THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCHpresented a large number of Petitions from Bodies and places in Scotland on the subject of the Scotch Education Act. The noble Duke said, that these Petitions were all very similar in tone, and their general prayer was that a permanent Board of Education might be established in Scotland in connection with the Board of Education in London. The Petitioners urged their prayer more especially on the ground that the standard of education in Scotland, in their opinion, had been lowered, instead of raised by the present Code. They did not deny that some special subjects, such as elementary instruction in Botany or other particular branches of science had been introduced; but they did not consider that the higher branches of education had met with that encouragement that they ought to have met with. Scotch gentlemen and farmers complained very bitterly that the present education in parochial schools did not include the higher branches, such as Latin and mathematics. As their Lordships were aware, it was the habit of boys in Scotland to go to the Universities at a much earlier age than in England, and formerly they were enabled to acquire in the parochial schools all the instruction in Latin and mathematics which they required. They attributed the change, to a considerable extent, to the fact that it was more profitable to the schoolmaster to return a great number of children in the lower branch of purely 643 elementary education, than to devote their time and attention to the higher subjects of classics and mathematics. This was not the feeling of a few, or of a Party on one side or the other, but it was almost universal in Scotland, and instead of becoming lessened, gathered strength daily. Indeed, it must be a pretty strong indication of their feeling upon the standard of education when they found among the Petitions sent to their Lordships so many Petitions from schoolmasters in Scotland, who themselves considered that it had been unnecessarily and unwisely lowered. He hoped his noble Friend the Lord President would take the matter into consideration. The Government seemed to forget that in England elementary education had not been furnished to the people till recently; but in Scotland the case was quite different, because there an excellent system of education had been furnished for upwards of 200 years in parochial schools. It might be said that the children could go to secondary schools; but in Scotland few of them existed, except in large towns; and the children of parents who resided in the pastoral and agricultural districts required good instruction quite as much as the children who lived in cities or large towns. There were many places where the inhabitants complained most bitterly of the loss they had sustained by not being able to obtain for their children that superior instruction in the parochial schools which they had afforded for the last 250 years, and they prayed their Lordships' serious attention to the subject. This was, indeed, no light matter, and he himself saw the necessity of remedying the evil, and he sincerely hoped that by the few words he had said he would have drawn his noble Friend's attention to it.
THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDONsaid, that as his noble Friend had so pointedly alluded to him, and asked his attention to the Petitions he had presented, he should be wanting in that respect he felt for him if he did not rise and acknowledge the appeal that he had made. At the same time, while admitting, as he did, the immense importance of the subject to which his noble Friend had alluded, he could not altogether agree with the conclusions at which he had arrived. He knew the question had excited considerable discussion and controversy in Scotland; but 644 he believed that, on the whole, the education given in the parochial schools of Scotland was not inferior to that afforded in former years. If he had been aware that the subject was going to be brought forward, and that his noble Friend was about to enter into details, he should have been prepared to give him a more complete answer to his appeal than he could do at the present time. He thought that if his noble Friend would read the Report which had been issued by the Scotch Commission of Council on Education, he would see in it figures and information which would induce him to modify some of the statements he had made. He would remind the noble Duke that the general subject of education, not alone in Scotland, but also in England and Ireland, was of such magnitude and importance that it never could be absent from the minds of any Government; and Her Majesty's present Government had shown their desire to deal with the question by the Acts they had passed or were still considering. He would assure the noble Duke that the subject of education in Scotland would receive the highest consideration at their hands.
§ Petitions ordered to lie on the Table.