The Duke of Richmond has been very fair to the
Scotch Edu- cation Bill, and its most important provisions have survived the oxidisation (or rust) of the Upper House. He has got into the preamble a resolution that it is desirable to provide for the con- tinuance of such religious education as has been hitherto usual,. to which the only objection is that it probably does not express the motives which actuated a large number of the supporters of the Bill, and is therefore misleading. He also insisted on a really Scottish Board to put the Act in execution,—a Committee to meet in Edinburgh, and to be independent of the Education Minister here. The objection to that is that they can't be. The Parlia- mentary grants are Imperial, and the Education Office, which is the organ of the Imperial Government, must more or less control them. However, the Scotch Board, which has a certain amount of popularity in Scotland, though not so mach as many people think,. will probably be tried ; but it must end in being either a very awkward and unmanageable limb of the Education Department,. or in a quarrel in which the Scotch Board will disappear.
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