Show THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL BILL Apparently the crucial measure In the Parliament that has Just closed was the educational bill In spite of the great clamor against It there was a urprlslng majority for it in the House o f Commons this majority being com posed In a considerable measure by the united support of the Irish members The bill was denounced by Liberals as an ecclesiastical measure but the very fact thrt It was so gave it voles and the Conservative Ministry von a triumph I tri-umph In Its enactment even greater than the votes In the support of the Boer war The shrewdness of the provisions pro-visions contained In the bill and the final auccess In passing it are cited asa as-a proof of Lord Balfours ability In constructive statesmanship and the claim is that the trlmph Is a personal one for him The bill Is now the law and under it the parochial or volunteer schools will receive a tremendous Impulse They will get the school rates ortaxes In the provinces and a large part of them In the cities The control of these schools is of course In the hands of the clergy In Ireland the Catholic clergy will practically have charge of education In England It will be the Clergy of various denominations To be sure there arc other members of the school boards than the clergy but the control remains with them hi the aided volunteer schools which arc made practically prac-tically the public schools In all but the metropolitan districts and In these they will divide the control that Is they have the right oC naming the teacher while t2t majority of the managers man-agers shall bmfif the religious denomination denomi-nation to whjjJijUhe school belongs There has wlthorto been a sort of dual system of public education schools of the municipalities andMhote of the school board and these havft developed de-veloped find caused contention The new law prevents this making the county councils supreme and giving them control of every kind of education In their districts and giving the municipal mu-nicipal councils like control in the cities this stops the conflicts between the I municipalities and the school hoards The voluntary schools arc made practically I prac-tically religious schools that is I caoh I denomination may organize Its own School and uo long as It conducts the same In accord with the requirements of the standards of studies and proficiency pro-ficiency Is given exclusive charge and the school draws ita pro rata of tho public school moneys Great care seems to have been exercised In so framing the bill BH lo pccuro the teaching teach-ing of religion In the schools andStlso local control over the secular teaching J Sir John Coral a supporter of tho bill thus summurl7es Its points and advantages advan-tages 1 1 It created a locul authority with Urn power and duty of bringing the secular Inutructlon given In thono achgola to a proper luvol of efficiency 2 It provider jmeiuardB for thoroll glous clmrocttr of theao schools eutlafuc r tory to tli rollRloiis bodlus by which they have been wUablluhcd 1 3 It given ill > most absolute control over secular InstructIon to tho local authority au-thority U The bill then Is a compromise no such mpiiures generally arc It frank i ly makes the church uchoolu of the various denominations public schools in the sense of being supported by pub lIt money It secures these schools to the denomination establishing and conducting con-ducting them by making their managers mana-gers the public agents for their control Tt secures a standard of education In these schools that must be mada satisfactory satis-factory to the local olllcialu of the nui i nlolpallty or county and It abollshoB the competition that has heretofore been vngcd betweenthe sectarian schools und those purely secular It is not hard to see that an active propaganda propa-ganda will now begin to secure oVen I rollmint In the church schools nil the pupils possible with the result that the purely secular schools will be starved out or put on pauper allowance A few years will determine whether the schools of England will under this new law bear comparlsoh with the free publlo nonsectarian sChool of AmerJ cn which at present they ctrtalnly do not |