§ LORD TAUNTONasked the Lord President, Whether it is his intention to introduce a Bill to provide that offices given in Grammar Schools shall be subject to such regulations in future as Parliament may lay down? It was not his intention to enter into the merits of the Report on Middle Class Education; but he thought it was impossible for anyone to have read the part of that Report which related to the present state of the endowed grammar schools of this country, which were about 800 in number, without seeing that the time had fully come when, if Parliament intended to do its duty by the education of this country, it ought to insist upon putting those schools on a very different footing from that on which they now stood. There could be no security for the good management of these institutions unless power was placed in the hands of the trustees and visitors to dismiss the masters, unless they showed themselves competent to attract scholars and to conduct the schools in a satisfactory manner; and it was also highly necessary that any appointments that might be made to the masterships of grammar schools should be subject to the future action of Parliament. Many of these masters received salaries of £300 and £400 a-year, with a house, and they were bound to receive the pupils that presented themselves. He was far from bringing any charge against the whole body of masters, but many of them had very few pupils, and some were without a single pupil, and pursued a course which was calculated to deter pupils from coming to their schools. One of the Assistant Commissioners reported that he found a case in which the master of an endowed school had but a single pupil, whose education was by no means what might have been expected. When the Assistant Commissioner hinted to this master that he must have mistaken his vocation, and that it 1783 was desirable he should retire, he replied, "I do not want pupils. I have £300 a-year, and I will not retire unless on my full salary." And it was doubtful whether anyone could turn him out. The circumstances of the Session were not such as to induce the Government to bring in measures which were likely to be much controverted; but it was important that such a measure should be passed during the present Session, and a Bill of a single clause would be sufficient.
THE DUKE OF MARYBOROUGHsaid, that great weight and importance should be attached to the observations of the noble Lord, who was Chairman of the Commission on Endowed Grammar Schools. These masters enjoyed a kind of freehold position, and the difficulty of legislation to meet the cases referred to by the noble Lord was increased by the necessity of compensating the masters whose retirement might be thought desirable. He quite concurred in the opinion that no new interests should be created pending legislation on this subject, and he had been in communication with his right hon. Friend the Home Secretary with a view to the introduction of a Bill to limit the interests of those who might be appointed to offices in endowed grammar schools, so that Parliament might be left free to deal with the matter in the next Session. A measure would be prepared at once, and it would be his duty to lay it upon their Lordships' table as soon as possible.
§ LORD TAUNTONsuggested that the Bill might also be applicable to the appointment of new trustees.
§ THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGHsaid, that this matter would be considered by the legal gentleman entrusted with the preparation of the Bill.