In Wednesday's debate Mr. Balfour denied that Ministers had shown
any genuine desire for conciliation or any disposition to recede from their position. In these circum- stances he thought it almost an outrage that the House had been asked to discuss for three days a measure which had not in it the elements of compromise. He condemned the contracting-out proposal as lacking support and irreconcilable with Ministerial principles, and declared that the treatment of trusts and Voluntary schools involved spoliation, and abolished one grievance to create another and a worse one. Uniformity in religious matters was impossible in a national system of education. He scouted the notion that teachers could be selected without any tests, and challenged the Prime Minister to define precisely what " no tests for teachers " meant. Did it mean that it was unfair to find out whether a teacher was qualified to give the religious teaching which it was proposed he should give ? Mr. Balfour ended by warning the Govern- ment that if the settlement of 1902 was to be upset, the only effective means of solving the religious difficulty would be by giving more power to the parents of the children in the elementary schools.
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