The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-12 00:00:00

EDUCATION IN

The LORD ADVOCATE, OD Tuesday, moved for
leave to bring in a bil: to regulate and make further
provision for parochial schools in Scotland and a bill
to make provision for education within burghs in
Scotland. With respect to the parish schools, it
was impossible, he observed, to maintain an exclu-
sive test, and his bill proposed to abolish it; but he
did not propose to make a greater inroad upon the
management of these schools than necessity required.
He detailed the provisions in the former bill, and by
the latter, be said, he proposed to give to town-
councils the right to assess for the borough schools
up to a certain amount, subject to restrictions. These
two small measures, he said, were only part of his
scheme for the improvement of education in Scot-
land; a third bill, which would place that scheme in
connection with the Minister and Council of Educa-
tion, he should develop hereafter.
After some remarks from Mr. BAXTER, who said
that although the first measure did not come up to
his wishes and hopes, as a Dissenter, yet he accepted
it as founded upon the basis of a compromise ; from
Mr. BLACK, who wished for a more comprehensive
and national plan ; and from Mr. MACKIE, as well as
Sir A. Aosnw, Mr. BLACKBURN, and Mr. STIRLING,
leave was given to bring in the bills.

LOCAL CHARGES ON SHIPPING.

On Tuesday, on the motion of Mr. Lows, the
following members were named as a select com-
mittee to inquire into local charges on shipping :
Mr. Lowe, Mr. Hardy, Mr. M. Gibson, Mr. Horsfall,
Mr. Fenwick, Sir S. Northcote, Mr. Cobden, Mr.
Watson, Mr. Bouverie, Mr. Headlam, Mr. Cardwell,
Sir J. Duckworth, Mr. Duncan, Lord Hothani, and
Mr. Moffatt.

Mr. V. SCULLY denounced, with much warmth, the
habitual, not to say systematic, exclusion of Irish
members from committees and other public positions
calculated to give them their due weight in the house,
and enable them to protect the local interests of Ire-
land :

One would really suppose, on reading the names of his
model committee, that the Vice-President of the Board of
Trade was ignorant of the geographical position of Ire-
land. Did the right hon. gentleman imagine that it was
some province in the centre of India, or that the people
were a species of Australian kangaroos? (Laughter.) Not
many week ago there was an announcement in the news-
papers—the right hon. gentleman could inform the house
whether it was correct or not—that he was on a visit at
Newtown Anner, county of Tipperary, the seat of his
friend the Secretary to the Admiralty, and, unless he
dropped down upon that hospitable mansion in a balloon,
he must have entered Ireland by one of its numerous
pmts. (A laugh.) At all events, his friend the secretary
could have told him that Ireland possessed some of the
most beautiful harbours in the world, presenting in that
respect a remarkable contrast to the famous borough of
Kidderminster, which, perhaps, could boast of nothing
finer than a miserable canal bearing a bnmboat on its
slimy and sluggish bosom. (Laughter.) The proposal
to exclude. Irish members from the committee on the local
charges upon shipping was one of the most impudent—he
used the word in a parliamentary sense—( a laugh'—ever
submitted to that house ; but the same thing had been
done before, and it would be unfair to blame the Vice-
President of the Board of Trade more than his colleagues.
That very evening a Cabinet Minister—the Home
Secretary—had nominated a select committee on trans-
portation, on which there was only one Irish member,
although formerly it used to be said that Ireland fin-
fished a very large proportion of those who were banished.
(Laughter.)

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER denied all in-
tention, on the part of the Government, to disparage
the Irish representatives, and on the present question
proposed to enlarge the select committee by the addi-
tion of two Irish members.

Mr. DISRAELI deprecated the revival of the old and
long-extinguished feuds between different sections of
the United Kingdom. He denied that the Irish re-
presentatives were habitually prevented from occu-
pying high places in the Administration in this
country, or were excluded from enjoying the favour
of the Sovereign or the sympathy of her subjects,
andinstanced the appointment of the late Mr. Shell
to the Vice-presidency of the Board of Trade in sup-
port of Ins assertion,