THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



283 



is perhaps premature to criticize the 

 institution when so little is known in 

 regard to its plans. So long, how- 

 ever, as these are not disclosed the 

 institution must be judged by what 

 has been made public. It is known 

 that when the Marine Biological Labor- 

 atory at Woods Hole asked for the as- 

 sistance that it so well deserves, the 

 executive committee replied that they 

 would assist the laboratory if it were 

 given to them, and the corporation 

 actually voted to give the laboratory 

 to the institution. 



We hope and believe that the appear- 

 ance of seeking to aggrandize the 

 Carnegie Institution at the cost of 

 other agencies and of men of science, 

 instead of cooperating with them for 

 the advancement of science, is not real, 

 but due only to lack of information in 

 regard to the purposes of the institu- 

 tion. It is, however, but just to men 

 of science that this information be 

 made public at an early day. The lines 

 of Mr. Carnegie's great gift were drawn 

 broadly and generously, and in spite 

 of the apparent mistakes that have 

 been made, there is every reason to be- 

 lieve that the institution will be con- 

 ducted in the spirit in which it was 

 founded. 



THE BRITISH EDUCATION BILL. 



It is a striking fact that the British 

 parliament and the British people have 

 in recent months been occupied chiefly 

 with the concerns of primary educa- 

 tion; and it is at the same time some- 

 what depressing to consider that almost 

 no attention is paid to the subject here, 

 the daily papers publishing fuller de- 

 tails of the last divorce case connected 

 with the nobility than of the bill now 

 before parliament. The bill which the 

 House of Commons has sent to the 

 House of Lords is really of very great 

 interest. The affairs of primary educa- 

 tion in Great Britain and Ireland have 

 been somewhat anomalous. About half 

 the children who receive free education 

 attend the board schools, supported by 



the state and by local taxation, and 

 corresponding pretty closely to our 

 public schools. The voluntary schools, 

 controlled chiefly by the church of 

 England, provide for the other half of 

 the children. They do not share in 

 the local taxes, but when they remit 

 tuition fees they receive from the gen- 

 eral government a per capita grant of 

 $1.25 for each student. The main 

 feature in the bill passed by the House 

 of Commons is the support of the volun- 

 tary schools by taxation, local and 

 central, leaving them largely under the 

 control of the church. This is un- 

 doubtedly a step in the direction of 

 local and state control, and might be 

 supposed to be acceptable to the liberal 

 and radical parties and distasteful to 

 the conservative and church parties. 

 The exact reverse is the case; the bill 

 has been made the chief measure of the 

 government, and has been bitterly op- 

 posed in and out of parliament by 

 liberals and nonconformists. It is 

 claimed that it is a subversion of the 

 principles of free government to tax 

 the community for schools which are 

 conducted by the church and which 

 teach the creed of the church. As a 

 matter of fact the denominational 

 schools are already supported in part 

 by taxation as is also the established 

 church. It, however, appears to be a 

 real hardship that the children of dis- 

 senters must be sent to schools where 

 rites are practised that are distasteful 

 to their parents. Our public schools 

 are so completely exempt from denom- 

 inational control that we can scarcely 

 understand the position of the bishop 

 of London when he says in a public ad- 

 dress ' an undenominational education 

 is a rotten system.' The bill will 

 doubtless be passed, and the church 

 will for a while receive from rates 

 what has hitherto been paid by sub- 

 scription. But it seems almost evident 

 that the voluntary schools will be less 

 subservient to the church than hitherto 

 and that a long step has been taken in 

 the direction of popular control. 



