The new Prime Minister has a heary tak to' perform in the piloting of the Education Bill thrugh the Commons; but there is now no doubt that with the lil of an autumn session the measure wil' be piaed on the statute be-k this year At present Mr. Ba four's efforts are directed to gettin g the most contentious clause trough committee before the adj uroment "Tie abolition of th: school Bourds every here, except in Lov-don, has already been decided upon; ant Mr. Balfour has intimated his intention of introducing a Bill next session to abolish the London School Béard as well, There is of course a party which strongly disapproves of the destruction of the School boards; but after all this is not the most contentious part of the Bill. Man: Liberals—Lord Rosebery among the wu ber—are inclined to welcome the handing over the clu ies of these Boards to committees of county and borough councils. The real fight is over the question of the; appointment of managers of voluntary schools, Mr. McKenna's Amendment.
The religious difficulty which is at the bott-m of this question, is felt most deeply in reg.rd w the ya-ishes—some eight thousand in nuabe—nese of which t ere is only.one se col, and tat - Church School. Me. Balfour insists that of thei etter suite: to the needs of the tine. six suaoszers which each school will have, Then, four shalt bo'*: trast manazers,".app.inied by therownsrs of the: school House. Since thetentireebst of the education of "the riy tores' of the och Cla dogs, But when Inck na_pro: posed ndmeat which in warishes with only Church scho"l<, would have vested the appointment of all the managers in the County and District Councils. the Prime Minister oppose it on the obvious ground that it would defeat the main object of the Bi'l, the maintenance of the den-mins tional system. The In who, as Roman Catholics, nity, and therefore the' measure, in this instance stood up for the rights of the non-of - refusing to vote with nevertheless Mr.
McKenna's ment was rejected by a substantial majority, Mr. Bult-ur has a scheme for meeting the gri-vince of th+ non-conform: ts. It is that diswnting teachers and Muvisters shill be allowed in th-Church schools xt stated times -t" give relious instruction to nonconformist children, on condition tht Church el-rgymen and teachers shall similarly be allowed to teach Church dogma- in what are at resent known as Bowd schools. I doubt, however, if either side will accept this compromise.
The Wesleyans and the Royal Aquarium.
One nonconformist body—the Wesleyans have created a Vig sensation in London this week. They have bought up th" R val Aquarium—subject, shat is, toa ratification of the bargain by the shareholders of the ie'ary company. The price t" be 30,000. This "ill give the share-elders perhaps rather more than the full value of their shares, and since the career of the Royal Aquarium has not been and did not promise to be one of unbroken prosperity, there is little doubt that the sharehol.lers will glidly accep: the price. The money is ut course to come out of the joreat Million Guinea Fund raised by the sleyans to mith the beginning of the twentieth Century; and on tie site of the \quarium is rise a handsome O-tral Hall." Part of th" purchase! site is to be reweld so that the cost of the hall and its site will be ubout a quarter of million. London as a whole ell certainly no greatly reg et the diswppe rance of the Raya YAquuium. Ester ally it was an ugly Duilding oceupyi g one of the gexnde-t sits in ths metropolis overlooking the Abbey and the Houses f- Parl Intended originally as a plice tion, combined with amusement, it soon proved financial fai ure en these lines. For a quetter of a century it has been carried on principally asa huge music-hall and promenade; and it is no ref-c the m"nazement to say that among habituees were a large number of women fa class which need not be specified.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.