ally by the abolition of interests vested but abused, and by the substitution of greater, though perhaps more remote, benefits, such as improved cheap teaching in place of gratuitous inferior instruction. Investigations have been held at various times, and have resulted in a vindication of the Commissioners.

In 1884 a Select Committee of the House of Commons inquired into the working of the Charitable Trust Acts, 1853 to 1869, and found that the Commissioners had exercised their powers with discretion and sound policy, and recommended the abolition of the £50 limit in the Act of 18601.

In 1886 and 1887 there was a similar inquiry into the working of the Endowed Schools Acts, which found that the principles laid down were, on the whole, sound and just, and that the Commissioners had faithfully attempted to carry them out. The Select Committee recommended examination and inspection of the schools, and supported the (Childers) Select Committee of 1884 on Education, Science, and Art (Administration) in desiring a Minister of Education 2. They pointed out the increase in importance of technical and industrial education since the Endowed Schools Acts had been passed, and the need of giving effect to it in schemes.

A Treasury Departmental Committee in 1893 recommended that the Charity Commission should not be placed under a Minister, but that the number of Commissioners should be reduced as soon as possible. In 1894 a Select Committee of the House of Commons approved the past action of the Charity Commission, especially of recent years, but considered reconstitution necessary, and advised that the control of educational endowments should be added to the functions of a Minister of Education. All draft schemes should be invariably (as they were usually) submitted to District and Parish Councils for comment and advice 3. 2 P. P., 1887, ix. p. viii. 3 P P., 1894, xi. p. vii.

1 P. P.,
1884, ix.

p.

xi.

1

In 1892 a detailed return was made to the House of Commons by the Charity Commissioners, containing the income of the Educational Endowments in England only 2, known at the end of 1891, available for secondary education. The total amount, exclusive of 'property of an incalculable value in the form of sites and buildings for schools,' was £697,132 a year. Of 1,262 distinct endowments, 668 were then worked under schemes approved by the Commission. A comparison with the results of the Taunton Commission shows that new foundations and discoveries have nearly doubled the schools and enormously increased the revenues since 1868.

London received a separate Commission under the Duke of Northumberland (1878-80) for the Parochial Charities of the City, and a consequent Act, which added two special members and gave special powers to the Charity Commission. The ordinary powers had been found 'insufficient for the control of charities so ancient, numerous, and obscure as the City Parochial Charities 5,' and the special body did not complete its work until 1892.

In 1894 a Royal Commission was appointed 'to consider what are the best methods of establishing a well-organized system of Secondary Education in England, taking into account existing deficiencies, and having regard to such local sources of revenue from endowment or otherwise as are available or may be made available for this purpose.' The Right Hon. J. Bryce was chairman, and three out of the seventeen members were ladies, the first of their sex ever appointed Royal Commissioners. The Report in nine volumes was presented in August, 1895, and was not unworthy of the importance of the subject.

They reported in favour of the creation of a General Education Department under a responsible Minister of

11892, Paper 99.

2 Exclusive of Monmouthshire.

3 Fortieth Report, 1893, p. 32. E. M. Hance, The Organization of Secondary Education: Liverpool, 1896.

46 & 47 Vict. c. 36.

5 Mitcheson, p. 18.

Education with a permanent secretary, and a consultative Education Council, of which one-third should be appointed by the Crown, one-third by the Universities, and one-third co-opted. Into this were to be absorbed the Charity Commission (as far as educational endowments are concerned), the Science and Art Department, and the existing Education Department'.

There were to be local authorities in every county and every county borough (i.e. in boroughs of more than 50,000), appointed as to a majority by the Councils or existing local authorities, partly by the Education Minister and partly co-opted. These local authorities should be bound to provide sufficient secondary education, and the Central Office should see that the duty is fulfilled. They were to have power to initiate schemes for local endowments and to supervise all local secondary schools.

3

Inspectors of the schools were to be appointed by the local authority and approved by the Central Office, and inspection should be chiefly administrative rather than educational. Examinations were to be regulated by the Central Office, but conducted by university or other competent external bodies selected by the governing bodies".

Departmental grants, so far as they were secondary, and the grants to county and borough councils under the Customs and Excise Act, 1890 10, were to be applied to the new system, while a local rate, not exceeding 2d. in the pound, was recommended ".

12

Schools having their pupils as boarders from a distance were to be classed as non-local, and to be exempt from the power of the local authority 12; registration of teachers was gradually to be adopted 13; professional training was recommended to the consideration of the Universities 14. No systematic grading or classifying of schools was to be imposed, but this was to be left to time 15.

2. THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

i. The Education Department.

Although by the Elementary Education Act of 1870 elementary public schools are defined as those in which ' elementary education is the principal part of the education given,' the Education Code (1890) Act, 1890, dispensed with this condition in Evening Continuation Schools 2, and the Codes of 1890, and more especially of 1893, carried this permission into effect, and encouraged the study of secondary subjects in these schools.

A number of public elementary day schools, receiving grants from the Department, also carry the instruction in their higher classes well into the domain of secondary education, into the region which the Taunton Commissioners proposed to fill by what they called 'secondary schools of the third grade".' In 1894 there were in England (exclusive of London and Monmouthshire) sixty Higher Grade Public Schools giving genuine secondary instruction *.

The grants which foster secondary education in day schools are those given for specific subjects, and are of course payable only for scholars under the age of fourteen, or those who have not passed in the three elementary subjects of the Seventh Standard; in Evening Continuation Schools there is no longer any limit of age, but students earning grants must conform to all existing regulations.

This development of elementary schools was due, in the first instance, to the absence or inferiority of secondary instruction, but it has led in many instances to direct competition with secondary schools, endowed and private, and great jealousy has resulted. The Incorporated Association of Headmasters and the Association of Higher Grade Schools and Schools of Science arrived in the beginning of 1898 at a compromise based on the principle of differentia1 S. 3. 2 Vide p. 37; 53 & 54 Vict. c. 22. 3. Bryce Commission Report, vol. i. pp. 10, 30. 4 Ibid. p. 53.

tion rather than delimitation; and the points of difference are to be 'the aim of the school, and economic and schoolage conditions.'

In the meantime there is no central authority able or ready to enforce the observance of this concordat, while conditions are further complicated by competition between the new foundations of local authorities and existing secondary establishments1. Any scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts, however, must be submitted to the Education Department, and receive its approval, before it is referred to the Privy Council.

2

3

No attempt at any complete enumeration of secondary schools was made by the Commission, but the Education Department has since undertaken a voluntary census of all schools in England (excluding Monmouthshire) between the public elementary schools and the universities and university colleges. In the absence of any recognized classification the report is necessarily general and lacking in definition, but it far surpasses in precision and value any information previously in the possession of the public. However, it must be said at the outset that it contains a large number of small private schools which may not be public elementary schools, but certainly have no claim to be called secondary. No less than 1,423 of the schools in the return had no pupils over the age of fourteen, and there is no means of knowing how many of these were merely preparatory for the 4,786 higher schools. At any rate the mixed schools, the largest proportion of which (65 per cent.) contained less than 31 pupils, also had the largest proportion of non-graduate teachers.

On June 1, 1897, there were 6,209 'Secondary' Schools, of which 1,958 were for boys, 3,173 for girls, and 1,078

1 Cf. Charity Commission, 45th Report, 1898, p. 29.

2 One headmaster of a school preparatory to the Public Schools replied that his school did not give 'secondary' education. Many persons who ought to know better confuse secondary schools with second-grade schools (Taunton, i. 15; Bryce, i. 41).

3 P. P., 1898, C. 8,634, price 11d.