II. Their Lordships are also willing to insert in the management clauses a provision for an appeal "upon all other points besides those involving the moral and religious instruction of the scholars, and in particular upon the selection, appointment, and dismissal of the schoolmaster and schoolmistress, and their assistants." The arrangement which appears to them most expedient is, that when the Committee of School Managers have been assembled at a meeting specially convened, of which one week's notice shall have been duly given to every member of that Committee, if one-third of the members present at such meeting shall not concur in the decision of the majority, and shall sign a memorial of appeal, one arbitrator shall be appointed by the Committee of Council on Education, and another by the Bishop of the diocese, who, if they cannot agree, shall select an umpire, whose decision shall be final. III. My Lords acquiesce in so much of the third recommendation contained in the memorandum, as proposes "That all members of the Managing Committee of a school, except ordained ministers of the Church of England, shall qualify for acting on the same by subscribing a declaration that they are bona fide members of the Church of England," this being all that is required from the lay members of the Ecclesiastical Commission. IV. Their Lordships have no objection that the school deed shall declare the right of the parochial clergyman to employ the schoolroom for a Sunday-school. V. My Lords adopt all the alterations in detail suggested under the four paragraphs (numbered severally 13, 14, 15, and 16) of the fifth head of the memorandum. 1. THE Committee of the National Society have given their serious consideration to the letter dated 3rd June, 1848, which the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education have done them the honor to send in reply to their memorial on the subject of the management clauses. The Committee of the National Society beg again to assure the Committee of Council of their anxiety to act in concert with their Lordships in the great work of education, and especially in securing the co-operation and due influence of the lay members of the church. They feel that the State, in giving assistance, has a right to demand ample security for the efficient management of schools; while, on the other hand, the promoters of church education may claim that those arrangements shall be so framed as to secure to the members of the church the future control of their schools. Experience has also convinced the Committee of the National Society that it is important, in order to attain this object, that the conditions on which the Parliamentary grants are made should be fixed and definite, in order to avoid negotiations which individuals are often not well qualified to conduct at once from their position as applicants for aid, and because their want of familiarity with all the bearings of the subject, as well as other causes, has, in many instances, led sometimes to imprudent concessions, and sometimes to demands at variance with the real objects of the applicants themselves. 2. The Committee of the National Society gladly acknowledge the ready consideration given to their former suggestions; but they feel compelled to assure their Lordships of their full conviction that the settlement of the questions at issue on the terms proposed in their Lordships' letter would be unsatisfactory to many of the friends of Church of England education, and fail to obtain their hearty co-operation. The Committee of the National Society will therefore proceed to specify the points which they believe necessary to secure such confidence. 3. The Committee would first notice the subject of giving the local promoters of schools a selection among the clauses. They would suggest that while Clause C shall still be limited to special cases, the local founders of schools ought to be allowed to select such one of the clauses marked A, B, and D respectively, as they may consider best suited to their own case; provided always, that due care be taken to ascertain the opinions of the promoters of church education in the parish or district in which it is proposed to establish a school. 4. The next point to which they would call the attention of their Lordships is, the constitution of the proposed Board of Appeal on questions not reserved as belonging to "moral or religious instruction," or "any regulations connected therewith." The Committee are ready to accept, as an alternative, the clause suggested by their Lordships, modified slightly as follows; viz., That the Lord President of the Council shall nominate as one arbitrator an Inspector of Schools, appointed conformably to the Order in Council dated 10th August, 1840; that the Bishop of the diocese shall nominate a second arbitrator from among the clergy of his diocese; and that these two arbitrators shall in each case select a third person to act with them, being a magistrate, and a lay member of the Church of England; provided that if the two firstnamed arbitrators cannot agree upon the nomination of such third person within 30 days from the time the appeal is made to them, a person qualified as beforesaid shall be nominated by the Archbishop of the province. 5. But as a strong desire has been expressed by many members of the Society to name in their trust-deeds the Bishop of the diocese as arbitrator upon any point of difference, and this arrangement would appear to be considered by some as the only one under which they can conscientiously submit church schools to the control of Committees formed under any of the management clauses, the Committee of the National Society would urge upon the Committee of Council that the local promoters of schools should be allowed to adopt such a provision, in preference to the one before mentioned, should it appear after due inquiry that they are desirous of doing so. The Committee of the National Society understand that the consent of one-third of the persons attending a School Committee, duly convened, shall be requisite to the validity of every appeal, a limitation by which the Committee. consider that they have proposed ample security against any vexatious or unnecessary appeals. 6. As to the declaration to be made and signed by the managers of a school, the Committee of the National Society are willing to acquiesce in the suggestion of the Committee of Council, as one alternative, viz., that the declaration should be that now made and signed by lay members of the Ecclesiastical Commission.* The Committee trust that the solemnity of the declaration thus made before the clergyman of the parish and the assembled school managers, will sufficiently guard against the assumption of the office of manager of a church school, by a member of any other denomination of christians. 7. But in agreeing to this as one form of declaration, the Committee of the National Society must press upon the Committee of Council the earnest desire of many of their members that the School Committee should be formed out of the regular communicants of the parish. To meet this reasonable desire, and at the same time to prevent the possibility of the Holy Communion being treated as an official test, the Committee of the National Society suggest (as an alternative) that, where it is preferred, there be inserted in the trust deed the requirement, as the qualification of the member of a School Committee, of the following declaration; —“ I, A. B., do declare that I am, and have been for three years last past, a communicant of the Church of England.' 8. In proposing that these several alternatives be left to the local promoters of schools, the Committee of the National Society assure the Committee of Council on Education that they are doing no more than their correspondence with the laity as well as with the clergy convinces them to be necessary, in order to retain that cooperation in founding and supporting schools, without which the FORM OF DECLARATION. I do hereby solemnly, and in the presence of God, testify and declare that I am a member of the United Church of England and Ireland as by law established. Witness my hand this day of cause of education throughout the country cannot successfully proceed. J. B. CANTUAR, (Signed) President of the National Society. To the Lord President of Her Majesty's Privy Council. (No. 4.) MY LORD ARchbishop, Committee of Council on Education, Council Office, Whitehall, July 31, 1848. THE Committee of Council on Education have had under their consideration the letter of the 5th instant, signed by your Grace as President of the National Society. Their Lordships have received with much satisfaction the assurances which it contains of the anxiety of the Committee of the Society to act in concert with them in securing the co-operation and due influence of the lay members of the church in the great work of education, and they fully agree in the principle, that while the State is giving assistance, it has a right to demand ample security for the efficient management of schools, the arrangements should be so framed as to secure to members of the Church the future control of their schools. They also entirely concur in the principle that "the conditions. on which parliamentary grants are made, should be fixed and definite." The Committee of Council on Education have accordingly considered it to be their duty to endeavour, with the concurrence of the ecclesiastical authorities, to introduce a scheme of management for Church of England schools, consistent alike with the constitution of the Church, and with the principles on which aid can be granted by Parliament towards the establishment of schools which are to form part of a system of national education. With this view their Lordships first framed the management clauses on the basis of the terms of union with the National Society; afterwards, when contemplating the adoption of their Minutes of 1846, they sought the concurrence of the Society in recommending these clauses to the promoters of schools; and recently, they have considered and complied with certain suggestions of the National Society, intended to remove the objections still entertained by some persons to their adoption. In the same spirit their Lordships proceed to consider the suggestions offered in the letter from the National Society, dated 5th July, 1848. Upon the proposal contained in paragraph 3, their Lordships have to observe that it has not been the custom of the Committee of Council to insist on the adoption of Clause A in preference to Clause B, or vice versa, but they have always readily acceded to the wish of the promoters in the selection of either of these clauses. It is their Lordships' desire that it should be understood that neither of these clauses will be required to be adopted in small parishes or districts having few inhabitants qualified by their intelligence for the management of schools, and that whenever one of them is proposed by the Committee of Council, the other be adopted if it be preferred. may Before however, Clause D is admitted into any school deed, the Committee of Council are of opinion that it should be shown that the parish or ecclesiastical district contains less than 700 inhabitants, or that from poverty or other circumstances the number of the annual subscribers is likely to be limited to a very few individuals. But if in any parish containing more than 700 inhabitants, where the subscription to cover the expense of erecting the school is complete, provided that at least one-half of the whole outlay has been subscribed by persons resident in or having property in the parish, a meeting of these subscribers, convened for the purpose with due notice, should be held, and if at such meeting a majority of not less than two-thirds of their whole number should express a preference for the adoption of Clause D, and state the grounds of such preference in a memorial, with their signatures appended, the Committee of Council will acquiesce in that decision. The remaining suggestions are classed under two heads, one relating to the appeal from the decision of the majority of the Committee of Management on matters not relating to religious instruction, and the other to the form of declaration to be required before any person can discharge the duties of school manager. With regard to the first, their Lordships are ready to adopt, with one additional provision, the constitution of the Board of Appeal as described in paragraph 4; viz.,-"That the Lord President of the Council shall nominate as one arbitrator an Inspector of schools, appointed conformably to the Order in Council dated 10th of August, 1840; that the Bishop of the diocese shall nominate a second arbitrator from among the clergy of his diocese; and that these two arbitrators shall in each case select a third person to act with them, being a magistrate and a lay member of the Church of England; provided that if the two first-named arbitrators cannot agree upon the nomination of such third person within 30 days from the time when they first meet to enter on the arbitration, a person qualified as aforesaid shall be nominated by the Archbishop of the province," and the Lord President of the Council, conjointly. With regard to the form of declaration to be required from the managers of schools, their Lordships have already assented to the proposal contained in paragraph 6, and they are willing to admit the form of declaration contained in paragraph 7, under the same conditions with respect to its adoption, as those previously related concerning the adoption of Clause D. Their Lordships regret, however, that they cannot concur in the |