318 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



other two-thirds are likely to accept the control 

 of the clergyman, and thus the one-man clerical 

 management will be preserved. The buildings of 

 the voluntary schools, now held by trustees for 

 the managers, are to be handed over to the edu- 

 cation authorities, which have power to direct 

 what repairs or improvements shall be made by 

 the managers and to veto any acts of the board 

 of managers. The rate tor elementary education 

 is 2d. in the pound, and this can be increased 

 wherever it is found necessary. 



Not the non-conformists alone, but a consider- 

 able section of the laity of the Church of Eng- 

 land objected to the religious instruction which 

 the clergy who were most zealous in education 

 insisted on giving in the parish schools, in which 

 ecclesiastical and ritualistic ideas pervade the 

 secular studies and the children are weaned away 

 from Protestant views of religion. The proposal 

 to give the clergy four votes to two in the man- 

 agement was regarded as unfair because under 

 the provisions of the bill not more than one- 

 twelfth of the expenses of the schools would fall 

 upon the owners and subscribers. 



The education bill was read the second time 

 on May 8 by the great majority of 237. As 

 Roman Catholics are even more devoted than 

 Anglicans to the principle of religious education, 

 the Irish Nationalist party voted with the Gov- 

 ernment. In committee the discussion was end- 

 less. The abolition of the school boards that had 

 developed elementary education in England was 

 a matter for grave consideration. The uncer- 

 tainty of how the county and borough councils 

 would act and how the people would receive the 

 certain demand for increased school rates and 

 for rates where none were collected before caused 

 misgivings even among the supporters of the 

 Government, and the undefined character, com- 

 position, powers, and functions of the educa- 

 tional committees made the prospect still more 

 obscure. Under the previous education laws no 

 board schools could be erected in districts suffi- 

 ciently provided with voluntary schools, but 

 where there was insufficient accommodation for 

 all the children in a district the Board of Edu- 

 cation was enjoined to call upon the district to 

 supply the deficiency and had power to enforce 

 its demand. Board schools have been erected 

 wherever denominational schools did ' not exist 

 and children of Church of England parents at- 

 tended them, just as children of non-conformists 

 attended Church schools where these held the 

 field. Under the new bill the local educational 

 authorities will not be permitted to erect new 

 schools if persons are willing to build volun- 

 tary schools. There were optional clauses in Mr. 

 Balfour's bill that were generally condemned. The 

 town councils were not compelled to assume au- 

 thority over education, and if they did not the 

 elective school boards retained their functions. It 

 was optional also for the local education author- 

 ity to appoint 2 additional managers to the 

 voluntary school committees or to leave the 4 

 private managers in unrestricted control. The 

 secular education in these schools is under the 

 control of the local educational authority, which 

 can veto the appointment or dismissal of any 

 teacher. The guiding principle of the bill was 

 that there shall be one local authority for ele- 

 mentary, secondary, and technical education 

 within each county or borough, and that this- 

 shall be the rating authority, which shall have 

 at its disposal the best local expert assistance. 

 The bill provides that the local education au- 

 thorities shall consider the needs not only of 

 elementary education, but shall take such steps 



as seem desirable, after consultation with the 

 Board of Education, to supply or aid in the sup- 

 ply of education other than elementary, inclu- 

 ding the training of teachers and the general co- 

 ordination of all forms of education. The power 

 that the bill gives them is the optional one of 

 levying a rate of Id. in the pound for secondary 

 education in addition to the Id. they can already 

 levy for technical education, and the money 

 raised by this 2d. rate, together with the local 

 taxation fund received from the Government, 

 may be divided as they see fit between secondary, 

 normal, technical, scientific, and evening schools. 

 London was excluded from the operation of the 

 bill. 



On July 11 the Marquis of Salisbury tendered 

 his resignation as Prime Minister. The King on 

 the following day offered the post to Mr. Balfour. 

 Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Lord Cadogan, and 

 Lord James also retired. The Cabinet was recon- 

 stituted on Aug. 8 as follows: Prime Minister, 

 First Lord of the Treasury, and Lord Privy Seal, 

 Arthur Balfour; Lord High Chancellor, Lord 

 Halsbury; Lord President of the Council, the 

 Duke of Devonshire; Secretary of State for For- 

 eign Affairs, the Marquis of Lansdowne; Home 

 Secretary, A. Akers-Douglas ; Colonial Secretary, 

 Joseph Chamberlain; Secretary of State for War, 

 W. St. John F. Brodrick; Secretary of State for 

 India, Lord George Hamilton; First Lord of the 

 Admiralty, the Earl of Selborne; Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, C. T. Ritchie; Lord Chancellor of 

 Ireland, Lord Ashbourne ; Chief Secretary for Ire- 

 land, George Wyndham; Secretary for Scotland, 

 Lord Balfour of Burleigh ; President of the Board 

 of Trade, Gerald Balfour; President of the Local 

 Government "Board, Walter H. Long ; President of 

 the Board of Agriculture, R. W. Hanbury; Presi- 

 dent of the Board of Education, the Marquis 

 of Londonderry; Postmaster-General, J. Austen 

 Chamberlain. The Secretary for Ireland went into 

 the Cabinet instead of the new Lord Lieutenant, 

 the Earl of Dudley. Sir William H. Walrond, who 

 was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- 

 caster, did not receive a seat in the Cabinet, nor 

 Lord Windsor, the First Commissioner of Works, 

 but the new Postmaster-General did and the 

 President of the Board of Education. Serious 

 trouble in Ireland was the reason for making the 

 Chief Secretary a Cabinet minister once more. 



An intended visit of the King to Dublin was 

 given up in consequence of the excited state of the 

 country and of pro-Boer demonstrations in Par- 

 liament of the Irish members. The Congested 

 Districts Board having reduced rents by one-third 

 on one estate it had acquired in County Roscom- 

 mon for resale to tenants, the Land League up- 

 held the tenants on the neighboring estates in 

 their determination to pay only on the same 

 scale. The estate purchased by the board was 

 the vast estate of Lord Dillon, an absentee land- 

 lord. The instalments were fixed at a far lower 

 figure than the judicial rents on the adjoining 

 Murphy and De Freyne estates, but the tenants 

 would not complete the purchase unless they 

 could have the shooting and fishing rights. Evic- 

 tions followed on the estate of Lord De Freyne, 

 and these were attended with violence on the 

 spot and stirred the passions of the Irish people 

 as of old. In other counties of the west and 

 south there were complaints of rackrenting. In 

 Connaught, where the disaffection arose because 

 the Government refused to readjust rents that 

 were much higher than the annual payments of 

 purchase money asked for the same kind of land, 

 the peasants earned the 4 or 5 rent for their 

 little holdings by going to the better districts of 



