Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/107

 1899.] The Education Estimates. [99

did not think it in accordance with good sense or good feeling that Sir J. Gorst should remain in the position he occupied. Mr. Cripps {Stroud, Gloucestershire) could not allow that the department unduly favoured Church schools : the exact opposite was the case. As to the aid-grant, the requirements of "my lords" had more than swallowed up all the benefits which might have accrued from it. Sir Henry Fowler (Wolverhampton, E.) complained that in 8,000 parishes people were obliged to send their children to voluntary schools whether they liked the teaching in them or not. Under such conditions the parents ought to have some control over the schools. Mr. T. P. O'Connor (Scotland, Liverpool) admitted the grievance; indeed he claimed for the Nonconformist what he claimed for the Boman Catholic child — namely, that he should be brought up without any offence or prejudice to the faith of his fathers. Mr. Lloyd-George (Carnarvon Boroughs) maintained that even under the board school system Boman Catholics received special privileges. In a maiden speech, 4 Mr. Middlemore (Birmingham, N.) criticised the Government for not themselves taking up the question of raising the school age. Sir John Lubbock (London University) sympathised with those who thought it a hardship to have to contribute both to voluntary and board schools, and suggested that subscriptions to the former in any given district should be treated as a set-off against the school board rate. Mr. Yoxall (Nottingham, W.) hoped that during the coming year the department would set themselves to formulate a plan for allotting the grant on the " block system " which prevailed in Scotland, whereby a school received its share, not in proportion to the number of subjects taken, but in proportion to the general efficiency of the work. Mr. Bryce (Aberdeen, S.), who described the Vice-President as "not a skipper, not even a pilot, but merely a boatswain," considered that if we were ever to bring our rural schools up to the level of those in Germany or Switzer- land we should have to rely less on pupil-teachers. Sir J. Gorst, in reply, vindicated the department from the charge of indifference to the interests of Nonconformists, and declared that he knew of no case in which a Nonconformist pupil-teacher as such had been treated tyrannically ; accusations to that effect had been brought, but they had not been substantiated. A Government Bill to meet the needs of defective children was being prepared and would be pressed forward. Sir H. Campbell- Bannerman followed in the same strain as Mr. Birrell regarding the official position of the Vice-President, who, they declared, showed a strange lack of regard for his own personal dignity by retaining a position in which he was unable to give effect to his avowed views, and by showing contempt for his office, his department and his chief. The reduction having been negatived by 155 to 71 votes, Mr. Balfour thereupon moved the closure, which was carried by 153 to 63 votes, and the vote agreed to. On the report of the vote being brought up (May 1) Sir John

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