TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE PROPOSED ATTACK ON THE GOVERNMENT. THE attack on the Government that at present seems most serious is not that which is contemplated in reference to the Judicial Commission on Parnellism and Crime, of which the whole force has been discounted by the reiterated assaults of previous Sessions, but that which seems likely to be directed on the proposal to remit the payment of parents' fees in ordinary elementary schools without making any change in the management of the National and denominational schools. The Opposition have given fair notice that this will be strongly resisted, and that they intend to condition that no further Government grant shall be made to any Voluntary school, even by way of equivalent for the school-pence now paid by the parents, without the inclusion of some representative element on the board of management of these Voluntary schools. In other words, the school-pence now paid by parents are not to be paid out of taxes unless the board of management of every Voluntary elementary school consents to receive one or more elected members, the electors being, of course, the ratepayers. It is calculated that a condition so popular and democratic in sound cannot well be resisted by the pre- sent Government; that various members of the majority will feel unable to declare against it ; and that, on an amend- ment proposed to enlarge the board of management of every school not already a Board school by the addition of one or more popularly elected members, the Government may be left in a minority. We think this probably the most formidable of the con- templated attacks of the Opposition, but we do not think that it will prove very formidable. Our present educa- tional system is, of course, a compromise, and on the whole a well-understood compromise, between the Volun- tary and the popular systems ; and while we heartily support the Board schools wherever the denominational schools have proved inefficient, or where the conscience- clause has failed to protect adequately the children of parents who do not approve the religious teaching of the school, we can see no reason at all why the existing compromise should be modified only because the Govern- ment propose to remit the school-pence, and to substi- tute for those school-pence an additional grant to all schools alike,—Board schools no less than denominational, and denominational schools no less than Board schools,— which will relieve the parents of the weekly burden. As it seems to us, there would be a much more reasonable claim for a representative element on the denominational schools under present arrangements, than there would be under the arrangements now proposed. At present, the school-pence are locally supplied, and the locality therefore might, without any great stretch of democratic principle, claim as of right to have some share in determining the use of the contributions which are thus supplied. But if the Government grant is so enlarged as to supply the place of the school-pence, there will no longer be any contribution towards the management of the Voluntary elementary schools which will be locally supplied, and therefore there will be, to our mind, less reason than before why there should be a representative element on the board of management of schools which are wholly supported out of either voluntary subscriptions or Government grants. The subscribers might well complain that their management should be interfered with only because the Government proposed to contribute what the children's parents had hitherto contributed without any such local interference in the management. They might most reasonably say :—‘ It is true that the Govern- ment grant more than before, and that may justify the Government in giving their own inspectors rather more right to interfere in the management of the schools than they had before ; but it cannot justify the ratepayers in interfering more than before, for the ratepayers, instead of contributing more, contribute less. Those of them who were parents of children at school contributed hitherto their children's twopences, and yet had no right to meddle with the management of the Voluntary schools. Why should they gain such a right simply on the ground that even those of the ratepayers who have children at OF901 op to be exempted from the contribution which they imintimitytf, Rtyle: !He the other ratepaye-rs. ar@ entirely unaffected by the change, except, indeed, so far as they are taxpayers, a capacity in which they were represented previously by the Parliamentary control of the Govern- ment grant, a control which they will continue to exercise 1'1' We can see no answer to that; but the argument against the proposal of the Opposition is really a great deal stronger than any that we have as yet given. We heartily approve of the Board schools, which are managed wholly by the representatives of the ratepayers, subject, of course, to the inspection of the Government as controlled by Par- liament; and we heartily approve of the Voluntary schools,. which are managed wholly by the representatives of the voluntary subscribers, subject, of course, to the same conditions. But a mixed board of management contain- ing one or two elective managers, and a few managers nominated by the subscribers, would, we believe, be thoroughly bad Boards,—Boards that might have been constructed on purpose to be quarrelsome and divided in policy. Just conceive a Roman Catholic denominational school managed by the priest and two or three Roman Catholic laymen, saddled with one or two representatives chosen by the Methodists and Baptists of the neighbour- hood ; and let us ask ourselves how many of the Roman Catholic subscribers would continue to subscribe. And the same difficulty of course would arise with a Baptist school in a secularist neighbourhood. It is probable that, in nine cases out of ten, the persons who would interest themselves in the election of the elective members, would be discontented ratepayers, ratepayers who wished to turn the management of the Voluntary schools upside down, and who would be chosen for the purpose of turning it upside down. Those who were contented with the management as it was, would not take much interest in the election, while those who were discontented would take a great interest in it ; and in the majority of cases, the elective members would constitute a fractious minority, never identifying them- selves heartily with the subscribers, but, on the contrary,. attempting to thwart the objects of the subscribers, and perhaps to compel the parish to fall back on a Board school. We do not believe that such compound manage- ment could succeed. Boards of this hybrid character would be divided against themselves, and while the subscribers would fall off in thorough disgust at the failure of the only objects they had had in subscribing, the elective members would attract no new subscriptions. Let the Board schools encroach on the National and Voluntary schools by legitimate means,—the excellence of their teaching and the skill of their managers,—if they will.. We shall make no objection. But let us not sancticn a system which seems especially adapted to undermine and ruin the Voluntary schools by introducing division into the counsels of those who manage them, and dis- gusting the subscribers with the results of their sacrifices. That seems to us a very unworthy and ignoble way of driving the denominational schools out of the field, because it would be an underhand way. If the Opposition choose to denounce the Voluntary schools and supersede them by Board schools in an open and plain fight, let them attempt it, though we do not think that they would succeed. But let them not make so very unjust an attempt to ruin the unity of purpose by which they are at present con- trolled, under cover of an excuse which seems to us palpably inadequate and almost insincere. The worst reason that we can imagine for introducing an elective element into the board of management of Voluntary schools, would be the exemption of those ratepayers who at present do con- tribute towards their management, from the duty of making that contribution.
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