Mr. Ayrton made a very able speech on the Bill,
harshly ridicul- ing Mr. Walpole's appeal to sentimental memories ;—" they were asked to be guided by the sentimental feelings of gentlemen who happened to have been educated in these schools ; he could not see what they had to do with such sentimental feelings," for they were dealing with the future, not the past. He maintained that the Royal Commission bad not had adequate power with relation to the London Schools, and had not properly dealt with them. Two of them, St. Paul's and Merchant Taylors', were not in the Bill at all, and ought to have been in the Bill. The Charterbouse School has revenues of 11,0001. a year, with which it professes to teach Latin and Greek gratuitously to about forty Wks, not gratuitously to about forty odd more, and to a small number of day scholars. Was that a result commensurate with revenues of 11,0001.
a year ? St.. Paul's had also 11,0001. a year, and pro- fessed to educate 150 boys, when it might educate 1,000. Merchant Taylors' did better, for it was in great part a day school, and educated 250 boys, with a revenue of only 2,0001. a year. This was owing to its being in a consider- able degree a day school, and therefore not encouraging its masters to transform themselves from students and teachers "into a kind of licensed victuallers," as masters generally do who get their main profit out of the feeding of the boys. He pressed the Government to include all the metropolitan public schools in the Bill. The second reading was passed without a division, as all the amendments will be moved in committee.
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