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 ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSK^N. 
 
 A SPEECH 
 
 DELIVERED IN 
 
 THE HOUSE OF LORDS 
 
 BY THE 
 
 RIGHT HON. EML F0RTE8CUE, 
 
 ON 
 
 MONDAY, JUNE 28, 1875. 
 
 Extracted from 
 "HANSAED'S PAELIAMENTAEY DEBATES," 
 
 Vol. ccxxv. 
 
 WITR PREFACE AND APPENDIX. 
 
 LONDON: 
 COENELIUS BUCK, 23, PATEENOSTEE EOW, E.G. 
 
 1875.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In circulating a full report of my speech on the 28th of June, I seek to extend 
 my appeal beyond the Government and the House of Lords to the House of 
 Commons and the public. 
 
 I am anxious to remind all who will listen, that a course of Legislation, 
 inaugurated with the consent of both political parties, and welcomed with 
 the most hopeful anticipations by the public at large, has already drifted far, 
 and is in danger of drifting farther, towards perpetuated anomalies and in- 
 vigorated misuse — and all this, because successive Grovernments have 
 shrunk from the certainly not easy, but not really formidable, task imposed 
 upon them by the earnest, statesmanlike and explicit recommendations of one 
 of the most laborious and enlightened Commissions that ever surveyed and 
 cleared the road for Legislation on a National question of great importance, 
 involving /the application of property to the amount of some =€20,000,000. 
 
 Their detailed recommendations have weight, because they were framed 
 on a comprehensive view of the subject as a whole, and of the interest of the 
 Nation at large. The action taken hitherto has been too much subordinated 
 to merely legal and scholastic considerations. 
 
 I believe that this defect has arisen from the omission of any reference to 
 a Provincial Authority" combining local knowledge with superiority to petty 
 local interests," recommended by the Schools Inquiry Commission as indis- 
 pensable to the efficient organization of Secondary Education in England? 
 on much the same grounds as County and Borough Education Boards for 
 counties and large towns had been recommended before by the Duke of 
 Newcastle's Commission in their valuable Keport of 1861. Why should it 
 be too late yet to supply the omission ? 

 
 SPEECH. 
 
 HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 Monday, June 28, 1875. 
 
 Earl FOETESCUE : I hope the deep 
 interest which I have for many years 
 taken in middle-class education, and in 
 school endowments as most influentially 
 affecting it, may plead with your Lord- 
 ships for your kind indulgence to me 
 during the few remarks I propose making 
 upon the working of the Endowed Schools 
 Act up to this time. My noble Friend 
 the then President of the Council may 
 perhaps remember that some 11 or 12 
 years ago I was honoured by being made 
 the channel for communicating to him 
 the earnest hope, expressed by several 
 friends of education including Members 
 of both Houses of Parliament, who met 
 at^ my house, that a Royal Commission 
 might be appointed to inquire into the 
 educational endowments throughout the 
 country. We were not long after deeply 
 gratified by the announcement of the 
 appointment of such a Commission, and 
 still more by its admirable composition. 
 For we learnt that it was to be presided 
 over by my lamented Friend (Lord 
 Taunton), one of the noblest, most pa- 
 triotic, single-minded, and enlightened 
 public men I ever had the happiness of 
 knowing, and it was to comprise several 
 other statesmen since distinguished in 
 the service of the Crown, as well as other 
 men conspicuous for their acquaintance 
 with educational questions. Nor was the 
 Report which they presented three years 
 afterwards in December 1867, unworthy 
 of the expectations raised by the high 
 
 character of the Commissioners. Founded 
 upon a long, careful, and I may truly 
 say, exhaustive inquiry into the endowed 
 schools and school endowments of the 
 country, it was most able, elaborate, and 
 statesmanlike, both in its description of 
 their actual state and in its recommen- 
 dations for the future. 
 
 Perhaps you will allow me to remind you 
 of the general outline of the comprehen- 
 sive scheme proposed in it. After proving 
 a general prevalence, even beyond what 
 had been suspected; of abuse, misuse, 
 and disuse with regard to these endow- 
 ments, and revealing an unexpected 
 amount of difference both as to their 
 number and value between one part of 
 the country and another ; after demon- 
 strating that unless endowed schools are 
 compelled to do good work, they will 
 often do positive mischief by standing 
 in the way of better institutions ; and 
 after showing how the Charity Commis- 
 sioners, ably and efficiently as they had 
 generally done their work within the 
 limited scope of their powers, had been 
 estopped by the nature of their duties 
 from considering the educational endow- 
 ments of any district in relation to each 
 other, or, indeed, from dealing with any 
 case otherwise than isolatedly and sepa- 
 rately on its own merits alone ; they pro- 
 ceed to state their reasons for the conclu- 
 sions which they had arrived at — namely, 
 that the schools ought to be remodelled 
 on a system ; that in order to effect this 
 in the best way they ought to be dealt 
 with in groups, and that it would be ne- 
 cessary to sub-divide the country for this 
 purpose ; that counties would make the 
 best ultimate divisions, but that for the 
 present the Registrar GptipvpI's aIpvot.
 
 larger divisions ouglit to be taken ; and 
 that within each division the schools 
 should be assigned to the three grades, 
 into which they proposed that all schools 
 below the great public schools and above 
 the elementary schools should be divided. 
 And then they go on to say — 
 
 " Some Provincial Authority such as we shall 
 hereafter suggest should be charged with the 
 duty" — which cannot be entrusted to the gover- 
 nors of the schools themselves — " of determining 
 in what grade each school is to stand." 
 
 And the Provincial Authority is to do 
 this ''by fixing absolutely the age at 
 which boys are to leave," and " by lay- 
 ing down certain limits " as to " the fees 
 to be paid and the subjects to be taught," 
 so as to check schools from practically 
 rising or falling out of their assigned 
 grade. With regard to religious in- 
 struction, they report that it might be 
 left to some Provincial Authority to 
 choose in certain cases between two 
 specified forms of rules on the subject. 
 Whether a school is to have boarders or 
 not is, they say, " a matter to be settled 
 by some Provincial Authority." They 
 state that — 
 
 " After Parliament has laid down the general 
 principle, the precise regulations with respect to 
 the master's remuneration may well be left to 
 the local authorities." 
 
 Again they say that — 
 
 " To change the conditions on which exhibi- 
 tions are at present held recourse should be had 
 to the Provincial Authority." 
 
 ''The same authority should also be 
 empowered to sanction" various other 
 changes with regard especially to exhi- 
 bitions, where 
 
 "the various circumstances of the various 
 endowments would have to be considered, and 
 this a Provincial Authority would be well able 
 to do." 
 
 As to the question whether schools in 
 certain cases should be kept as boarding 
 schools, or converted into day schools, 
 they say — 
 
 " The proper authority to decide would be a 
 Provincial Authority, capable of thoroughly 
 understanding and appreciating local claims, 
 and yet not hampered by the tendency to con- 
 sider them alone." 
 
 And they conclude their long and care- 
 fully-reasoned out description of the 
 duties and powers of the proposed Pro- 
 vincial Authority thus — 
 
 " The Provincial Authority would be, in our 
 opinion, the proper body to draw up new schemes 
 for the regulation of schools within its province, 
 
 ; 
 
 and submit them through the Charity Commis- 
 sioners, or some Central Authority, to Parlia- 
 ment." 
 
 I think it is not too much, therefore, to 
 say with the first Commissioners under 
 the Endowed Schools Act, that " the 
 system of the Report" of the Schools 
 Inquiry Commissioners "mainly rests" 
 upon the establishment of Provincial 
 Authorities, subject on some points — and 
 on some points only — to the control of 
 the Central Authority above them, which 
 the Eeport recommends to be estab- 
 lished ; but with the head masters and 
 School Governors within their respective 
 provinces subjected to them on many 
 more points : an appeal being reserved 
 in certain cases only to the supreme 
 Central Authority. 
 
 The late Government, in their Bill 
 of 1869 (brought in, be it remem- 
 bered, in the same Session with seve- 
 ral other important measures, which 
 had precedence over it), took only two 
 parts, and kept only one part, of the 
 comprehensive scheme of the Commission 
 of Inquiry — namely, the appointment of 
 a Commission with very large powers for 
 dealing with the educational endow- 
 ments of the country. For they left out 
 altogether the most important part, in 
 my opinion — the constitution of Pro- 
 vincial Authorities ; and they early 
 dropped that of the Central Educational 
 Council. But as in the Preamble of 
 the Bill, which was introduced by one 
 of the Commissioners who had signed 
 the Report, they had implied the inten- 
 tion to carry out the scheme contained 
 in that Peport ; and as the then advanced 
 period of the Session forbade all chance 
 of carrying more than a short Bill before 
 the Eecess, we many of us fondly hoped 
 and believed that the Act of 1869 was 
 only the first instalment of early, syste- 
 matic, and complete legislation on the 
 subject. Very probably they really meant 
 do so ; and Mr. Eorster's character for 
 straightforwardness strengthens that im- 
 pression. But be that as it may, the 
 fact remains that from that day to this 
 neither the late nor the present Govern- 
 ment have taken any step towards com- 
 pleting the work on the lines recom- 
 mended by the Inquiry Commissioners. 
 
 I have at various times since, and even 1 
 during, the passing of the Endowed 
 Schools Act, endeavoured to impress 
 upon this House and successive Govern- 
 ments the great importance of carrying
 
 out as a whole, and not merely par- 
 tially and piecemeal, that comprehensive 
 scheme. And I ventured to predict the 
 failure of any other mode of dealing 
 with a problem at once so large, so com- 
 plicated, and so delicate — so large ; be- 
 cause it concerns at least £20,000,000 of 
 property in money and land, and its 
 application to the efficient promotion of 
 education, and especially of middle-class 
 education : so complicated ; for it con- 
 cerns trusts and emoluments of almost 
 infinite variety in date, in character, and 
 in circumstances : and so delicate ; for it 
 concerns multitudinous administrative 
 bodies, scattered haphazard over the 
 country, with very strong, though di- 
 verse, personal, family, and local, vested 
 interests. I have no intention of re- 
 opening the somewhat warm debates of 
 the last two or three Sessions with re- 
 gard to the composition or operations of 
 the Commission appointed by the late 
 Government under the Act of 1869. 
 They laboured hard and conscientiously. 
 But they were called upon to do work, 
 which the Commission of Inquiry had 
 declared could not be satisfactorily or 
 efficiently discharged by any central 
 authority alone : for that Commission 
 said — 
 
 "The necessity of dealing with schools in 
 groups seems plainly to imply the correspond- 
 ing necessity of local Provincial Boards to deal 
 with them.'' 
 
 And this I will venture to add, without 
 fear of contradiction ; that the first Com- 
 missioners under the Endowed Schools 
 Act went beyond the expectations held 
 out by the authors of that Act. For 
 they soon began to startle this House 
 and the country with the sweeping 
 character of their earlier schemes ; 
 and it was only after receiving seve- 
 ral rude checks from this House that 
 they, with avowed reluctance, entered 
 upon quite an opposite course ; and dis- 
 appointed me, amongst many others, 
 by the hesitating, desultory and un- 
 systematic character of their later pro- 
 posals. Indeed, in their Report of 
 1872, they allow that they had tried 
 to deal with schools in groups, but had 
 practically found it too difficult to do so. 
 They, therefore, determined to give up 
 all idea of carrying on their operations 
 in that way, and thenceforth to treat 
 each case, as if it were an isolated one, 
 separately on its own merits. The con- 
 sequence has been that they perpetuated 
 
 in several cases by improved organiza- 
 tion, and practically originated in a few 
 cases by resuscitation, in difierent parts 
 of the country, exactly the unsystematic 
 and unsatisfactory state of things with 
 regard to endowed schools, which the 
 Report so forcibly deprecates ; multiply- 
 ing, to please the trustees, first-grade 
 schools, where there were already enough, 
 and leaving large tracts of country 
 utterly deficient in schools of the grade 
 required there. 
 
 Will their successors do better ? Their 
 names, when announced in Parliament, 
 justly commanded public confidence. 
 Sir James Hill was well known for his 
 able and judicious work at the Charity 
 Commission, within the limited scope of 
 its powers. Mr. Longley had done good 
 service as Poor Law Inspector, and had 
 gained the confidence of every district 
 successively placed under his charge. 
 My noble Friend Lord Clinton was also 
 favourably known both for his official 
 work at the India Board and for his use- 
 fulness in his own county. They may, 
 and I hope will, profit by the exposure of 
 some of the errors of their predecessors. 
 But I boldly say they cannot do well. 
 For, like them, they have work given 
 them to do which, in the words of the 
 Schools Inquiry Commissioners — 
 
 "cannot really he dealt with by a central 
 authority alone ; hut requires the co-operation of 
 a local body, which, as a matter of course, must 
 be capable of looking at the county, or, perhaps, 
 several counties, as a whole ; but which shall 
 know the district well, and not act, in mere de- 
 pendence, on the reports of its officers." 
 
 And now what is the present position of 
 the question ? I have ascertained that 
 only a third at most of the vast property 
 yielding more than £600,000 a-year, 
 comprehended under the head of educa- 
 tional endowments alone (to say nothing 
 of others) subject to the Act of 1869, has 
 3^et been disposed of ; either quite irre- 
 vocably by schemes already legally in 
 force, or else by schemes in such a stage 
 as no longer fairly to admit of being now 
 interfered with. And though, no doubt, 
 some endowments might have been very 
 much better applied, if the comprehensive 
 scheme for dealing with schools in groups 
 had been followed, I think I may safely 
 say no great harm has yet been done : 
 and we are still in time. But every month 
 makes a difference, by disposing for ever 
 of more and more of the magnificent pro- 
 perty available three years since for the 
 systematic spread of Secondary Educa-
 
 tion. I say disposing of finally and for 
 ever: because, under the new scheme, 
 schools will no longer be so disgracefully 
 robbed or perverted as to afford just 
 ground for public indignation, or to enlist 
 public opinion in favour of their being 
 otherwise dealt with. They will be far 
 less assailable hereafter in their respect- 
 able misapplication than hitherto in their 
 scandalous abuse. We are still in time : 
 but only just in time. And I would 
 earnestly entreat Her Majesty's Go- 
 vernment to seize the golden oppor- 
 tunity before it is too late. If I am 
 asked how this could now be done with- 
 out legislation for the purpose impos- 
 sible at this period of the Session : I 
 would answer from the experience of a 
 voluntary committee of some 30 or 40, in 
 my own County, comprising most of the 
 chief landowners and the Bishop, with a 
 certain number of clergymen, yeomen, 
 and tenant-farmers as representatives of 
 the more important educational endow- 
 ments, which met to propose a scheme 
 for the whole County to be submitted to 
 the Endowed Schools Commissioners. I 
 was much surprised and gratified at the 
 diligent attendance at our meetings, and 
 at the amount of response soon given to 
 appeals for a spirit of sacrifice of petty 
 local interests to the general good of the 
 County. I would venture to suggest, 
 without pretending to speak of their 
 legal powers for the purpose, that the 
 Government with the aid of the Lord 
 Lieutenants, could easily name Educa- 
 tional Councils, fairly representative in 
 their character, either for their several 
 counties, or for registration districts 
 comprising two or more counties, as 
 
 recommended by the Inquiry Commis- 
 sioners ; and could assign to these local 
 Councils instead of to the Central Com- 
 missioners, the duty of considering 
 schemes after conference on the spot 
 with the trustees of the different school 
 endowments to be dealt with in those 
 counties or districts, previous to the 
 final determination of the Commissioners 
 and of Parliament. And I feel con- 
 fident from our Devonshire experience 
 that some such Councils would act very 
 usefully and greatly smooth difficulties. 
 I myself should prefer a County basis for 
 dealing with these, as with various other 
 local matters; '' because," in the words 
 of the Inquiry Commissioners ^' each 
 county is a whole by itself, and has a 
 political and social life of its own." But 
 the question of the best division is, for 
 the present, unimportant. What is vitally 
 important is to commence action before it 
 is too late. Before concluding, I must 
 again earnestly appeal to the Government 
 to interpose at once and determine that 
 the remaining two-thirds of the vast 
 property left by the munificence of our 
 ancestors for educational purposes shall 
 be wisely and systematically distributed 
 so as to assist to the utmost in providing 
 throughout the country sound and eco- 
 nomical secondary education for gene- 
 rations yet unborn. Let it not be 
 within the next few years all irrevocably 
 disposed of — squandered, in fact, not cor- 
 ruptly, but wastefully — by a continuance 
 of the same desultory, unsystematic, and 
 unsatisfactory action, which has hitherto 
 unavoidably characterized the course of 
 the Commissioners under the Endowed 
 Schools Act.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Extracts from the 
 KEPORT OF THE EDUCATION COMMISSIONERS (1861). 
 
 In every county or division of a county having a separate county rate, 
 there shall be a County Board of Education appointed in the following manner : 
 — The Court of Quarter Session shall elect any number of Members not exceed- 
 ing six, being in the Commission of the Peace ; or any Chairman or Vice-Chairman 
 of Boards of Guardians, and the members so elected shall elect any other 
 persons not exceeding six. The number of ministers of religion in any County 
 
 Board of Education shall not exceed one-third of the whole number 
 
 (N.B. Here follow similar provisions for corporate towns with more than 40,000 
 inhabitants.) It is a defect in the existing system that it has not in effect 
 sufficiently awakened a general local interest. Our own proposals would, we 
 believe, effect this, and would bring the condition of schools into public notice 
 by testing the results of teaching without any interference with their manage- 
 ment. These benefits we expect to accrue from the working of County Boards 
 and of the similar Boards which we propose to establish in certain boroughs. . . 
 . . . The areas and the bodies from which these Boards are to be appointed 
 appear to us the only ones likely to secure a class of local administrators, to 
 
 whom so delicate a subject as Education could be safely intrusted 
 
 Next to the extensive alterations which have been recommended for the 
 assistance of Elementary Schools, no question has so muclj occupied our atten- 
 tion as that which relates to the best means of turning to account the Charities 
 already devoted to Education, and of applying a large portion of other Charities 
 to the same purpose. We have shown how large a sum is annually expended 
 under this head, and how large a portion of it is either wasted or mischievously 
 employed. No scheme for popular Education can be complete which does not 
 provide means for adapting a large portion of these Charities to its service. 
 
 SCHOOLS INQUIRY COMMISSION, 
 
 Extracts from the 
 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS (1867). 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 Measures recommended. 
 
 It is obvious that any large improvement in education ought to begin with 
 
 making the best use of the endowments for that purpose The beginning of 
 
 all improvement is to be found in remodelling the regulations by which the schools 
 
 are now governed The necessity for this revision, even of the regulations 
 
 made by the founders, becomes still more apparent, when we consider that
 
 the endowed scliools, unless they are compelled to do good work, will do positive 
 mischief by standing in the way of better institutions. It is often impossible to 
 set up a school in the face of a foundation already existing. The foundation, 
 even if doing very little, yet has such an advantage in any competition from the 
 possession of its endowment, that it often kills a school that might otherwise be 
 made better than itself. And besides this, the perpetual possibility, that the 
 foundation may be remodelled and may then become an overpowering competitor, 
 often prevents a rival school from being established at all. It is not too much to 
 say that unless the endowed schools can be put to good use, it would be better to 
 get rid of them altogether. On the other hand the endowed schools, if efficient, 
 possess advantages of their own which it would be a mistake to throw away. 
 
 They are permanent And this permanence gives them a special dignity, 
 
 and makes boys proud to belong to them, a valuable aid to the best kind of 
 
 education Schools should be remodelled on a system. It will hardly 
 
 be possible to do this well without breaking up the country into manageable 
 divisions, and treating each division by itself. The needs of the different parts of 
 England are so different that a uniform re-organization of all the schools of the 
 country is hardly possible, nor, if possible, does it seem to be expedient. In 
 assigning to the different schools their different tasks— the character of the popu- 
 lation— the chief occupations, &c should be allowed to have their proper 
 
 weight. Moreover, within certain limits the schools in a district maybe considered 
 
 as supplementing each other's work The division of England into 
 
 counties seems to offer the most natural basis for such a purpose as we are now 
 describing. In many important respects each county is a whole by itself, and has 
 a political and social life of its own, a great advantage in the management of all 
 matters that require co-operation. We are of opinion, that, in all arrangements- 
 relating to education, it will be expedient to provide, that it shall be possible 
 eventually to allow each county, subject still to superior authority, to have 
 the control of its own schools. But, for reasons which we shall state more 
 fully hereafter, we do not think it possible to take the division into counties 
 as our basis at first starting. We propose to take, as the most convenient 
 districts to begin with, the eleven divisions made by the Registrar- Q-eneral 
 for the purposes of the census. These divisions are large enough each to 
 contain a considerable number of endowed schools, and thus in some degree 
 to meet the difficulty presented by the very unequal distribution of these 
 schools over the country; yet no one of them is too large to be treated as 
 
 one whole In each of these eleven divisions a certain number of 
 
 schools should be assigned to the first grade, a certain number to the second, 
 and the remainder to the third ; how many will be required of each kmd must 
 depend very much on local considerations. On the whole it is probable that 
 not less than four boarding schools of the first grade will be required for 
 every million of the population. If for every thousand people there should 
 be one boy that ought to receive an education of this sort, each of these 
 
 schools would have about 250 scholars There will not probably 
 
 be nearly so great a demand for boarding schools of the second grade as for 
 day schools. ....... Supposing it to be necessary to provide boardmg 
 
 schools of this grade for one in a thousand of the population, and each school 
 to have 100 scholars, it would follow that there ought to be a boardmg school 
 
 of this grade for every 100,000 inhabitants Every town should 
 
 have a school of the third grade. The endowment of some schools should be 
 
 turned into exhibitions It is obvious that the duty of fixmg 
 
 the grade of the schools of a whole district cannot be intrusted to the Governors 
 of the schools themselves. Their position would naturally lead them to look 
 too exclusively to the supposed interest of their separate schools, whereas the 
 interests of the district as a whole ought to be taken as the guide. The 
 determination of the grade will require a Provincial Authority. 
 
 Some of our witnesses advocate the establishment of a 
 
 Normal School, where masters might be trained It is to the trammg 
 
 schools that the great improvement in elementary teachers is really due . 
 
 The example of France points in the same direction But, on the
 
 < 111 ; 
 
 other hand, it cannot be said that such a school is a necessity ; for the Prussians 
 have no such training school, and yet their teachers are admirably qualified. 
 
 Every training school has in some degree the fault, that 
 
 attends all strictly professional places of instruction. It tends to narrow the 
 mind a little ; to give too distinctly professional a cast to the character. It is 
 complained, that the trained masters in this country often show, that they 
 would have been the better, had they been educated in company with those, who 
 were preparing for other employments. But the great objection to the 
 establishment of a training school for masters in the endowed schools by the 
 State is, that it would almost inevitably give the Government an undue control 
 
 over all the superior education of the country Many of the 
 
 advantages, which a training school would give, might, perhaps, be obtained, 
 with none of these disadvantages and at much less cost, by a well-devised system 
 
 of certificates It will have been seen that the examination of schools 
 
 is the first of all the improvements which we have recommended 
 
 It appears expedient to provide (1) for the examination of the schools in the 
 subjects prescribed by these respective authorities, (2) for the examination of 
 candidates for the profession of trading, and Yor the granting of certificates to 
 
 those who have proved their possession of competent attainments 
 
 For this purpose we shaU suggest the creation of a Council of Examination to 
 consist of 12 members, 2 to be elected by each of the Universities of Oxford, 
 Cambridge, and London, and 6 to be appointed by the Crown. 
 
 8umma/ry of Improvements recommended in Endowed Schools. 
 
 In conclusion we give a brief summary of the improvements that we 
 recommend. 
 
 We recommend : — 
 
 a. That the Head master of every endowed sohool — 
 
 1. ShaU appoint his assistants, subject to their possessing proper certificates 
 of attainment and testimonials to character, and shall dismiss them at 
 discretion. 
 
 2. Shall be supreme over the discipline, and may suspend, but shall not 
 expel, a day boy, without sanction from the governors. 
 
 3. Shall regulate aU text books, methods, and organization. 
 
 h. That the Governors of each school shall have power and, if need appear, 
 be required — 
 
 1. Subject to the scheme prepared and sanctioned by superior authority, 
 to spend money on building, to change the site of the school without 
 removing it from the town or parish, to pay the school fees of 
 foundationers, to guarantee a certain income to the master for a hmited 
 time, to vary, consolidate, or abolish exhibitions, to found new ones, 
 and generally to use the funds of the endowment, as shall be found 
 expedient for the good of the school. , 
 
 2. Subject to the limits prescribed for the grade of the school, to determine 
 the subjects of instruction. 
 
 3. Subject to the same limits, to fix and receive all fees to be paid by 
 the boys, and to fix and pay all salaries to be paid to the masters. 
 
 4. If the school be declared a boarding school, to build and provide for the 
 management of a hostel, and to grant or refuse licences for separate 
 boarding houses. 
 
 5. To appoint the head master, subject to his having certificates of attain- 
 ment, testimonials to character, and testimonials to experience, and, under 
 certain regulations, to dismiss him at discretion ; to determine the number 
 of assistant masters ; to sanction the expulsion of day boys for miscon- 
 duct ; to fix the length and time of holidays.
 
 c. That some Provincial Authority shall have power and be required, subject 
 to the approval of a Central Authority — 
 
 1. To fix the grade of the several schools of a district in relation to one 
 another. 
 
 2. To propose schemes for the regulation of the trusts in each endowed 
 school in their province, and in particular to sanction the expenditure 
 of money on buildings, or a change of site within the town or parish, and 
 in certain cases to order the removal of a school to a different parish; 
 to substitute merit for residence or any other qualification for receiving 
 gratuitous instruction, and otherwise to make rules for the admission 
 of foundationers ; to sanction the variation, consolidation, and creation of 
 exhibitions ; to convert free boarding schools into day schools, or to make 
 rules for filling them by merit ; to levy a tax on the income of all school 
 endowments for the payment of examiners. 
 
 3. To abolish certain religious restrictions in all except exclusively denomi- 
 national schools ; and to hear appeals from parents who consider themselves 
 aggrieved in this regard. 
 
 4. To decide which schools shall be purely day schools, which purely 
 boarding schools, and which both. 
 
 5. To consolidate, or sanction the enlargement of, small foundations, or 
 to suppress them as schools and convert them to exhibitions. 
 
 6. To bring before the Charity Commission all endowments for other 
 purposes than education, which appear to be useless, mischievous, or 
 obsolete, and, if necessary, to propose schemes for their conversion. 
 
 d. That some Central Authority shall have power and be required — 
 
 1. To receive aU schemes from the Provincial Authority for the resettlement 
 of educational trusts, and, if approved, submit them to Parliament. 
 
 2. To appoint one officer for each Pegistrar-Greneral's division, who shall 
 personally inspect every endowed school for secondary education in his 
 division at least once in three years ; shall preside over a court of 
 examiners for each county in his division, and with their aid examine 
 one-third of the boys in each endowed school every year; shall report 
 annually on the endowed schools for secondary education in his 
 division. 
 
 3. To provide for the audit of the accounts of every endowed school for 
 secondary education or other educational foundation every year. 
 
 4. To provide for the regular inspection of endowments for elementary 
 education, unless they shall be inspected by the Committee of Council. 
 
 5. To inquire, if required by the Provincial Authority, into endowments 
 not originally intended for education, and to decide, subject to appeal, 
 whether any be useless, mischievous, or impracticable, and ought to be 
 converted to purposes of education. 
 
 e. That some different Central Authority, on which it is very desirable that 
 the Universities should be represented, shall have power and be required, — 
 
 1. To appoint courts of examiners for each county, on the requisition of 
 the officer charged with the duty of presiding over the county examina- 
 tions. 
 
 2. To draw up general regulations for these examinations. 
 
 3. To make arrangements for the examination of candidates for the office 
 of schoolmaster, and for granting them certificates of special knowledge. 
 
 The necessity of grouping the schools has been pressed upon us by 
 witnesses of the highest authority ; and our own consideration of the facts laid 
 before us has led us to the same conclusion. To decide whether a school ought 
 to be of the first grade or of the second is not possible, unless it be considered,
 
 wliat other schools of either grade may be made within reach. To decide 
 whether a school is to be purely a day school or to admit boarders demands 
 a knowledge of the other boar(fing schools in the district, since it is evident 
 that at present many boarding schools are simply damaging each other by a 
 competition for which there is no room. This work of fixing the grade of the 
 schools is entirely new, and will require new machinery. Nor, again, is it 
 enough that machinery should be created to deal with this work as a whole. 
 It should be adapted to deal with the separate parts. It should include men 
 taken in each case from the districts in which the changes are to be made ; 
 capable of understanding local feelings and local prejudices ; capable of adapting 
 
 every change to the pecuKar circumstances of the neighbourhood 
 
 After careful consideration we have come to the conclusion that it would be 
 best to begin with some very simple and direct mode of obtaining such provincial 
 boards as seem to be required, but that an opening should be left for something 
 more popular to step in if the popular interest were strong enough to take 
 the necessary steps for the purpose. "We propose then to take as the basis 
 the Eegistrar-General's divisions. To each of these the Charity Commission 
 should appoint an ofl&cer of high ability and attainments to be the Official 
 District Commissioner for that Division. This officer should be at once the 
 inspector of all charities for secondary education in his district, and also, according 
 to the valuable suggestion of Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, ex officio one of the trustees 
 
 of every trust for education above the elementary He should be, in 
 
 short, the inspector spoken of in the previous section We recommend 
 
 that with this officer should be associated six or eight unpaid District Commis- 
 sioners appointed by the Crown from the residents in the division. In selecting 
 these District Commissioners care should be taken to choose gentlemen likely 
 to be well acquainted with the feelings of the district and to have influence with 
 
 the people at large These District Commissioners would thus be the 
 
 provincial authority spoken of in the recommendations made in the previous 
 section, and to this Provincial Board we should propose to assign all the powers 
 
 and duties there enumerated This plan would supply Provincial 
 
 Boards capable of doing the work well, and likely in the end to satisfy the 
 country with what they did, though not perhaps without encountering very 
 serious local opposition. But there can be no doubt that very much greater 
 effect might be expected if it were possible to obtain, and to represent in 
 the provincial management, an energetic popular interest in the subject. No 
 skill in organization, no careful adaptation of the means in hand to the best ends 
 
 can do as much for education as the earnest co-operation of the people 
 
 For this reason, while we cannot recommend the compulsory formation of local 
 boards for the general control of schools at present, because the popular interest 
 in the matter does not appear to be strong enough or educated enough to justify 
 so decided a step, we yet think that if there be in any County a general desire to 
 assume the management of its own schools, sufficiently strong to induce the 
 people to demand to have a board of their own, the demand should be welcomed 
 
 at once As things are, the simplest method of forming a County 
 
 Board seems to be to take the the Chairmen of the Boards of Guardians, and to 
 add to these half their number nominated by the Crown. The Poor Law Unions 
 are on the whole the most convenient divisions that are now to be found, and it 
 seems probable that whatever powers may hereafter be intrusted to local 
 
 authorities will be so apportioned as to take these divisions for their basis 
 
 Such a Board would not be a direct, but it would nevertheless be a very real, 
 
 representation of the County There are cases indeed in which the 
 
 local opposition of single towns to most necessary improvements may possibly be 
 so great that the strongest popular support will be needed to enable any 
 Provincial Board to do its duty. In such cases a County Board, and more 
 especially a County Board in great part directly emanating from the people, 
 would do with comparative ease what perhaps no other Board could do at all. 
 Whether any Counties availed themselves of the proposed permission to form 
 County Boards or not, it would seem advisable to allow towns of 100,000 
 inhabitants or more to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the Provincial Boards
 
 and rank as provinces of themselves Nothing is likely to be done unless 
 
 the goodwill of the people at large be secured Public schools have 
 
 a great advantage in the security that can be taken for the efficiency of their 
 teachers, in the thoroughness of the test that can be applied to their work. But 
 they have a far greater advantage, when they have besides these, the support of 
 popular sympathy, and the energy which only that sympathy can inspire. The 
 
 task before us is great Even more than skilful contrivance, it 
 
 will need energy ; and energy can only be obtained by trusting the schools to the 
 
 hearty goodwill of the people With regard to educational endowments 
 
 (to which our attention was more especially called by Your Majesty's commands), 
 we have desired to maintain them, so far as they could be rendered really and 
 adequately useful, for the great purposes for which they were intended ; but to 
 provide a complete and durable remedy for those wide-spread abuses which 
 have been abundantly proved to exist in these institutions. It is true that the 
 principle itself of educational endowments has sometimes been questioned on 
 high authority, and we are disposed to admit that, unless they shall be so 
 re-organized as to aid, they will positively obstruct the improvement of educa- 
 tion ; but, besides the fact that we find them in existence, we are of opinion 
 that however liable they may be to perversion without vigilant and constant 
 supervision, yet that they often give a character of dignity and permanence to 
 schools which produces the most beneficial effect on the minds both of instructors 
 and of scholars. We have also desired in various ways to encourage the sys- 
 tematic improvement of private schools, and the establishment of others of a 
 more public character throughout the country, by the instrumentality of local 
 bodies, without interfering unduly with that freedom of private action which is 
 so wisely valued by Englishmen, and for the absence of which we believe that no 
 exertions on the part of the State could adequately make up. 
 
 Extracts from the 
 KEPORT OF THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSIONERS (1872). 
 
 The business of the Commission is partly judicial ; partly semi-judicial 
 
 The rest of the work may be called educational. As to this a few 
 
 rules are given, such as those in sections 15, 21, and 22, of universal 
 application on special points. Beyond these the whole subject matter falls 
 (subject to the legal restrictions) under the wide scope of sections 9 and 10 as 
 explained by the preamble, that scope being to " render any educational 
 endowment most conducive to the " advancement of the education of Boys and 
 Girls," with special regard to the Report of the Schools Inquiry Commissioners, 
 who, it is said, ''have made their report, and thereby recommended various 
 * ' changes in the government, management, and studies of endowed schools, 
 *' and in the application of educational endowments with the object of pro- 
 "moting their greater efficiency, and of carrying into effect the main designs 
 ''of the founders thereof, by putting a liberal education within the reach 
 " of children of all classes ; and have further recommended other measures for the 
 
 " object of improving education." The initiative in making schemes is, 
 
 except in one class of cases (sec. 32), which need not now be dwelt upon, very 
 
 strictly preserved to the Commissioners Another feature of the Act 
 
 which must be observed is the quantity of formal process and the great expendi- 
 ture of time incident to every Scheme What has been now said will 
 
 show with sufficient clearness the impossibility of framing comprehensive 
 
 Schemes for adjusting Educational Endowments over large districts 
 
 We have, indeed, endeavoured to combine endowments where there has been 
 sufficient proximity to make it possible; but this must be done in nearly all 
 cases by means of a separate Scheme for each endowment. And it cannot be 
 done at all over a wide area on account of the enormous number of legal
 
 considerations and formal processes wliicli would attach to each group of 
 Schemes, and of the chance of the whole group failing through error or suc- 
 cessful opposition as to a single endowment We cannot tell how many- 
 Schemes we shall be called upon to make, but probably not less than one for each 
 Endowment; and we are speaking within the mark when we estimate the 
 
 Educational Endowments alone as 3,000 in number The last general 
 
 characteristic of the Act which we will observe on here is that the Schemes are 
 
 obviously intended to be final in their nature It appeared to us 
 
 that at least at the outset the topographical system, adopted by the Schools 
 Inquiry Commission, would be the most convenient. By this we mean the 
 selection of a few counties or other definite districts of the country, within which, 
 to the temporary exclusion as the general rule of all others, our inquiries, and 
 
 the reconstitution of endowments, should be prosecuted The thorough 
 
 and complete reorganisation of a whole district involves the necessity of dealing 
 with all the educational endowments belonging to it without reference to their 
 
 actual condition or comparative importance We have intimated our 
 
 willingness to consider any case on its merits, and where there seemed sufficient 
 
 reason for doing so, to take it, as it were, out of its turn . A slight 
 
 consideration of the nature of the work before us, and of the provisions of the 
 Endowed Schools Act, seems enough to show that we, like our predecessors, 
 must work mainly through Assistant Commissioners, who shall visit the several 
 
 districts, &c The existing machinery was found by the Schools 
 
 Inquiry Commissioners to be very unsatisfactory. They proposed a new system 
 which was founded mainly on the construction of certain Provincial Councils 
 for Education. But the Endowed Schools Act, while giving us the very largest 
 powers to remove, alter, and re-cast Governing Bodies, did not establish any 
 fresh authority, and we have thus been left to make new Groverning Bodies 
 
 out of the old materials The provincial boards, on which the system 
 
 of the Eeport mainly rests, do not exist ; and we are left to supply the elements 
 of continuity, skill, authority, and wider interests out of the official and 
 
 cooptative portions of the governing body We have attempted the 
 
 consolidation of the Governing Bodies of several Endowments in the same 
 neighbourhood in several cases, and we attach the greatest importance to it as 
 indeed did the Schools Inquiry Commissioners, see Eeport, p.^ 647. But it is 
 not always favourably received by the Trustees, and sometimes legal clainis 
 embarrass or forbid it. It is therefore an operation of which the difficulty is 
 
 in full proportion to its value For ourselves, we hope we may be 
 
 allowed to say that our only object has been to give due effect to a statute 
 somewhat novel and undoubtedly very stringent and drastic in its character. 
 ...... Nothing but a strong sense in the mind of Parliament of the great 
 
 and accumulated evils which have gathered round this mass of Endowment, as 
 brought out with such clearness and copiousness in the Schools Inquiry Eeport, 
 and of the need of unusually strong measures in treating them, would have 
 induced the Legislature to pass so powerful an enactment. Now that it has been 
 passed we cannot believe that it ought not to be administered in the spirit 
 which dictated its provisions. 
 
 LONDON: COENELIUS BUCK, 23, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G.
 
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