.Austen(Worc'r Hope,J.F.(Sheffield, Brightside Penn, John
Chaplin, Rt. Hon. Henry Horner, Frederick William Percy, Earl
Churchill, Winston Spencer Houldsworth, Sir Wm. Henry Pilkington, Lt.-Col. Richard
Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Hoult, Joseph Platt-Higgins, Frederick
Coddington, Sir William Hozier,HonJamesHenryCecil Powell, Sir Francis Sharp
Coghill, Douglas Harry Hudson, George Bickersteth Pretyman, Ernest George
Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Hutton, John (Yorks, N. R.) Purvis, Robert
Compton, Lord Alwyne Jackson, Rt. Hon. Wm. Lawies Randles, John S.
Corbett,A.Cameron(Glasgow) Jebb, Sir RichardClaverhouse Rankin, Sir James
Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) Johnston, William (Belfast) Rasch, Major Frederic Carne
Cox,Irwin EdwardBainbridge Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex) Reid, James (Greenock)
Cranborne, Viscount Kenyon, Hon. Geo. T. (Denbigh) Renshaw, Charles Bine
Cripps, Charles Alfred Kenyon, James (Lancs, Bury) Rentoul, James Alexander
Cross, Alexander (Glasgow) Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W (Salop) Renwick, George
Crossley, Sir Savile Kimber, Henry Richards, Henry Charles
Cust, Henry John C. King, Sir Henry Seymour Ridley,S.Forde(BethnalGreen
Dalkeith, Earl of Knowles, Lees Ritchie,Rt.Hn.Chas.Thomson
Davenport, William Bromley- Lambton,Hon.Frederick Wm. Robinson, Brooke
Dewar, T. R. (T'r. H'mletsSGeo Law, Andrew Bonar Ropner, Colonel Robert
Dickson, Charles Scott Lawrence, Joseph (Monmouth) Round, James
Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P. Lawson, John Grant Rutherford, John
Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers- Lecky, Rt. Hn. William Edw. H. Sackville, Col. S. G. Stopford-
Doxford, Sir Wm. Theodore Lee, Arthur H (Hants., Fareh'm Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander
Duke, Henry Edward Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse)
Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Leigh-Bennett, Henry Currie Saunderson, Rt. Hn. Col. Ed. J.
Dyke, Rt. Hon. Sir Wm. H. Leveson-Gower, Fredrick N. S. Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.
Elliot, Hn. A. Ralph Douglas Llewellyn, Evan Henry Seely, Capt. J. E. B. (I. of W.
Fardell, Sir T. George Loder, Gerald Walter Erskine Seton-Karr, Henry
Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn E. Long, Col. Charles W. (Evesh'm Sharpe, William Edward T.
Fergusson,Rt.Hn.SirJ.(Man.) Long,Rt.Hn.Walter(Bristol,S Shaw-Stewart,M. H. (Renfr'w
Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst Lonsdale, John Brownlee Simeon, Sir Barrington
Finch, George H. Lowe, Francis William Sinclair, Louis (Romford)
Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne Lowther, C. (Cumb., Eskdale) Smith,JamesParker(Lanarks.
Firbank, Joseph Thomas Lowther,Rt.Hn.James(Kent) Smith,Hon. W. F. D. (Strand
Fisher, William Hayes Lucas, Col.Francis (Lowestoft Spear, John Ward
Fitzroy,Hon.EdwardAlgernon Lucas, ReginaldJ.(Portsmouth Stanley, Hon. A. (Ormskirk)
Flannery, Sir Fortescue Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred Stanley, Lord (Lancs.)
Flower, Ernest Macdona, John Cumming Stone, Sir Benjamin
Foster, P. S. (Warwick, S. W. MacIver, David (Liverpool) Stroyan, John
Gardner, Ernest Maconochie, A. W. Strutt, Hon. Chas. Hedley
Garfit, William M'Arthur, Charles (Liverpool) Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Gibbs, Hn. A. G. H. (City of Lon. M'Iver, Sir Lewis (Edinb'rgh W Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Godson, Sir Augustus Fredk. M'Killop, James (Stirlingshire Thorburn, Sir Walter
Gordon, Maj Evans-(T'rH'ml'ts Majendie, James A. H. Thornton, Percy M.
Gore,Hn.G.RCOrmsby-(Salop Malcolm, Ian Tollemache, Henry James
Gore,Hon.S.F.Ormsby-(Linc.) Manners, Lord Cecil Tomlinson, Wm. E. Murray
Gorst, Rt. Hn. Sir John Eldon Maple, Sir John Blundell Tritton, Charles Ernest
Goulding, Edward Alfred Massey-Mainwaring,Hn. W. F Valentia, Viscount
Gray, Ernest (West Ham) Maxwell, RtHnSirHE(Wigt'n Vincent, Sir Edgar (Exeter)
Green, WalfordD(Wednesb'ry Maxwell,WJH(Dumfriesshire Wanklyn, James Leslie
Greene,HenryD.(Shrewsbury) Middlemore, J. Throgmorton Warde, Col. C. E.
Greene, W. Raymond-(Cambs.) Mildmay, Francis Bingham Warr, Augustus Frederick
Grenfell, William Henry Milner, Rt. Hn. Sir Frederick G. Wason, J. Cathcart (Orkney)
Gretton, John Mitchell, William Webb, Col. William George
Greville, Hon. Ronald Molesworth, Sir Lewis Welby, Lt-Col A. C. E. (Taunt'n
Groves, James Grimble Montagu, G. (Huntingdon) Welby, Sir C. G. E. (Notts)
Guthrie, Walter Murray Moon, Edward Robert Pacy Whiteley, H. (Ashton-und.-L.
Hain, Edward More, R. Jasper (Shropshire) Whitmore, Charles Algernon
Hall, Edward Marshall Morgan, D. J. (Walthamstow Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Wills, Sir Frederick Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm Yerburgh, Robert Armstrong
Wilson, John (Falkirk) Wrightson, Sir Thomas TELLERS FOR THE AYES— Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Wilson-Todd, W. H. (Yorks.) Wylie, Alexander
Wodehouse,Rt.Hn.E.R.(Bath Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
NOES.
Abraham, Wm. (Cork, N. E.) Harcourt, Rt. Hn. Sir Wm. O'Mara, James
Abraham, William (Rhondda) Hardie,J.Keir(Merthyr Tydvil O'Shaughnessy, P. J.
Allen, Chas. P. (Glouc., Stroud) Harwood, George Palmer, Sir Chas. M. (Durham)
Asher, Alexander Hayden, John Patrick Partington, Oswald
Atherley-Jones, L. Hayne, Rt. Hon. Charles Seale- Philipps, John Wynford
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Hayter, Rt. Hn. Sir Arthur D. Pickard, Benjamin
Bayley, Thos. (Derbyshire) Helme, Norval Watson Pirie, Duncan V.
Beaumont, Wentworth C. B. Hemphill, Rt. Hn. Charles H. Power, Patrick Joseph
Bell, Richard Hobhouse, C. E. H. (Bristol, E.) Price, Robert John
Blake, Edward Holland, William Henry Priestley, Arthur
Boland, John Hope, John D. (Fife, West) Rea, Russell
Bolton, Thomas Dolling Horniman, Frederick John Reddy, M.
Brigg, John Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) Redmond, J. E. (Waterford)
Broadhurst, Henry Jacoby, James Alfred Redmond, William (Clare)
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh) Jones, David B. (Swansea) Reid, Sir R. T. (Dumfries)
Brunner, Sir John Tomlinson Jones, William (Carnarvonsh) Rickett, J. Compton
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Joyce, Michael Roberts, John Bryn (Eifion)
Burns, John Kay-Shuttleworth,RtHnSirU Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.)
Burt, Thomas Kearley, Hudson E. Robertson, Edmund (Dundee)
Buxton, Sydney Charles Kennedy, Patrick James Robson, William Snowdon
Caldwell, James Kinloch, Sir John George S. Roe, Sir Thomas
Cameron, Robert Labouchere, Henry Samuel, S. M. (Whitechapel)
Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Lambert, George Schwann, Charles E.
Carew, James Laurence Langley, Batty Scott, Chas. Prestwich (Leigh
Causton, Richard Knight Layland-Barratt, Francis Shaw, Charles Edw. (Stafford
Cawley, Frederick Leese, Sir Jos. F. (Accrington Shaw, Thomas (Hawick B.)
Channing, Francis Allston Leigh, Sir Joseph Sheehan, Daniel Daniel
Condon, Thomas Joseph Levy, Maurice Shipman, Dr. John G.
Craig, Robert Hunter Lewis, John Herbert Soames, Arthur Wellesley
Crombie, John William Lloyd-George, David Soares, Ernest J.
Cullinan, J. Lough, Thomas Strachy, Edward
Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan Lundon, W. Sullivan, Donal
Delany, William MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A. Taylor, Theodore Cooke
Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh. Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J. Tennant, Harold John
Doogan, P. C. MacNeill, John Gordon Swift Thomas, A. (Carmarthen, E.)
Duffy, William J. M'Dermott, Patrick Thomas, David A. (Merthyr)
Dunn, Sir William Mather, William Thomas, J. A. (Glamorg., Gower
Elibank, Master of Mellor, Rt. Hon. John Wm. Thomson, F. W. (Yorks., W. R.
Evans, Sir F. H. (Maidstone) Morley, Chas. (Breconshire) Tomlinson, James
Farquharson, Dr. Robert Murphy, John Wallace, Robert
Farrell, James Patrick Nannetti, Joseph P. Walton, John Law. (Leeds, S.)
Fenwick, Charles Newnes, Sir George Warner, ThomasCourtenay T.
Ferguson, R. C. M. (Leith) Nolan, Col. J. P. (Galway, N.) Wason, Eug. (Clackmannan)
Ffrench, Peter Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) Weir, James Galloway
Field, William Norton, Capt. Cecil William White, George (Norfolk)
Flavin, Michael Joseph O'Brien, James F. X. (Cork) Whiteley,George(Yorks. WR.
Flynn, James Christopher O'Brien,Kendal(Tipp'r'y Mid) Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Foster, Sir Walter(Derby Co.) O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) Williams, Osmond(Merioneth
Fowler, Rt. Hon. Sir Henry O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.) Wilson, Henry J. (Yorks., WR.
Gilhooly, James O'Connor, Jas. (Wicklow, W.) Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.)
Gladstone, Rt. Hn. Herbert J. O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool) Young, Samuel
Grant, Corrie O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) Yoxall, James Henry
Grey, Sir Edward (Berwick) O'Dowd, John
Griffith, Ellis J. O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.) TELLERS FOR THE NOES— Mr. Duncan and Mr. Trevelyan.
Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton O'Kelly, J. (Roscommon, N.)
Haldane, Richard Burdon O'Malley, William
MR. CORRIE GRANT

said the Amendment he desired to move was a very small and very reasonable one. There were some school boards which were closely in touch with the urban district councils, and quite out of touch with the county councils, As an illustration he might instance the school board of Chiswick, and that in the division of Acton, both of which were closely in touch with the urban district council, although, under the Bill, they would have to go to the county council of Middlesex. If they had to deal with the urban district council they would be dealing with a body which knew their needs, and would be able to deal with them, and they would also be dealing with a body close to their doors. If, on the other hand, they had to go to the county council, they would have to come up to London, a distance of ten miles, and they would have to find out what department to deal with, and a great deal of friction would arise. He submitted, therefore, that this power ought to be given to the local authority on the spot.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 10, after the word 'borough,' to insert the words 'or urban district having a population at the Census of 1891 exceeding twenty thousand.'"—(Mr. Corrie Grant.)

Question proposed, "That those words be there inserted."

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

said if he understood the hon. Member aright he proposed by his Amendment to create two authorities, without deciding upon which the authority rested.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

said the Bill did that.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I think the hon. Gentleman is under some misapprehension—it does nothing of the kind. That in itself is, I think, a conclusive argument against this Amendment.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

agreed that the criticism was a fair one, and that his Amendment should be moved a little further in the Bill.

COLONEL NOLAN (Galway, N.)

said he was satisfied with the comparative value of the Bill, and had voted with the Government in one division this afternoon. He moved to report progress, in order that he might appeal to the First Lord of the Treasury to relieve the considerable uncertainty in the minds of hon. Members as to where they should dine. If the First Lord of the Treasury cast a little light upon the subject it would enable a great many hon. Members to fix their arrangements.

MR. FLAVIN (Kerry, N.)

Before the right hon. Gentleman replies, might I appeal to him to have an all-night sitting in order at any rate that some business might be transacted?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

The hon. Member is perfectly well aware that these matters do not rest with me. If my view is taken, considering that this one clause Bill has already been under discussion three days, and as I think we have considered every phase, there ought to be no difficulty in hon. Gentlemen keeping any dinner engagements.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

said the next Amendment but one raised a very important question, as to what would happen if there was a deadlock between the authorities which had not been decided.

THE CHAIRMAN

We had better dispose of the first Amendment first. The hon. Member, I understand, does not press it.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

No, Sir.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

MR. CHARLES MORLEY (Brecknock)

, in moving an Amendment to provide that the county or borough council should act "through a committee composed in equal proportions of members of the council and members of the school board or school boards within the district," said that the Committee would recognise that this Amendment carried out the spirit of the Education Bill No. 1, which provided that the educational authority should not be the county council or a committee of the county council, but the county council acting through a committee formed in this way. He confessed that the proposal contained in his Amendment was not exactly on the lines laid down by the Report of the Secondary Education Commission, but it contained the same principle. It was true that both the Government and the Commission recommended the addition of certain elected persons, but that was sometimes a dangerous proceeding. He did not suggest that the proposal contained in his Amendment was a perfect arrangement, but he thought if the Government would accept it, it would be a great improvement to the Bill.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 10, after the word 'held,' to insert insert the words 'acting through a committee composed in equal proportions of members of the council and members of the school board or school boards within the district.'"—(Mr. Charles Morley.)

Question proposed, "That those words be there inserted."

SIR J. GORST

said the Amendment attempted to create in this temporary Bill a second education authority. The hon. Member did not say how the members of this committee were to be appointed. In the case of the counties—

MR. BRYCE

said the suggested words, in the position in which they were proposed to be inserted, would only apply to boroughs.

SIR J. GORST

said that in the case of boroughs it compelled the county borough council to act through a committee which had no power to strike a rate; it only added additional complications to the machinery of the Bill without any object, and he could not accept the Amendment.

Question put, and negatived.

THE CHAIRMAN

The next Amendment is in the name of the hon. Member for the Rugby Division— In page 1, line 10, after the word 'held,' to insert the words 'or, if they shall refuse or neglect to do so, the Board of Education.' I think that Amendment has been put down in the wrong place.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

submitted that as the Bill stood it was in order.

THE CHAIRMAN

I do not think this Amendment would be in order, because it would place in the hands of the Board of Education the ultimate decision as to whether these schools should continue or not. That is not the proposal of the Bill. On the first sub-section the Committee decided that the power should vest in the local authority; therefore I shall have to rule this Amendment out of order.

MR. BRYCE

said that the previous Amendments did not exclude the possibility of settling a difficulty that might arise between the school board and the local authority by an appeal to the Education Department. He thought there was nothing inconsistent in the Amendment with the decision at which the Committee had arrived, that the local authorities were to come in to enable the school boards to go on, and that the Board of Education should settle the difficulties between the two bodies.

THE CHAIRMAN

I have given the best consideration I can to this matter, and the conclusion I have come to is this: The general principle of the Bill is that the local authority is to have in its hands the decision as to whether these schools are to go on or not, and any Amendment which takes away that decision and places it in the hands of some other body seems to me to be contrary to the spirit and the letter of the Bill, which has received the imprimatur and assent of the House twice over. I shall be compelled, therefore, to rule that all Amendments which would take away from the local authorities the ultimate discretion as to what is to become of these schools are out of order.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

pointed out that the words "taking away from the local authorities" implied that they were depriving them of something which they could otherwise use; but his Amendment raised another question, which was that if they neglected to take up their powers in any way the Board of Education should step in. Could it be said that these powers under the Bill were taken away because another authority other than the school board was enabled to take them up?

THE CHAIRMAN

That is a fine point, but I think the result would be the same.

MR. CHANNING

said that it was understood when the Bill was introduced that it was a short revision of Clauses 8 and 9 of the Education Bill No. 1. Clause 8 of the original Bill clearly contemplated this appeal.

THE CHAIRMAN

I think I am bound to look only within the four corners of this Bill, and I cannot consider any other Bill.

MR. HERBERT ROBERTS

said there was a great deal to be said in favour of the appeal of the First Lord of the Treasury, and if the right hon. Gentleman was prepared to accept some kind of modification, such as had been suggested by the right hon. Member for South Aberdeen, he was perfectly sure the Bill would be passed in a very short time. Under the circumstances, he would not move the Amendment standing in his name.

MR. ERNEST GRAY

said he would take leave to move the Amendment, in order that one of the most difficult points of the Bill might be cleared up. The authority for the Technical Instruction Act was the urban sanitary authority, and the municipal authority in a non-county borough. The position raised outside and discussed very freely was this. If you have a school board within the jurisdiction of the urban sanitary authority, to whom should it appeal for sanction? Was it to appeal to the borough council or to the county council? In the case of Leamington the borough council of Leamington would be the authority for technical education, but that borough council was in the area of the county council for Warwick. To whom in that case was the school board to go for permission? They did not know which authority to go to, and the authorities themselves did not know which of them was the authority to give the permission required. The right hon. Gentleman was not quite right when he repudiated the fact that there were two authorities in this Bill. As a fact there were two—the technical instruction committee and the county council. If any disputes arose with the urban district council, who would be the person to advise the school board? This was a matter which could only arise in rural districts, and he begged to move the Amendment standing in his name.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 10, to leave out from the word 'held' to the word 'may' in line 13.

Question proposed, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the clause."

SIR J. GORST

said such a school board as the hon. Member described could go to the county council direct for sanction if it wished, but where an important non-county borough was concerned the county council would probably consult it before giving its sanction. If the school board wished to apply to the non-county borough it must get the sanction of the Board of Education. That sanction would be given in such conditions that no controversy would arise.

MR. COURTENAY WARNER (Staffordshire, Lichfield)

said many small school boards objected very much to go into the county councils. Of course, the main object would be to get this sanction as quickly as possible, and the boroughs, for that reason, wanted to go to the county councils direct; but in certain cases, where the county councils were not cognisant of the facts, they might give a refusal. In that case, would the borough school board be able to go to the Education Department and ask leave to go to its own borough council?

SIR J. GORST

was understood to say that, with the sanction of the Board of Education, that could be done

MR. CORRIE GRANT

said that, as the Bill now stood, it was the local authority which had to apply and not the school board.

SIR J. GORST

That is so, and the Board of Education, in the exercise of their discretion under this clause, give their sanction to the county councils.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

asked whether it was the town council or the county council which had to ask for the sanction.

SIR J. GORST

Both.

MR. CORRIE GRANT

Then would the right hon. Gentleman put some words into the Bill to make this matter clear?

SIR J. GORST

said if the hon. Gentleman would look at the Bill he would see .> that the matter was already perfectly clear. The sanction of the Board of Education would be given in accordance with the circumstances of each particular case. Either the local authority or the school board could apply to the Board of Education for its sanction.

MR. LABOUCHERE (Northampton)

asked, did not hon. Gentlemen understand that the Vice-President could not accept any Amendment, however reasonable? The Vice-President was a man who could listen to argument and adopt reasonable suggestions. But in this case, he could not yield because the First Lord of the Treasury had his eye on him, and had told him not to accept any Amendment lest there should be a Report stage. He assured hon. Gentlemen they were only wasting valuable arguments; they were casting pearls before the Government. Under the circumstances, it seemed to him they were wasting time and only knocking their heads against a stone wall. He challenged the First Lord to get up and say that that was not the case.

MR. ERNEST GRAY

said his only object was to make the clause quite clear. The urban district sanitary authority was said to be the authority under the Technical Instruction Act. Let them assume that the urban district authority had never exercised their powers under the Technical Instruction Act, did it still remain an authority which could give a decision with regard the schools?

SIR J. GORST

Yes, certainly.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

*MR. CORRIE GRANT moved, in lines 10 and 11, to leave out the words "with the sanction of the Board of Education." He thought it was a reflection upon these local authorities that they should be forced to go to the Board of Education when the county councils and the county borough councils were not so forced. If he might take Middlesex as an illustration, he could show the Committee clearly that it was the local authorities who had full knowledge of these matters who ought to be entrusted with this power. There were there a number of district councils which had large rating systems, and within these same areas were effective school boards doing good work, which the Cockerton judgment stopped. There were county councils in the country which were nothing like so important as these great district urban councils, yet the Board of Education was to interfere with them in a matter purely of local rating. This Bill was to give the matter of education into the hands of the local authorities, and it was most unfair that the Board of Education should come in and interfere in this way. According to the Vice-President, all school boards not in the county boroughs were in the position at the present time of not knowing to what authority to go. In county boroughs they could apply at once to the local authority, but in non-county boroughs they would not know what to do. What would happen would be that if they went to the county council, which had nothing to do with the rates and knew nothing of the needs of the school board, they would be asked whether they had been to the local authority; the answer would naturally be "No, we did not want to waste time," and the county council would then say, "Go to your local authority first of all, and if you cannot get their sanction, then you may come to us." The Bill was a one-clause Bill, and it ought to be a simple one, but what would happen from such complication as this would be to bring the Board of Education in to criticise the work of one half of the local authorities and not the other half. That, he apprehended, was a condition of things which the right hon. Gentleman would be glad to alter.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, lines 10 and 11, to leave out the words 'with the sanction of the Board of Education.'"—(Mr. Corrie Grant.)

Question proposed, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the clause."

SIR J. GORST

said that the Amendment of the hon. Member introduced the very complications which he was desirous to avoid. The Committee had resolved that the county council should empower the carrying on of schools as under the Technical Instruction Acts. There was a double authority in the districts, and it was essential that there should be some provision by which the conflict which the omission of the words proposed by the hon. Member would bring about might be avoided. This was the simple expedient of not allowing a conflict of authorities, of not allowing the urban authorities to interfere in the matter without the sanction of the Board of Education. He had a higher opinion of the common sense of the local authorities than the hon. Member seemed to have.

MR. WHITLEY (Halifax)

said the argument of the right hon. Gentleman was an excellent argument for putting the boot on the other leg. If anybody ought to ask for sanction it ought to be the county council, and not the urban district council. He thought the authority should be with the body that levied the rates, and unless an Amendment was accepted to fix that principle the whole argument of the right hon. Gentleman fell to the ground. His Amendment would give what the First Lord of the Treasury had impressed on the House—namely, that the authority was to be the one that levied the rates.

DR. MACNAMARA

said he understood that to the urban district councils and similar district councils the sanction of the Board of Education would be freely given. Before the Board of Education sanctioned the right of a small municipality or urban district council to go on with this work, it would make an application to the county council.

SIR J. GORST

said he thought so. The Board would be guided by the circumstances of the case.

MR. BROADHURST

referred to the third paragraph of the circular letter sent out to the various local bodies by the Vice-President, and asked how that squared with the position now taken up by the right hon. Gentleman. The circular seemed to him to be a direct invitation to the county councils to agree to do something which there was no power to compel them to do, but if they agreed to do this thing at some time or other the urgent representations of the district councils were to be snubbed.

SIR J. GORST

Every case would be considered upon its merits. Where the county council was able and willing to act, generally speaking, the sanction would not be given to the urban district council without consultation with the county council.

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE

said it was important that the Committee should know what was to be done in these cases. Was the sanction of the Board of Education to be exercised according to the general principle of the Minute, or was it to be exercised in individual cases? If it was to be exercised according to the genera] principle of the Minute, it was all right, but if it meant that the Board of Education was to find out what the local authority proposed to do before sanction was given, it was a very extraordinary thing indeed. Why should sanction be given to one body and not to another possessing similar qualifications? If the Minute meant anything at all, it meant that the Education Board was going to ascertain what was going to happen in a particular case. Was the rule going to be laid down that all municipal and, in certain cases, town councils were to receive sanction, or was it simply that the Board of Education was going to see what would happen in every case, and give one town council a right and deny it to another?

MR. CHANNING

said that this question affected education perhaps more than any other part of the Bill. The circular said that the Board of Education would only sanction applications made by these urban authorities after consultation with the county council, which meant that they gave to the county council a power of veto. If the county councils demanded to retain this power in their own hands, and said that they were prepared to do what they thought right and just, the circular morally bound the Board of Education to give them a power of veto, and the urban district councils and the small borough councils would be denied the right to deal with this question upon its merits.

SIR J. GORST

What I said was that they could do it with the consent of the Board of Education.

MR. CHANNING

said if the right hon. Gentleman had paid a little closer attention he would have seen that he (Mr. Channing) was dealing with another portion of the right hon. Gentleman's reply. The circular gave a moral pledge to the county councils that if they were prepared to act themselves, the Education Department would not give its sanction to urban district rating authorities. This circular affected the rights of the urban district councils most materially, and he hoped every hon. Member would oppose the Bill until the matter was thoroughly cleared up, and until this unconstitutional pledge was done away with and the rights of the smaller communities were vindicated.

SIR J. GORST

saw no reason why the hon. Gentleman should get into a state of fiery indignation over the matter. It was as simple as possible. There was no difficulty or ambiguity in what he had stated. In the first place, he had a much higher opinion of the county councils than the hon. Member, and he did not believe they would be eager to get into controversy with the great urban districts; on the contrary, they would show the utmost consideration for the rights of these great communities. If, then, a county council intimated to the Board of Education its willingness to act, and applications were sent in from the large urban districts, the Board of Education would not deal with those applications without consultation with the county council. It would be an insult to the county council if in such an important matter they were to give their sanction to the application of an urban district without any consultation with them. But the Board of Education retained the most absolute power—after they had consulted with the county council, and after they had heard what they had to say — without further communication with them, to give this licence as they thought fit to the boroughs. He did not anticipate any dispute or confusion.

MR. LOUGH (Islington, W.)

said the difficulty the Committee felt was that neither the right hon. Gentleman's state- ment nor the circular agreed with the Bill. The Bill said the Board of Education would permit other local authorities besides the two the Committee had approved of to sanction these schools, but they could only do that with the sanction of the county council. If that was the intention of the Government, that ought to be stated in the Bill. The Bill therefore would have to be amended in one direction or the other, and it might be very well amended by accepting the Amendment now before the House. The second paragraph of the circular said the sanction could only be given after consultation with the county council; the Bill said that the Board of Education alone would give the sanction. It said nothing about "after consultation with the county council," and some words were undoubtedly required to make the matter clear. He had heard a great many appeals to the First Lord of the Treasury to make this matter clear, and he thought there might very well be an understanding that any arrangement arrived at to-night should apply to the Report stage as to the present occasion.

MR. ERNEST GRAY

said he was perfectly well aware when he raised the question that it bristled with difficulties. It was, to start with, a violation of the principle of the Bill. The principle of the Bill all along was that the persons who provided the money should control the schools. Again and again Amendments had been urged upon the simple ground that ratepayers ought to control the schools. In appealing to the county councils they were not appealing to the ratepayers' representatives, because in the matter of the schools the rate was levied in the town or district. In this case the ratepayers would not have control over their own schools; they would be overridden by the county councils, which had frequently either refused assistance or granted it with the greatest reluctance. If the Bill was not to be amended, the Vice-President had better send out another circular at once, because the attempt by the right hon. Gentleman to deal with every case on its merits would absorb the time which the Bill was to cover. What was the machinery to be used for enabling the urban sanitary authorities to give consent to the school boards to carry on this education? The urban sanitary authority would address a communication to the county council, which might not be sitting, to ask whether it was prepared to act or not, The county council after some time would notify the Education Board, and it would consider whether it would act or whether it did not propose to act. On that the urban authority would refuse to allow these schools to go on. So that the act of negotiation was to be negotiation with the county council and the urban sanitary authority, thus setting up two authorities, with the Board of Education between. The whole scheme was fraught with delay and full of friction. If the Board of Education had to obtain the opinion of every county council and urban sanitary authority throughout England, there would be very little chance for the schools during the coming winter. Therefore he entreated the Vice-President to depart from the principle of dealing with each case upon its merits, and to lay down instead a few simple rules showing how the Board of Education would act, and then this multitude of appeals for sanction would disappear; there would be no need to make them; certain districts would know clearly that they would have a right to give or withhold their assent, and other districts would know by those general rules that

they could not come into the discussion at all.

MR. BRYCE

said that, whatever else the discussion had failed to make clear it had shown that the Bill had been carelessly drawn, or else that it ought to be amended. Anybody could see on reading it that the Bill bristled with obscurities and difficulties. There ought to have been a direction in the Bill as to who was to make the application—whether it was the school board that was to take the initiative in determining whether it would go to the urban council, or whether it was in the power of the urban district council to go to the Board and say, "It is we, and not the county council, who ought to give this sanction"; and, in the next place, it ought to have been stated whether the Board of Education was going to do this as a matter of course or after consulting the county council. If the Government had made up their minds that the Bill was not to be amended in Committee, he hoped that in another place they would endeavour, by Amendments, to make it easier for the school boards and local authorities to work their schemes.

Question put.

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 207; Noes, 137. (Division List No. 360.)

AYES.
Acland-Hood,Capt.SirAlex.F. Butcher, John George Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edward
Agg-Gardner, James Tynte Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edw. H. Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst
Aird, Sir John Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Finch, George H.
Arkwright, John Stanhope Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbysh.) Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Cayzer, Sir Charles William Fisher, William Hayes
Arrol, Sir William Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Fitzroy, Hon. Edw. Algernon
Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John Cecil, Lord Hugh (Green wich) Foster, PhilipS.(Warwick,S W
Bagot, Capt.JosicelineFitzRoy Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. J. (Birm. Gardner, Ernest
Bailey, James (Walworth) Chamberlain, J. A. (Worc'r) Garfit, William
Bain, Col. James Robert Churchill, Winston Spencer Gibbs,Hn.A.G.H.(CityofLond.
Baird, John George Alexander Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Godson, Sir Augustus Fredk.
Balcarres, Lord Collings, Right Hon. Jesse Gordon,MajEvans-(T'rH'ml's)
Balfour,Rt.Hon.A.J.(Manch'r Compton, Lord Alwyne Gore,Hn.G.R.C.Ormsby-(Sal'p
Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornsey) Corbett,A.Cameron(Glasgow) Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir John E.
Balfour, Hon. G. W. (Leeds) Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) Goulding, Edward Alfred
Banbury, Frederick George Cox, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Gray, Ernest (West Ham)
Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol) Cranborne, Viscount Green, Walford D (Wednesb'ry
Beach, Rt. Hn. W. W. B. (Hants. Cripps, Charles Alfred Greene, Henry D. (Shrewbury)
Beckett, Ernest William Cross, Alexander (Glasgow) Greene, W. Raymond-(Cambs.
Bentinck, Lord Henry C. Crossley, Sir Savile Grenfell, William Henry
Bhownaggree, Sir M. M. Cust, Henry John C. Gretton, John
Bignold, Arthur Dalkeith, Earl of Greville, Hon. Ronald
Boscawen, Arthur Griffith- Denny, Colonel Groves, James Grimble
Boulnois, Edmund Dickson, Charles Scott Guthrie, Walter Murray
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex) Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P. Hain, Edward
Brassey, Albert Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers- Hamilton,Rt.Hn.LordG.(Middx
Brodrick, Rt. Hn. St. John Doxford,SirWilliamTheodore Hamilton,Marqof(L'nd'nderry
Bull, William James Duke, Henry Edward Hardy,Laurence(Kent, Ashf'd
Burdett-Coutts, W. Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Harris, Frederick Leverton
Haslam, Sir Alfred S. Manners, Lord Cecil Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.)
Haslett, Sir James Horner Massey-Mainwaring,Hn.W.F. Seely,Cpt.J.E.B.(IsleofWight
Hay, Hon. Claude George Maxwell, W.J.H.(Dumfriessh. Sharpe, William Edward T.
Heath, Jas.(Staffords., N. W.) Middlemore, John T. Shaw-Stewart, M. H. (Renfrew
Helder, Augustus Mildmay, Francis Bingham, Simeon, Sir Barrington
Hickman, Sir Alfred Molesworth, Sir Lewis Sinclair, Louis (Romford)
Higainbottom, S. W. Moon, Edward Robert Pacy Smith,JamesParker(Lanarks.
Hoare,EdwBrodie(Hampste'd More, R. Jasper (Shropshire) Smith, Hon. W. F. D. (Strand)
Hoare, Sir Samuel (Norwich) Morgan, D. J. (Walthamstow Spear, John Ward
Hope, J.F.(Sh'ffield, Brightsde Morrell, George Herbert Stanley, Lord (Lancs.)
Hoult, Joseph Morris, Hon. Martin Hy. F. Stone, Sir Benjamin
Hudson, George Bickersteth Morrison, James Archibald Stroyan, John
Hutton, John (Yorks., N. R.) Morton, A. H. A. (Deptford) Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley
Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse Mount, William Arthur Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Jessel, Capt. Herbert Merton Mowbray, Sir Robert Gray C. Talbot, Lord E. (Chishester)
Johnston, William (Belfast) Murray,Rt.Hn.Graham(Bute) Thorburn, Sir Walter
Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex) Murray, Charles J.(Coventry) Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray
Kenyon, Hon.G. T. (Denbigh) Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath) Tritton, Charles Ernest
Kenyon Jas. (Lancs., Bury) Nicol, Donald Ninian Valentia, Viscount
Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay Wanklyn, James Leslie
Kimber, Henry Palmer, Walter (Salisbury) Warde, Col. C. E.
Knowles, Lees Parkes, Ebenezer Warr, Augustus Frederick
Law, Andrew Bonar Peel,Hn.Wm.Rebt.Wellesley Wason,JohnCuthcart(Orkney
Lawson,JohnGrant Pilkington, Lieut.-Col Richard Webb, Col. William George
Lecky, Rt. Hon. Wm. E. H. Powell, Sir Francis Sharp Welby, Lt-Col A. C. E. (Taunton
Lee, A. H. (Hants., Fareham) Pretyman, Ernest George Welby,SirCharlesG.E.(Notts.
Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Purvis, Robert Whiteley, H. (Ashtonund.Lyne
Leigh-Bennett, Henry Currie Randles, John S. Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Leveson-Gower, Fredk. N. S. Rasch, Major Frederick Carne Willox, Sir John Archibald
Llewellyn, Evan Henry Reid, James (Greenock) Wills, Sir Frederick
Loder, Gerald Walter E. Remnant, James Farquharson Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Long, Col. Chas. W. (Evesham) Renshaw, Charles Bine Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks.
Long, Rt. Hn. W. (Bristol, S.) Renwick, George Wodehouse, Rt. Hn. E. R. (Bath
Lonsdale, John Brownlee Ridley, S. F. (Bethnal Green) Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm
Lowe, Francis William Ritchie,Rt.Hn.Chas.Thomson Wylie, Alexander
Lucas, Col.Francis(Lowestoft) Robinson, Brooke Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Lucas, ReginaldJ. (Portsm'uth Ropner, Colonel Robert Yerburgh, Robert Armstrong
Macdona, John Cumming Rutherford, John
MacIver, David (Liverpool) Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander TELLERS FOR THE AYES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Majendie, James A. H. Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse)
Malcolm, Ian Saunderson,Rt.Hn.Col.Edw.J.
NOES
Abraham, Wm. (Cork, N. E.) Duffy, William J. Kay-Shuttleworth, Rt.Hn.SirU-
Abraham, William (Rhondda) Duncan, J. Hastings Kearley, Hudson E.
Allen, C. P. (Glouc., Stroud) Elibank, Master of Kennedy, Patrick James
Ambrose, Robert Farrell, James Patrick Labouchere, Henry
Asher, Alexander Fenwick, Charles Lambert, George
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Ferguson, R. C. M. (Leith) Langley, Batty
Beaumont, Wentworth C. B. Ffrench, Peter Layland-Barratt, Francis
Blake, Edward Field, William Leese,SirJosephF(Accrington)
Boland, John Flavin, Michael Joseph Leigh, Sir Joseph
Brigg, John Foster, Sir Walter (Derby Co.) Levy, Maurice
Broadhurst, Henry Gilhooly, James Lewis, John Herbert
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh Grey, Sir Edward (Berwick) Lloyd-George, David
Bryee, Rt. Hon. James Griffith, Ellis J. Lough, Thomas
Burns, John Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton Lundon, W.
Burt, Thomas Haldane, Richard Burdon MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A.
Buxton, Sydney Charles Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir Wm. Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J.
Caldwell, James Hardie,J.Keir(MerthyrTydvil M'Dermott, Patrick
Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Harwood, George Mellor, Rt.Hon.John William
Carew, James Laurence Hayden, John Patrick Morgan,J.Lloyd (Carmarthen)
Causton, Richard Knight Hayne,Rt.Hon.Charles Seale- Morley, Charles (Breconshire)
Cawley, Frederick Helme, Norval Watson Murphy, John
Condon, Thomas Joseph Hemphill, Rt. Hn. Charles H. Nannetti, Joseph P.
Craig, Robert Hunter Hobhouse, C.E.H.(Bristol,E.) Newnes, Sir George
Crombie, John William Hope, John Deans (Fife, West) Nolan, Col John P. (Galway, N.)
Cullinan, J. Horniman, Frederick John Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South)
Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) Nussey, Thomas Willans
Delany, William Jacoby, James Alfred O'Brien,Kendal(Tipp'r'y,Mid.
Dewar, JohnA.(Inverness-sh.) Jones, D. Brynmor (Swansea) O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny)
Dilke, Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Jones, William(Carnarv'nshire O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.)
Doogan, P. C. Joyce, Michael O'Connor, Jas. (Wicklow, W.)t
O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool) Rickett, J. Compton Trevelyan, Charles Philips
O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.) Tully, Jasper
O'Dowd, John Robson, William Snowdon Wallace, Robert
O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.) Roe, Sir Thomas Walton,JohnLawson(Leeds,S
O'Kelly, Jas. (Roscommon, N.) Samuel, S. M. (Whitechapel) Warner, Thos. Courtenay T.
O'Malley, William Scott, Chas. Prestwich (Leigh) Weir, James Galloway
O'Mara, James Shaw, Thomas (Hawick B.) White, George (Norfolk)
O'Shaughnessy, P. J. Sheehan, Daniel Daniel Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Palmer,SirChas.M.(Durham) Sinclair, Capt. J. (Forfarshire) Williams, Osmond (Merioneth
Partington, Oswald Soares, Ernest J. Wilson, Henry J. (York, W. R.
Philipps, John Wynford Strachey, Edward Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.)
Power, Patrick Joseph Sullivan, Donal Young, Samuel
Priestley, Arthur Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.) Yoxall, James Henry
Reddy, M. Thomas, David A. (Merthyr)
Redmond, John E. (Waterford Thomas,JA(GlamorganGower TELLERS FOR THE NOES— Mr. Corrie Grant and Mr. Channing.
Redmond, William (Clare) Thomson, F. W. (York, W. R.
Reid,SirR.Threshie(Dumfries Tomkinson, James

MR. A. J. BALFOUR rose in his place and claimed to move, "That the Question 'That the Clause stand part of the Bill' be now put."

Question put, "That the Question

'That the Clause stand part of the Bill' be now put."

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 205; Noes, 134. (Division List No. 361.)

AYES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir Alex. F. Cox, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Hay, Hon. Claude George
Agg-Gardner, James Tynte Cranborne, Viscount Heath, Jas. (Staffords., N. W.)
Aird, Sir John Cripps, Charles Alfred Helder, Augustus
Arkwright, John Stanhope Cross, Alexander (Glasgow) Hickman, Sir Alfred
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Crossley, Sir Savile Higginbottom, S. W.
Arrol, Sir William Cust, Henry John C. Hoare, Edw. Brodie(Hampst'd)
Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John Dalkeith, Earl of Hoare, Sir Samuel (Norwich)
Bagot, Capt Josceline FitzRoy Denny, Colonel Hope, J. F. (Sheffield, Brightsi'e
Bailey, James (Walworth) Dickson, Charles Scott Houldsworth, Sir Wm. Henry
Bain, Col.-James Robert Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P. Hoult, Joseph
Baird, John George Alexander Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers- Hudson, George Bickersteth
Balcarres, Lord Doxtord, Sir Wm. Theodore Hutton, John (Yorks, N. R.)
Balfour, Rt. Hn.A.J.(Manch'r Duke, Henry Edward Jebb, Sir Rich. Claverhouse
Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornsey) Durning-Lawrence,Sir Edwin Jessel, Capt. Herbert Merton
Balfour,Rt. Hn. G. W. (Leeds Fellowes, Hon. Allwyn Edw. Johnston, William (Belfast)
Banbury, Frederick George Fielden, Edw. Brocklehurst Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex)
Beach, Rt. Hn. SirM.H.(Bristol Finch, George H. Kenyon,Hon.Geo.T.(Denbigh)
Beach,Rt.Hn. W.W.B.(Hants Finlay, Sir Robt. Bannatyne Kenyon, Jas. (Lancs., Bury)
Beckett, Ernest William Fisher, William Hayes Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop)
Bentinck, Lord Henry C. Fitzroy, Hon. Edw. Algernon Kimber, Henry
Bhownaggree, Sir M. M. Foster, PhilipS, (Warwick, SW. Knowles, Lees
Bignold, Arthur G. Gardner, Ernest Law, Andrew Bonar
Boscawen, Arthur Griffith- Garfit, William Lawson, John Grant
Boulnois, Edmund Gibbs,Hn.A.G.H(CityofLond. Lecky, Rt. Hon. Wm. Edw. H.
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middls'x Godson, Sir Augustus Fred. Lee, Arthur H. (Hants, Fareh'm
Brassey, Albert Gordon, Maj. Evans-(T'rH'ml's Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage
Brodrick, Rt. Hon. St. John Gore, HnGRC.Ormsby-(Salop) Leigh-Bennett, Henry Currie
Bull, William James Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir John Eldon Leveson-Gower, Fred. N. S.
Burdett-Coutts, W. Goulding, Edward Alfred Llewellyn, Evan Henry
Butcher, John George Gray, Ernest (West Ham) Loder, Gerald Walter Erskine
Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edw. H. Green, Walford D. (Wednesb'y) Long,Col.Charles W (Evesham
Cautley, Henry Strother Greene, HenryD.(Shrewsbury) Long,RtHnWalter(Bristol.S.)
Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Greene,W.Raymond-(Cambs.) Lonsdale, John Brownlee
Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbysh.) Grenfell, William Henry Lowe, Francis William
Cayzer, Sir Charles William Gretton, John Lucas, Col. Francis (Lowestoft
Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Greville, Hon. Roland Lucas, Reginald J. (Portsmouth
Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich) Groves, James Grimble Macdona, John Cumming
Chamberlain,Rt.Hn.J.(Birm. Guthrie, Walter Murray MacIver, David (Liverpool)
Chamberlain,J.Austen(Worc'r Hain, Edward Majendie, James A. H.
Churchill, Winston Spencer Hamilton,Rt.Hn.LordG.(Mid'x Malcolm, Ian
Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Hamilton,Marq.of(L'dond'ry) Massey-Mainwaring, Hn. W. F.
Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Hardy, Laurence(Kent,Ashf'd Maxwell,W.J.H.(Dumfriessh
Compton, Lord Alwyne Harris, Frederick Leverton Middlemore, J. Throgmorton
Corbett, A. Cameron (Glasgow Haslam, Sir. Alfred S. Mildmay, Francis Bingham
Corbett, T. L.-(Down, North) Haslett, Sir James Horner Mildmay, Francis Bingham
Molesworth, Sir Lewis Ridley, S. F. (Bethnal Green) Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray
Moon, Edward Robert Pacy Ritchie, Rt. Hon. C. Thomson Tritton, Charles Ernest
Morgan, D. J. (Walthamstow) Robinson, Brooke Valentia, Viscount
Morrell, George Herbert Ropner, Colonel Robert Wanklyn, James Leslie
Morris, Hon. Martin Henry F. Rutherford, John Warde, Colonel C. E.
Morrison, James Archibald Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander Warr, Augustus Frederick
Morton, A. H. A. (Deptford) Samuel, HarryS. (Limehouse) Wason, J. Cathcart (Orkney)
Mount, William Arthur Saunderson, Rt.Hon.Col.E.J. Webb, Colonel William George-
Murray, Rt. Hn. A. G. (Bute) Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.) Welby, Lt-ColA.C.E(Taunton
Murray, Charles J. (Coventry) Seely,Capt.J.E.B.(IsleofWight Welby, Sir Chas. G. E. (Notts.
Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath Sharpe, William Edward T. Whiteley, H. (Ashton-u.-Lyne)
Nicol, Donald Ninian Shaw-Stewart, M. H. (Renfrew) Willougnby de Eresby, Lord
Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay Simeon, Sir Barrington Willox, Sir John Archibald
Palmer, Walter (Salisbury) Sinclair, Louis (Romford) Wills, Sir Frederick
Parkes, Ebenezer Smith, JamesParker(Lanarks Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Peel, Hn. Wm. Robt. Wellesley Smith, Hon. W. F. D. (Strand) Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks.)
Pilkington, Lt.-Col. Richard Spear, John Ward Wodehouse,Rt.Hn.E.R.(Bath
Powell, Sir Francis Sharp Stanley, Lord (Lancs.) Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm
Pretyman, Ernest George Stone, Sir Benjamin Wylie, Alexander Brev
Purvis, Robert Stroyan, John Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Handles, John S. Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley Yerburgh, Robert Armstrong
Rasch, Major Frederic Carne Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Reid, James (Greenock) Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester) TELLERS FOR THE AYES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Remnant, James Farquharson Thorburn, Sir Walter
Renshaw, Charles Bine Tollemache, Henry James
NOES.
Abraham, Wm. (Cork, N. E.) Harcourt,Rt.Hn.Sir William O'Kelly, J. (Roscommon, N.)
Abraham, William (Rhondda) Hardie,J.Keir(MerthyrTydvil O'Malley, William
Allen, C. P. (Glouc, Stroud) Harwood, George O'Mara, James
Ambrose, Robert Hayden, John Patrick O'Shaughnessy, P. J.
Asher, Alexander Hayne, Rt. Hon. Chas. Seale- Palmer, Sir Chas. M. (Durham)
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Helme, Norval Watson Partington, Oswald
Beaumont, Wentworth C. B. Hemphill, Rt. Hon.CharlesH. Philipps, John Wynford
Blake, Edward Hobhouse, C.E.H.(Bristol,E.) Power, Patrick Joseph
Boland, John Hope, John Deans (Fife, W.) Priestley, Arthur
Brigg, John Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) Reddy, M.
Broadhurst, Henry Jacoby, James Alfred Redmond, John E. (Waterford)
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh) Jones, David Brynmor (Swan'a Redmond, William (Clare)
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Jones, William (Carnarvonsh.) Reid, Sir R. Threshie (Dumfries
Burns, John Joyce, Michael Rickett, J. Compton
Burt, Thomas Kearley, Hudson E. Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.)
Buxton, Sydney Charles Kennedy, Patrick James Robson, William Snowdon
Caldwell, James Labouchere, Henry Roe, Sir Thomas
Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Lambert, George Samuel, S. M. (Whitechapel)
Carew, James Laurence Langley, Batty Scott, Chas. Prestwich (Leigh)
Cawley, Frederick Layland-Barratt, Francis Shaw, Thomas (Hawick, B.)
Channing, Francis Allston Leese, Sir J. F. (Accrington) Sheehan, Daniel Daniel
Condon, Thomas Joseph Leigh, Sir Joseph Sinclair, Capt. J. (Forfarshire)
Craig, Robert Hunter Levy, Maurice Soares, Ernest J.
Crombie, John William Lewis, John Herbert Sullivan, Donal
Cullinan, J. Lloyd-George, David Thomas,Abel(Carmarthen, E.)
Davies,M. Vaughan-(Cardigan Lough, Thomas Thomas, David A. (Merthyr)
Delany, William Lundon, W. Thomas,JA(Glamorgan,Gow'r
Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh. MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A. Thomson, F. W. (York, W. R.)
Dilke, Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J. Tomkinson, James
Doogan, P. C. M'Dermont, Patrick Trevelyan, Charles Philips
Duffy, William J. Morgan, J. L. (Carmarthen) Tully, Jasper
Duncan, J. Hastings Money, Charles (Breconshire) Wallace, Robert
Elibank, Master of Murphy, John Walton,JohnLawson(Leeds, S.
Farrell, James Patrick Nannetti, Joseph P. Warner, Thomas Courtenay T.
Fenwick, Charles Newnes, Sir George Weir, James Galloway
Ferguson, R. C. Munro(Leith) Nolan, Col. J. P. (Galway, N.) White, George (Norfolk)
Ffrench, Peter Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Field, William Nussey, Thomas Willans Williams,Osmond(Merioneth)
Flavin, Michael Joseph O'Brien, K. (Tipperary Mid) Wilson, HenryJ.(York,W.R.)
Foster, Sir Walter (Derby Co. O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.)
Gilhooly, James O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.) Young, Samuel
Grant, Corrie O'Connor, James (Wicklow, W Yoxall, James Henry
Grey, Sir Edward (Berwick) O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool)
Griffith, Ellis J. O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Mr. Herbert Gladstone and Mr. Causton.
Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton O'Dowd, John
Haldane, Richard Burdon O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.)

Question put accordingly, "That Clause 1 stand part of the Bill."

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 203; Noes, 130. (Division List No. 362.)

AYES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir Alex. F. Garfit, William Morgan, David J.(Walthamst'w
Agg-Gardner, James Tynte Gibbs, Hn. A. G. H (City of Lond. Morrell, George Herbert
Aird, Sir John Godson, Sir Augustus Fred. Morriss, Hon. Martin Henry F.
Arkwright, John Stanhope Gordon, Maj Evans-(T'rH'mlets Morrison, James Archibald
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Gore, Hn. G. R. C. Ormsby-(Salop Morton, Arthur H. A. (Deptford
Arrol, Sir William Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir John Eldon Mount, William Arthur
Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John Goulding, Edward Alfred Murray, Rt. Hn. A. Graham (Bute
Bagot, Capt. J. Fitzroy Green, Walford D. (Wednesbury Murray, Charles J. (Coventry)
Bailey, James (Walworth) Greene, Henry D. (Shrewsbury Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath)
Bain, Colonel James Robert Greene, W. Raymond-(Cambs.) Nicol, Donald Ninian
Baird, John George Alexander Grenfell, William Henry Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay
Balcarres, Lord Gretton, John Palmer, Walter (Salisbury)
Balfour, Rt. Hn. A. J. (Manch'r Greville, Hon. Ronald Parkes, Ebenezer
Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornsey) Groves, James Grimble Peel, Hn. Wm. Robert Wellesley
Balfour, Rt. Hn. Gerald W. (Leeds Guthrie, Walter Murray Pilkington, Lieut.-Col. Richard
Banbury, Frederick George Hain, Edward Powell, Sir Francis Sharp
Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol) Hamilton, Rt. Hn. Lord G (Midd'x Pretyman, Ernest George
Beach, Rt. Hon. W. W. B. (Hants. Hamilton, Marq. of (L'donderry Purvis, Robert
Beckett, Ernest William Hardy, Laurence (K'nt, Ashford Randles, John S.
Bentinck, Lord Henry C. Harris, Frederick Leverton Reid, James (Greenock)
Bhownaggree, Sir M. M. Haslam, Sir Alfred S. Remnant, James Farquharson
Bignold, Arthur Hay, Hon. Claude George Renshaw, Charles Bine
Boscawen, Arthur Griffith Heath, James (Staffords, N. W. Ridley, S. Forde (Bethnal Green)
Boulnois, Edmund Helder, Augustus Ritchie, Rt. Hon. Chas Thomson
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex Hickman, Sir Alfred Robinson, Brooke
Brassey, Albert Higginbottom, S. W. Ropner, Colonel Robert
Brodrick, Rt. Hon. St. John Hoare, Edw. Brodie (Hampstead Rutherford, John
Bull, William James Hoare, Sir Samuel (Norwich) Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander
Burdett-Coutts, W. Hope, J. F. (Shefneld, Brightside Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse)
Butcher, John George Houldsworth, Sir Wm. Henry Saunderson, Rt. Hn. Col. Edw. J.
Carson, Rt. Hn. Sir Edw. H. Hoult, Joseph Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.)
Cautley, Henry Strother Hudson, George Bickersteth Seeley, Cap. J. E. B. (Isle of Wight
Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Hutton, John (Yorks. N. R.) Sharpe, William Edward T.
Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbyshire Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse Shaw-Stewart, M. H. (Renfrew)
Cayzer, Sir Charles William Jessel, Capt. Herbert Merton Simeon, Sir Barrington
Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Johnston, William (Belfast) Sinclair, Louis (Romford)
Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich) Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex) Smith, James Parker (Lanarks.)
Chamberlain, Rt. H on. J. (Birm. Kenyon, Hon. G. T. (Denbigh) Smith, Hon. W. F. D. (Strand)
Chamberlain, J. Austen (Worc'r Kenyon, James (Lancs., Bury Spear, John Ward
Churchill, Winston Spencer Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop Stanley, Lord (Lancs.)
Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Kimber, Henry Stone, Sir Benjamin
Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Knowles, Lees Stroyan, John
Compton, Lord Alwyne Law, Andrew Bonar Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley
Corbett, A. Cameron (Glasgow Lawson, John Grant Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Corbett, T. L. (Down, N.) Lecky, Rt. Hn. William E. H. Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Cox, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Lee, Arthur H (Hants., Fareham Thorburn, Sir Walter
Cranborne, Viscount Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Tollemache, Henry James
Cripps, Charles Alfred Leigh-Bennett, Henry Currie Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray
Cross, Alexander (Glasgow) Leveson-Gower, Fred. N. S. Tritton, Charles Ernest
Crossley, Sir Savile Llewellyn, Evan Henry Valentia, Viscount
Cust, Henry John C. Loder, Gerald Walter Erskine Wanklyn, James Leslie
Dalkeith, Earl of Long, Col. Charles W. (Evesham) Warde, Colonel C. E. T
Denny, Colonel Long, Rt. Hn. Walter (Bristol, S.) Warr, Augustus Frederick
Dickson, Charles Scott Lonsdale, John Brownlee Wason, John Cathcart (Orkney
Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P. Lowe, Francis William Webb, Col. William George
Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers Lucas, Col. Francis (Lowestoft) Welby, Lt.-Col. A. C. E. (Taunt'n
Doxford, Sir William Theodore Lucas, Reginald J. (Portsmouth Welby, Sir Charles G. E. (Notts.)
Duke, Henry Edward Macdona, John Cumming Whiteley, H. (Ashton und. Lyne
Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin MacIver, David (Liverpool) Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edw. Majendie, James A. H. Willox, Sir John Archibald
Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst Malcolm, Ian Wills, Sir Frederick
Finch, George H. Massey-Mainwaring, Hn. W. F. Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne Maxwell, W. J. H. (Dumfriesshire Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks.
Fisher, William Hayes Middlemore, J. Throgmorton Wodehouse, Rt. Hn. E. R. (Bath)
Fitzroy, Hn. Edward Algernon Mildmay, Francis Bingham Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm
Foster, PhilipS. (Warwick, S. W. Molesworth, Sir Lewis Wylie, Alexander
Gardner, Ernest Moon, Edward Robert Pacy Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
TELLERS FOR THE AYES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
NOES.
Abraham, Wm. (Cork, N. E.) Hardie,J.Keir (Merthyr Tydvil) O'Malley, William
Abraham, William (Rhondda Harwood, George O'Mara, James
Allen, Charles P. (Glouc., Stroud Hayden, John Patrick O'Shaughnessy, P. J.
Ambrose, Robert Helme, Norval Watson Palmer, Sir Charles M. (Durham
Asher, Alexander Hemphill, Rt. Hon. Charles H. Partington, Oswald
Barry, E. (Cork, S., Hobhouse, C. E. H. (Bristol, E.) Phillips, John Wynford
Blake, Edward Hope, John Deans (Fife, West) Power, Patrick Joseph
Boland, John Hutton, Alfred E, (Morley) Priestley, Arthur
Brigg, John Jacoby, James Alfred Reddy, M.
Broadhurst, Henry Jones, David Brynmor (Swansea Redmond, John E. (Waterford)
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh Jones, Wm. (Carnarvonshire) Redmond, William (Clare)
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Joyce, Michael Reid, Sir R. T. (Dumfries)
Burns, John Kearley, Hudson E. Rickett, J. Compton
Burt, Thomas Kennedy, Patrick James Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.)
Buxton, Sydney Charles Labouchere, Henry Robson, William Snowdon
Caldwell, James Lambert, George Roe, Sir Thomas
Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Langley, Batty Samuel, S. M. (Whitechapel)
Carew, James Laurence Layland-Barratt, Francis Scott, Charles Prestwich (Leigh
Cawley, Frederick Leese, Sir Joseph (Accrington) Shaw, Thomas (Hawick B.)
Channing, Francis Allston Leigh, Sir Joseph Sheehan, Daniel Daniel
Condon, Thomas Joseph Levy, Maurice Sinclair, Capt. J. (Forfarshire
Craig, Robert Hunter Lewis, John Herbert Soares, Ernest J.
Crombie, John William Lloyd-George, David Sullivan, Donal
Cullinan, J. Lough, Thomas Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.)
Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan Lundon, W. Thomas, David Alfred (Merthyr
Delany, William MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A. Thomas, J. A. (Glamorgan, G'wer
Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh.) Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J. Thomson, F. W. (York, W. R.)
Doogan, P. C. M'Dermott, Patrick Tomkinson, James
Duffy, William J. Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarthen Trevelyan, Charles Philips
Duncan, J. Hastings Morley, Charles (Breconshire) Tully, Jasper
Elibank, Master of Murphy, John Wallace, Robert
Farrell, James Patrick Nannetti, Joseph P. Walton, John Lawson (Leeds, S.)
Fenwick, Charles Newnes, Sir George Warner, Thomas Courtenay T.
Ferguson, R. C. Munro (Leith) Nolan, Col. J. P. (Galway, N.) Weir, James Galloway
Ffrench, Peter Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) White, George (Norfolk)-
Field, William Nussey, Thomas Willans Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Flavin, Michael Joseph O'Brien, Kendal (Tipperary Mid Wilson, Henry J. (York, W. R.)
Foster, Sir Walter (Derby Co. O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.)
Gilhooly, James O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.) Young, Samuel
Grant, Corrie O'Connor, James (Wicklow, W.) Yoxall, James Henry
Grey, Sir Edward (Berwick) O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool)
Griffith, Ellis J. O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Mr. Herbert Gladstone and Mr. Causton.
Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton O'Dowd, John
Haldane, Richard Burdon O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.)
Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir William O'Kelly, J. (Roscommon, N.)

Clause 2:—

MR. YOXALL

said he desired to move an Amendment standing in the name of the hon. Baronet the Member for the Northwich Division of Cheshire. It was, at any rate, an effort to improve an admittedly trumpery and temporary measure, quite unworthy the name of an Education Bill.

Amendment proposed— In page 1, line 23, to leave out the word 'Education.' and insert the words 'Higher Grade Schools Temporary.'"—(Mr. Yoxall.)

Question put, "That the word 'education' stand part of the clause."

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 194; Noes, 118. (Division List No. 363.)

AYES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir Alex. F. Bain, Colonel James Robert Beach, Rt,Hon.W.W.B.(Hants
Aird, Sir John Baird, John George Alexander Beckett, Ernest William
Arkwright, John Stanhope Balcarres, Lord Bentinck, Lord Henry C.
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J. (Manch'r Bhownaggree, Sir M. M.
Arrol, Sir William Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornsey) Bignold, Arthur
Atkinson, Rt. Hop. John Balfour, Rt. Hn. Gerald W. (Leeds Boscawen, Arthur Griffith-
Bagot, Capt. Josceline FitzRoy Banbury, Frederick George Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex
Bailey, James (Waiworth) Beach, Rt. Hon. Sir M. H (Bristol Brassey, Albert
Brodrick, Rt. Hon. St. John Haslam, Sir Alfred S. Parkes, Ebenezer
Bull, William James Hay, Hon. Claude George Peel, Hn. Wm. Robert Wellesley
Burdett-Coutts, W. Heath, James.(Staffords, N. W.) Pilkington, Lt.-Col. Richard
Butcher, John George Helder, Augustus Powell, Sir Francis Sharp
Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edw. H. Hickman, Sir Alfred Pretyman, Ernest George
Cautley, Henry Strother Higginbottom, S. W. Purvis, Robert
Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Hoare, Edw Brodie (Hampstead Randles, John S.
Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbyshire Hoare, Sir Samuel (Norwich) Rasch, Major Frederic Carne-
Cayzer, Sir Charles William Hope, J. F. Sheffield,(Brightsi'e Reid, James (Greenock)
Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Houldsworth, Sir Wm. Henry Remnant, James Farquharson
Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich) Hoult, Joseph Renshaw, Charles Bine
Chamberlain, Rt. Hn. J. (Birm Hudson, George Bickersteth Renwick, George
Chamberlain, J. Austen (Wor'c Hutton. John (Yorks., N. R.) Ridley, S. Forde (Bethnal Green
Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Jebb, Sir Richard Clavgrhouse Ritchie, Rt. Hon Chas. Thomson
Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Jessel, Capt. Herb. Merton Robinson, Brooke
Compton, Lord Alwyne Johnston, William (Belfast) Ropner, Colonel Robert
Corbett, A. Cameron (Glasgow) Johnstone, Hey wood (Sussex) Rutherford, John
Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) Kenyon, Hn. Geo. T. (Denbigh) Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander
Cox, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Kenyon, James (Lanc, Bury) Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse)
Cranborne, Viscount Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.)
Cripps, Charles Alfred Kimber, Henry Seely, Capt. J. E. B. (Isle of Wight
Cross, Alexander (Glasgow) Knowles, Lees Sharpe, William Edward T.
Crossley, Sir Savile Law, Andrew Bonar Simeon, Sir Barrington
Cust, Henry John C. Lawson, John Grant Sinclair, Louis (Romford)
Dalkeith, Earl of Lecky, Rt. Hn. William Edw. H. Smith, James Parker (Lanarks.)
Denny, Colonel Lee, Arthur H. (Hants, Fareh'm Smith, Hon. W. F. D. (Strand)
Dickson, Charles Scott Legge, Col. Hn. Heneage Spear, John Ward
Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P. Leigh-Bennett, Henry Currie Stanley, Lord (Lancs.)
Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers- Leveson-Gower, Fred. N. S. Stone, Sir Benjamin
Doxford, Sir William Theodore Llewellyn, Evan Henry Stroyan, John
Duke, Henry Edward Loder, Gerald Walter Erskine Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley
Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Long, Col. Charles W. (Evesham) Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edward Long, Rt. Hn. Walter (Bristol, S. Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst Lonsdale, John Brownlee Thorburn, Sir Walter
Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne Lowe, Francis William Tollemache, Henry James
Fisher, William Hayes Lucas, Col. Francis (Lowestoft) Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray
Fitzroy, Hon. Edward Algernon Lucas, Reginald J. (Portsmouth Valentia, Viscount
Foster, PhilipS (Warwick, S. W.) Macdona, John Cumming Vincent, Sir Edgar (Exeter)
Gardner, Ernest MacIver, David (Liverpool) Wanklyn, James Leslie
Garfit, William Majendie, James A. H. Warde, Colonel C. E.
Gibbs, Hn. A. G. H. (City of Lond. Malcolm, Ian Warr, Augustus Frederick
Godson, Sir Augustus Frederick Massey-Mainwaring, Hn. W. F. Wason, J. Cathcart (Orkney)
Gordon, Maj Evans-(T'rH'mlets Maxwell, W. J. H. (Dumfriessh. Webb, Colonel William George
Gore, Hn G. R. C. Ormsby-(Salop Middlemore, John Throgmortn Welby, Lt-Col. A. C. E. (Taunton
Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir John Eldon Molesworth, Sir Lewis Welby, Sir Charles G. E. (Notts.
Goulding, Edward Alfred Moon, Edw. Robert Pacy Whiteley, H. (Ashton und. Lyne
Green, Walford D. (Wednesbury Morgan, David J. (Walthamst'w Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Greene, Henry D. (Shrewsbury) Morrell, George Herbert Wills, Sir Frederick
Greene, W. Raymonds-(Cambs.) Morris, Hon. Martin Henry F. Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Grenfell, William Henry Morrison, James Archibald Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks.)
Gretton, John Morton, Arthur H. A. (Deptford Wodehouse, Rt. Hon. E. R (Bath)
Greville, Hon. Ronald Mount, William Arthur Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm
Groves, James Grimble Murray, Rt. Hn. A. G. (Bute) Wylie, Alexander
Guthrie, Walter Murray Murray, Charles J. (Coventry Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Hain, Edward Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath)
Hamilton, Rt. Hn. Lord G (Midd'x Nicol, Donald Ninian TELLERS FOR THE AYES— Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Hamilton, Marq. of (L'donderry Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay
Hardy, Laurence (Kent, Ashfo'd Palmer, Walter (Salisbury)
NOES.
Abraham, Wm. (Cork, N. E.) Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan
Abraham, William (Rhondda) Burt, Thomas Delany, William
Allen, Chas. P. (Glouc., Stroud) Caldwell, James Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh.
Ambrose, Robert Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Doogan, P. C.
Asher, Alexander Causton, Richard Knight Duffy, William J.
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Cawley, Frederick Duncan, J. Hastings
Blake, Edward Channing, Francis Allston Elibank, Master of
Boland, John Condon, Thomas Joseph Farrell, James Patrick
Brigg, John Craig, Robert Hunter Fenwick, Charles
Broadhurst, Henry Crombie, John William Ffrench, Peter
Brown, Geo. M. (Edinburgh) Cullinan, J. Field, William
Flavin, Michael Joseph MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A. Redmond, William (Clare)
Foster, Sir W. (Derby Co.) Macnamnra, Dr. Thomas J. Reid, Sir R. Threshie (Dumfries
Gilhooly, James M'Dermott, Patrick Rickett, J. Compton
Gladstone, Rt. Hn. Herb. John Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarthen) Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.)
Griffith, Ellis J. Morley, Charles (Breconshire) Robson, William Snowdon
Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton Murphy, John Samuel, S. M. (Whitechapel)
Harcourt, Rt. Hn. Sir Wm. Nannetti, Joseph P. Shaw, Thomas (Hawick B.)
Hardie,J.Keir.(MerthyrTydv'l Newnes, Sir George Sheehan, Daniel Daniel
Hayden, John Patrick Nolan,Col.JohnP.(Galway,N.) Sinclair, Capt. John (Forfarsh.
Helme, Norval Watson Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) Soares, Ernest J.
Hobhouse, C. E. H. (Bristol, E.) Nussey, Thomas Willans Sullivan, Donal
Hope, John Deans (Fife, West) O'Brien, Kendal (Tipperary Mid Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.
Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) Thomas, David Alfred (Merthyr
Jacoby, James Alfred O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.) Thomas, J. A. (Glam., Gower.
Jones David Brynmor (Swansea O'Connor, James (Wicklow, W.) Thomson, F. W. (Yorks., W. R.
Jones, William (Carnarvonshire O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool Tomkinson, James
Joyce, Michael O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) Trevelyan, Chas. Philips
Kearley, Hudson E. O'Dowd, John Tully, Jasper
Kennedy, Patrick James O'Kelly Conor (Mayo, N.) Wallace, Robert
Labouchere, Henry O'Kelly, James (Roscommon, N. Walton, John Lawson (Leeds, S.
Lambert, George O'Malley, William Weir, James Galloway
Langley, Batty O'Mara, James Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Layland-Barratt, Francis O'Shaughnessy, P. J. Wilson, Henry J. (Yorks., W. R.
Leese, SirJosephF.(Accrington Palmer, Sir Chas. M. (Durham) Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.)
Leigh, Sir Joseph Partington, Oswald Young, Samuel
Levy, Maurice Philipps, John Wynford
Lewis, John Herbert Power, Patrick Joseph TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Mr. Yoxall and Mr. Corrie Grant.
Lloyd-George, David Priestley, Arthur
Lough, Thomas Reddy, M.
Lundon, W. Redmond, John E.(Waterford)
MR. A. J. BALFOUR

rose in his place and claimed to move, "That the Question 'That Clause 2 stand part of the Bill' be now put."

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

I rise to a point of order with regard to the interpretation of Rule 25. I wish to ask whether a motion of that kind can be put unless the closure has previously taken place upon Amendments on the clause. The rule is as follows:— When the motion 'That the question be now put,' has been carried and the question consequent thereon has been decided, any further motion may be made (the assent of the Chair as aforesaid not having been withheld) which may be requisite to bring to a decision any question already proposed from the Chair; and, also, if a clause be then under consideration, a motion may be made (the assent of the Chair as aforesaid not having been withheld) that the question that certain words of the clause defined in the motion stand part of the clause, or that the clause stand part of, or be added to, the Bill, be now put. Now, Mr. Lowther, I venture to submit to you whether it is not correct that a motion that the clause be put must be consequent on some preceding decision of the closure upon Amendments of that clause. As far as I can read this clause it seems to me that this proposal of the closure ought not to be put as an original motion with regard to the clause.

THE CHAIRMAN

I understand that the right hon. Gentleman moved in the exact words of the Standing Order. [Opposition cries of "No, no!"] He moved that the question that Clause 2 stand part of the Bill be now put— that is, the right hon. Gentleman has moved the closure. When the closure is carried, if it is carried, then there will be a second division dealing with the clause. The right hon. Gentleman is not now claiming that the clause should be put. He is moving the closure.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

Yes, Sir. As I understand, he has moved the closure on the second clause. I ask your ruling on this point. Is it in the power of the Government—for that would be the consequence—is it in their power, in a Bill of a dozen clauses, say, to begin the discussion by moving the closure on each clause in succession, without any discussion of the clause? If so, we might have a Bill introduced, and a Minister might begin by moving that Clause 1 be now put, then that Clause 2 be now put, and Clause 3, and so on, and then that the Bill itself be carried without any discussion whatever.

THE CHAIRMAN

The point put by the right hon. Gentleman to me is not exactly the point before us to-day, because to-day there was a cause under consideration. The clause has been considered and a decision has been taken with regard to it.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

Not on Clause 2.

THE CHAIRMAN

Oh, yes, certainly. An Amendment was moved upon Clause 2 and a division was taken. Therefore, Clause 2 was under consideration. Thereupon the Leader of the House move that the question, "That the clause stand part of the Bill" be now put. It seems to be perfectly regular.

MR. CALDWELL (Lanarkshire, Mid)

According to Standing Order 25 there must first of all have been a closure on the clause before the First Lord could claim to make the proposal which he has made. In this case there had been no anterior closure.

THE CHAIRMAN

The hon. Member is perfectly correct. The only mistake he makes is that the question I am now going to put is the closure question—not the question that the clause stand part of the Bill.

MR. CALDWELL

There are two different points. I say that the carrying of Clause 1 was contrary to the Standing Order, because you ought not to have put the question "That Clause 1 stand part of the Bill" unless there had been an anterior closure and a division.

THE CHAIRMAN

The hon. Member is now quite in error. Even if he were not, he is not entitled to go back row to Clause 1. We are now on Clause 2.

MR. CALDWELL

rose again.

*THE CHAIRMAN

I think I have made myself perfectly clear.

MR. CALDWELL

The question "That Clause 2 stand part of the Bill" has not been put at all. An hon. Member got up to move an Amendment, and before any question was put at all the question is put, and the question "That Clause 2 stand part of the Bill" was not before the House at all.

*THE CHAIRMAN

That is so. The hon. Member is perfectly right. If he will kindly read the Standing Order he will see that in the last paragraph it is allowable, if a clause be then under consideration, for a motion to be made that the question "That the clause stand part of the Bill" be now put, being the question which I am now going to put. The question is that the question "That Clause 2 stand part of the Bill" be now put.

Question put, "That the Question 'That Clause 2 stand part of the Bill' be now put."

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 186; Noes, 109. (Division List No. 364.)

AYES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir Alex. F. Brassey, Albert Crossley, Sir Savile
Arkwright, John Stanhope Brodrick, Rt. Hon. St. John Cust, Henry John C
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Bull, William James Dalkeith, Earl of
Arrol, Sir William Burdett-Coutts, W. Dickson, Charles Scott
Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John Butcher, John George Dickson-Poynder, Sir John P.
Bagot, Capt. Josceline Fitz Roy Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edw. H. Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers-
Bailey, James (Walworth) Cautley, Henry Strother Doxford, Sir William Theodore
Bain, Colonel James Robert Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Duke, Henry Edward
Baird, John George Alexander Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbyshire Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin
Balcarres, Lord Cayzer, Sir Charles William Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edw.
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J. (Manch'r Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst
Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornsey) Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich) Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne
Balfour, Rt. Hn. Gerald W. (Leeds Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. J. (Birm. Fisher, William Hayes
Banbury, Frederick George Chamberlain, J. Austen (Worc'r Fitzroy, Hon. Edward Algernon
Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol) Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Foster, Philip S. (Warwick, S. W.
Beach, Rt. Hn. W. W. B. (Hants.) Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Gardner, Ernest
Beckett, Ernest William Compton, Lord Alwyne Garfit, William
Bentinck, Lord Henry C. Corbett, A, Cameron (Glasgow Godson, Sir Augustus Fredk.
Bhownaggree, Sir M. M. Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) Gordon, Maj Evans-(T'rH'mlets
Bignold, Arthur Cox, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Gore, Hn. GR. C. Ormsby-(Salop
Boscawen, Arthur Griffith- Cranborne, Viscount Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir John Eldon
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex) Cross, Alexander (Glasgow) Goschen, Hon. Geo. Joachim
Goulding, Edward Alfred Long, Col. Charles W. (Evesham) Rutherford, John
Greene, Henry D. (Shrewsbury Long, Rt. Hn. Walter (Bristol, S.) Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander
Grenfell, William Henry Lonsdale, John Brownlee Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse
Gretton, John Lowe, Francis William Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.)
Greville, Hon. Ronald Lucas, Col. Francis (Lowestoft) Seely, Capt. J. E. B. (Isle of Wight
Groves, James Grimble Macdona, John Cumming Sharpe, William Edward T.
Guthrie, Walter Murray MacIver, David (Liverpool) Simeon, Sir Barrington
Hain, Edward Majendie, James A. H. Sinclair, Louis (Romford)
Hamilton, Rt. Hn. Lord G (Midd'x Malcolm, Ian Smith, James Parker (Lanarks.)
Hamilton, Marq. of (L'donderry Massey-Mainwaring, Hn. W. F. Smith, Hon. W. F. D. (Strand)
Hardy, Laurence (Kent, Ashfd) Maxwell, W. J. H. (Dumfriessh. Spear, John Ward
Haslam, Sir Alfred S. Middlemore, John Throgmort'n Stanley, Lord (Lancs.)
Hay, Hon. Claude George Molesworth, Sir Lewis Stone, Sir Benjamin
Heath, James (Staffords., N. W.) Morgan, David J. (Walthamst'w Stroyan, John
Helder, Augustus Morrell, George Herbert Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley
Hickman, Sir Alfred Morris, Hon. Martin Henry F. Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Higginbottom, S. W. Morrison, James Archibald Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Hoare, Edw Brodie (Hampstead Morton, Arthur H. A. (Deptford Thorburn, Sir Walter
Hoare, Sir Samuel (Norwich) Mount, William Arthur Tollemache, Henry James
Hope, J. F. (Sheffield, Brightside Murray, Rt. Hn. A. Graham (Bute Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray
Houldsworth, Sir Wm. Henry Murray, Charles J. (Coventry) Valentia, Viscount
Hoult, Joseph Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath) Vincent, Sir Edgar (Exeter)
Hudson, George Bickersteth Nicol, Donald Ninian Wanklyn, James Leslie
Hutton, John (Yorks, N. R.) Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay Warr, Augustus Frederick
Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse Palmer, Walter (Salisbury) Wason, John Cathcart(Orkney
Jessel, Capt. Herb. Merton Parkes, Ebenezer Webb, Colonel Wm. George
Johnston, William (Belfast) Peel, Rt. Hn. Wm. Rbt. Wellesley Welby, Lt.-Col. A. C. E. (Taunton
Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex) Pilkington, Lieut.-Col. Richard Welby, Sir Charles G. E. (Notts.)
Kenyon, Hn. Geo. T. (Denbigh Powell, Sir Francis Sharp Whiteley, H (Ashton-u.-Lyne)
Kenyon, James (Lancs., Bury Pretyman, Ernest George Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop Purvis, Robert Wills, Sir Frederick
Kimber, Henry Randles, John S. Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Knowles, Lees Rasch, Maj. Frederic Carne Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks.)
Law, Andrew Bonar Reid, James (Greenock) Wodehouse, Rt. Hn. E. R. (Bath)
Lawson, John Grant Remnant, James Farquharson Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm
Lecky, Rt. Hn. William Edw. H. Renshaw, Charles Bine Wylie, Alexander
Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Renwick, George Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Leigh-Bennett, Henry Currie Ridley, S. Forde (Bethnal Green)
Leveson-Gower, Fred. N. S. Ritchie, Rt. Hon. C. Thomson TELLERS FOR THE AYES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Llewellyn, Evan Henry Robinson, Brooke
Loder, Gerald Walter Erskine Ropner, Colonel Robert
NOES.
Abraham, William (Cork, N. E.) Fenwick, Charles Lundon, W.
Abraham, William (Rhondda) Ffrench, Peter MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A.
Allen, CharlesP. (Glouc., Stroud Field, William Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J.
Ambrose, Robert Flavin, Michael Joseph M'Dermott, Patrick
Asher, Alexander Foster, Sir Walter (Derby Co. Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarthen)
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Gilhooly, James Murphy, John
Blake, Edward Gladstone, Rt. Hn. Herbert J. Nannetti, Joseph P.
Boland, John Griffith, Ellis J. Newnes, Sir George
Brigg, John Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton Nolan, Col. John P. (Galway N.
Broadhurst, Henry Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir William Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South)
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh Hardie, J. Keir (Merthyr Tydvil) Nussey, Thomas Willans
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Hayden, John Patrick O'Brien Kendal (Tipperary Mid.
Burt, Thomas Hobhouse, C. E. H. (Bristol, E.) O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny)
Caldwell, James Hope, John Deans (Fife, West) O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.)
Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) O'Connor, James (Wicklow, W.)
Causton, Richard Knight Jacoby, James Alfred O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool)
Cawley, Frederick Jones, David B. (Swansea) O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.)
Condon, Thomas Joseph Jones, Wm. (Carnarvonshire) O'Dowd, John
Craig, Robert Hunter Joyce, Michael O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.)
Callinan, J. Kearley, Hudson E. O'Kelly, Jas. (Roscommon, N.)
Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan Kennedy, Patrick James O'Malley, William
Delany, William Langley, Batty O'Mara, James
Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh. Layland-Barratt, Francis O'Shaughnessy, P. J.
Doogan, P. C. Leese, Sir Joseph F. (Accrington Palmer, Sir Chas. M. (Durham)
Duffy, William J. Leigh, Sir Joseph Partington, Oswald
Duncan, J. Hastings Levy, Maurice Philipps, John Wynford
Elibank, Master of Lewis, John Herbert Power, Patrick Joseph
Farrell, James Patrick Lough, Thomas Priestley, Arthur
Reddy, M. Sinclair, Capt. John (Forfarsh.) Weir, James Galloway
Redmond, John E. (Waterford) Soares, Ernest J. Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Redmond, William (Clare) Sullivan, Donal Wilson, Henry J. (Yorks, W. R.)
Reid, Sir R. Threshie (Dumfries Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.) Wilson, John (Durham, Mid)
Rickett, J. Compton Thomas, David Alfred (Merthyr Young, Samuel
Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.) Thomas, J. A. (Glam'gan, Gower
Robson, William Snowdon Thomson, F. W. (Yorks,. W. R.) TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Mr. Yoxall and Mr. Corrie Grant.
Samuel, S. M. (Whitechapel) Tully, Jasper
Shaw, Thomas (Hawick B.) Wallace, Robert
Sheehan, Daniel Daniel Walton, J. Lawson (Leeds, S.)

Question put accordingly, "That Clause 2 stand part of the Bill."

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 183; Noes, 107. (Division List No. 365.)

AYES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir A. F. Fisher, William Hayes Lucas, Col. Francis (Lowestoft)
Arkwright, John Stanhope Fitzroy, Hon. Ed ward Algernon Macdona, John Cumming
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Foster, PhilipS. (Warwick. S. W MacIver, David (Liverpool)
Arrol, Sir William Gardner, Ernest Majendie, James A. H.
Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John Garfit, William Malcolm, Ian
Bailey, James (Walworth) Godson, Sir Agustus Frederick Massey-Mainwaring, Hn. W. F.
Bain, Col. James Robert Gordon, Maj Evans-(T'rH'mlets Maxwell, W. J. H. (Dumfriesshire
Balcarres, Lord Gore, Hn. G. R. C. Ormsby (Salop Middlemore, John Throgmort'n
Balfour, Rt. Hn. A. J. (Manch'r Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir John Eldon Molesworth, Sir Lewis
Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornsey) Goschen, Hn. George Joachim Morgan, David J. (Walthamstow
Balfour, Rt. Hn. G. W. (Leeds Goulding, Edward Alfred Morrell, George Herbert
Banbury, Frederick George Greene, Henry D. (Shrewsbury Morris, Hon. Martin Henry F.
Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol) Grenfell, Willian Henry Morrison, James Archibald
Beach, Rt. Hn. W. W. B. (Hants.) Gretton, John Morton, Arthur H. A (Deptford)
Beckett, Ernest William Greville, Hon. Ronald Mount, William Arthur
Bentinck, Lord Henry C. Groves, James Grimble Murray, Rt. Hn. A. Graham (Bute
Bhownaggree, Sir M. M. Guthrie, Walter Murray Murray, Charles J. (Coventry)
Bignold, Arthur Hain, Edward Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath)
Boscawen, Arthur Griffith- Hamilton, Rt. Hn. Lord G (Midx Nicol, Donald Ninian
Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex Hardy, Laurence (Kent, Ashf'rd Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay
Brassey, Albert Haslam, Sir Alfred S. Palmer, Walter (Salisbury)
Brodrick, Rt. Hon. St. John Hay, Hon. Claude George Parkes, Ebenezer
Bull, William James Heath, James (Staffords,N.W. Peel, Hn. Wm. Robert Wellesley
Burdett-Coutts, W. Helder, Augustus Pilkington, Lieut.-Col. Richard
Butcher, John George Hickman, Sir Alfred Powell, Sir Francis Sharp
Carson, Rt. Hn. Sir Edw. H. Higginbottom, S. W. Pretyman, Ernest George
Cautley, Henry Strother Hoare, EdwBrodie (Hampstead Purvis, Robert
Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Hoare, Sir Samuel (Norwich) Randles, John S.
Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbyshire Hope, J. F (Sheffield, Brightside Rasch, Major Frederic Carne
Cayzer, Sir Charles William Houldsworth, Sir Wm. Henry Reid, James (Greenock)
Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Hoult, Joseph Remnant, James Farquharson
Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich) Howard, J. (Midd., Tottenham) Renwick, George
Chamberlain, Rt. Hn. J. (Birm.) Hudson, George Bickersteth Ridley, S. F. (Bethnal Green)
Chamberlain, J. Austen (Worc's. Hutton, John (Yorks, N. R.) Ritchie, Rt. Hn. Chas. Thomson
Cochrane, Hn. Thos. H. A. E. Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse Robinson, Brooke
Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse Jessel, Captain Herbert Merton Ropner, Colonel Robert
Compton, Lord Alwyne Johnston, William (Belfast) Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander
Corbett, A. Cameron (Glasgow) Johnstone, Heywood (Sussex) Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse)
Corbett, T. L. (Down, North) Kenyon, Hon Geo. T. (Denbigh) Scott, Sir S. (Marylebone, W.)
Cox, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Kenyon, James (Lancs., Bury) Seely, Capt. J. E. B. (Isle of Wight
Cranborne, Viscount Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop.) Sharpe, William Edward T.
Cripps, Charles Alfred Kimber, Henry Simeon, Sir Barrington
Cross, Alexander (Glasgow) Knowles, Lees Sinclair, Louis (Romford)
Crossley, Sir Savile Law, Andrew Bonar Smith, James Parker (Lanarks.)
Cust, Henry John C. Lawson, John Grant Smith, Hn. W. F. D. (Strand)
Dalkeith, Earl of Lecky, Rt. Hon. William Edw. H Spear, John Ward
Dickson, Charles Scott Legge, Col. Hon Heneage Stanley, Lord (Lancs.)
Dixon-Poynder, Sir John P. Leigh-Bennett, Henry Currie Stone, Sir Benjamin
Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers- Leveson-Gower, Frederick N. S Stroyan John
Doxford, Sir Wm. Theodore Llewellyn, Evan Henry Strutt, Hon. Chas. Hedley
Duke, Henry Edward Loder, Gerald Walter Erskine Sturt, Hon Humphrey Napier
Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Long, Col. Charles W. (Evesham) Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edward Long, Rt. Hn. Walter (Britol, S) Thorburn, Sir Walter
Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst Lonsdale, John Brownlee Tollemache, Henry James
Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne Lowe, Francis William Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray
Valentia, Viscount Welby, Sir Chas. G. E. (Notts. Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm
Vincent, Sir Edgar (Exeter) Whiteley, H. (Ashton-u.-Lyne) Wylie, Alexander
Wanklyn, James Leslie Willoughby de Eresby, Lord Wyndham, Rt. Hn. George
Warr, Augustus Frederick Wills, Sir Frederick
Wason, John Cathcart (Orkney Wilson, John (Falkirk) TELLERS FOR THE AYES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Webb, Col. Wm. George Wilson-Todd, W. H. (Yorks.)
Welby, Lt.-Col. A. C. E. (Taunt'n Wodehouse, Rt. Hn. E. R. (Bath)
NOES.
Abraham, William (Cork, N. E.) Hardie, J. Keir (Merthyr, Tydvil O'Mara, James
Abraham, William (Rhondda Hayden, John Patrick O'Shaughnessy, P. J.
Allen, Chas, P. (Glouc, Stroud Hobhouse, C. E. H. (Bristol, E. Palmer, Sir Charles M. (Durham
Ambrose, Robert Hope, John Deans (Fife, West) Partington, Oswald
Asher, Alexander Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) Philipps, John Wynford
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Jacoby, James Alfred Power, Patrick Joseph
Blake, Edward Jones, David Brynmor (Swans'a Priestley, Arthur
Boland, John Jones, William (Carnarvonshire Reddy, M.
Brigg, John Joyce, Michael Redmond, John E. (Waterford)
Broadhurst, Henry Kennedy, Patrick James Redmond, William (Clare)
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh Langley, Batty Reid, Sir R. Threshie (Dumfries)
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Layland-Barratt, Francis Rickett, J. Compton
Burt, Thomas Leese, Sir Joseph F. (Aceringt'n Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.)
Caldwell, James Leigh, Sir Joseph Robson, William Snowdon
Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Lewis, John Herbert Samuel, S. M. (Whitechapel)
Cawley, Frederick Lough, Thomas Shaw, Thomas (Hawick B.)
Condon, Thomas Joseph Lundon, W. Sheehan, Daniel Daniel
Craig, Robert Hunter MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A. Sinclair, Capt John (Forfarshire
Cullinan, J. Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J. Soares, Ernest J.
Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan) M'Dermott, Patrick Sullivan, Donal
Delany, William Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarthen) Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E J
Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh. Murphy, John Thomas, David Alfred (Merthyr
Doogan, P. C. Nannetti, Joseph P. Thomas, J. A. (Glamorgan, Gow'r
Duffy, William J. Newnes, Sir George Thomson, F. W. (Yorks., W. R.)
Elibank, Master of Nolan, Col. John P. (Galway, N.) Tully, Jasper
Farrell, James Patrick Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South) Wallace, Robert
Fenwick, Charles Nussey, Thomas Willans Walton, John Lawson (Leeds, S.)
Ffrench, Peter O'Brien, Kendal (Tipperary Mid Weir, James Galloway
Field, William O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny) Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)
Flavin, Michael Joseph O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.) Wilson, Henry J. (Yorks, W. R.)
Foster, Sir Walter (Derby Co.) O'Connor, James (Wicklow, W. Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.>
Gilhooly, James O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool) Young, Samuel
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. Herbert J. O'Donnell, T. (Kerry, W.) Yoxall, James Henry
Grant, Corrie O'Dowd, John
Griffith, Ellis J. O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.) TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Mr. Duncan and Mr. Levy.
Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton O' Kelly, James (Roscommon, N.
Harcourt, Rt. Hn. Sir William O'Malley, William
THE CHAIRMAN

The new clauses standing in the name of the hon. Member for West Nottingham are outside the four corners of the Bill. The new clause standing in the name of the hon. Member for Mid Lanarkshire is also out of order. The Bill cannot extend to Scotland, as it uses phraseology which is only applicable to England. For instance, the words "county boroughs" find no pplication in Scotland. "The Board of Education" does not apply to Scotland, neither do the Technical Instruction Acts, 1889 and 1891 apply to Scotland.

MR. CALDWELL

May I explain that according to statute law the Bill applies to the United Kingdom, unless a special exemption is made. The words "school boards" and "county councils" do apply to Scotland as well as England. There is a great deal in this clause which applies to both England and Scotland. May I point out also that in the Education Act for England and Wales there is a special clause—notwithstanding the title saying that it shall not apply to either Scotland or Ireland. So there is in the Elementary Education Act of 1870. There is nothing to prevent this Act applying to Scotland unless we specially exclude it.

THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. A. GRAHAM MURRAY, Buteshire)

The question whether an Act applies to Scotland or not is always deduced from the terms of the Act. There are many cases in which no special clause excluding Scotland has been inserted.

MR. THOMAS SHAW (Hawick Burghs)

May I say, with all respect for the ruling of the Chair, that my fear is that serious questions may be raised in the future. You, Sir, have referred to certain terms employed in Clause 1, but may I point out that it is perfectly possible to equate the operative provisions of the Bill apart altogether from those terms. Where, for instance, you have a delinquent school board misapplying school funds, the Bill might be equally applicable to Scotland and to England. You might have, in fact, very serious arguments put forward if you do not insert the clause providing that the Bill shall not apply to Scotland. If there is any doubt on the point, I do hope that steps will be taken to remove it.

THE CHAIRMAN

I have listened carefully to the statement of the hon. Member, and I see no reason to alter my decision.

MR. LAWSON WALTON (Leeds, S.)

said he had intended to move the addition of a sub-section to the first section, and he desired now to move it as a new clause.

THE CHAIRMAN

said it should have been brought forward as a sub-section to the main clause.

MR. LAWSON WALTON

said he put it down originally as an Amendment to the first clause purely as a matter of symmetrical arrangement, but he would

point out that the sub-section was entirely independent of the first clause. It should also be borne in mind that he was prevented moving it by the application of the closure. What his clause proposed to do was to establish appellate machinery for cases in which the county could have acted capriciously, to provide for cases in which there was a difference of opinion as to the terms on which education was to be carried on, and to deal with the impasse which might arise by the county council refusing to entertain this jurisdiction. He would suggest with very great respect that the clause dealt with an entirely new matter, and he asked leave, therefore, to propose it:

THE CHAIRMAN

The hon. Member has submitted two points, one of substance and the other of form. As to the question of form, the proposal ought to have been made part of the main clause, and he himself showed that that was his view by actually putting it down as an Amendment to that clause. As to the question of substance, I do not know whether it will be any consolation to the hon. Member to know that if he had moved the proposal as an Amendment to the clause, it would have been ruled out of order. The question is that "I report this Bill without Amendment to the House."

Question put, "That the Chairman do report the Bill, without amendment, to the House."

The Committee divided:—Ayes, 171: Noes, 98. (Division List No. 366.)

AYES.
Acland-Hood, Capt. Sir A. F. Bignold, Arthur Chamberlain, J Austen (Worc'r
Arkwright, John Stanhope Boscawen, Arthur Griffith. Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E.
Arnold-Forster, Hugh O. Bowles, Capt. H. F. (Middlesex Collings, Rt. Hon. Jesse
Arrol, Sir William Brassey, Albert Compton, Lord Alwyne
Atkinson, Rt. Hon. John Brodrick, Rt. Hon. St. John Corbett, A. Cameron (Glasgow.
Bain, Colonel James Robert Bull, William James Corbett, T. L. (Down, North)
Balcarres, Lord Burdett-Coutts, W. Cox, Irwin Edward Bainbridge
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J. (Manch'r Butcher, John George Cranborne, Viscount
Balfour, Capt. C. B. (Hornsey) Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edw. H. Cripps, Charles Alfred
Balfour, Rt. Hn. Gerald W. (Leeds Cautley, Henry Strother Cross, Alexander (Glasgow)
Banbury, Frederick George Cavendish, R. F. (N. Lancs.) Crossley, Sir Savile
Beach, Rt. Hn. Sir M. H. (Bristol) Cavendish, V. C. W. (Derbyshire Cust, Henry John C.
Beach, Rt. Hon. W. W. B. (Hants. Cayzer, Sir Charles William Dalkeith, Earl of
Beckett, Ernest William Cecil, Evelyn (Aston Manor) Dickson, Charles Scott
Bentinck, Lord Henry C. Cecil, Lord Hugh (Greenwich Dickson-Poynder, Sir J. P.
Bhownaggree, Sir M. M. Chamberlain, Rt. Hn. J. (Birm. Douglas, Rt. Hon. A. Akers-
Doxford, Sir William Theodore Knowles, Lees Ridley, S. Forde(Bethnal Green)
Duke, Henry Edward Law, Andrew Bonar Ritchie, Rt. Hn. C. Thomson
Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Lawson, John Grant Robinson, Brooke
Fellowes, Hon. Ailwyn Edward Legge, Col. Hon. Heneage Ropner, Colonel Robert
Fielden, Edward Brocklehurst Leigh-Bennett, Henry Currie Sadler, Col. Samuel Alexander
Finlay, Sir Robert Bannatyne Leveson Gower, Frederick N. S Samuel, Harry S. (Limehouse)
Fisher, William Hayes Llewellyn, Evan Henry Seely, Capt. J. E. B. (Isle of Wight
Fitzroy, Hon. Edward Algernon Loder, Gerald W. Erskine Simeon, Sir Barrington
Foster, Philip S. (Warwick, S. W. Long, Col. Charles W. (Evesham) Sinclair, Louis (Romford)
Gardner, Ernest Long, Rt. Hn. Walter (Bristol, S.) Smith, James Parker (Lanarks.
Garfit, William Lonsdale, John Brownlee Smith, Hon. W. F. D. (Strand)
Gordon, Maj Evans (T'rH'mlets Lowe, Francis William Spear, John Ward
Gore, Hn. G. R. C. Ormsby (Salop Lucas, Col. Francis (Lowestoft) Stanley, Lord (Lancs)
Gorst, Rt. Hon. Sir john Eldon Macdona, John Cumming Stone, Sir Benjamin
Goschen, Hon. George Joachim MacIver, David (Liverpool) Stroyan, John
Greene, Henry D. (Shrewsbury) Majendie, James A. E. Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley
Grenfell, William Henry Malcolm, Ian Sturt, Hon. Humphry Napier
Greville, Hon. Ronald Massey-Mainwaring, Hn. W. F. Talbot, Lord E. (Chichester)
Groves, James Grimble Maxwell, W. J. H (Dumfriesshire Thorburn, Sir Walter
Guthrie, Walter Murray Middlemore, John Throgmort'n Tollemache, Henry James
Hain, Edward Molesworth, Sir Lewis Tomlinson, Wm. Edw. Murray
Hamilton, Rt. Hn. Lord G (Midd'x Morgan, David J. (Walthamstow Valentia, Viscount
Hamilton, Marq. Of (L'donderry) Morrell, George Herbert Vincent, Sir Edgar (Exeter)
Hardy, Laurence (Kent Ashford Morris, Hon. Martin Henry F. Wanklyn, James Leslie
Haslam, Sir Alfred S. Morrison, James Archibald Warr, Augustus Frederick
Hay, Hon. Claude George Morton, Arthur H. A. (Deptford Webb, Colonel William George
Heath, James (Staffords, N. W.) Murray, Rt. Hn A Graham (Bute Welby, Lt.-Col. A. C. E (Taunton)
Holder, Augustus Murray, Charles J. (Coventry) Welby, Sir Chas. G. E. (Notts.)
Higginbottom, S. W. Murray, Col. Wyndham (Bath) Whiteley, H. (Ashton und. Lyne
Hoare, Edw Brodie (Hampstead Nicol, Donald Ninian Willoughby de Eresby, Lord
Hope, J. F. (Sheffield, Brightside Orr-Ewing, Charles Lindsay Wills, Sir Frederick
Houldsworth, Sir Wm. Henry Palmer, Walter (Salisbury Wilson, John (Falkirk)
Hoult, Joseph Parkes, Ebenezer Wilson-Todd, Wm. H. (Yorks)
Howard, J. (Mid., Tottenham) Peel, Hn. Wm. Robert Wellesley Wodehouse, Rt. Hon. E. R. (Bath
Hudson, George Bickersteth Pilkington, Lieut.-Col. Richard Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm
Hutton, John (Yorks, N. R.) Powell, Sir Francis Sharp Wylie, Alexander
Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse Pretyman, Ernest George Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George
Jessel, Captain Herbert Merton Purvis, Robert
Johnston, William (Belfast) Randles, John S. TELLERS FOR THE AYES—Sir William Walrond and Mr. Anstruther.
Kenyon, Hon. Geo. T. (Denbigh. Rasch, Major Frederic Carne
Kenyon, James (Lancs, Bury) Reid, James (Grenock)
Kenyon-Slaney, Col. W. (Salop. Remnant, James Farquharson
Kimber, Henry Renwick, George
NOES.
Abraham, William (Cork, N. E.) Ffrench, Peter Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarthen
Abraham, Wm. (Rhondda) Flavin, Michael Joseph Murphy, John
Allen, Charles P. (Glouc., Stroud Foster, Sir Walter (Derby Co.) Nannetti, Joseph P.
Ambrose, Robert Gilhooly, James Newnes, Sir George
Asher, Alexander Grant, Corrie Nolan, Col. John P. (Galway, N.)
Barry, E. (Cork, S.) Griffith, Ellis J. Nolan, Joseph (Louth, South)
Boland, John Gurdon, Sir W. Brampton Nussey, Thomas Willans
Brigg, John Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir William O'Brien, Kendal (Tipperary Mid
Broadhurst, Henry Hardie, J. Keir (Merthyr Tydvil) O'Brien, Patrick (Kilkenny)
Brown, George M. (Edinburgh) Hayden, John Patrick O'Brien, P. J. (Tipperary, N.)
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James Hobhouse, C. E. H. (Bristol, E. O'Connor, James (Wicklow, W.
Burt, Thomas Hope, John Deans (Fife, West O'Connor, T. P. (Liverpool)
Caldwell, James Hutton, Alfred E. (Morley) O'Donnell, T. Kerry, W.
Campbell, John (Armagh, S.) Jacoby, James Alfred O'Dowd, John
Cawley, Frederick Jones, David Brynmor (Sw'ns'a O'Kelly, Conor (Mayo, N.)
Condon, Thomas Joseph Joyce, Michael O'Kelly, James (Roscommon N.
Craig, Robert Hunter Kennedy, Patrick James O'Malley, William
Cullinan, J. Langley, Batty O'Mara, James
Davies, M. Vaughan-(Cardigan) Layland-Barratt, Francis O'Shaughnessy, P. J.
Delany, William Leese, Sir Joseph F. (Accringt'n Palmer, Sir Charles M. (Durham
Dewar, John A. (Inverness-sh. Leigh, Sir Joseph Philips, John Wynford
Doogan, P. C. Levy, Maurice Power, Patrick Joseph
Duffy, William J. Lundon, W. Reddy, M.
Duncan, J. Hastings MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A. Redmond, John E. (Waterford)
Farrell, James Patrick Macnamara, Dr. Thomas J. Redmond, William (Clare)
Fenwick, Charles M'Dermott, Patrick Reid, Sir R. Threshie (Dumfries)
Rickett, J. Compton Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.) Wilson, Henry J. (York, W. R.)
Roberts, John H. (Denbighs.) Thomas, David Alfred (Merthyr Wilson, John (Durham, Mid.)
Robson, William Snowdon Thomson, F. W. (York, W. R.) Young, Samuel
Samuel, S. M. (Whitechapel) Tully, Jasper Yoxall, James Henry
Shaw, Thomas (Hawick B) Wallace, Robert
Sheehan, Daniel Daniel Walton, John Lawson (Leeds, S.) TELLERS FOR THE NOES—Mr. Herbert Gladstone and Captain Sinclair.
Soares, Ernest J. Weir, James Galloway
Sullivan, Donal Whitley, J. H. (Halifax)

Bill reported, without amendment; to be read the third time upon Monday next.