proper mode of giving effect to the trusts of the school-house, unless sufficient guarantee is given for the effective continuance of the school as a certified efficient school for a period of at least five years." A certified efficient school is a school within the law in this sense, that to attend it is to obey the law, but it does not receive any assistance from the rates or taxes. 'If they are of opinion that the best mode of giving effect to the trust is to allow the local education authority to use the school-house for the purposes of a public elementary school they may by the scheme require the local education authority to comply with such conditions as to payment, otherwise not being inconsistent with this Act, as they think just." That is, they will have the power of fixing pecuniary inducements or recompense to the school which may be transferred, if transferred it is, by any scheme they may offer. That is the clause, so far as I think I need read it.

The Rights of Teachers.

There are certain clauses relating to teachers which I think of importance. One is that a teacher employed in a public elementary school shall not be required, if he has conscientious objections, to give any religious instruction as part of his duties as a teacher. We also save the rights of all existing teachers in existing voluntary schools which may be transferred. Their appointment will be in no way affected by the fact that the owners of the school transfer it to the local authority. Their rights will be preserved.

The Finance of the Bill.

The House will certainly expect me to say one word about finance. This Bill means money. The Duke of Devonshire, speaking, I think, on the third reading of the Bill of 1902, said he thought that when what he called Cowper-Temple religion applied to the voluntary schools of the country, half of them would close their doors. How far that was a sound speculation I have no means whatever of saying. We are dealing, I admit, with things which it is impossible, accurately and entirely, to apprehend. Men will differ as to the number of the schools which will readily avail themselves of the proposals of this Bill. For my own part, I cannot but believe that many of them, the majority of them, after full consideration, will see that this is a proposal which they can well accept in the interests of a national settlement of this great question. It is proposed in connection with the Bill to give, in addition to all the existing grants from the Exchequer in aid of public elementary education, a further annual grant of £1,000,000. The actual cost which will be thrown upon the local education authority as a consequence of the Bill cannot be estimated at the present moment with any approach to certainty. Much will depend upon the spirit of mutual concession which may actuate the local education authorities on the one side, and the trustees and owners of the existing non-provided schools on the other. It seems most unlikely, however, that an annual grant of

£1,000,000 will not be far in excess of the actual charge which the Bill will throw upon local education authorities. This sum represents a capital of between £20,000,000 and £25,000,000, allowing for interest at from 3 to 3 per cent., and for a sinking fund of 1 per cent., and it is quite clear that the value of the use of the non-provided schools for which the local education authorities would have to pay does not reach anything like this amount. It is proposed that the grant of £1,000,000 shall be distributed in aid of the local education rate upon terms to be laid down hereafter in the Education Code. Parliament will have a full opportunity of discussing those terms, both on the consideration of the code itself and on the Estimates. But it is not advisable to lay down at once the conditions on which this additional grant will be distributed. In the first place, it is necessary for the Board of Education to have some considerable experience of the arrangements made under the Bill between the local education authorities and the trustees of the non-provided schools. Without such experience no estimate can be formed of the probable additional burden in consequence of the Bill in individual areas. In the second place, it is most inadvisable to promise to meet out of a grant from the Exchequer the whole cost-whatever it may be— of acquiring the non-provided schools. The arrangements must be made by the local education authorities, who are in the best position to negotiate on favourable terms, and it is essential to give them every inducement to exercise economy. While, as has been said already, the total amount of the grant will probably be greatly in excess of the total new burden imposed, leaving a wide margin for particular difficulties that particular authorities may have to contend with, it is not proposed that the State shall take over the burden of extravagant expenditure to which any local authority might commit itself. The general principle upon which the Board of Education will proceed in the ultimate distribution of the new grant will be to have regard both to the actual increase of local burden consequent upon the Bill and to the existing amount of the education rate.

Educational Endowments.

I have detained the House a very long time. The Bill is divided into five parts. The first part I have explained, I think, sufficiently for the necessities of the moment. The second part deals with what is an enormously important subject educational endowments. Its object is to make them as serviceable as possible for the advancement of education and to consolidate, simplify, and improve the administrative machinery now in use. At present the Board of Education make schemes for educational endowments under two sets of Acts known as the Charitable Trusts Act and the Endowed Schools Acts, which, with the necessary commentary, make up a very heavy volume. The Bill substitutes for these highly technical statutes and for their diverse and complicated procedures, a single procedure embodied in a few simple clauses designed to be intelli

gible to the ordinary parochial elector. It widens as well as strengthens the Board's powers, and by establishing a more elastic jurisdiction will, it is hoped, facilitate the settlement of controversies which have in the past been a serious obstacle to educational progress. It rests its procedure on the principle, adopted as long ago as 1868 by the great Schools Inquiry Commission (of which the late Lord Iddesleigh, Dean Hook, and Archbishop Temple were members) that "Parliament is the only body that can be considered as the supreme trustee of endowments. I do not think it will be any use for me to go through these highly technical clauses, though I think when they are read they will make their meaning quite plain, and will, I am sure, be the subject of much interest and discussion when they come to be considered by the House, after hon. members have had an opportunity of seeing the Bill in print and making themselves conversant with its terms. The third part of the Act deals with divers reforms-administrative reformswhich, I think, are well worthy of the consideration of the House. Among them is the power of delegation, of devolution, to which I have already referred. There is a clause extending the period for the repayment of money borrowed by a county council from thirty years to sixty years. This will tend to make money cheap. We also propose to abolish the 2d. limit.

Wales.

The fourth part of the Bill relates to a council for Wales. That, however, is a matter with which I do not now propose to deal. Singular unanimity upon the subject appears to prevail, not only among Welsh members in this House, but amongst the Welsh counties themselves; and certainly if on investigation it is found that this country can hand over to Wales whatever her share may be of moneys allocated to education and leave her to distribute it in her own way, Whitehall will have no occasion to regret her departure.

Consolidation of the Law.

There is one important matter on which I should like to say a word, and that is that the present law relating to elementary education generally is a hopeless mess. It is found in a variety of statutes, references backwards and forwards from one to another are necessary, and the whole thing is most discreditable. The law as it is at present, quite apart from anything contained in this Bill, has been consolidated by a distinguished draftsman, and it is ready for consideration. I hope that after Easter the House will allow me -it can only be done by consent to take that Bill through its early stages, and refer it to a Select Committee in order that its terms may be considered. It is purely a consolidating measure, unless it be in one tiny respect, in regard to the vexed subject of school attendance. In order really to consolidate that law one or two trivial alterations appear to be necessary; and an instruction or

something of that kind may be necessary to enable these alterations to be made. This Bill can then go up to another place, and after passing through all its stages there it can be slipped into its place in the consolidated law, and at the end of the Session we shall have one Act of Parliament instead of half a dozen. I am assured by all who are actively engaged in the administration of the law that it would shorten their labours, lengthen their lives, sweeten their tempers, and therefore do something to enable them better to discharge their most high and difficult functions.

The Finest Raw Material in the World.

Now I have said all I have got to say. I put together these ill-constructed sentences last Saturday in Battersea Park, a very beautiful place, rich with the promise, I hope not the delusive promise, of early summer-a place simply swarming with children, who all seemed animated by one desire-namely, to ascertain the time from me. Although at first I found their attentions somewhat disconcerting, in a very short time I came to perceive how congruous was their presence with the whole bent and cast of my thoughts. A hope, I trust not a delusive hope, stole into my breast, although I am not a sanguine man, that perhaps even this measure after it has received, as it will receive, the full consideration and deliberations of this House will be found to be a step forward in the right direction for securing to the children of this country an immunity from those quarrels which are not their quarrels but our quarrels, and to help in securing for them an education which will make them the finest raw material in the world as I am satisfied they are- fit citizens of this country, and fit to play a great part after we have all gone, and so enable this beloved land of ours to be what it ought to be, the pulsing heart of a beneficent and freedomloving Empire.

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