§ EARL GRANVILLErose for the purpose of fulfilling the pledge he made to the House the other night, to lay on the table the alterations proposed to be made in the Revised Code. (The noble Earl then presented, by command, the changes proposed to be introduced into the Revised Code of the Committee of Council on Education, as last printed.) He would very briefly state their substance, without entering into any arguments upon them. First of all, 832 with respect to the grant. What was not proposed was that 4s. a year should fee given to the schools in virtue of the average attendance of the scholars at the school, and that the rest of the grant should depend on individual examination, the school being entitled to 8s. for every child who should have attended 200 times, and on examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic, not fail, in any one. On failure in any one of these elementary branches a third of the 8s. would be deducted. With regard to the mode of examination, the grouping by age was given up and what Was now proposed was that, instead of four standard examinations, two should be added, making six standard examinations altogether, and the children were, to be., examined according to those standards in the manner in which the managers or masters should present them. But the school was riot to receive any grant—and he, was sure their Lordships would not think this condition reasonable—in virtue of children only passing the standard examination which they had succeeded in passing in the previous year. With regard to the obligations of the managers towards existing pupil-teachers the question would be arranged thus—in case, under the operation of the Revised Code the grants received by the managers should not suffice to meet the existing payments to the pupil-teachers, the central office would undertake that their full salaries should be provided for them during their period of service, so that no burden on that account would be thrown upon the managers. These were the changes to which the Government were prepared to agree. His own individual opinion of the modifications which had been assented to was that they were not improvements, because their tendency would be to diminish the economical working of the system, and in some measure to weaken the stimulus by which they wished to correct the defects pointed out by the Royal Commission. The Government had endeavoured fully and fairly to meet the general feeling exhibited in another place. For, thank God, we did not live under an absolute Government, and therefore the general feelings and opinions of all parties could be consulted. At the same time he was bound to say, that if any further relaxations were made, the scheme itself would not, in his opinion, be worth continuing; but he hoped and believed, that even with the present concessions, enormous advantages would be derived 833 from the plan now to be carried out, because it would enable them to get rid of all the complications so much complained of, and in favour of which no one had said a single word. It would simplify the arrangements between the Privy Council Office and the managers, and would give a great stimulus to the education of the labouring population. There was one other point on which he was desirous of saying a word. He had been appealed to by a good many of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools to defend them from aspersions which had been cast upon them. Some of those gentlemen he did not know, beyond that he had the pleasure of corresponding with them; others were old and valued friends. Now, he thought their Lordships would bear him out in saying that, in any thing that he had said in that House he did not remember one word otherwise than in just praise of the meritorious exertions of that valuable body of men in carrying out the existing minutes of the Privy Council. He had also read very carefully the speeches of the Vice President in another place, and he could not find in them any aspersions whatever upon the Inspectors; nor did the Report of the Royal Commission contain remarks which could be construed into anything of the kind. Some individual charges had been made in another place by a right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Adderley), who had addressed that House with very great ability with regard to the Roman Catholic Inspectors; but a correspondence had taken place between that right hon. Gentleman and the senior Roman Catholic Inspector, and he was sure that that correspondence would be perfectly satisfactory to the parties concerned. The noble Lord on the back bench (Lord Belper) had, indeed, the other night stated that if the Report of the Commissioners was correct, the Inspectors must have deceived the public. But his noble Friend, he apprehended, had used that expression only argumentatively, and did not intend to draw from the Report any inference of, that kind. He did not speak after the noble Lord, or he should have alluded to that remark at the time; but his noble Friend the Lord Privy Seal pointed out the very different duty imposed upon the Inspectors and the Assistant Commissioners. The inference, indeed, could not possibly be correct, because the Royal Commissioners founded the greater part of their charges with regard to deficiency; in reading upon the reports of the In- 834 spectors, there being no less than seven Inspectors whose reports had a bearing upon that point. Her Majesty's Inspectors were a most faithful body of very able men, who had acted most efficiently under the existing system, and under the instructions which they had received. Those instructions applied to the examination of pupil-teachers, but not with the same strictness to the examination of individual scholars. He therefore begged to bear his testimony that the Inspectors had discharged their duty in the honourable manner which might have been expected.
§ LORD BELPERbegged to say, that nothing could have been further from his intention than to cast any imputation on the Inspectors; so far from that, his argument was intended to have quite a contrary bearing. When the Inspectors reported that in the case of 80 or 90 per cent of the scholars reading and writing had been well taught, and the Commissioners reported so very differently, he expressed his regret that the Inspectors themselves were not called upon to explain what they meant, instead of having the explanation put into their mouth. Had they been asked, they would probably have been able to give an explanation which might have reconciled this apparent contradiction.
§ EARL STANHOPEsaid, he was glad that the modifications had been laid in a tangible form before the House; but any comments upon them would be better postponed until the papers were printed. There was one point, however, to which he wished to call attention, and that was with reference to a pledge which had been given in another place—which was indeed embodied in Mr. Walpole's 12th Resolution—that in future years no changes should be made in the system of public education without being first brought by the Government of the day under the cognizance of Parliament. He should be glad to learn from the noble Earl, that if any changes in future should be made, they would be laid before Parliament in the beginning- of the Session.
§ EARL GRANVILLEwas understood to say that the whole matter would come on for discussion on an early day after the Easter recess.