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A Weekly Newspaper a n d Review .

DUM VOBIS CRATULAMUS, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MAN2 ATIS.

From the B r ie f of H is Holiness P iu s IX . to T he T a b let , June 4, 1870.

V ol. 89. No. 2970.

L ondon, A pril io, 1897.

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[ R e g i s t e r e d a t t h e G e n e r a l P o s t O f f i c e a s a N ew s p a p e r .

C h ro n ic le o f t h e W e e k I

Page -

Imperial Parliament: The Voluntary Schools Bill Through the Lords—The Case o f Necessitous Board Schools— Relief on a Sliding Scale— Its Reception by the Opposition—The Government and •the Opposition— Food Supply in War Time—Opening o f the Italian Parliament— The Battle of the Blues—The Cape Colony and the Transvaal — The South African in qu iry—A Cabinet of the Nations — The Apostolic D e l e g a t e in ■ Canada — The Eastern Crisis — Lord Charles Beresford Upon Old Ironclads— The New Voluntary Schools A c t .................................... 557 L e a d e r s :

I f Grain and Meat were Contra­

band ? .................................... 561

C 0 N T ' Page L e a d e r s (Continued):

The Dutch and the Cape Parlia­

ment . . .. . . . . 562 The Reconstruction o f a Psalm . . 563 The Rule of Worship . . . . 564 N o t e s . . . . — . . 566 R ev ie w s :

A Student’s Pastime . . . . 568 The Latin Versions of the B ib le . . 569 Church History Through Protes­

tant Glasses . . . . . . 570 The Touchstone o f Life . . . . 5 7 1 Catholics and Temperance . . . . 571 An Old Catholic View of Anglican

Orders . . . . . . . . 571 C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :

Rome (From Our Own Corre­

spondent) . . . . ... — 573 News From Ireland — 574 News From France . . . . 576 L e t t e r s t o t h e E d it o r ; I “ T h e M o n t h ” a n d Diana

V a u g h a n .................................... 577

ENTS.

L e t t e r s t o t h e E d it o r (Con­

tinued : The Anglican Doctrine o f the

Page

Eucharist . . . . . . . . 577 The Manitoba Schools . . . . 578 “ The T i m e s ” and Anglican

Orders ....................................... 578 Devotion to the Virgin Mother of

Good Counsel . . . . . . 578 The Bull “ Apostolicae Cur® ” . . 579 James I I I . , The “ Pretender ” . . 579 St. E lg in .............................................579 Where is jot. Cuthbert’s Body? . . 579 An Audacious Parenthesis . . . . 580 The Church in C h in a .. . . . . 580 The Church in South Ceylon . . 581 Australian Federation . . . . 582 A Coo] Request from Old Calabar.. 582 The Vicar and His Bishop f . . . . 583 Protestantism and the E n g l i s h

Church .......................................583 Books o f the Week . . . . . . 585 S o c ia l a n d P o l i t i c a l . . . . 585

S U P P L EM E N T . Page N ew s from t h » 1 S chools :

The Duke of Devonshire and the

Bill . . . . . . . . . . 589 Lord Herschell and the Catholic

Case . . . . . . . . 589 “ The Church Tim es” and the

Debate . . . . . . . . 590 The Plaint o f Welsh Nonconfor­

mists . . . . . . . . 590 The Irish Party and the Bill . . 590 Liverpool Training College . . 590 St. Patrick’s College, Thurles . . 591 Stonyhurst Philosophical Course 591 The Debate in the Lords . . . 591 N ew s from t h e D io ceses : Westminster

Southwark Hexham and Newcastle . . Portsmouth . . . . ¿. Newport .. The Russian Church and Transub-

592592593 593 593

stantiation . . . . . . . . 594. A Welsh Settlement in the Argentine 595

Rejected MS. cannot be returned unless accompanied with address

and postage.

CHRONICLE OF TH E WEEK.

5MPERIAL PARLIAMENT : THE VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS SILL THROUGH THE LORDS. T

HE Voluntary Schools Bill

passed through the Committee stage in the House of Lords on Friday, unscathed by

any amendment. Several were put forward in spite of the Duke of Devonshire’s declaration that they would not be allowed, but they were abandoned after a discussion of the Lord Chancellor’s suggestion that as the Bill was a Money Bill it fell under the regulations of such Bills. The Third Reading was moved on Monday by the Duke of Devonshire. Meanwhile, in the House of Commons the Government policy in regard to the situation in Crete was being made the subject of pressing questions by Sir William Harcourt, who demanded a full statement as to whether Ministers would employ the forces of the Crown against Greece and Crete. Mr. Balfour’s answer was plain but not sufficient for the Leader of the Opposition, who begged leave to bring in an address to the Queen, praying that the British forces might not be so employed. I f this weie meant to raise a vote of censure, Mr. Balfour readily offered Thursday for its discussion. Sir William, however, would not allow that it was, and in the end it was agreed to leave the motion on the paper for consideration.

When questions were over, the House

— th e case went into Committee and a resolution b o a “ ooZsS. was moved by Sir John Gorst for the

purpose of enabling the Government to

bring in their promised measure of relief for necessitous Board schools. Sir John started by stating the case for relief. The framers of the Act of 1870 had been seriously mistaken in their calculations. The average cost of education for each child was set down as about twenty-eight or twenty-nine shillings, 7s. 6d. or about a fourth of which was to be raised by the localities by a rate of 3d. in the pound, the State to pay any deficiency that there might be in product of the local rate. Since then, however, expenditure on elementary education has increased enormously owing to the rise in teachers’ salaries, the number of new buildings required, and the heavy disbursements for administration, evening schools, and the education o f the blind and deaf. The consequence ©f all this is that the

New Series. Vol. LVII.. No. 2,279.

average cost per child, instead of remaining at twenty-eight shillings, has risen to fifty shillings, or nearly double that amount, whilst the average rate has gone up from 3d. to 9d. Sir John Gorst then cited a number of examples to show the Committee in what diverse circumstances our School Boards found themselves placed. The rates varied with the varying calls made upon each particular district for the salaries of the teachers, school buildings, and in accordance with their size and the cost of administration.

The purport of Clause 97 of the Act

— r e l ie f on 1870, which the Government wished to a slid in g sc a le , amend, is that when in any district having

a School Board and Board schools, a rate

of 3d. does not produce the sum of 7s. 6d. a child, or £ 20 altogether, the deficiency will be supplied by the Exchequer. In view of the facts he had stated Sir John thought that it would be idle for the Government to make a mere alteration in the figures of the Clause, as some districts would be benefited which stood in no need of relief, whilst others would still be left short-handed. The need of relief was, therefore, to be measured by the amount of the rates it was found necessary to levy in each particular district, and the amount of the grant regulated accordingly. Where the rate was heaviest most relief should be given. The Bill, therefore, for which the Resolution was asked proposed that, whilst districts in which the rate stands at 3d., or less than 4d., shall receive no further assistance, other districts, where the rate is 4d. or more, shall receive 4d. for every additional penny in the rate. The Government proposed to effect this by reading Clause 97 in any case in which the rate had risen to 4d. as if the sum o f 7s. rod. were substituted for 7s. 6 d . ; as if 8s. 2d. were substituted when the rate stood at s d . ; 8s. 6d. when it stood at 6d., and so on till the maximum rate of 2s. 6d. was reached, when the relief per head would be 16s. 6d. Beyond that the Government refused to go. That it is a generous offer may be gathered from putting the matter in more concrete form. Under the Act of 1870 the money granted was about .£43,283 a year; under the Government Bill it will be £153,895, or about £ 1 10 ,6 12 more. Sir John concluded by moving his resolution in the following words : “ That it is expedient to authorize the payment, out of moneys to be provided by Parliament, of an addition to the grant payable to School Boards under Section 97 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, by increasing the sum of 7s. 6d. therein mentioned by 4d. for every complete id . by which the rate therein mentioned exceeds 3d., provided that the said sum as so increased shall not exceed 16s. 6d.”