enter into the education of the younger | order to prevent its running into an abuse. generation-and other subjects entirely With reference to the statement of the unconnected with the duties of their office. The Committee, in the opinion of its Vice President, had no alternative but either to lay that huge mass of matter before Parliament, or to select such passages as they might deem it important for the House and the public to know. It appeared to him, however, that there was another course which might be pursued with advantage. The Committee of Council had the appointment of the Inspectors who were under their control, and might, if they pleased, require them to send in their Reports under separate heads, with such limitations and restrictions as they might choose to impose. If the Inspectors, instead of obeying their instructions, should persist in writing voluminous Reports upon a variety of subjects, why should the Com mittee not say to them, "Gentlemen, you are too good for us; you are above your work; you may set up as professors in some university, but you are no longer fit to be Inspectors of schools under our direc tions?" Surely every department conducted with proper vigour and decision should be able to control its own officers, and compel them to furnish the information required without adding to it matter unfit and unnecessary to be laid before Parliament. The reasoning of the Vice President certainly was not calculated to convince anybody that the arrangement he had adopted was either necessary or convenient; and he therefore hoped, as both sides of the House seemed to be agreed upon the other points, the right hon. Gentleman would either acquiesce in the Motion or give an assurance that he would revert to the old system of laying before Parliament the whole of the Reports, taking care, however, that the Inspectors did not wander beyond the limits prescribed to them by the Committee of Council. SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE said, he wished to say a few words upon the subject before the House, because to a certain extent he represented the department through which a pressure had been put, not only upon the Committee of Council, but upon all the other departments of the Government, to do what they could to diminish the great expense incurred in printing. That expense was really very considerable, amounting to something like £150,000 or £160,000 a year. Of course such an expenditure as that required the most careful control and supervision, in right hon. Member for Hertford (Mr. Cow- His LORD JOHN RUSSELL said, he did not understand from the hon. Gentleman whether he meant to comply with the wish of his right hon. Friend. But whatever instructions the Committee of Council might think fit to give, some confidence should be reposed in the Inspectors. It would not do to throw a slur upon the Inspectors, as being utterly unfit to have any discretion. If they were told to bring their Reports not within the narrowest possible compass, but within a very moderate compass, and to re port upon the subjects on which they were wished to report, and not on other subjects, then he thought all that his right hon. Friend desired would be granted. He was rather inclined to think that would be done, but he did not clearly understand. He did not think it desirable that a Resolution should be carried; but he hoped the wish of his right hon. Friend would, with restrictions, be granted. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER said, he was clearly of opinion that, as a general rule, that when Inspectors were employed to make Reports those Reports should be published without alteration or omission. But it had been found in practice to lead to abuse, and a number of dissertations and treaties had been furnished to the office quite suitable for the Edinburgh or Quarterly Review, but not exactly of the businesslike character which might be expected in such documents. His right hon. Friend, who was responsible for the conduct of the office, thought it expedient to take some steps in order, not only that the information should be furnished in a more condensed style, but also that economical considerations, though apparently of no great importance to some hon. Gentlemen, might not be entirely disregarded. He thought the Committee of Privy Council quite justified in wishing to accomplish that object, but he also thought the right hon. Gentleman who lately presided over that department right in asking the House whether they would sanction a system which placed on the table, instead of the full Reports, what might be considered, not garbled, but perfect representations of the opinions of the Inspectors. He thought all were agreed that, although it was convenient the Reports should be published in a complete state, it was also equally desirable that they should be confined as much as possible to relevant subjects. He thought that, without asking the House to come to a division, if there were a clear understanding that the Government would take the matter into their consideration, and endeavour to meet the views of hon. Gentlemen opposite, so far as to have the Reports of the Inspectors placed before them in a perfect state, but at the same time to prevent their appearing in a form which had attracted notice and disapprobation, all that was necessary would be obtained by the discussion. He was sure his right hon. Friend understood the feeling of the House, that it was desirable the Reports should be published in a complete form. At the same time, he thought it was the general opinion that some change should take place in the form of these lucubrations. The Inspectors had launched into subjects on which they need not have treated, and treated them with an amplitude which was undesirable. He had no doubt that after this discussion there would be a considerable improvement in the shape and materials of the Reports, and he therefore trusted the right hon. Gentleman would not press his Motion to a division. MR. EWART said, that a suggestion had been thrown out that the Inspectors should be requested to digest their own Reports. Now he could conceive nothing more absurd than to request an Inspector to digest his own Report. He trusted that the Inspectors would be instructed to prepare these Reports in a practical and business-like manner, and that they would require no subsequent digestion either on their own part, or on the part of the Government, and that they would be presented without any expurgation. MR. WALPOLE said, he believed that what had been done with respect to the Minute was in exact conformity with the suggestion of the noble Lord the Member for the City of London, and the noble Lord the Member for Tiverton. Instructious had been given that the Reports were to be prepared under different heads, which were specified, and when sent in they were neither to be digested by the Inspectors nor abridged, nor altered. The only abridgment that would be made would arise from the Inspector deviating from his instructions and reporting on irrelevant matters. As there was no difference of intention on either side of the House, he would suggest to the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Cowper) the propriety of waiting until the Reports should be printed; and then, if he was not satisfied, the Government would be prepared to consider any suggestions which he, or any other hon. Member might think it desirable to offer. SIR GEORGE GREY said, that the practice of the Home Office, when Inspectors, as he knew they would do, branched into irrelevant matter, was to refer back the Report to the Inspector, pointing it out, and he had generally found that the Inspector at once expunged it. The Report of the Inspector, revised by himself, was then printed and presented to Parliament. SIR ARTHUR ELTON denied that Inspectors were guilty of the redundancy which had been attributed to them. He thought the Reports would be much more valuable if the Inspectors were allowed the same freedom as they had before the circular was issued. It was treating the Inspectors like children to lay down heads under which they were to make observations, and not to allow them to diverge in the least from a given line. He would submit that it was better to change the Inspectors if no confidence could be placed in them. He spoke, he believed, the unanimous feeling of all the Inspectors when he expressed a hope that the tabulated Reports would be distributed gratis among the schools, as heretofore, or at all events to the extent of so much as related to each district. when the Reports were prepared according to instructions, not otherwise-and remeinber one of those instructions was that no Report should exceed 20 pages-then they should be printed, he would be satisfied. MR. A. MILLS said, he understood the Government had agreed that these reports should be printed in extenso; but reserving to the Government the power in certain cases of cutting out extraneous and irrelevant matter. The statements made with regard to the tabulated Reports was to his mind much more important. But even on this point the difference was so minute between the Government proposal of selling those printed reports at cost price and sending them gratis to certain parties, that he thought it was hardly a subject for MR. COWPER said, the difficulty with dispute. With regard to what had been him was to know exactly what right hon. said by the hon. Baronet the Member for Gentlemen opposite meant. The right hon. Bath (Sir A. Elton) he had not heard one the Vice President of the Council seemed word drop from the Government which to him to raise an entirely false issue. He could be construed into a slur upon the seemed to think that the object of this Inspectors. He had the honour of knowing Motion was to insist that everything which one or two of those gentlemen, who were the Inspectors chose to write ought to be most intelligent men, and if he had heard printed. No such thing. The question a slur thrown upon them he would have he raised was, whether the President of joined the hon. Baronet in resenting it. the Council was to be allowed to thrust He certainly understood that Government himself between the Inspectors and the intended to print the Reports of the InspecHouse of Commons, and to keep back the tors, though in this department, as in every Reports of the Inspectors, but to give the other, they claimed the right to exercise a House a mere digest of them. As he read control. the Minutes of Council upon this subject the Government proposed to use the Reports of all the Inspectors, and to make of them one annual statement. [Mr. ADDERLEY: Look at No. 8.] Well, he found that, according to No. 8 of the Minutes it was proposed to present, either in gremio, or in the appendix, the Reports of the Inspectors, at least in all essential points. That was the very thing he objected tothat the Committee of Council should decide what points were essential and what were not. Such a system would be destructive of all confidence in the fidelity of the Reports, and it would disgust the Inspectors themselves, who, as men of education, could not be well pleased to find their Reports cut up by the scissors, and printed under different heads. What he wanted was to see the whole mind of the Inspectors in dealing with their districts during the past year. If the right hon. Gentleman intended to adhere to his circular he must press his Motion, because he thought the doctrines laid down in that circular were opposed to right views in the case. But if the right hon. Gentleman would agree that MR. CROSSLEY said, a few years ago he sat on a Committee on the printing of the House, when it certainly appeared to him that a great deal of money was unnecessarily spent on that head -especially in printing long Reports. He thought, therefore, the thanks of the House were due to the Government for thus endeavouring to save the public money. At the same time, he certainly agreed with the right hon. Member for Hertford, in thinking that the House ought to have the Reports of the Inspectors themselves, and not merely digests of them, and wherever the Reports contained irrelevant matter, he would suggest that the Government officials should run their pen through it and send it back to the Inspectors for alteration, so that it might be presented to the House as the Report of the Inspector, not of the Government. As the matter stood at present, therefore, if the right hon. Gentleman pressed his Motion to a division he must go with the Government. MR. KINNAIRD said, the expense in this case hardly deserved the consideration of the House. They were now spending £600,000 a year in the work of education; | any one would ever undertake, to make £40,000 was spent in the system of in- such a digest. He understood that what spection, and £2,000 was all that was he meant to do was exactly what the noble spent in making the results of this machi Lord proposed. nery perfect. MR. AKROYD said, there seemed to be some doubt as to the extent of the alterations proposed by the Government. He confessed that, if their object was to simply prune the excrescences of the Reports of the Inspectors, he should be much inclined to agree with them; but there was a wellgrounded fear among the Inspectors themselves that something more was intended. Nothing could be more opposed to the feelings of the people of England on the subject of education than one Report made up from the Reports of all the Inspectors. Indeed, it was not possible and if it were, it would be most unadvisable to give a systematic summary of their Reports. Those gentlemen themselves represented different religious denominations, and their opinions were adapted to the opinions of the different religious bodies; so that, if their Reports were to be of any use at all, they ought to be presented separately. He hoped the Government would agree to the Motion of the right hon. Member for Hertford. MR. ADDERLEY said, he really thought the House was about to divide on an issue which had no existence. His object was exactly what the noble Lords the Member for London and the Member for Tiverton had insisted on; and taking the words of the right hon. Gentleman's Motion as they and the right hon. Member for Ashton had explained them he would have no difficulty in voting for it. The Reports of the Inspectors would be prepared henceforth in accordance with instructions, in which all the information they had to communicate was to be divided into six heads-number of schools inspected -management-finance-premises scholars-efficiency of masters-methods of instructions, and suggestions either as to abuses that ought to be corrected, or improvements that might be made. If there was anything in the Report which did not fall under one or other of those heads, he would send it back to the inspector for excision. Nobody on the part of the Government had ever conceived such an absurdity as a digest into one Report of the various Reports of Wesleyan, Dissenting, Roman Catholic, and Church of England and of Scotland inspectors. Nobody had ever proposed, nor did he conceive that MR. COWPER said, he wished to ask whether the right hon. Gentleman desired、 to assume the power of altering or abridg ing the Reports of the Inspectors? [Mr. ADDERLEY: No.] Would he then give the Reports as they were written, or in disjointed fragments? MR. ADDERLEY: We shall give each Report as far as it comes under the six heads, prescribed with the names of the Inspectors attached to each, and each Report so limited will be given in the ipsissimis verbis of the inspectors. VISCOUNT PALMERSTON: Sir, I rise to ask a question. Is it intended that the Report made by the Governinent shall begin under one head, and give a portion of the Report of each of the Inspectors relating to that head, so that we shall have the Report of each Inspector in disjointed fragments; or do the Government propose, what I think is the far preferable mode, that the Report of each Inspector shall be given whole under different heads, that the others shall follow in order, each repeating his own division of heads, so that the continuity of each Inspector's Report shall not be broken? MR. ADDERLEY: The last statement of the noble Lord is exactly what we intend, and, in fact, are now doing. MR. COWPER: Then I do not divide. MASTERS AND OPERATIVES.-LEAVE. MR. MACKINNON said, he rose to move for leave to introduce a Bill to establish equitable councils of conciliation and arbitration to adjust differences between masters and operatives. It was not his intention to occupy the time of the House with any arguments in favour of his measure, as he believed that no opposition was to be offered to its introduction. He would, therefore, reserve his remarks until the discussion of the second reading, and he would content himself with remarking that, connected as he was with the mining and coal districts in Lancashire, especially in the neighbourhood of Ulverstone and Bacup, he could state that the workmen there were unanimous in favour of the measure, which they believed would go far to prevent those strikes that had done so much injury to that neighbourhood. Leave given. Bill to establish Equitable Councils of Conciliation and Arbitration to adjust differences between Masters and Operatives, ordered to be brought in by Mr. MACKINNON and Mr. SLANEY. EVIDENCE BY COMMISSION. LEAVE. FIRST READING. MR. YOUNG said, he rose to move for leave to introduce a Bill to provide for taking evidence in suits and proceedings pending before tribunals in Her Majesty's dominions in places out of the jurisdiction of such tribunals. It was well known that when evidence was required in Great Britain in suits pending in the Colonies, the form of getting it was by a Commission issued by the superior Courts of those Colonies to some persons residing in Great Britain; witnesses then appeared before the Commissioners, and the evidence was sent to the Colonies. That was all very well when everything went smoothly and the witness appeared; but the evil that required to be remedied was that the wit ness might appear or refuse to appear at his option, without assigning any reason. Last year a Bill had been passed making it compulsory upon British subjects to appear as witnesses before Commissions issued by foreign Courts; but by some mistake Commissions issued by colonial Courts were omitted in the Bill. The object of this measure was to remedy that defect, by making it obligatory upon witnesses to appear upon the payment of their expenses. THE SOLICITOR GENERAL said, no doubt the object the hon. Member had in view was an extremely desirable one if it could be attained; and so far as our Colonies were concerned, he apprehended that the end which the hon. and learned Gentleman had in view might be arrived at. But with respect to foreign countries, it was impossible that any Bill passed in this House should enforce the attendance of persons not subjects of Her Majesty as witnesses. He had no objection, however, to the in troduction of the Bill. MR. AYRTON said, the hon. and learned Gentleman had somewhat misunderstood the scope of the Bill. The colonial Courts often sent Commissions to this country to examine witnesses, but they had no power to enforce their attendance, so that a good deal of expense was often wasted. The Bill proposed, therefore, to give power to Commissions sent from colonial Courts to examine witnesses in this country. CONVEYANCE OF VOTERS. MR. COLLIER moved for leave to introduce a Bill to prohibit the payment of the expenses of conveying Voters to the Poll, and to facilitate polling at elections. Towards the close of the last Session, and when more than one-half of the Members were absent-driven away, he believed, by the stench of the river-when all the common-law lawyers were on circuit-an Act was passed, which he believed was one of the worst-and that was a bold word—one of the worst passed in modern times. It was an Act passed mainly for the purpose of getting rid of the effect of a decision of the House of Lords in the case of "Cooper v. Slade," which he believed was sound in law and wholesome in application. The effect of the Bill of last Session was to establish a new property qualification in the room of the one abolished, and a far more mischievous one, for the other was a sham, while this was a reality. Had he been in the House when the Bill was brought in he should certainly have opposed the measure; and, as it was, he lost no time in proposing to repeal it. He knew that he should be met by dilatory pleas. He should probably be told that the Act he asked to repeal was only a continuance Act, which would expire in July next, and he would probably be asked to postpone this matter until the dog days," when no doubt the Government would produce some comprehensive measure on the subject. The Act of last Session was passed by a worn and jaded House, and he wished to take the opinion of the House when it was fresh. He did not believe that the Act of last Session represented the feelings of the Liberal majority of that House; for it was the fact, that although we had a Tory Government the majority of the House were Liberal, and if the Government wished to |