Rev. Archdeacon Denison and the Rev. G. H. Fagan, severally examined.

[Adjourned to Tuesday next, at Twelve o'clock.

Rev. John S. Wasey, and the Rev. W. G. Cookesley, severally examined.

[Adjourned to Tuesday next, at Twelve o'clock.

Rev. G. C. Tooth, Rev. W. Gover, and the Rev. F. W. Hohler, severally examined.

[Adjourned to Tuesday next, at Twelve o'clock.

Rev. W. Lucas Collins, Rev. Reginald Barnes, and the Rev. E. Vaughan, severally examined.

[Adjourned to Friday next, at Twelve o'clock,

to close the Evidence, and consider Report.

Draft Report proposed by the Chairman, read 1o, as follows:

"The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the constitution of the Committee of Council on Education, and the system under which the business of the office is conducted, and also into the best mode of extending the benefits of Government Inspection, and the Parliamentary Grants to Schools at present unassisted by the State-Have considered the matters to them referred, and have agreed to the following Report:

"1. Your Committee have received fresh evidence upon the questions referred to them, and with respect to the constitution of the Education Department, and the system under which the Annual Grants for the promotion of popular education are administered, they have examined present and former Presidents and Vice-Presidents, and also the Secretary, of the Committee of Council, and several of Her Majesty's Education Inspectors. They have also taken evidence from various parts of England, with respect to the policy of making a certificated master an indispensable condition of State assistance to a school, and with respect to the existing practice of the Education Department on the important subject of religious teaching, and the adoption of the Conscience Clause.

"2. Your Committee present this evidence to the House with a conviction that, although on some points imperfect, and as yet one-sided, it will be found to be worthy, from the station and character of the witnesses, and the nature of the opinions expressed, of serious considetion by Her Majesty's Government and the country.

"3. Your Committee are obliged to state, with much regret, that, considering the period of the year, and the peculiar circumstances of the present Session, they are unable to prepare such a matured Report as is due to the nature of the subject, or even to complete their inquiry.

"4. The question raised in the second part of the Order of Reference, viz., 'how best to extend the benefits of Government Inspection and the Parliamentary Grant to schools at present unassisted by the State,' is one so wide, and of such extreme importance to the promotion of popular education, that Your Committee think it desirable to inquire into branches of this portion of the subject, which they have hitherto touched only incidentally, or not at all.

"5. They also think it fair that the Education Department should have an opportunity, if they so think fit, to call witnesses on such parts of the evidence as may appear to them to require answer.

"6. Under

"6. Under these circumstances, while Your Committee greatly regret their inability to complete the duty entrusted to them, they think it undesirable to present any partial Report, and are of opinion that, with a view both to additional evidence, and to a fair summary of the information they have received, the inquiry ought to be resumed.

"7. They therefore recommend that, at the commencement of the next Session of Parliament, a Committee should be appointed to carry on, under the same Order of Reference, the inquiry which they now find themselves unable to conclude."

Draft Report read 2o, paragraph by paragraph.

Paragraph 1, amended, and agreed to.

Paragraph 2, read, and postponed.

Paragraph 3, amended, and agreed to.

Postponed paragraph 2, amended, and added to paragraph 3.

Paragraph 4, amended, and agreed to.

Paragraph 5, disagreed to.

Paragraph 6, amended, and agreed to.

Paragraph 7, agreed to.

Question, That the Draft Report, as amended, be the Report of the Committee of the House-put, and agreed to.

Ordered to Report, together with the Minutes of Evidence and Appendix.