Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

8 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

--IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

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IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF LORDS, MONDAY, June 20th. Their lordships met at four o'clock, when the royal assent was given by commission to the County Courts Bill, the War Office Bill, the Poor Relief (Metropolis) Bill, the Railway Powers and Construc- tion Bill, and a number of private bills. The Com- missioners were the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Bessborough, and the Marquis of Normanby. THE RITUAL COMMISSION.—The Earl of Shaftes- bury presented a petition from the Church Associa- tion praying that no action may be taken on the third report of the Ritual Commissioners, and that no alterations may be made in the prayer book un- til such times as the Commissioners have performed the duties enjoined upon them, and reported upon such changes as to them may seem expedient with a view of explaining and amending the rubrics, or- ders, and directions, so as to secure uniformity of practice in such matters as may be deemed essen- tial. THE DEFENCE OF THE COLONIES.-Earl RUS- SELL moved an address to her Majesty stating that this House has seen with great satisfaction the spontaneous expressions of loyalty and attachment to the British Crown which have lately emanated from many of the colonies, and that this House humbly prays her Majesty to appoint a Commission to enquire into the means best fitted to guarantee the security of every part of her Majesty's dominions. .Lord NORTHBBOOK said that the Government were fully alive to the importance of maintaining the ties by which Great Britain and the colonies were bound together. With regard to the motion he hoped it would not be pressed, as it was not neces- sary, and the scope of such an enquiry would be far too gigantic for the investigation of any single com- mission. The motion was then withdrawn, and several bills having been advanced a stage, the House adjourned at eight. HOUSE OF COMMONS, MONDAY, June 20th. A few minutes afterwards the Speaker was sum- moned to the bar of the House of Lords to hear the royal assent given by commission to several bills. LOCAL TAXATION.—On his return, Mr. GOSCHEN, in reply to Sir Massey Lopes, said that he did not think it possible that the Government could bring in the measures they were desirous of introducing on the subject of rating and the collection of rates during the present session. THE REPORTERS' GALLERY.—In reply to Mr. Taylor, Mr. AYRTON said that the subject of im- proved and increased accommodation for the repor- ters had been under his consideration, and he pro- posed to submit a plan in the special estimates. RATING OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS.—In reply to Mr. Charley, Mr. GOSCHEN said the Government would be unable to proceed with the bill for the rating of public buildings this session. VAGRANCY.—In answer to Mr. Brodrick, Mr. GOSCHEN stated that the Government hoped to be able to deal with the question of the repression of vagrancy to a certain extent this session. DUTY ON FARM HORSES.—The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER stated, in reply to Mr. Welby, that he was not prepared to remit the duty already paid this year for licences for farm horses occasionally employed in drawing road materials. THE SPEAKER.—The Speaker having stated that he had been invited to Oxford to have conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L., Mr. GLAD- STONE expressed the gratification with which the House received the announcement, and moved that the chair be taken during the Speaker's absence by Mr. Dodson.Mr. DISRAELI, who also con- gratulated the Speaker on the circumstance, second- ed the motion, which was agreed to. THE EDUCATION BILL. Mr. W. E. FORSTER stated, in answer to Dr. Lyon Playfair, that as soon as a deficiency of school accommodation was ascertained after the passing of the Education Bill, steps would betaken to have it supplied. In answer to Mr. Pell the right hon. gentleman stated that there was no probability that the local rate would exceed 3d. in the pound. In answer to Lord R. Montagu, Mr. GLADSTONE stated that Government had severed the tie between the local educational boards and the voluntary schools. There was no intention to exempt subscri- bers to voluntary schools from being rated. On the motion for going into Committee on the Elementary Education Bill, Mr. H. RICHARD moved a resolution to the ef- fect that the grants to the existing denominational schools should not be increased, and that in any national system of elementary education the attend- ance should be everywhere compulsory, and that the religious instruction should be supplied by vol- untary effort, and not out of the public funds. The hon. member complained that the Government pro- positions were highly objectionable to the Noncon- formist bodies, and were opposed to the feelings of the great bulk of the community. Sir C. W. DILKE seconded the motion, regret- ting that an education bill had been attempted this year; for at this period of the session they had not only made no advance, but found themselves in opposition to a Ministry so generally entitled to con- fidence. The Dissenters were struggling for a principle, which the Government in their new amendments still ignored. Mr. GATHORNE HARDY opposed the amend- ment, and complained of the changes introduced by the Government. Their result would be to set up rival schools, one assisted by State grants, the other by local rates in addition to the State grants. He pointed out the great results attained by the reli- gious zeal of clergymen under the denominational system. He insisted that these efforts ought to be respected and preserved by the State, and not al- lowed to be undermined by a rival system. He quite approved of the conscience clause as original- ly framed, but strongly deprecated the further con- cessions of the Government as yielding to a cry got up for political purposes, for no religious grievance had ever been felt in the country. At the same time, the bill as it stood gave no guarantee that the in- creased grant would be secured to the denomina- tional schools. This being the case, he argued strongly in favour of Scriptural and religious in- struction in the schools which were perfectly free, for between that and purely secular teaching there was no resting place. The Government admit- ted that the country had pronounced for religious education, and why did they now permit any authority to interfere with it and thus run the risk everywhere of stirring np religious strife and dis- cord. If this was to De done at all, it ought not to be left to town councils or to vestries, but to boards directly elected by the ratepayers. He wished to assist the Government in passing the bill, but their ooncessions were entirely one-sided. They were no concessions to those who had hitherto borne all the burden of education, and who had given up too much already. The latter showed facts, which they had already achieved; the others only showed words. If they were sincere, let them expend some of their £50,000 in establishing what they had never done yet, a purely secular school. In conclusion, heap- pealed to the Government not to destroy the zeal of those who had established all that they now had in the way of education, but to confine themselves to their original proposition of supplying the gaps and deficiencies of the existing system. Mr. W. E. FORSTER, who was received with a general cheer, said that he was anxious at once to declare the opinion of the Government with respect to the amendment. The amendment contained three distinct propositions. One of them was that attendance should b. everywhere compulsory, and he took this first in the hope that the House would not allow itself to be engioaBed with the religious difficulties, but would rather look to the. general scope of the bill. As regarded this point of com- pulsion, there had been no practical alteration in the amendment except to make it clear that it should not be applied to religious teaching, and it was provided that this should take place at the be- ginning or the end of each attendance, and not of school day, so that there would be a choice of four periods for it. With respect to the next point of the amendment, he did not quite under- stand what was meant by supplying religious instruction by voluntary effort, or how it was to be practicably carried out, unless it was that no school should be aided from the public funds in which there was religious teaching. With respect to the third point, that the grant to denomina- tional schools ought not to be increased, he con- tended that the denominational system had achieved great results, and that no general system of educa- tion in this country would be complete without them, as a very large number of persons would prefer them to schools established by the boards. Their object was not to destroy or undermine the exist- ing system which, as far as it went, had worked well; hut to supply its deficiencies and extend the blessings of education to every home in the country. On the motion of Mr. MI ALL, the debate was ad. journed. HOUSE OF LORDS, Tuesday, June 21st. NEW PEER.-Lord O'Hagan took the oaths and his seat. MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY BILL. — Lord CATRNR moved the second reading of the Married Women's Property Bill. He briefly explained the provisions of the Bill, which, as it dealt with cases of undeniable hardship, he trusted their Lordships would assent to.Lord PENZANCE admitted that there was a very fair case for the bill but it went far beyond what was required, and would produce far more evil than good. It gave to married women not only the sole right over their own property but, having wasted that, to still claim maintenance at the cost of her husband's children. It gave also married women the power to sue any person, even their husbands, and to carry on business without the consent of their husbands. Surely this was not necessary to protect their property against a dis- solute or profligate husband. The bill was a total revolution not only of the common law but of the marriage state, which imposed on the husband the duty of maintaining the household with the control of the common property. An extension of the power of obtaining protection, as at present, would do all that was necessary.Lord WESTBURY con- sidered that the bill went to an extravagant length, and must be reduced to a more sensible form before it could be allowed to pass. It seemed to proceed from that sensational desire which was now so pre- valent, of changing what had been not only the law but the domestic practice of this country for a thousand years. There were evils undoubtedly which required alteration, but not in this subver- sive manner After some further conversation the bill was read a second time, and ordered to be referred to a select committee. The Appellate Jurisdiction Bill was read a third time and passed. The Gas and Water Facilities Bill was withdrawn. HOUSE OF COMMONS, TUESDAY, June 21. THE EDUCATION BILL. The adjourned debate on the motion for going into Committee on the education Bill was resumed by Mr. MIALL (Bradford), who protested against the position in which Mr. Forster had placed those who refused to accept the religious clauses of the bill as finally settled by the Government. It was unfair to cast upon those Members the sole respon- sibility of defeating the bill or preventing a measure for the Education of the people passing this session. There might be many circumstances beyond this which tended to produce such a result; as, for ins- tance, the fact that the clauses had been submitted prematurely, that the bill contained principles to which the House and the country could not accede, that there had been long delay in announcing the conclusion to which the Government had arrived, and some mystery now that the matter was at length cleared up; but he considered it unfair on the part of the Government to impose something like moral coercion upon the House and call upon it to accept the altered scheme, however distasteful it might be. He was convinced that the measure as it now stood was not adapted to the wants of the country; that it effected no compromise between the two sections of opinion existing in the House that it would not secure the permanent settlement of the question and be should, therefore, support the amendment moved by Mr. Richard. Sir C. ADDERLEY (Staffordshire) denied that the country was indignant at the alterations which had been made in the measure. The religious dif- ficulty was the only difficnlty in the way of the set- tlpment of the question, and that difficulty would only apply to the new schools for by long habit and custom it had already disappeared from the old schools. He admitted that the solution of the difficulty provided by the Government was unsatis- factory, but it was better than their original pro- position, and better than the proposal of the Hon. j Member for Merthyr. Being, however, a rough and unsatisfactory solution, they ought not to at- tach it to more schools than was necessary. Mr. V. HARCOURT (Oxford) contended that the plan of the Government was a plan of religious State endowment and nothing else, whether the money was to be supplied by the Privy Council or by local rates. The amendment, on the other hand, was in favour of purely secular education. He asked if there was no middle course between undiluted sec- tarian denominational education and secular educa- tion. He deplored the illness of Mr. Bright, which had prolonged his absence from the Councils of the i Cabinet, because he believed that if the Right Hon. Gentleman could have been present, the religious difficulty would have been satisfactorily settled. He (Mr. Harcourt) believed that if the present pro- posal were carried it would form the subject of an annual vote, and also of an annual battle. He was in favour of unsectarian and secular education, and could not vote either for the bill or the amendment. On the motion of Mr. DIXON, (Birmingham) the debate was adjourned, and the sitting was sus- pended at a quarter before seven o'clock.: At the evening sitting at nine o'clock, the chair was taken by Mr. Dodson, who announced that the Speaker was indisposed. BISHOPS IN PARLIAMENT.—Mr. SOMERSET BEAU- MONT (Wakefield) moved for leave to bring in a bill to relieve the Lords Spiritual who may be here- after consecrated from attendance in Parliament. He urged that the presence of the Bishops in the House of Lords was neither of advantage to the Church nor to the people.Mr. LOCKE KING (E. Surrey) seconded the motion.Sir W. LAWSoN (Car- lisle) supported the motion Mr. GLADSTONE (Greenwich) said it was the intention of the Govern- ment to resist the motion. Were they disposed to support such a proposition, they ought not to have left it to an independent Member to bring it for- ward, but ought themselves on their own responsi- bility, to have introduced it. The bill before the House would have the effect of giving the present occupiers of the Episcopal bench a new form of vested interest, which would amount to a recon- sideration and stamping afresh of the title they pos- sessed to seats in the House of Lords. In all pro- bability it would be at least thirty years before this new title could be extinguished. Did the hon. gen- tleman who had brought forward the motion mean by this to give a similar lease to the Establishment of the English Church ? In the consideration of this proposal, they had to regard it in two points of view. In regard to the Church and its connection with the State the bench of bishops was a venerable portion of the English constitution, and with regard to the interference of their political with their Epis- copal duties, he reminded the House that the bishops had long ceased to reside habitually during the session in London, and that with the exception of those who might be termed Metropolitan Bishops their attendance in London was only exceptional. After a few words from Mr. Somerset Beaumont in rpply, the House divided with the following re- sult For the motion. 102 against, 158; majority 56

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