The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-02-21 00:00:00

THE 25th CLAUSE.

The Times bee published the following letter

Sir,—lt is, I think, to be regretted that Mr. Disraeli
should have pat forward as eeeential in the Conserv&
tive programme the inldntennuee of the 25th Clause of
the Elementary Education Act, and I wish to try to
direct public attention to what Bee= to me the
sounder view.
If, indeed, Mr. Disraeli only means (as is possible)
provisionally, and pending (Luther discussion, to assert
in this way the principle of religious education, no
doubt he is right and on the winning side. That
modest and tolerant body, the Birminsham League,
must probably be content for a time with comparative
feebleness and ob,cui y. •
But as fur the precise enactment, let us Bee what it

is.
Reniistion of school fees is one ltdog—aa a rule, a
very bad thing. But it ie, of course, within the coin
petence of all school manager,. When a Board are
the managers, acting an they do under exprest legal
powers tney must have statutory provieione to enable
them to remit, as they have under another Clause of
this Act.
Those, however, seem to me right who say that
school free ought never to be remitted ; and that on
the principle which seems to rce to be at the root of the
whole matter, and whicu, I hope, is gradually gaining
acceptance— that (allowing for the welbknown special
exemptions) ischool teaching is, for the labouring &swell
as for every other class, a neceskary of life,
I shall proceed on this assumption, without further
argument in proof, for which thorn in not time, and
which, I trust, in hardly needed.
But it may be obeerved that if thin on general
grounds ban been no (an I conceive it bar) at leant for a
long time peat, it Is doubly no now, or will be when
compulsory echio'ing is univereally established. And
I further alto ice that this will come to pass in no long
time.
What • man is required by law to find for his
children is surely a necessary for him. It is an
Identical proposition.
Now, there are certain classes specially provided for
—iumsites of workhouses, children in reformatories and
irdnettial schools under Acta of Parliament, children
In certain military and naval schools.
There remains the general maite of the working po-
Pnlation, including, be it observed, outdoor paupers.
, For these paupers, Denimon'e Act formerly, and as re.
1 costly moceified, enabled Boards of Guardians to pay.
, I conceive that thin provision, as limited to those
already receiving relief, was always indefensible, and
under a compultiory system it must surely disippear,
A pauper is a man who cannot provide what is neces.
nary for his children, and if education be, on the
1 hypothesis, one of mil necessariee, why distinguish
b4wetin it and any other!
To r,vert, then : out of the general mass of the
labouring class there are some who cannot pay school
fees. It is true that the caste are rare where parents
can pay their way in everything rice, and are broken
down by the last straw—the penny, or font:pence, or
whatever there he required fr school. S.ill there are
11110 n. besides the general body of outdwir paupers, to
whom the same argument, in fact, appliek
These persons cannot pay, but the payment mist be
made. Who, then, is to pay?
Setting aside the intermediate resource of private
benevolence (which of course, when it exists, removes
i the difficult,), the 25th Clause provides the special
means of payment by the School Board out of its own

rate.
This is not unsound in principle, but why vary the
general law? If a man cannot pay what he is required
to pay from his own means or by the help of friends,
in the last resort he "goes to the parish ; and why
not in this case as in °there?
In truth it is cl.die now. Boards of Guardians are at
liberty to include schooling among expenses which they
provide, and they do it. In a Report by a Poor Law
Inspector about Poor Law administration in London,
which will shortly be made public, it aid be seen that
of London Unions 21 psy school fees Pepaiately, six
take them expressly into account in fixing the relief.
It is true this in under Deuison's Act. Bar, even now,
I conceive at least the six last-named might haves .
plausible case—as soon there will be an undeniable one '
, —for reckoning the schooling as a general item, inde-
pendent of special Acts. I know it is done elsewhere.
the argument about pauperizing has, I ooncelve, no
place here. A man who cannot pay his legal expenses,
and who has them paid by another who is legal), bound
to do so, is a pauper already.
The "religious difficulty" surely ought not to be
raised. Foolish enough always, it Is tenfold more so
here. It has never been raised about Lenison's Act,
nor about workhouse schools, arc., which are identical
in principle with what I am concerned with.
Toe Pimple repeal of the 25th Clause would hurt n 3
ione. What, I hope, we should all protest against is
the tyranny of substituth g for it a provision requiring
those who cannot pay to send their children to Board
1 pchools, or to any schools in particular. The sole con-
dition should be that the school must be efficient.—
Your obedient servant, L.
February 14.

The other day, the Dhoti f W.ltiminster, M the
t mutest a the Prioce of Oldenburg, director of the charitable
imsitutions of St. Potersharu held a short service 111 the
L Animus chapel of tie (Ideithurg Palace before a large coo-
of E .giisi ufsalth g students and tth here beloug-
log to the dldvrent schools sod Institutions. S I members
of the Lops rial femii Imre present. The Doan has pubitabed
In Si. Petersburg the sermon delivered in the chapel el the
English Factory the ludo, Won the moulage of A* Duke
ot Ncllislmostu