MINUTE RELATING TO CONDITIONS OF AID TO ROMAN At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 18th day of December, 1847. By the Right Honorable the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education; RESOLVED 1. THAT the Roman Catholic Poor School Committee be the ordinary channel of such general inquiries as may be desirable, as to any school applying for aid as a Roman Catholic school. 2. That Roman Catholic schools receiving aid from the Parliamentary Grant be open to Inspection, but that the Inspectors shall report respecting the secular instruction only. 3. That the Inspectors of such schools be not appointed without the previous concurrence of the Roman Catholic Poor School Committee. 4. That no gratuity, stipend, or augmentation of salary, be awarded to schoolmasters or assistant teachers who are in holy orders; but that their Lordships reserve to themselves the power of making an exception in the case of training schools, and of model schools connected therewith. EDUCATION IN WALES. Representation agreed to at a Meeting of the Welsh Education Committee of the National Society, on the 6th of May, 1848, by the Bishops of Bangor, St. David's, and St. Asaph, Viscount Emlyn, M.P., the Hon. G. R. Rice Trevor, M.P., Saunders Davies, Esq., M.P., Sir Thomas Phillips, and Charles Alexander Wood, Esq.; and communicated to the Lord President of the Council on the 12th of May, 1848, by a Deputation consisting of the Bishops of St. David's and St. Asaph, and Sir Thomas Phillips. RESOLVED That the Bishops of the Welsh Sees be requested to lay the following representation before the President of Her Majesty's Privy Council. The Bishops, and very many of the nobility, clergy, and gentry connected with Wales, have for some time past made great efforts to improve and extend popular education in the Principality, and have subscribed largely for this purpose. And they desire to bring under the attention of the Committee of Council several hindrances to the progress of education in the Principality, by which their efforts to improve and extend instruction in Wales are impeded. 1st. The Welsh Education Committee are sensible of the importance of the visits made to schools by the Inspectors appointed under the Order in Council of the 10th of August, 1840; and they request that Inspectors be appointed, in conformity with that order, to whom the districts of North and South Wales shall be assigned, in order that the Principality may begin to enjoy the same advantages in this respect as are already enjoyed by England. In addition to the disadvantages under which Welsh schools now labour, in losing the kind and judicious advice of Inspectors, these schools have also been deprived of the grants for schoolapparatus which have heretofore been made; and will be unable to obtain grants for school-books, which are hereafter to be made to schools upon the recommendation of an Inspector. Moreover, the Welsh people are desirous to improve their schools by having monitors and pupil-teachers apprenticed in them, in accordance with the Minutes of Council of 1846. And the Welsh Education Committee are most anxious that young persons duly qualified should be apprenticed without delay; inasmuch as the necessity which is imposed on them of training natives of the country will prevent them from obtaining a supply of Queen's scholars from English schools. And they look forward to supply the Training Institution, which they have lately founded at Carmarthen, with such of the pupil-teachers in Welsh schools as may eventually become Queen's scholars. The Committee would add, that, it will be very desirable that any Inspectors appointed for Wales should be natives of the Principality, acquainted with the Welsh tongue. 2ndly. The Welsh Education Committee would earnestly urge upon the Committee of Council to select at once a certain number of young men to whom exhibitions should be given, for the purpose of enabling them to enter into the Training Institution at Carmarthen; or that adequate grants for a period of not less than five years should be made to the Welsh Education Committee, to enable them to confer a sufficient number of exhibitions on deserving persons. The giving of such exhibitions would only be anticipating, by a few years, the operation of that part of the Minutes of Council of December 1846, relating to the support of Normal Schools, under which exhibitions are promised to Queen's scholars; and as the Committee of Council, in order to meet a present want, have relaxed so much of those Minutes as limited, to persons who had been in actual training in a Normal School under their inspection, grants in aid of the salary of schoolmasters, so the Welsh Education Committee confidently hope their Lordships will relax, in regard to the Principality, the rule which limits exhibitions to those youths only who have passed through a course of apprenticeship in an elementary school. The Committee would further remind their Lordships, that, direct grants of money towards the maintenance of Training Institutions have been made, both in England and Scotland; and they may confidently state that the necessity for such grants is greater in Wales than in those countries, by reason of the pressing and peculiar difficulties of the Principality,—difficulties which will prove most embarrassing during the next five years, unless the Welsh Education Committee receive the cordial co-operation of their Lordships. 3rdly. The Welsh Education Committee would urge on their Lordships the necessity for such a modification of their Minutes of the 21st December 1846, whereby the conditions are defined on which grants are to be made in aid of the salaries of schoolmasters, as will adapt those Minutes to the condition of Wales. And they would suggest that their Lordships should be enabled to grant one-half, instead of one-third, of the salary of such teachers as shall be found by their Inspectors competent to the proper conduct of schools in the Principality. The duties of the Welsh Education Committee are rendered peculiarly arduous by reason of much past neglect, entailing a necessity for great present labour, which cannot be delayed without multiplying existing evils; and also by difficulties arising from language and social peculiarities, which require very careful treatment, and a judicious employment of measures specially suited to the condition of the people. The Welsh Education Committee venture to urge upon their Lordships the importance of prompt assistance; and they respectfully request that they may be made acquainted with their Lordships' decision at their earliest convenience. Answer to the foregoing Representation. MY LORD BISHOP, Committee of Council on Education, Council Office, Whitehall, June 8, 1848. The Lord President of the Council has submitted to the consideration of the Committee of Council on Education the resolutions adopted at a meeting of the Welsh Education Committee of the National Society, on the 6th of May, 1848, and which were communicated by a deputation from that Committee, consisting of your Lordship, the Bishop of St. Asaph, and Sir Thomas Phillips. I am directed by the Committee of Council on Education to express the satisfaction with which they have remarked the exertions made by the Welsh Education Committee, for the improvement of schools connected with the Established Church in Wales. Their Lordships are disposed to respond to those exertions by the appointment of additional Inspectors under the Order in Council dated August 10, 1840; and they will endeavour to select natives of the Principality, acquainted with the Welsh tongue. My Lords hope, ere long, to be enabled to appoint one Inspector of this class. Any further appointments will depend on the extent to which such services may appear to be required, in order to carry into execution in Wales the Minutes of the Committee of Council for August and December 1846. When this appointment has been made, the Committee of Council will be ready to select a certain number of young men to whom exhibitions may be given, enabling them to enter the Training Institution at Carmarthen. Their Lordships are also disposed, in relation to the Principality, to modify their Minutes of December 1846, so far as to reduce to 107. the maximum amount of augmentation of the salary of schoolmasters offered under those Minutes, and, in consideration of the greater cheapness of living, to require that a proportionate salary of 207. only, and a house, should be provided by the school managers to meet this grant. I have the honor to be, &c., (Signed) J. P. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH. The Right Reverend the Bishop of St. David's. Memorial of Ministers and Deacons of the Calvinistic Methodist Connexion, in the County of Brecknock, relating to the Operation in Wales of the Minutes of the Committee of Council of August and December 1846. To the Right Honorable the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education. The Humble Memorial of the undersigned Ministers and Deacons of the Calvinistic Methodist Connexion, in the county of Brecknock, South Wales, SHEWETH, THAT your Memorialists are deeply sensible of the importance of healthful education to all classes of society; and that, in their opinion, the fact of the laws of the country being written and administered in a language not intelligible to the majority gives to their poorer brethren a strong claim to the merciful consideration of the Legislature. That the great mass of the people in Wales are Protestant Dissenters; and that and that your memorialists believe no general plan would be accepted among them which did not abjure all kinds of denominational tests, and thereby do justice to the principles of religious equality and liberty. That in many districts the poverty of the inhabitants is such, that your memorialists fear it would be quite impossible to raise the proportionate amount of funds required by the existing Minutes as a condition of help from the Government; and that in many others, even if schoolrooms were secured, mere local efforts could make no adequate provision for the support of competent teachers. Your memorialists, therefore, humbly and fervently pray that such modifications may be introduced into your Lordships' Minutes, as shall adapt them to the special circumstances of the Principality, and thereby enable the ancient and loyal race of the Cymry to maintain their right position among the nations. And your Memorialists will ever pray, &c., (Signed.) DAVID CHARLES, College, Trevecca, DAVID HUGHES, Llan march, Minister. Minister. WILLIAM POWELL, Llanfihangelnantham, DAVID MORRIS, Pontneddvaughan, Dea con. DAVID DAVIES, Talgarth, Deacon. J. THOMAS WATKINS, lywell, Deacon. LLEWEYN WILLIAMS, Merthyr Cyunog, Deacon. OWEN JONES, Cwmsevin, Deacon. WATKIN MORGAN, Devynnock, Deacon.", SIR, Answer to the foregoing Memorial. Committee of Council on Education, Council Office, Whitehall, June 9, 1848. THE Memorial of certain Ministers and Deacons of the Calvinistic Methodist Connexion, in the county of Brecon, the receipt of which I had the honour to acknowledge on the 30th of May, 1848, has been submitted to the consideration of the Committee of Council on Education. Their Lordships direct me to inform you that they have directed their attention to the arrangements which will be required to carry into execution in Wales their recent Minutes; and I am to assure you that they will be ready to appoint |