Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/97

 1899.] The Board of Education Bill. [89

time exhibited, there was a perfect paean of approbation both from the Press and the public, in consequence of which a con- siderable sum of money poured in for the continuance of the work. As to the stencilling of the stone under the dome, that the dean had assured the deputation of architects who waited on him was entirely experimental, and it had already been stopped.

The Board of Education Bill, which although to a great extent a permissive bill if carried out in a sympathetic spirit, aimed at reviving the responsibilities of local school managers. In the debate on the second reading many interesting speeches were made by those possessing special means of judging the value of its recommendations. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Temple) did not think it possible for any who took interest in the education of the country not to rejoice at the appearance of this bill. It was the first attempt to do what, in his judgment, ought to have been done something like five and twenty years sooner, because, through all that time, our educational system had been suffering from the want of that completeness which was necessary in order that any part of it should work as well as it was possible to make it work. He hoped that private schools would be allowed to obtain inspection on the same terms as any of the other schools. Nor should schools which gave religious instruction be hindered from getting inspection on the same terms exactly as schools which did not give such instruction. To put a kind of fine on schools which gave religious instruction by making them pay for inspection seemed to him neither wise nor just, and he trusted the bill would make explicit and satisfactory provision on this point. The Marquess of Ripon sincerely regretted the limitations of the bill. He had hoped ministers would have seen their way to deal with secondary education as a whole. The Bishop of Winchester (Dr. Randall Davidson) agreed that the bill did not go far enough, but it went in the right direction, and it was a practical measure. The Earl of Kimberley also criticised the bill as inadequate. So far as it went, however, it was an improvement on the measure introduced last year. The Duke of Devonshire said that though the Government deemed it desirable completely to reorganise the Education Department before the new local authorities were called into existence, he knew of no insurmountable reason why a measure dealing with those authorities should not be passed next session. As to inspection there were, he believed, some 800 public and 5,000 private schools. The systematic inspection of the latter would obviously require a very large and highly trained staff, and for financial as well as other reasons such a staff would scarcely be at the disposal of the Education Board in the near future. While thanking the Primate for the general Support he had given to the measure, he regretted that the religious question should have been raised in connection with it. There was nothin in the bill before them to change, and he knew of no inte;