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 ENDOWED SCHOOL COMMISSION 
 
 AND ELEMENTAEY SCHOOL 
 
 ENDOWMENTS. 
 
 A CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 THE EEV. G. H. EAOAN, 
 
 PREBENDARY OF WELLS, 
 Honorary Secretary of the Bath and Wells Diocesan Board of Education^ 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 18 7 1. 
 
 T. GREEN, PRINTER AND BOOKSELLER, HIGH STREET, WELLS.
 
 This Correspondence is printed mainly with the view 
 of informing the Managers of Elementary Church 
 Schools that, if they are in the receipt of aid from 
 Government Grants^ the Endowments of their Schools 
 will not he under the control of the Endowed Schools 
 Commissioners, and may continue applicable to the 
 ordinary expenses of such Schools. There are also 
 other points discussed which, it is considered, are tvell 
 deserving the careful attention of Churchmen and those 
 interested in School Endowments. 
 
 Paper S is appended for facility of reference, 
 
 G, H. F, 
 
 Se^temher 6, 187L
 
 CORRESPONDENCE, &c. 
 
 KoDNEY Stoke Rectory, Weston-super-Mahb. 
 June 22th, 1871. 
 Sir, 
 
 I have the honour to request that you will bring under the Notice of the 
 Endowed School Commissioners, the annexed resolution of the Bath and Wells 
 Diocesan Board of Education, which was passed at a Meeting, held June 27, 1871. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 GEORGE H. FAGAN. 
 Honorary Secretary, Bath and Wells Diocesan Board of Education. 
 The Secretary, Endowed Schools Commission, 
 Victoria Street, London. 
 
 RESOLUTION— JUNE 27, 1871. 
 "That this Board having had its attention called to a paper drawn up under 
 authority of the P]ndowed Schools Commissioners, containing suggestions for the 
 application of Endowments now attached, or hitherto applied under Trust Deeds, 
 to the ordinary expenses of Elementary Schools, to the purposes of Secondary or 
 Middle Class Education, protests against this scheme as being unjust and in contra- 
 diction to the spirit and to the provisions both of the Endowed Schools Bill and 
 of the Elementary Education Act." 
 
 Emdowed Schools Commission, 2, Victohia. St., S, W. 
 
 5thJuly,\%1l. 
 Revd. Sir, 
 
 I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th ult. enclosing 
 a copy of a resolution of the Bath and Wells Diocesan Board of Education. The 
 suggestions referred to, and in the resolution called a scheme, are doubtless those 
 expressed in a paper which, for the greater convenience of correspondence and 
 reference, has been printed and marked S. Paper S contains sojiie reasoning and 
 some conclusions which have been found applicable to a number of actual cases, 
 but which do not form a Scheme until applied to a particular case. The Diocesan 
 Boaid do not say that they have had their attention ca?led to any particular case in 
 which the reasoning of Paper S has been so applied as to produce injustice or 
 results contradictory of the legislation of the last two years. It rather appears 
 that they think the whole principle of the paper to be faulty in these respects. 
 
 2. That the subject is one of much difficulty, and has so been felt by the Endowed 
 Schools Commissioners, is apparent on the face of Paper S itself. It is one on 
 which they will gladly avail them.selves of the knowledge and experience pos- 
 sessed by local educational bodies. And if the Diocesan Board will be kind 
 enough to point out, with reference to particular cases, or even in general terms, 
 in what way the principles of Paper S work injustice, what is the spirit, and 
 what are the provisions of either the Endowed Schools Act, 1869, or the Elemen- 
 tary Education Act, 1870, which are contravened, what arrangements would 
 be more just, how the spirit and provisions of the two Acts in question can be 
 more faithfully observed, they will throw light on a problem of much obscurity 
 and confer a benefit on the Endowed Schools Commissioners, and through them on 
 the public at large, In particular the Commissioners would draw your attention to 
 the importance of explaining on what grounds the Board assumes, as the terms of 
 the Resolution appear to assume, the identity of Secondary Education and Middle 
 Class Education. I am, Revd. Sir, Your obedient Servant, 
 
 H. J. ROBY. 
 
 Rev. G. H. FAGAN. 
 
 III. 
 
 Rodney Stokb Rectory, Weston-supbr-Mahb, 
 
 July 12, 1871. 
 Sir 
 
 I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of July 5, remarking on a 
 Resolution which the Bath and Wells Board of Education had felt it its dutv 
 to pass upon Paper S, issued by the Endowed Schools Commissioners, on the
 
 subject of Endowments at present applied to the ordinary expenses of Elementary 
 Schools. 
 
 I beg, through you, to thank the Commissioners, in the name of the Diocesan 
 Board, for the courtesy of their reply, and the kind way in which they express 
 themselves desirous to be put in full possession of those views of the BoaVd which 
 prompted the Resolution in question, as well as of any suggestion or information 
 which might tend to elucidate the general subject. 
 
 The Board does not meet again till the end of September ; and personally, I 
 should prefer to defer my reply till after such Meeting. But it may seem more 
 courteous to the Commissioners, and more due to them, considering the terms in 
 which the Resolution is couched, that a reply to their letter should not be delayed 
 so long. I will therefore, as I am acquainted with the main grounds upon which 
 the Resolution was carried, take the liberty of replying at once ; though 1 must 
 beg the Commissioners, under the circumstances, to make me alone answerable 
 for any statements or arguments that may go beyond the terms of the Resolution 
 agreed to by the Board. 
 
 The Commissioners are correct in supposing that the Board was of opinion 
 that the whole principle of the paper was faulty and liable to the charge of injustice, 
 and a contravention of the two Acts in question. 
 
 That principle 1 conceive to be as follows. — 
 
 That since the passing of the Elementary Education Act in 1870, compulsory 
 provision for maintenance by School Rate, legally assured, has been provided for 
 every parish in England. 
 
 That by consequence, the circumstances under which the Endowed Schools 
 Act was passed, have changed. 
 
 That endowments hitherto used in paying the •' Ordinary Expenses" of the 
 Primary Schools of the country ought, as a general rule, no longer to be applied to 
 the ordinary maintenance of our Parish Schools. The Commissioners consider that 
 now that " the legal provision has been made complete in amount " this argu- 
 ment "acquires almost irresistible force". 
 
 That if Endowment is applied to the ordinary expenses, it will simply relieve 
 other sources of revenue, such as School Fees, Parliamentary Grants, Subscriptions 
 and Rates : to do which, the Commissioners consider most objectionable. 
 
 Therefore they deem that the permanent application of the existing endow- 
 ments, applied to the ordinary expenses of our Primary Schools, should be in favor 
 of Secondary Education, and at any rate, whatsoever improvements of such Schools 
 they may be devoted to, they ought to cease henceforth to assist their " ordinary 
 expenses" or what is called their maintenance, inasmuch as Paper S contends 
 ♦'that the surroimding circumstances have changed " by the passing of the Ele- 
 mentary Education Act of 1870, subsequently to the Endowed Schools Act of 1869. 
 
 Now it is to the correctness of such a view and the justice of such a principle 
 that we beg leave most emphatically to demur. 
 
 The Elementary Education Act, we maintain, was not passed to make the 
 legal provision for school-rate binding on every parish in England, so as to give 
 any pretext for transferring existing endowments, at present applicable to the or- 
 dinary expenses of Elementary Schools, from such proper and legitimate object. 
 On the contrary, the Act, ( Clause V ) expressly provides that in those cases only, 
 *'where efficient and suitable provision is not otherwise made, and where there is an in- 
 ^''stifficient amount of such accommodation, in this Act referred to as a public school 
 ^^accommodation" the deficiency shall be supplied in the manner provided by the 
 ♦'Act". Moreover the manner of supplying such deficiency provided by the 
 Act, studiously and most carefully ensures that every opportunity shall be given 
 by existing means, such as voluntary subscriptions, endowments, &c., to,the supply 
 of the deficiency without recourse to legal provision. 
 
 To argue therefore as Paper S does, that because legal provision for Elementary 
 Education is secure to every parish, it is not only permissible but a duty to forbid 
 endowments to be applied to the ordinary expenses of our Parochial Schools, we 
 hold to be in opposition to the spirit and provisions of both the Acts referred to. 
 
 It is true that paragraph 9 suggests an alternative application of Endowments 
 now applied to the ordinary expenses of Elementary Education, should they be 
 hereafter, under the Endowed School Act, withdrawn from such application. In 
 regard to this, I have only to remark that many of the proposed items of applica- 
 tion suggested in paragraph 9 are either wholly inapplicable to, or impracticable 
 in the case of, ordinary elementary schools and that moreover the withdrawal of 
 such Endowments from application to the ordinary expense of the School, would at
 
 once compel such school, ( most unjustly as we venture to think ) to become a 
 School Board supported by Rate. 
 
 I think the Commissioners will agree with me that, till it is made evident how 
 far the Diocesan Board and the Commissioners really differ or agree on the above 
 questions of principle, it will be useless to go into the details (especially till the 
 Board itself shall be able to go into them) upon which the Commissioners are good 
 enough so courteously to invite its opinion and assistance. 
 
 But as the (Commissioners seem desirous to be informed on such points, it 
 seems only due to them that I should say, that with reference to their action in this 
 matter, the minds of very many members of the Church of England in this part of 
 the country have been disturbed by the action of the Commissioners in the matter 
 of Dr. Morgan's school at Bridgwater, which appears to them to indicate an inten- 
 tion on the part of the Board, to transfer to Middle-class education the endowments 
 which have hitherto been enjoyed by Church Elementary schools. 
 
 In the case of Dr. Morgan's school, the best existing Primary Church of 
 England School is to be converted into a third grade school, leaving the Church 
 of England unprovided with any substitute except a Board School. 
 
 In many such cases the supplanting of such Schools by *' unsectarian" Rate 
 schools will be necessitated, and a printed letter to a Manager of a Church School, 
 of which I annex a copy, from the Committee of Privy Conncil, referring to the 
 coming action of the Commissioners, which was read at the meeting of the Board, 
 by no means tends to allay such alarms. 
 
 '*It appears from the Memorial (No. 2), that the promoters of this School 
 rely in part for its maintenance upon grants from an endowment. This en- 
 dowment which is not attached to the School, will come under review of the 
 Commissioners appointed by the Endowed Schools Act of 1869, and the future 
 method of its application will depend upon the scheme made by those Com- 
 missioners under their Act. The promoters have, therefore, no sure ground 
 for expecting that the Managers of the School will hereafter be able to derive 
 any assistance from the endowment, and before My Lords proceed with the 
 case they will be glad to receive an assurance that whatever may be the nature 
 of the scheme for the application of the endowment in question the School is 
 likely to be maintained in efficiency." 
 
 I beg also to call the attention of the Commissioners to the accompanying 
 extract from a speech of the Lord Bishop of London, reported to have been deliv- 
 ered at the annual meeting of the National Society, held June 2',ind, 1871. 
 
 "They were told by a paper now in circulation that it was intended to take 
 away all endowments for the common education of the primary schools and only 
 to allow such endowment to go to the superfluities of a higher class of schools 
 and that they were not to be applied to the maintenance of the poorer schools. 
 Now the possibility of those schools being maintained, did often depend 
 upon those endowments, and if they were taken away, and the responsibility 
 of maintaining those schools were left in the care of a few farmers, these 
 schools would be ruined altogether and they would soon be driven into the 
 hands of the School Board." 
 
 This extract will serve to show that in other well informed and unprejudiced 
 quarters, a similar view to that taken by the Bath and Wells Diocesan Board has 
 been adopted, a view which is reported to have led a high legal authority in the 
 House of Lords, in a recent debate, to use these words. — '♦ I object entirely to the 
 use which the Endowed Schools Commissioners are making of the Elementary Act 
 of last year. " 
 
 As to the explanation which the Commissioners deem it important should be 
 given of the grounds upon which the Resolution assumes the identity of ''Secon- 
 dary" and ''Middle class" education, it seems— inasmuch as ''Primary Education" 
 is, by the Commissioners themselves, used of Elementary Education for the chil- 
 dren of the labouring classes, no unreasonable interpretation to assign to their use 
 of the term "Secondary Education" the meaning of Pklucation for the benefit of 
 the children '*of the Middle Classes", more especially as paper S speaks of such 
 •'Secondary Education" as having hitherto received no assistance on the part of 
 Parliament or of voluntary agencies". If however the Commissioners desire that 
 that term should be applied (in a way which seems scarcely compatible with the 
 argument in paragraph 4 ) to such improvements, sketched out in Paper S, as 
 might be available in a school for both the classes of children, I have only to re- 
 mark that, in point of fact, the benefit of them would, practically, be almost entirely 
 reaped by the children of the Middle Classes. 
 
 I beg, in conclusion, to assure the Commissioners, through you, that if it
 
 should appear that the Board ha?, after all, misunderstood the general principles 
 upon which paper S has been written, and that there is a substantial agreeinent 
 between the Board and the Commissioners, on the points I have brought forward, 
 it will give me the greatest satisfaction to convey to it, as I am sure it will give the 
 Board the greatest pleasure to receive such assurance, and to give publicity to any 
 explanation with which the Commissioners may favour us. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir. your obedient servant, 
 
 GEORGE H. FAGAN. 
 
 II. J. EOBY, Esa., &c., &c. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Endowed Scuools Commission, 2, Victoria St., S. W. 
 4fh August, 1871. 
 
 Rev. Sir, 
 
 Your letter of the 12th ult. has now been carefully considered by the 
 Commissioners, who direct me to express their thanks for the trouble you have 
 taken, and their desire to place before the Bath and Wells Diocesan Board of Kdu- 
 cation, what they conceive to be, the true aspect of the case. I'hey cannot indeed 
 flatter themselves that there is a substantial agreement between themselves and 
 the Board, though they venture to think that the board has partly misunderstood 
 both the principles on which Paper S. proceeds, and the range of its aims. And 
 they consider it due to gentlemen, occupying the position of the Board, to endea- 
 vour, thiough you, to modify their impressions on these points, and trust that thus 
 a substantial agreement may eventually be brought about. 
 
 2 — The Commissioners do not object to your statement of their principles, as 
 far as it goes. But it is imperfect in omitting the cardinal point ui all : viz. — the 
 duty laid upon the Commissioners in the terms of the Act, to make Endowments as 
 conducive as they can be made, to the advancement of the education of bo} s and 
 girls. 
 
 3 — This obligation, laid on the Commissioners, would probably have made it 
 necessary for them, if the Elementary Education Act had not been passed, to lay 
 down the principle that Endowments cannot as a rule advantageously be used to 
 defray the ordinary expenses of an Elementary School, for it is certainly not most 
 conducive to education to apply funds to objects which can be provided for from 
 other sources. It is shown in Paper S that the passing of the Elementary Educa- 
 tion Act has greatly strengthened the position, because there is now not only ample 
 legal provision for Elementary Education, but that provision is associated with a. 
 system which secures by various checks and guarantees the efficiency of the Schools. 
 To reserve Endowments therefore for ordinary expenses is not only to relieve other 
 sources of supplj', but to do so at the risk of injury to the Schools through the re- 
 moval of important tests of efficiency and incentives to exertion. 
 
 4 — If you will again look at Paper S, you will see that this view is the very 
 foundation of it, and that the principal objection to applying permanent endowment 
 to ordinary expenditure, is not simply because other resources will thereby be 
 eased, but lest the Schools should thereby be injured. The changes effected by 
 the Elementary Education Act, and the Code of 18/1, are mentioned to show how 
 reasoning that was strong before is stronger now, but are nowhere made the 
 foundation of the positions assumed. 
 
 5— The Commissioners must particularly request the Board to observe, in this 
 and in every part of the question, that as Public Officers they are bound to lecog- 
 nize the law as they fi.nd it, as adequate and satisfactory for its purposes. It is not 
 from any fancy of their own, but on the principle just stated, that they assume the 
 provisions of the Elementary Education Act as those by which the legislature 
 desires that Primary Education shall be regulated. 
 
 6 — It is doubtless owing to this oversight, as it appears to the Commissioners, 
 that your letter does not contain anything, clearly, to explain that part of the 
 Endo^ved Schools Act, but leaves the Commissioners in doubt, as they were before, 
 by what means the Bath Board consider that the spirit and provisions of that Act 
 can be more faithfully observed. 
 
 7 — With respct to the Elementary Education Act, you rest your opinion on a 
 reading of that Act which the Commissioners cannot follow. You say that •* the 
 manner of supplying such deficiency provided by the Act studiously and most 
 carefully ensures that every oppoi'tunity shall be given by existing means, such as 
 voluntary subscriptions, endovvjnents, &c., to the supply of the deficiency without 
 recourse to legal provisions". Is'ow unless the Commissioners mistake, r'.ndow- 
 ments are only mentioned twice in the Act. By Section 23, certain Endowments
 
 xnay under divers restrictions, and with the consent of the Education Department, 
 be transferred to School Boards, to be treated by them as part of their ordinary 
 resources. And Section 75 provides that some small Endowments, excepted from 
 the Endowed Schools Act 1869, may be the subject of schemes by that department. 
 The Code of 1871 is silent about Endowments, lo the understanding of the 
 Commissioners such provisions, so far from indicating an intention to treat Endow- 
 ments as ejmdem generis, with other supplies of funds, show an intention to place 
 them on a diflFerent and very special footing. 
 
 8— The 5th section,' to which you appear to refer, contains no such enumeration 
 of resources as you suggest. The word ''otherwise" is general, and must be con- 
 strued in the light of other provisions bearing on the question. And here the 
 Commissioners must request the Board's candid consideration of the force of this 
 word in this place. The construction put by the Board upon it, would carry this 
 consequence, that the Elementary Education Act intended, by this single expres- 
 sion, to secure for ever for Primary Schools which happen to have the advantage of 
 an Endowment the benefit of that Endowment, and this notwithstanding the 
 enactment passed only one year previously, placing all such Endowments (with some 
 specified exceptions) under the control of the Endowed Schools Commissioners to 
 be applied as might be most conducive to Education generally. The Commission- 
 ers believe that Parliament never intended so to restrain their action, but that it is 
 still their duty to deal with these Endowments as with others, for the purposes 
 indicated by the Endowed Schools Act. 
 
 9— The Commissioners have already dealt with some Endowments previously 
 applied to the ordinary purposes of primary Schools on the principles to which the 
 Board object. Had time allowed, in the interval between the passing of the two 
 Acts, a large number of such cases might have been disy-osed of. And then this 
 consequence woulct have followed from the construction contended for by the Board, 
 that by the force of the Elementary Education Act, an accidental nnmber of en- 
 dowments would have been withdrawn from the powers of this Commission while 
 others just similarly circumstanced would have remained liable to them. 
 
 10— The letter'of the Education Department, from which you quote a passage, 
 appears to have no bearing on the present question, for it evidently relates to some 
 endowment not attached to the School, whose managers were making the applica- 
 tion : and merely requires an assurance as to the stability of that particular School. 
 If, however, it had any such bearing as you assume, it would seem to indicnte the 
 impression of the Education Department that Endowment ought not to be relied 
 on for ordinary expenditure. That such was the intention of *the most active pro- 
 moters of the Endowed Schools and Elementary Education Acts is certairi. And if 
 a contrary construction were placed on tlie Acts, it would cause much disappoint- 
 ment. I say this, not because it can influence in any degree the true construction 
 of the Acts ( which must be taken as they stand, and not as any individual may 
 have meant or wished them to stand) but because your letter intimates surprise and 
 alarm at foreseen and intended consequences, 
 
 1 1— The foregoing remarks apply to so much of the resolution of your letter, 
 as alleges a violation of the spirit and provision of the two Acts. I pass now to 
 the allegation of injustice. Here it is satisfactory to find that no actual instance of 
 injustice has been brought under the notice of the Board ; for the only case you 
 cite, that ot Dr. Morgan's School, is outside the range of Paper S altogether. But 
 you argue that there must be injustice on the following general giounds, which I 
 quote Ht length because your letter is not divided into paragraphs, and I have diffi- 
 culty in otherwise specitying a particular passage. You write as follows— "It is 
 true that paragraph 9 suggests an alternative application of Endowments now ap- 
 plied to the ordinary expenses of Elementary Education should they be hereafter, 
 under the Endowed Schools Act, withdrawn from such application. In regard to 
 this I have only to remark that many of the proposed items of application, 
 suggested in paragraph 9, are either wholly inapplicable to, or impracticable in the 
 case of, ordinary Elementary Schools, and that moreover the withdrawal of such 
 Endowments from applicati-)n to the ordinary expense of the School, would at once 
 compel such school ( most unjustly, as we venture to think ) to become a Board 
 School supported by rate." 
 
 12— On this passage the Commissioners make four observations. First, if 
 many of the objects suggested in paragraphs 9 and 10 of Paper S are inapplicable 
 to particular cases, others are applicable ; and it is impossible to conceive 
 cases to wliich some are not applicable. And the very reason for naming 
 manv objects, is to give a large discretion to managers, and so to secure 
 originality and variety of type. Secondly, the list does not profess to be
 
 8 
 
 exhaustive ; and whenever other apt methods are proposed, they may be adopt- 
 ed. Thirdly, the withdrawal of Endowments from the support of ordinary 
 expenditure does not necessitate a School Board. It only puts the place on a like 
 footing with its neighbours (from whom it is only accidentally separated by having 
 an Endowment) as regards ordinary expenditure, whilst giving it from the Endow- 
 ment, the advantage of good buildings and equipments and of a greater quantity 
 and finer quality of Education. Fourthly, the Commissioners have been most 
 careful to warn every reader of Paper S that the conclusions, there expressed, are 
 general and not universal, and that every case must be considered on its own cir- 
 cumstances ; and therefore any particulars tending to prove injustice against any 
 scheme proposed by them may be brought forward and will certainly receive most 
 careful attention. 
 
 13 — The Commissioners hardly know to what details you refer as being useless 
 to go into, but when injustice is charged, the first question that occurs to any one 
 to ask is, who is the person injured ? The Commissioners do not find any clear 
 answer to this. From your observations, cited in the last paragraph, it would 
 seem that the persons (not injured, for no case is mentioned, but,) about to be 
 injured, are (not the poor, for whom the Endowments are designed, but) the 
 landowners, on whom rates may fall. But from the sequel of your letter, it 
 would seem that the Bath and Wells Board apprehended injury to the Church, 
 and that on account of the case of Morgan's School at Bridgwater. 
 
 14 — It is your mention of this case as the ground of objection to Paper S that 
 leads the Commissioners to say that the Board have mistaken the range, as well as 
 the principles of that paper, which is confined to the discussion of cases involving 
 the application of Endowments to Elementary Scho.:)ls. The case of Morgan's 
 School is of a differrnt kind. Morgan's Foundation was for education not elemen- 
 tary, but of a distinctly higher kind. The scheme establishes a third grade school 
 which, as the Commissioners believed and still believe, is the kind of School most 
 in accordance both with the interests of the place, and with the objects of the 
 Foundation. Moreover, the scheme was designed and published last summer before 
 the Elementary Education Act was passed, and before the numerous applications 
 which made it convenient to frame such a paper as Paper S, were thought of, 
 
 15 — Indeed if the case had anything to do with Paper S, it is impossible to 
 allege that it works injustice to either of the two classes for whom the Board is 
 anxious. It so happens that the Commissioners, at the instance of the Trustees, 
 were willing to assign the site and buildings to Elementary Education if the rate- 
 payers of Bridgwater wished it, but the Corporation being the elected representa- 
 tives of the ratepayers came forward and repudiated any such wish. The rate- 
 payers therefore, if their representatives may be trusted, have not been injured. 
 And as regards the Church, the Endowment remains as much attached to it as 
 before, except so far as the Endowed Schools Act compels the introduction into 
 every Scheme of provisions affecting the exclusiveness of all denominational endow- 
 ments ; on which, pomt the Commissioners simply obey the positive injunctions 
 of the Law. 
 
 16 — The Commissioners indeed cannot but express some surprise that the case 
 of Dr. Morgan's School is alleged as one of injury to the Church. Had the School 
 not been a denominational one, under the Endowed Schools Act, the charge would 
 have been at least intelligible. As it is, while the Church is at no special disad- 
 vantage at Bridgwater as regards Elementary Education, the Scheme establishes a 
 distinctively Church of England School, for the benefit of those who so much 
 require Education, just beyond the Elementary. In your letter, while speaking of 
 the transfer of a school from Church Elementary Education you fail to apply the 
 character of Church Education to that to which it is transferred. The Conscience 
 Clause is equally required in either case, 
 
 17 — It is true that the Trustees have made much complaint of the action of the 
 Commissioners in the Bridgwater case, and have more than once demanded w^hat 
 would have involved a direct and clear vi(tlation of the Law to meet their own 
 wishes. The Commissioners trust that the Board will rather form their views of 
 this case upon a study of the Endowed Schools Act and other authentic documents 
 than upon the Report of gentlemen who dislike the change effected by the Law 
 itself, and speak of it as something due to an exercise of discretion on the part of 
 the Commissioners. 
 
 18 — The relation of Educational Endowments to the Church is a matter with 
 which the Endowed Schools Commissioners necessarily have to deal But the 
 way in which they must deal with it, is very distinctly prescribed for them in the 
 Act from which their powers are derived, If any Endowment is entitled to the
 
 exemption given under section 19 of the Endowed Schools Act the Commissioners 
 are forbidden, without the assent of the Trustees, to meddle with its religious 
 character, beyond the introduction of a Conscience Clause. And in this respect 
 the result is the same, whether the Endowment is applied to primary or to secondary 
 education. If the Endowment is one to which section 19 does not refer it must be 
 treated as undenominational, and hence there can be no pretence of injustice to 
 the Church particularly, whatever use be made of such Endowment. 
 
 19 — There are, it is true, many Endowed Elementary Schools at present conduc- 
 ted as distinctively Church of England Schools, which when they come to be made 
 the subjects of Scheme are found not legally to possess that character : but this simply 
 results from the operation of positive Law, and cannot be called unjust unless it is 
 maintained that the Law itself is tainted with injustice. The Commissioners at all 
 events, have no option but to administer it as it stands. 
 
 20 — But the more immediate point on the present occasion, is not to defend the 
 Scheme for Morgan's School, but to show how the Bath and Wells Board has miscon- 
 ceived, as the Commissioners hold, the object of Paper S. They have treated it as 
 dealing with two classes of considerations with which it has nothing whatever to do. 
 It does not deal with the question whether or no an endowment ought to be applied to 
 Third Grade School or to Middle Class Education. Nor does it deal with the question 
 how an endowment is to be treated according as it falls within section 19 of the En- 
 dowed Schools Act or otherwise. It indicates that there are such questions, but it 
 enters into neither. 
 
 21 — The remarks you quote, as having been made in the National Society and in 
 the House of Lords, require specific application and explanation quite as much as the 
 resolution of the Bath and Wells Board. The words "the use the Commissioners are 
 making of the Elementary Education Act" are inaccurate, and probably misreported. 
 The Commissioners are not making use of that Act, beyond this, that it seems to them 
 to make clearer their duty to pursue a course which even without it would have been 
 the right one. 
 
 22 — Nor can they admit, as indeed they have already intimated, the correctness 
 of the view attributed to the Bishop of London. The suggestions of Paper S do not 
 relate to a "higher class of Schools", nor can the Commissioners understand how the 
 withdrawal of the exceptional advantage of endowments can tend to ruin Schools such 
 as are elsewhere maintained without them. 
 
 23 — It only remains to observe on the confusion between Primary and Secondary 
 Education on the one hand, and Education for the Poor, and fo« the Middle Class on 
 the other. It is by no means an uncommon or an unnatural one, but when it occurs it 
 should be pointed out. Primary or Elementary Education is the same thing, whether 
 it is given to one class or another, and so is Secondary Education. The variance is in 
 the kind of instruction, not in the person receiving it. If the Commissioners have on 
 any occasion, spoken of Primary or Elementary Education as something confined to 
 the labouring classes (of which they are not aware) they have fallen themselves into the 
 error they are now trying to correct. It is true that, the richer people are, the higher 
 will be the grade of Education they will, as a mle, seek for their children ; but it is a 
 mistake to suppose that Secondary Education may not most properly be offered, where 
 it is possible, to the poorer classes, or that the spirit and provisions of the Endowed 
 Schools Act can be faithfully observed unless this is done to a substantial extent. To 
 put a liberal education within the reach of all classes, is the most prominent object on 
 the face of that Act, and indeed is by it ascribed to Founders, as their main design. 
 
 24 — If you will be good enough to convey to your Board the foregoing explana- 
 tions, the Commissioners trust that the misapprehensions which your letter appears to 
 them to disclose, and with them all feelings of alarm, will on further reflection be re- 
 moved. A dispassionate study of the case of Dr. Morgan's School, will surely allay 
 the disturbance which is said to have affected many minds, and will show that there is 
 no ground for ascribing to the Commissioners ' 'an intention to transfer to Middle Class 
 Education, the Endowments which have hitherto been enjoyed by Church Elementary 
 Schools". Your Board may do excellent service to the Public, by dispelhng incorrect 
 and confused ideas, by shewing that Education may be raised in level without being 
 shifted from one class to another, that Church Schools remain Church Schools equally 
 whether they give Elementary Education or Secondary, and whether they are designed 
 for richer classes or for poorer, that the Commissioners only insert conscience clauses 
 in strict obedience to the Law ; and that a Legal tribunal is open to all who think they 
 are wronged in this matter. 
 
 25 — With regard to the publication of this correspondence, of which you express 
 yourself desirous, the Commissioners beg to thank you for your courtesy in waiting for 
 their consent ; but they must leave you to act in such way as you think best for the
 
 lO 
 
 interests of the public. Their letters are not written for the public eye, but only for 
 that of their correspondents, and with the single view of promoting a better under- 
 standing of whatever subjects may be under discussion. At the same time they bear 
 no private character, and if their recipients think it more useful to publish them, they 
 are justified in doing so. 
 
 I am, Rev. Sir, Your obedient Servant, 
 The Rev. G. H. FAGAN. H. J. ROBY. 
 
 V. 
 
 Rodney Stoke Rectory, Weston-super-Mare, 
 August 12, 1 87 1. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I — I am glad to find from your letter of August 4, that the Commissioners, in the 
 main, accept as fair, my statement of the general principle upon which Paper S is foun- 
 ded, and against which the Resolution of the Bath and Wells Board was directed ; 
 altho' they consider it to be imperfect in "omitting the cardinal duty laid upon the 
 Commissioners to make endowments as conducive as they can be made to the advance- 
 ment of the education of boys and girls." 
 
 2 — I presume that the terms "can be made" will be allowed by the Commissioners 
 to cover the statement that they are bound to consider the original designs and inten- 
 tions of the Founder, and the interests of the place which, as well as of all the persons 
 whom, he specially purposed to benefit, without which purpose on his part, the Endow- 
 ment would never have been left at all. 
 
 And if so, I venture to think, additional weight is given to the reply which I 
 would make to your remark that I did not in my letter of July 15th, bring any proof 
 that Paper S is opposed to the spirit and provisions of the Endowed Schools Act as 
 well as of the Elementary Education. The justification of that assertion of the Board, 
 I would rest on the terms of the Preamble of the Act, which specially recites the 
 "carrying out of the main designs of the Founders" as one of its chief objects, and also 
 on Clause 8, 3, of that Act which excepts from the operations of the Act and of the 
 Commissioners ' 'Any school which at the commencement of this Act, is in receipt of 
 an Annual Grant out of any sum of money appropriated by Parliament to the Civil 
 Service, entituled for Public Education in England, or to the Endowment thereof." 
 
 2 — Now there are a large Number of Parochial Schools, whose ordinary resources 
 at present consist of, — a small endowment, the Parliamentary Grant, the children's pence 
 and it may be voluntary subscriptions — and this is the very class of Schools which the 
 Board had specially in view when it drew up its Resolution. And I venture, with 
 great submission, to suggest to the Endowed Schools Commissioners, that they are 
 acting against the provisions of their own Act if they proceed to apply Paper S (which 
 makes no limitations and exceptions) to this very numerous class of schools. If they 
 can assure the Board that they accept this view, I am sure it will be much relieved to 
 hear it, although we should still be anxious for the case of the smaller number of 
 schools which may enjoy endowments, but may not be aided out of the Privy Council 
 Grant. It is true that this class of schools, with small endowments, is referred to in 
 Clause 75, of the Elementary Act and provision made for the governing body to submit 
 schemes — but such schemes are not to be submitted to the Endowed Schools Commis- 
 sioners, but to "the Education Department". 
 
 4 — I deeply regret to observe that the Commissioners announce that their princi- 
 ple of action is that the term "otherwise" employed in the 6th section of the Elementary 
 Education Act, does not cover the case, and was not intended to do so, of the support 
 of schools by means of small local endowments, as well as by Voluntary Subscriptions. 
 For if this view is persisted in, and when the Act does not except endowments as a 
 means of supporting Non-Board Schools, the Commissioners assert that it does, and 
 that they mean to act on that interpretation, I am persuaded there will be a general 
 feeling of opposition to this rendering of the Act, in the minds of all the friends of 
 Voluntary Schools and of distinctive religious teaching in the same. 
 
 5 — Your letter puts the issue very clearly and pointedly in Paragraphs 9, 10, that 
 under the Elementary Education Act ' 'Endowments might not be relied on for ordin- 
 ary Expenditure of Schools". 
 
 It is not for me to enter into a legal argument upon the grounds on which you 
 except endowments from the term ' 'otherwise" where the Act does not do so. I will 
 confine myself to the expression of a most decided conviction, (as you speak of the 
 intention of the promoters of the Bill, ) that neither Parliament nor the Country would 
 have allowed a Bill to pass which forbade the application of local endowments to the 
 ordinary raaintenance of Parochial schools for the Poor. And I apprehend you will 
 find a general disposition to resist the application of such an interpretation of the Act, 
 throughout the Country.
 
 II 
 
 6 — The question in its broad aspects (and it is in these that a Diocesan Board of 
 Education naturally views them) comes to this. Should endowments be employed as 
 nearly as possible according to the original mind of the Donor for the advantage of 
 the particular place or parish which he designed to benefit, and without which design 
 on his part, the endowment never would have been bequeathed at all to the public ? 
 
 If a Founder designed that all classes of a given parish should be benefited not 
 only religiously and intellectually, but also pecuniarily, by the existence of an endow- 
 ment for a school for the poor, we conceive that it is "unjust" to that particular parish 
 to deprive it of all or any of these advantages. Your letter asks "Who is the person 
 injured ? " The reply is — everyone who is needlessly deprived of such benefits ; the 
 poor, to whom a fixed and settled provision for the education (often specially the relig- 
 ious education, and on lower terms than they could otherwise procure it) of their children 
 is taken away, and also the othei' class of inhabitants, who, in a veiy large number of 
 cases, are in no sense "the rich" who have to bear a portion of the cost whether legal 
 or voluntary, of providing education, not only for their own children, but for those of 
 their poorer neighbours. 
 
 7 — Nor will I omit the consideration which in many cases would far outbalance 
 all others, that in the altered circumstances of Elementary Education the prohibition 
 to assist the ordinary expenses of a school out of its Endowment would practically 
 just make the difference between the substitution of a school of that religious character 
 most desired by the Parents, for a creedless, possibly a merely secular, school, repugnant 
 to their most sacred principles and feelings — a result which, in such instances, would 
 hardly fall short of the character of religious persecution. 
 
 8 — While I think it right to put this point strongly, you will not, I am sure, desire 
 to draw the conclusion that the Board of Education, or any of its members, would wish 
 to do otherwise than assist the Commissioners in the exercise of their legal power in 
 any plan for making these endowments as beneficial as possible, so long as these main 
 points and the local interests of the parish or area benefited, are consulted, as the 
 Founder would have wished them to be. And this leads me specially to thank the 
 Commissioners in the name of the Board for the explanations given in paragraph i8 
 and the repeated assurance in paragraph I2 from paper S "that every case must be 
 * ' considered on its circumstances, and therefore any particulars tending to prove 
 ' ' injustice against any scheme proposed by them may be brought forward, and will 
 " certainly receive most careful attention." 
 
 9 — The explanations which you are good enough to give us as to the manner in 
 which the Commissioners justify their action in the matter (jf Dr. Morgan's School, 
 Bridgwater, I will also take care to make known to the Board. 
 
 I have the honour to be, vSir, your obedient Servant, 
 
 G. H. FAGAN. 
 H. T. ROBY, Esq. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Endowed Schools Commission, 2, Victoria Street, S.W,, 
 
 20 th August, i8ji. 
 Rev. Sir, 
 
 The Endowed Schools Commissioners having now adjourned for the recess, 
 it is impossible that the Board which you represent should at present receive an official 
 reply to your letter of the 1 2th instant. The matter however is so important that I 
 will take the liberty, as one of the Commissioners, to offer some remarks upon it, and 
 I request that in case of the previons letters bemg published, this one may also appear, 
 I cannot expect that the Board will delay such publication on account of the official 
 action of the Commissioners being interrupted : but I hope it will be distinctly under- 
 stood that I write as an individual though in my official character, and that the 
 Commission as a body is not committed to my statements or arguments. 
 
 I doubt if the Board — and I may say the same of many other parties with whom 
 we are brought into contact — duly consider that our duty is simply to administer a very 
 precise Act of Parliament, and to pay regard to other express enactments of the 
 Legislature when they concern our work. We cannot take account of consequences 
 which may be appi-ehended as likely to follow in one direction, or in another, by this 
 party or that. 
 
 Individually, indeed, I am free to repeat what I have already openly stated in 
 Parliament, that I would not have engaged in the administration of the Act, if I had 
 not believed, as I do believe, that by its proper operation, and by the free action of 
 the people — without which I should not care for the result, nor do I conceive it would 
 be really attained — the Church of Ei:igland will on the whole derive much advantage 
 from that operation. And that advantage may be indefinitely increased in proportion 
 as the Church may increase or regain her influence over the population.
 
 12 
 
 This however cannot be the object, or the direct effect, of the Endowed Schools 
 Act or the Elementary Education Act. But as a public office we cannot be influenced 
 by such a consideration. Individually, I regret the existence, in the latter Act, of the 
 well-known provision about formularies. But officially, we could not separate that 
 provision from the rest of the Act. We are bound to take the Act as a whole, as that 
 system which the highest authority has decreed as that most fitted for the advancement 
 of popular education in this country. In particular it is indisputably intended that it 
 should regulate the operation of the law — I mean whether in any given district it is to 
 be through the machinery of a School Board or not — according to the wishes of the 
 people of that district, ascertained in the recognized manner. And I cannot but say 
 that if, as you anticipate, in any case, "creedless or secular" Schools are introduced 
 contrary to the wishes of the parents, outraging "their most sacred principles and 
 feelings", and inflicting on them "religious persecution", the owners of property and 
 others concerned in the charge of education will wholly neglect their duty, and 
 increase a heavy responsibility. But this is outside our province. 
 
 I will now advert to your letter more in detail. 
 
 Nothing is more common than the imperfect reference to the terms of the preamble of 
 the Endowed Schools Act, which I find in that letter. It is true that that preamble refers us 
 as one of our chief guides and standards, to the "main designs of the founders " : but it does 
 not stop there. It does not leave us, as was for so many years the rule in the Courts of 
 Law, to ascertain those designs for ourselves. It defines them for us : it states them to be 
 the " putting a liberal education within the reach of children of all classes". 
 
 I am indeed prepared, as a School Inquiry Commissioner, to justify that definition on 
 its merits, and in doing so to refer to the pages of the Schools Inquiry Report. But for our 
 purpose this is plainly unnecessary. The Act is our master: and we conceive that under the 
 words I have quoted it is our duty to apply it in a comprehensive manner, and on a general 
 survey of the whole condition, ne^ds, and resources of education throughout tlie community. 
 
 The exception in Section VIII. 3, to which you refer seems to me to tell in the same 
 direction. Certain schools, presumed to be sufficiently dealt with by the law, are withdrawn 
 from the large discretion entrusted to us as to Endowments generally — leaving still inore 
 manifest the existence and the significance of that discretion as to all others. A similar 
 remark is obvious as to the effect of Section LXXV. of the Elementary Education Act, to 
 which you refer. 
 
 The appeal to us which I understand you to make, that we should announce that we do 
 not apply " Paper S " to the schools so excepted, was surely unnecessary. We are 
 absolutely prohibited by the Act from touching (except in a tew particular cases) those 
 schools or their Endowments. Certainly we did not expressly say so in Paper S, as we 
 assume knowledge of the law in our conespondents. 
 
 In the next place, I hope it will be observed that we do not rely on any legal or technical 
 construction of the word "otherwise" in the V. Section of the Elementary Education Act. 
 Our argument was at least a broad and intelligible one. We say that, until so instructed by 
 superior authority, we cannot hold that large and carefully framed enactments in a statute, 
 authorizing the application of certain funds in whatever way may appear the most advanta- 
 geous to education generally, cannot have been intended by Parliament to be so restricted by 
 another Statute on another subject, passed immediately after, and that constructively from a 
 single word, as to confine for ever that application, in a large number of cases, to one par- 
 ticular way. 
 
 On your appeal to the sense of the country it is of course needless to dwell. Both the 
 Board and ourselves must ultimately abide that issue, and We are content to do so. 
 
 Nor need I say more on the question "in its broad aspects" as it presents itself to you, 
 than this, that you appear to assume the question at issue. We have not proposed to remove 
 Endowments from the places where they exist : and we have maintained that as the general 
 rule our proposals will be eventually the best calculated to benefit those places. 
 
 For the other points of the question, I have nothing to add to our previous letters. 
 
 1 remain, Rev. Sir, you obedient Servant, 
 
 LYTTELTON. 
 Rev. G. H. PAGAN, 
 
 VI¥. 
 
 Rodney Stoke Rectory, Weston-super-Mare, 
 
 AuGt;sT 22nd, 1871. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I beg to acknowledge, with thanks, the receipt of your letter of the 20th instant. 
 It shall be printed as you request with the rest of the correspondence. 
 
 I am sincerely grateful, as I am sure our Diocesan Board will be, for the assurance it 
 contains that the Commissioners will, and do, hold the large class of Schools with small 
 endowments which are aided by the Committee of Privy Council, to be excepted .from the 
 action of the Endowed School Commissioners, and consequently from the line of policy 
 marked out in Paper S. 
 
 I must however be permitted to add, after a re-perusal of that Paper, that I conceive we
 
 13 
 
 were justified in fearing that such schools were in the view of the Commissioners, by the 
 apparentgeneral tenor of the Paper, especially by the stUements and arguments in Paragraphs 
 5 and 13, and that therefore I hope we shall not be deemed to have needlessly mooted the 
 question. 
 
 I vrould beg very respectfully to suggest that should the Commissioners feel it in their 
 power further to assure the public that they accept Section XI. of the Bill, which is as 
 follows:— 
 
 ** It shall be the duty of the Commissioners in every scheme which abolishes or 
 " modifies any privileges or educational advantages to which a particular class of persons 
 "are entitled, and that whether as inhabitants of a particular area or otherwise, to have 
 "due regard to the educational interests of such class of persons," 
 as binding them to secure for Churchmen or the members of other religious bodies (according 
 to the character of the Trust) those religious "privileges " and " advantages" for their chil- 
 dren which Founders of Educational Endowments unquestionably meant to secure to them, 
 and that they will be guided in their schemes by such a reasonable view of that Clause, they 
 will do very much to allay the anxiety which has been very widely created as to the character 
 and tendency of their proceedings in the exercise of the wide discretion entrusted to them 
 by the Act, 
 
 I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your very obedient Servant, 
 The Right Honourable G. H. FAGAN. 
 
 The LORD LYTTELTON.
 
 14 
 
 ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION. 
 PAPER S. 
 
 1. A great number of small endowments, and some large ones, are used at the present 
 moment in paying the ordinary expenses of the Primary Schools of the country. As questions 
 respecting the permanent application of these endowments to Element'^ry Education frequently 
 arise, it will be useful to state what general rules the Endowed Schools Commissioners are, after 
 consideration of many individual cases, disposed to observe in dealing with them. It must, how- 
 ever, be remembered that this enunciation of general rules is not intended to save the labour of 
 examining, as the Commissioners think they are bound to do, the circumstances of each case, 
 and deciding accordingly. General rules are not universal ones. But after experience of many 
 cases some rules may safely be deduced, and may usefully be notified to applicants as being 
 probably applicable to their case, unless some exceptional character appears in it. 
 
 2. The position of this matter has been substantially altered by the passing of the Elemen- 
 tary Education Act, 1870, and the Code of 1871. Under the Endowed Schools Act, 1869, the 
 Commissioners were bound to frame such schemes as would render endowments most conducive 
 to the advancement of the education of boys or girls ; and so they are still. But in order to find 
 out what is most conducive they have to look at all the surrounding- circumstances, and these 
 have changed. 
 
 3. It is indeed true that, in the judgment of most Inspectors of Schools and other persona 
 conversant with the subject, endowments have for a long time past been so managed as to be, 
 in the great majority of cases, a drawback rather than a help to Elementary Education. Bu6 
 this might have been mended by more judicious administraticm, and as long as there was not 
 full legal provision for Elementary Education, it is certain that many endowments could not be 
 made more conducive to education generally than by being used for Elementary Education. 
 
 4. It is also true that for many years past Elementary Education has been the object of great 
 attention and zealous exertions, both on the part of Parliament and of voluntary agencies, while 
 Secondary Education has received no such assistance. This circumstance has frequently been 
 dwelt upon as a reason why the Commissioners in making new Educational schemes should look 
 to the promotion of Secondary rather than of Primary Education. But it was not a conclusive 
 argument so long as the provision for Primary Education remained imperfect. Now that the 
 legal provision has been made complete in amount, the argument acquires almost irresistible 
 force. If endowments can be made conducive to education at all, it must be generally true that 
 they will be most useful if applied to those educational purposes, for which money is wanted but 
 is not forthcoming from other sources. 
 
 5. Nor is this all. The legal provision for Elementary Education, besides being suflBcient in 
 amount, is accompanied by a system of safeguards, of supervision, and ol government, which is 
 more likely to be impeded than assisted by being mixed up with another system resting upon 
 separate endowments, each of which must be administered according to its own peculiar Trusts. 
 If endowment is to be applied to the ordinary expenses, it will simply relieve some of the other 
 sources of revenue. Those other sources are : — 
 
 a. School fees. 
 
 b. Parliamentary grant. 
 
 c. Subscriptions. 
 
 d. Rates. 
 
 Which of these shall endowments relieve ? School fees are of great importance, because they 
 keep up in the minds of parents the sense of obligation to have their children taught, and cause 
 them to take a more vigilant interest in the Schools. To save the Pai-liamen try grant is to lose 
 or impair the influence of Inspection ; and Inspection is the best safeguard for efficiency. To 
 relieve subscriptions is out of the question, for no one will contend that endowments were either 
 intended or should now be used, to ease the rich. It may be that saving the rates would not hurt 
 the Schools: but saving the rates is not the appropriate function of Educational Endowments ; 
 nor would it be easy to apply them in relieving this source of revenue without also relieving the 
 others, or at least the Parhamentry grant. 
 
 6. A paper like the present, which is intended for information and not for controversy, must 
 not be expected to contain anything approaching a full discussion of a subject involved in much 
 complication and dif&culty. But the above is a very brief summary of the main reasons which 
 have led the Commissioners to their first conclusion, viz., that to use any substantial amount of 
 endowment for the permanent discharge of the ordinary current expenses of an Elementary 
 School, will, as a general rule, be more Ukely to injure education than to advance it.
 
 ^5 
 
 7. But this conclusion by no means disposes of the question in any single case, for there are 
 Inany other ways in which endowments can be made available in connexion with Elementary 
 Schools without incurring the dangers above referred to. Many, indeed most, places are not fur- 
 nished with the buildings and fittings which will be required under the existing law. Now, it 
 can be no hindrance to the fatm-e excellence of Schools that they shall be well started in their 
 enlarged work. And, as regards future income, there are many things which may heighten the 
 efficiency of a School which yet cannot be expected from ordinary legal provisions. Endow- 
 ments, therefore, may be used to provide advantages, which the Schools would not have, if the 
 endowments did not exist. 
 
 8. On these grounds the Commissioners have, in many cases, propounded Schemes for the pur- 
 pose of devoting permanently to Elementary Education sites and buildings now used or adapted 
 for that purpose, and of spending part of the capital of endowments to give substantial aid 
 (more or less, according to local circumstances,) in pi'oviding suflELcient sites, buildings, and 
 fittings where they do not exist. This method may, as the Commissioners think, be applied very 
 freely in those cases in which endowments are properly devoted to Elementary Education at all. 
 
 9. As regards future income, the Commissioners think it best to specify a number of objects 
 beyond the scope of ordinary current expenditui'e but advantageous to an Elementary School; 
 and to give the Managers complete discretion in the adoption of one or more of such objects. 
 Dififerent objects can thus be selected according to different local circumstances, and so the 
 Commissioners hope to preserve the freedom of local action, which they think essential to the 
 vitality of local institutions. The clause providing for such an application of income would run 
 as follows : — 
 
 " The income of this Endowment shall be applied by the Governors in the advancement of the 
 education of boys and girls in one or more of the following ways (that is to say) : — 
 
 (a.) Providing free places or other prizes to be given to meritorious Scholars in the School. 
 (6.) Providing Exhibitions for promising Scholars of sufficient amount to induce their 
 parents to keep them at the School somewhat longer than they v/ould otherwise 
 be likely to remain. 
 (c.) Providing a Lending Library for the Scholars. 
 
 (d.) Providing Maps for Physical Geography, Drawings, Scientific Apparatus, and the like 
 Articles, being more expensive than could be aflorded without the aid of this En- 
 dowment. 
 (e.) Providing Lectures or Evening Classes in combination with other neighbouring Schools 
 
 or otherwise. 
 (f.J Providing additional Playground accommodation. Gymnastic Apparatus, expenses of 
 
 Military Drill, or otherwise assisting the games or exercise of the Scholars. 
 Cg.J Providing aids to Industrial Instruction, such as tools and a Carpenter's shed, field 
 gardens or allotments for boys, or a kitchen or laundry for girls." 
 The foregoing objects must be taken as specimens of those most commonly suggesting them- 
 selves ; the list may be enlarged or contracted, according to circumstances. 
 
 10. Another mode, perhaps as beneficial as any, of connecting endowments with Elementary 
 Schools, is the provision of Exhibitions calculated to help the best scholars in obtaining further 
 and higher education. This object may be sometimes effected by adding it to the objects indicated 
 in paragraph 9, sometimes by devoting to it the whole residue, or the whole endowment, and 
 sometimes by means of Schemes not designed for Elementary Schools, but for those of a class 
 just above the Elementary, by giving a preferential right of competition for free places to the 
 pupils of Elementary Schools. 
 
 11. Whether any given endowment ought or ought not to be used at all, or ought to be used 
 wholly or partially, for Elementary Education or in connexion with Elementary Schools, is a 
 question which depends on the circumstances of that particular Endowment ; on its orio-inal 
 destination, its history, its present working, its amount, the character and needs of the people 
 among whom it works, and other such matters, which foi-m the subject of inquiry in each case. 
 Judging however from the experience they have now gained, the Commissioners think that the 
 two courses for the application of this class of endowments which they have above suggested 
 (pars. 9. 10), will be found apphcable to most of the small rural Schools, and will be found to 
 exhaust the income of most endowments under £40 per annum, and a large number of tloso 
 under £60. 
 
 12. Endowments now employed in ways generally disapproved and convertible t" i 
 under Section 30 of the Endowed Schools Act, 1869, may in most cases be used, wbol ■, 
 
 in connexion with Piiblic Elementary Schools. By the terms of that section the (JoiuiuLo^.tucrii 
 are to have due regard to the educational interests of persons in the same class of bfe, or resident 
 within the same area as the present recipients of the benefits. And though such an injunction
 
 i6 
 
 leaves much latitude of discretion, it seems to suggest that the funds shall, if possible, be applie^l 
 in the best way to promote the education of the poor who are, for the most part, their recipients, 
 and for whose benefit chiefly the Elementary Schools exist. 
 
 13. The other features of Schemes for Endowments of this class are very simple. Ca.) In 
 cases where it is desired to sink capital in buildings, the Commissioners require that the locality 
 shall on its part contribute a reasonable amount, and that the aggregate shall be sufficient for 
 its purpose. C^.) They provide in all cases that the School assisted shall be a Public Elementary 
 School under Section 7 of the Elementary Education Act. This relieves the Scheme from the 
 necessity of containing rules for the conduct of the School, and secures that the School shall be 
 qualified for earning the Parliamentary grant, and thereby gaining the essential guarantee of 
 Inspection, (c.) In order to secure further that the School may be able to harmonise with the 
 general system of Elementary Schools, the Schemes provide that the Governors shall have power 
 to adopt any regulations which the Education Department may impose as conditions of a grant, 
 (c?.) Where a School Board has been formed, the question, whether it should or should not be 
 made the Governing Body of the Endowment, has to be considered. As yet but few School 
 Boards have been formed in rural districts. For the present the Commissioners have proposed 
 Govei''ning Bodies of a simple description, consisting of the parish Clergyman, or principal 
 Clergyman of the district, ex-officio, and a few other persons elected by the ratepayers in vestry. 
 (e.) They have also proposed in several cases that a School Board, if and when created, shall 
 have the option of becoming the Governing Body. According to their reading of the Elementary 
 Education Act, which however must not be taken as having any authority, such a provision 
 would enable the School Boards to hold the Endowments upon the trusts of the Scheme, or to 
 make such arrangements as are authorized by Section 23 of the Elementary Education Act. 
 
 14. Such are the general features of Schemes hitherto propounded ; and such are likely to be 
 the prima facie pi'oposals for other Schemes for dealing with Endowments of this class ; but 
 subject, as everything not absolutely fixed by law is subject, to reconsideration and modification 
 in each individual case. 
 
 T. GREEN, PRINTER, WELLS.
 
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