§ LORD NORTONMy Lords, I beg to ask the noble Duke, the Lord President of the Council, if he can inform the House when he hopes to introduce his Education Bill.
§ THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (The DUKE of DEVONSHIRE)My Lords, it might possibly lead to some misapprehension if I did not make a slight correction, which I think ought to be made, in the terms of the question of my noble Friend. He describes the Bill which is referred to in the Queen's Speech as an Education Bill. Now, the Bills which I introduced last year were for the creation of a Board of Education and for the registration of teachers. Neither of those Bills can properly be described as an Education Bill. The Measure which I shall introduce will not, so far as I am at present aware, go beyond the scope of the Bill which I introduced to this House last year. As to the time when I hope to introduce the Bill, it may be remembered that in making a statement on the subject last year I expressed the hope that the Measures which I then laid on the Table of the House would receive a certain amount of examination and criticism during the Recess. Owing to the time at which that statement was made, anything of the nature of examination and criticism was delayed for a considerable period, and it was only very recently that I received some suggestions from some most important bodies connected with and interested in education. Of course, it is my desire as far as possible to give full consideration to any suggestions of that character which I may receive, and this fact has delayed to a certain extent the preparation of the 1420 Bill, which I think will probably contain some minor alteration of the Measure which I laid on the Table of the House last year. However, I hope that in the course of this or, at the latest, of the following week I may be able to present a Bill, and at the same time to name the day when the Second Reading will be taken.