August 4, 1898] 



NATURE 



325 



tionists for many a long year, is at last recognised by 

 those who are responsible for its inefficiency. 



We gather from the Times, (the Bill has not yet been pub- 

 lished) that the Government has now come " to the natural 

 and logical conclusion, a conclusion which almost every 

 other civilised nation has reached long ago, that there 

 should be a comprehensive educational department deal- 

 ing, generally speaking, with our national education as a 

 whole, and presided over by a real Minister of Education. 

 . . . There is to be a Board of Education, as there is a 

 Board of Trade and a Local Government Board, and the 

 new Board is, like these, to have a responsible Minister at 

 its head, the President of the Board. Under him, the 

 present Education Department and the Science and Art 

 Department are to be amalgamated into one office, with 

 one Secretary ; and many of the educational powers of 

 the Charity Commissioners are to be at once taken over 

 by the new Board." 



We reprint the latter part of the Duke's speech. 



The Bills I have to propose are of an extremely limited 

 character. The first proposes to create a central educational 

 authority. Much that is done in it could properly be done by 

 an administrative order by the Government ; Vmt in order to 

 obtain Parliamentary sanction to the policy which we propose, 

 we have thought it more desirable to embody our proposals in a 

 Bill. At the present time the President of the Council or the 

 Vice-President of the Council is for many purposes the Minister 

 of Education ; but under them are what are virtually two 

 distinct Boards, the Education Department and the Department 

 of Science and Art. We propose to bring these two Depart- 

 ments together to make out of them one office under the control 

 of one permanent Secretary. We propose to put an end to the 

 Committee of Council and to the office of Vice-President of the 

 Committee of Council. We propose to create a Board of 

 Education on the model of the Board of Trade, the Local 

 Government Board, and the Board of Agriculture. The 

 President and the Vice-President, or the President alone, of 

 this Board may be appointed. If the Education Minister 

 should be in the House of Lords, it is provided that the 

 President of the Council will be the President of the Board, 

 nd he will be represented by the Vice-President in the House 

 .f Commons. If the Minister of Education should be in the 

 House of Commons he will have the office of President, and 

 will have no Vice-President. The Department will be re- 

 presented in this House by some arrangement such as we 

 have found practical in the case of other Departments. We 

 think that the present time is extremely opportune for such 

 a reorganisation of our Education Department. Next year the 

 Secretary for the Science and Art Department retires under the 

 age rule. The office which he holds is one that has never 

 escaped criticism, and perhaps the strength of Sir John Don- 

 nelly's convictions and the energy with which he has supported 

 them has exposed him to even a larger share of criticism than 

 some of his predecessors. I think it only due to Sir John 

 Donnelly to state that the Government has never possessed a 

 more devoted public servant, and that, under conditions 

 extremely difficult, I believe the Department has, under his 

 administration, taken part in the very great development both 

 of scientific and artistic training. But the changed conditions 

 of education, the growth of the Department itself, the growing 

 conviction for a better and a more special technical training for 

 our people — a conviction that has found expression in the Tech- 

 nical Instruction Act — all these have rendered a revision of the 

 scops and character of the Department absolutely necessary 

 at the present time. I believe that that revision will be greatly 

 assisted if we are able to obtain, what we are asking Parliament 

 to give, sanction for the establishment of one central responsible 

 department which should be charged with the supervision of 

 secondary as well as elementary education, and of all the 

 agencies appertaining to both. The Bill, I need hardly say, will 

 not contain the details of the proposed reorganisation. They 

 cannot well be promulgated until Parliament has given its sanc- 

 tion to the principle of the establishment of a central authority. 

 But I may say that the reorganisation will not necessarily be 

 confined to the Department of Science and Art. It would be 

 entirely a mistake to suppose that .there is any intention of 

 .=;imply merging the Department of Science and Art into that of 

 Education. The Education Department itself under our plan 



will require some reorganisation. Some of the duties per- 

 formed by the Education Department— such as those which 

 relate to training colleges, to training pupil teachers, to the 

 higher-grade schools— are pertaining more to secondary rather 

 than to elementary education ; and it may very well be that it 

 will be found expedient to group those functions which are now 

 discharged by the Education Department and others which 

 are now discharged by the Science and Art Department under 

 a Secondary Education Department proper, while a third 

 division may possibly be charged with the supervision of the more 

 technical branches of science and art instruction, and at the same 

 tiine control and manage the Science and Art Museums which 

 exist both in the metropolis and the provinces. These details 

 of reorganisation have, of course, to be worked out by the 

 departments concerned and by the Treasury after the work 

 which will be undertaken in anticipation of the approval which 

 we hope we may obtain to the proposals we are now making. 

 I do not know whether there are any of your lordships House 

 who are interested in the subject of economy. It is said, I 

 believe, that no one in the House of Commons cares about 

 economy except the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his pre- 

 decessor. But I do not think that this proposed reorganisation 

 need necessarily lead us, or ought to lead us, to any increased 

 expenditure on administration. It is, of course, impossible to 

 say what this Parliament or future Parliaments may think fit to 

 spend directly on secondary technical, scientific, or artistiic 

 education. But, so far as administration is concerned, which is 

 all we are dealing with at present, I see no reason why this 

 arrangement should lead to any increased expenditure. I rather 

 think it will lend to economy. Already by the transfer of 

 training in elementary schools from the Science and Art to the 

 Education Department a very considerable saving has been 

 effected ; and in my opinion the system under which grants in 

 aid to science and art teaching are now dispensed is, in con- 

 sequence of the rapid and unforeseen extension of the system — 

 a system which has been steadily developed from small 

 beginnings indeed — so cumbrous and complicated, and there- 

 fore so costly, that I should be very much disappointed if by a 

 more systematic and scientific rearrangement of duties a very 

 considerable economy cannot be brought about. I have said 

 that a great deal of what we proposed to do could be done 

 simply by an administration order to which the sanction of 

 Parliament might be given when the estimates are presented ; 

 but, as I have said, we thought it better to embody the main 

 principles in a Bill. But one portion of the duties which we 

 propose to transfer under the Education Department cannot be 

 transferred without legislation. I refer to the supervision of 

 endowed schools under the schemes which have been promoted 

 by the Charity Commissioners. Logic and symmetry may 

 perhaps appear to require that the whole of the powers of the 

 Charity Commissioners, so far as they relate to educational 

 endowments, should be transferred to the Education Depart- 

 ment. But the subject of endowments is so delicate, the dis- 

 tinction between charitable and educational objects and 

 charitable trusts, the extent to which the necessities of special 

 cases are to be regarded, the sectarian questions which they 

 involve are all so difficult and controversial in character that we 

 have hesitated to propose to transfer all such questions from a 

 quasi-judicial to a political authority. Under this Bill, there- 

 fore, the administration of charitable trusts and the framing of 

 trusts under the Endowed Schools Act will remain untouched, 

 except that an instruction will be given to the Charity Com- 

 missioners to frame schemes, so far as they are educational, in 

 consultation with the Education Board, and the Education 

 Board will have power to promote other .schemes when required. 

 All these schemes contain a provision with regard to the edu- 

 cational examination of the schools, and the result of that 

 examination is reported to the Charity Commission. They also 

 institute from time to time an administrative inspection of their 

 own, as to the management of the funds of the sch«ol and other 

 matters. The educational examination and the administrative 

 inspection, so far as it relates to educational matters, will 

 be transferred to the new Department. In other respects the 

 present powers of the Charity Commissioners will not be inter- 

 fered with by the Bill. But for the first time a most important 

 part of our educational system will be brought under the cog- 

 nisances, and to a certain extent under the guidance, of the 

 responsible Minister of Education. The Royal Commission laid 

 considerable stress on the constitution of an educational council 

 with consultative and certain administrative powers. We have 



NO. I 50 1, VOL. 58] 



