The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-11 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF COMMONS-YESTERDAY.

The Speaker took the chair at twenty minutes past.
,welve o'clock.

The Lords' amendments to the Navtin and King's-court
Railway Bill were considered, and agreed to.
The Kilkenny Junction Railway (Abandonment of Kil-
purcell Branch) Bill was ordered to be read a third time.
The Rathkeale and Newcastle Railway Junction Bill
was read a second time.

.„..,
The Lords' amendments to the Great Etst.rn Railway
B:11, as amended by the Commons' Committee to which
they bad been referred, were airedd to.
SALE OF LIQUORS ON SUNDAY BILL.

Mr. NEWDEGATE presented a very bulky petition
from Birmingham against this bill, and in doing so re-
ferred to the loss sustained by that borough in the death
of Mr. &hole&ld.
EDUCATION OF THE roof BILL.

Mr. 11. A. BRUCE moved the &cowl reading of this
bill, and asserted that the previous efforts made in this
direction had been insufficient. In this bill ho had acted
oa the principle that provision should be made for onc-
sixth of the population, and at this rate there would be
1,200,000 children to provide for. The progress of popu-
lation was far in excess of the increase in the number of
children attending national schools, and this showed the
necessity of some action being taken. In the large
towns especially was it seen that education was not keep-
ing pace with the population. There were very few
reliable statistics on this subject, but he would select
those on which most reliance could be placed with re-
spect to a large centre of population. First, taking the
metropolis, it appeared from information collected in the
diocese of London that there were in that diocese a popu-
lation of 2,129,000. Supposing that one-sixth of the popu-
lation sfiould be on the books of schools, the number
would be 362,000. The returns, however, showed that on
the books of Church schools there were the names of
129,000, and on the books of non-Church schools 53,000,
giving a total of 182,000. There were thus another
180,000 whose names ought to have been on the books.
From London he would go to Manchester. The population
of Manchester and Salford in 1866 was 483,000. Applying
his rule there ought to be 80,000 at school. The actual
-nutnber was 55,000, but deducting 7,000 as belonging to
'the easier classes,- there were 31,009- who were not at •
school. Some calculations had been made,• which showed
that out of 110 children 52 were at work or school, and 58
neither at work nor school. Passing to the case of Birming-
ham, here again a most minute inquiry had been made,
and it was found that between the ages of five or ten the
attendance at school was 46 per cent. of the children, and
between the ages of 10 and 15 only 9,000, or nearly 29 per
cent. Examinations had been made of the children working
in the factories, and the ignorance was found to be very
great. With regard to Bristol, he would quote a report of
Hr. Stansfield, who stated that out of 890 young persons
examined by him, 425 were totally ignorant.
A long discussion ensued, in which Mr. A. Egerton, Mr.
Henley, and Mr. Foster took part.
Mr. HARDY said he was aware of the defects of the
present scheme, but it could not be denied that it had
been brought about by the most extraordinary and
gratifying results. There was much ignorance in
the larger towns, but whatever might become
of the present bill, he thought that the
bill involved a principle which had not been sufficiently
discussed in that house. On the part of the Government
he could not assent to the motion for the second reading
of the bill, neither was he prepared to give a pledge that
the Government would bring in a bill on this subject next
session.
Mr. GLADSTONE supported the second reading of the
bill, the object of which was in effect to call in the local
community to do all in their power to supply the want of
education. The system in operation, beneficial as
it was, was not sufficient to meet the increas-
ing demand for education, and therefore in his
opinion it became a matter of the highest importance
that a system of local arrangement should come to help on
the great scheme. The opposition to the bill on the part
of the Government did not rest upon the objection which
had been stated by the Secretary for the Home Department,
but it arose from the dislike entertained to the conscience
clause, and therefore the only course open to his hon.
friend, who introduced the bill was to ask the house for
its decision, aye or no, as to the second reading of the
bill.
Mr. BAZLEY was of opinion that compulsory educa-
tion must beadopted before anything of an efficient nature
could be arrived at. (Hear, bear.) The factory system of
education was to an extent compulsory, but pro-
duced no great hardship ; on the contrary he knew for
a positive fact that it had been productive of the greatest
benefit, and therefore he hoped the house would give its
assent to the bill now before it.
Mr. HUBBARD was addressing the house in opposition
to the passing of the bill at a quarter to six, at which
tim) the debate was suspended in accordance with the
standing order of the house.,
The other orders of the day were then postponed, and
the house adjeuruod.