§ LORD BUCKHURST,in explanation of the object of his Motion, said, that in 1862 an Act was passed authorizing Boards of Guardians to place pauper children in other than union schools. In 1866 another Act was passed authorizing the Poor Law Board, on the application of the next of kin, or of the godfather or godmother, to remove a child from the union school to another school for the purpose of having it educated in the religion of its parents. In 1868 an Act was passed which required a register to be kept of the religion of the children in the workhouses. The object of these successive Acts was to secure that the children in the union whose parents were Roman Catholics should be educated in that religion—whereas previous to 1860 all such children had been brought up in the creed of the Church of England. After the passing of the Act of 1866 193 schools for the education of pauper children in the Roman Catholic religion were got up by private charity. That being so, he was surprised a short time ago to read a statement showing that a difference of practice in respect of such children existed in different Boards. The statement was one from the secretary of the Westminster Diocesan Education Fund—a Roman Catholic institution—to the Guardians of the Holborn Union, which complained of the grievance to Irish Roman Catholics of Boards of Guardians, causing large numbers of Roman Catholic children to be brought up Protestants. On seeing that statement he wrote to the secretary of the fund, who repeated the statement in a letter to him. If the statement was correct the action of the Guardians who brought up those children in a religion different from that of their parents was contrary to the spirit of the English law, to the intentions of the Legislature, and to the distinct terms of an Act of Parliament. With the view of eliciting official information on the subject, he begged to move for, Return of the number of children of Roman Catholic parents in each Union School in England and Wales on the 1st of January, 1873; also the number in each Union who have been taken into private asylums between the 1st of January, 1872, and the 1st of January, 1873.
THE EARL OF MORLEYsaid, he would consent to the Motion, subject to some slight alterations in the form of the Return, to which he understood that the noble Lord assented. He desired, however, to remind the noble Lord that if information was laid before the Local Government Board that a board of guardians did not voluntarily send the Roman Catholic children in their union to certificated schools, the President of the Board immediately examined into the case; and if he considered it a fit case for interference, made the necessary order. In some unions the number of Roman Catholic children was so large that provision was made within the union itself for the education of those children in their own faith, and they were not transferred to a Roman Catholic school.
§
Motion amended: Address for
Return of the number of children entered as Roman Catholics in the creed register of the several workhouses, separate workhouse schools,
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and district schools in England and Wales on the 1st January 1873; also the number of Roman Catholic children who have been transferred from such workhouses, separate workhouse schools, and district schools between the 1st January 1872 and the 1st January 1873 to schools certified under the 25th and 26th Viet. chap. 43.—(The Lord Buckhurst.)
§ House adjourned at Six o'clock, till To-morrow, half past Ten o'clock.