Yesterday week the subject of Free Education was intro- duced,
in the form of an amendment to the Address moved by Mr. A. Acland, who proposed to regret, in reply to the Queen's Speech, that no promise was given to extend to England the free education which had been given to Scotland. The Vice- President of the Council. Sir W. Hart Dyke, of course pointed out the very much more serious difficulty of the case. In Scotland, out of 3,100 elementary schools, only 500, or 16 per cent., are Voluntary. In England, out of 19,200 Elementary schools, 14,600 are Voluntary schools, or 76 per cent. If the place of the Voluntary schools had to be supplied by Board schools, it would involve a capital expenditure of about 228,000,000. And in addition to this, the annual cost of replacing the parents' fees, and the voluntary contributions, would be 21,862,300 and £745,000 respectively. A -policy in- volving such very large financial liabilities could not possibly be proceeded with in a hurry ; nevertheless, the Government adhered to Lord Salisbury's Nottingham promise.
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