Ordered, THAT a Select Committee be 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 Grant to Schools at present unassisted by the State.

Ordered, THAT the Committee have power to send for Persons, Papers, and Records. Ordered, THAT Five be the Quorum of the Committee.

110969

Veneris, 23° die Junii, 1865,

Ordered, THAT the Committee have power to report their Observations, together with the Minutes of Evidence taken before them, to The House.

REPORT.

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: YOUR Committee have received much Evidence upon the questions referred to them.

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 VicePresidents, and the Secretary, of the Committee of Council, and several of Her Majesty's Inspectors. They have also taken Evidence from various parts of England, with respect to the policy of making a certificated teacher 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.

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 complete their inquiry; but they present the Evidence already taken to the House, with a conviction that, although on some points imperfect, and as yet one-sided, it will be found to be of great interest and value.

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 that further inquiry should be made into branches of this portion of the subject, which they have hitherto touched only incidentally, or not at all.

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 the inquiry ought to be resumed.

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.

23 June 1865.

Right Hon. C. Adderley, a Member of the Committee, and Mr. Edward C. Tufnell, severally examined.

[Adjourned to Friday, 28th April, at Twelve o'clock.

The Marquis of Salisbury (attending by permission of the House of Lords), and the Rev. John G. Lonsdale, severally examined.

[Adjourned to Tuesday, 2d May, at Twelve o'clock.

Lord Granville (attending by permission of the House of Lords), and the Rev. W. Lea, severally examined.

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