On Monday in the House of Commons the discussion of
the Education Bill was marked by an almost total absence of the odium iheologieum. Clause XXXV. proposes to confer powers on the local authority to provide vacation schools, classes, or means of recreation in schoolhouses in holiday time, and to make such arrangements as may be sanctioned by the Board of Education for attending to the health and physical condition of the children in elementary schools. Under this clause official recognition will be given to the admirable work done by Mrs. Humphry Ward and others, and by the Children's Happy Evenings Association. We yield to none in our desire that the children should come under the civilising influences indicated in the clause, but we trust that means may be found for carrying on the work without increasing the burden on the rates. People must not forget that per as the rates are an engine, not of civilisation, but of the very reverse.
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