The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-04 00:00:00

LIIPERIA L PA II LIAMENT.

D t

- HOUSE 01' COMMONS.
The SPEAKER took the C air at T•v! lv-
THIRD READINGS.
The Clerkenwell Improv.anent „ad the Itehen Bridge
and Roads Bills were read a sues passed.
. .• • The L.irds' ronetirlinents to the feilowing• Bide were
considered .and agrei d to:— •
Commercial Ducks Improvement. • ; •'•
Great Northern Railway Amendment (No. 1).
Harwich Improvement, Quays, .and Pier.
• , Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley; Wakefield, nudders•
• field, and Goole Reileray
South Waleaßeilway• --(Ne. -I) was, postponed .till the
10th of June.
The following-. Bills were • read a.third time and
•i, assed:=
Copper Miners in England Company. . . •
• Dublin, Duodruin, and R.,thts titians ReitWay.
Waterford and Limerick Railway.
Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow, and Dublin'Reilway.
Petitions were presented for and. egaiost Lord Mel-
. good's School Eetsnliihtneet
Mr. ADDERLEY presented petitions from ten muni-
cipalities in the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, pro) -
ing the Haute to grant to that colon; the Constitution
which had been so keg promised ie •
Mr. BROTHERTON. presented a petition' from Liver-
pool, complaining of ,feral clauses in the Gunpowder
Stores Exemption Rope •I OtH.
WATER SUPPLY.
Mr. MOWATC ohteined leave to bring _in a Bill
• far the better supply of water to the ruetrepulis, which.
was read a first time.
THE "NO-HOUSE" OF YESTERDAY.
- • Mr. J. WALMSLEY complained of the defective
system now . existing of :sunimoieng .Members to the
Rouse when the Speaker took the chair, which was
done so late that Members had nut time to reach the
House before it was counted out.
Sir R. H. INGLIS suggested that the electric tele-
; graph should be put into use for the purpose:
Sir JAMES GRAHAM thought. perhaps,-it would
be better if; as of old, the Sergeant-at-Arius were to to
• round to the several Conimittee rooms to summon the
Members.
Mr. W. WILLIAMS said that he certainly bad
arrived in time to be one of the twenty-eight Members
Present, but he had experienced great difficulty in getting
• in in consequence of the crowd of Members assembled
round the doors outside, who intreated hiurnot to go in,
and he was-near having,hts coat torazoff.--
A desultory conversatien took place, in the course of
'which several Members said • they had just• arrived, in
time to be too late, and bore testimony to there being a
sufficient number outside the doors to make a House.
SCHOOL ESTABLISHMENT (SCOTLAND) BILL.
Lord MELGUND moved the second reading of this
Bill. His reason for doing so was .a conviction which
he entertained that the means at present existing in
" Scotland for the education of the people were not so ex
• tensive as they were supposed to be, or as was necessary.
The system of education to be established -under this Bill
Would be supported by local taxation, and placed under a
certain amount of local management. The a; stem which
he wished to:see created was that which the people them-
*elves could superintend the working of, and he was most
'anxious that nothing should creep into this Bill which
should seem to indicate that the Legislature want( d to
'pacify what should, and what ahoulu not, be taught.
Rig own opinion, however, was, that religious and secu-
' ler education ought to be separated, and Dr. Chalmers
had often propounded the doctrine that any legislative
Measure for regulating the education of the people should
be entirely divested of the religious etement.—(Hear.) At
present there were some 5,000 schools iu Scotland, and of
that number 1,800 were unconnected with atiy religious
sect. The Noble Lord then briefly reviewed the legis-
lation of peat ups on this subject. and proceeded to ob-
serve, the population' of Scotland was about 3.000,000.
Now, allowing five children for every thousand would
Aire 600,000 as the number of children in Scotland.
Two hundred thousand of those were educated in
schools belonging to the Free Church, and allowing
100,000 as the number educated by the schools uncon-
nected with any sect, they would have a clear result of
300,000 children at present in Scotland whose education
vras totally unprovided fir. The object of this Bill was
to remove that vast extent of moral cestitinion, end the
Mode by which he proposed to attain it was easy of
acquisition, simple in its operation, and comparatively
speaking inexpensive. He would nut detain the House
`longer, but appealing to the House to give the Bill their
heat consideration, he would sit down moving its second
reading. —(flear. hear.)
• Mr. F. MACKENZIE deplored with the Noble Lord
the amount of moral destitution that prevailed in Scot-
land, but:he thought the means of education could be
greatly extended without distut bine'' the present
aYsteat —(Cries of " Hear, hear.") No one could
dispute successfully that I.lielation was nee, scary.
on the subject, because it was high time that something
,W, as done 'for the educatiat of children in Scotland, but
re question was far too important to be left in the
cantle of a private Member. It would be much
better, therefore, that this Bill should be abaft-.
dosed, and • the whole question referred to the
coneideration of a Sel ct Cowneetie. The sesiion wos
too far advanced to edmit f that hell g done now, but
there was no hurry required in triaming their 1- gielazion
on the subject, and the question itig,,t well he n up
in at the beginning of next session. He objected to
this Bill on the ground that it would effect an ntire dis-
ruption between the parish schools and the Church of
Scotland, and alter the mode of electing the school
Masters.

(LEFT SPEAKING.)

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