The debates of Monday and Tuesday on the Education Bill
were not very pleasant reading, though it was no doubt inevitable that a good deal of bitterness should arise on the discussion in Committee of Clause 7,—the clause dealing with the management of schools. On Monday Mr. Balfour stated once again that the Government did not propose to alter the proportion of elected managers to denominational managers in the management of voluntary schools. The position taken up by. the political Nonconformists was very exactly defined by Mr. Balfour " The militant Nonconformists would be content with nothing except what they call popular control and manage- ment of denominational schools." For the Government to yield on this point would be " monstrously and utterly un- just." Mr. Balfour in the course of the debate repudiated the suggestion that it was the intention of the Government to throw all religions education into the hands of the parsons, but pressed the point that neither was it the Government plan to nndenominationalise the schools. Mr. Trevelyan, in a very reasonable speech, advocated the adoption of the New
South Wales system, by which the public held absolute con- trol of the schools, but which enabled religious instruction to be given in all schools by teachers of different denominations.
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