On Wednesday the Government introduced their new clause under which
there was to be a double compulsion,— on the owners to give up, and on the local authority to take over, Voluntary schools, the Board of Education acting as referee. On Mr. Birrell in effect telling the Opposition that
they must either reject it or accept it as it stood, Mr. Balfour refused to accept it, and the Government accordingly defeated their own clause. The net result is that the Com- mission of three will, as originally proposed, have power to decide whether the trustees of a Voluntary school shall or shall not be obliged to part with it to the local authority. Possibly the conduct of the Opposition over this matter was exasperating, but it seems to us that it would have been far wiser for the Government, if they thought their clause a good one, to proceed with it, and not to make it depend upon the will of the Opposition. After all, their business is to make a good and fair Education Bill, and not to contrive a bargain with the other side, whose avowed object it is to wreck the Bill rather than to improve it. Mr. Birrell also introduced a fresh clause of great length and no little complication dealing with the problem of devolution. We cannot find space to discuss this question at length, but there seems a fairly general opinion that some power of devolution should be allowed. The matter will, we trust, be properly discussed in the House of Lords. The introduction of these clauses brought the Committee stage of the Bill to an end.
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