SIR, Instructions respecting the mode of answering the Questions, Form (A). Committee of Council on Education, Council Office, Whitehall, 184 The replies returned by the promoters of schools to the questions, Form (A), are intended to afford the Committee of Council information, by which they may be enabled to determine the comparative claims of applicants for aid from the Parliamentary grant. They will also form a permanent record of the views and intentions of the founders of each school, at the period when it was established, which may be appealed to at any future time, to secure the property from misappropriation. It is therefore important that the answers to these questions should be carefully prepared, and should be written in a clear and legible hand, and signed by the majority of the school-committee or trustees, at a meeting duly convened for that purpose, and that the date and place of meeting should be attached to the signatures. The trustees and school-committee should have been duly authorized, by the promoters of the proposed school, to act for this purpose, as well as for the general management of the school. A few observations on the mode in which some of the most important questions should be answered, will obviously tend to promote regularity of procedure. 1. In the first question, the name by which the school is to be distinguished should be inserted thus:-St. Peter's, Birmingham, Church of England School-or, Windsor National School-or, St. Andrew's Sessional School-or, Limehouse British Schoolor, Spitalfields Infant School. 4. In describing the tenure of the site, care should be taken to distinguish whether it is freehold, copyhold, or leasehold, and in the latter case to state the term to which the lease extends. As а copyhold site cannot be surrendered to a corporation, my Lords in all cases require its enfranchisement as a condition of their grant, but this enfranchisement may generally be provided for in the deed by which the site is conveyed in trust. pos A leasehold site must be held for a long term of years-99 years have usually been required—and all provisoes for re-entry before the expiration of this term must be qualified so as to enable their Lordships' grant to be repaid before the school is taken session of under those clauses. If the lessor will not consent to such modification of the provisoes, my Lords will require some personal obligation to be entered into to indemnify their Lordships by the promoters of the school or the lessees. Facilities for the conveyance and endowment of sites for schools are provided by the 4 & 5 Vic. c. 38, on certain conditions to "persons seised in fee simple, fee tail, or for life, of and in any manor or lands of freehold, copyhold, or customary tenure, and having the beneficial interest therein, or, in Scotland, being the proprietor in fee simple, or under entail, and in possession for the time being." Also to the Chancellor and Council of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the officers of the Duchy of Cornwall, and to persons under disability, and to the guardian or committee of an infant, and the committee of a lunatic. And further, to any corporation ecclesiastical or lay, whether sole or aggregate, and to any officers, justices of the peace, trustees or commissioners, holding land for public, ecclesiastical, parochial, charitable, or other purposes. Reference should therefore be made to the Act 4 & 5 Vic. c. 38, to ascertain whether any eligible site for the school which you may have in view can be conveyed under the powers of that Act. 5 and 6. Trustees should in all cases be chosen before the replies to the questions are returned, and their names and professions stated. If any alterations be subsequently made, they should be communicated by letter to the Committee of Council. Church of England schools should in all cases be conveyed to one of the corporate bodies created by the 4 & 5 Vic. c. 38, or by the 6 & 7 Vic. c. 37, or to some other corporation or corporations, by whom the legal estate of the school should be held in trust for the purposes declared in the deed. The expense and risk attending the renewal of a trust estate conveyed to individual trustees is thus avoided, and the persons who are to have the management of the school may be determined by a special clause in the deed. The terms of union with the National Society confide the instruction" in the Holy Scriptures, and in the Liturgy and Catechism of the Established Church," " to the superintendence of the parochial clergyman," and provide that "in case any difference should arise between the parochial clergy and the managers of the schools with reference to the rules respecting the religious instruction of the scholars, or any regulation connected therewith, an appeal is to be made to the bishop of the diocese, whose decision is to be final." In preparing the clause relating to the management of a National school, this regulation will be kept in view, and it is desirable to consider what other arrangements are likely to conciliate the confidence and assistance of the most influential landowners and resident laymen, whose contributions to the building have shown their interest in the school, or whose annual subscriptions may be likely to promote its future prosperity. Where the management is confided to the minister alone, it is considered advisable that provision should be made against the contingency of the minister at any future time becoming incapable or unwilling to undertake the management. Where the site is not part of the donor's glebe, it is desirable that a brief and precise statement of the title should be prepared by your solicitor on a separate sheet. If you attempt to prepare this statement without a competent knowledge of the law, you will probably involve yourself in a troublesome correspondence, which might be altogether avoided by a brief and clear account of the title. But a complete and formal abstract is not required by their Lordships' counsel. The questions, from 8 to 26 inclusive, relating to the drainage, nature of the site, and structure of the building, &c., should not be answered without the assistance of the architect who drew the plan and prepared the specifications, or of the builder who is to erect the school-house; and if the arrangements thus described be subsequently altered in any important particular, that alteration should be communicated to the Committee of Council. 27. The plan of the school-house, master's house, and playground for the children should be transmitted with the replies to the questions, Form (A). This plan should be neatly drawn according to scale, and should display the dimensions of every room, and the arrangement of the benches, desks, gallery, and other school apparatus, and the elevation of the school-house. The name of the school should be given at the head of each drawing, and the name of the architect or builder at the foot of the design. 28. The mode of ventilating and warming the school is of such importance to the health of the master and scholars, that it ought to be most carefully considered by the school-committee, and a sketch of the air grates and flues should be included in the sectional drawings. The school-committee will find useful information on this subject in the Minute explanatory of the plans of school-houses.* 29. The plan of the exercise ground, and the position of the gymnastic apparatus, should be included in the plan of the school-house. 30, 31, 32, 33, 34. The replies to these questions should be made with great care, as they are not unfrequently the subject of counter-representations, either on account of their incompleteness or their inaccuracy. 36. In the statement of the probable income of the school, it is desirable rather to transmit the list of subscriptions and donations actually obtained than to estimate their probable amount. 37. In reply to this question, the estimate of the architect or builder, duly signed by him, must be transmitted. 38 and 39. The school-committee should not attempt to reply to these questions until their subscription list contains the greater part of what they hope to derive from local contributions. 40 and 41. Under these heads the receipt or expectation of any loan or grant of money from any society or other source should *See Minutes, 1839-40. be stated; and if this loan or grant be conditional, the conditions must be reported. When the site and title of its owner have been approved by the Committee of Council, their Lordships will require that a draught of the conveyance, or deed of trust, shall be submitted to their counsel for approval. The draught should not in any case be settled without the sanction of the school-committee, duly convened for that purpose, or without the advice of some legal person to whom the preparation of the deed is to be confided. The school-committee may derive useful information for this purpose from an examination of the forms of deeds or conveyance published (in the Svo edition of the Appendix to the Minutes of the Committee of Council, 1845,) for the use of the promoters of the erection of school-houses. Among these Forms are com No. 1. Conveyance of a site or buildings to trustees for a National school. No. 2. Conveyance of a site or buildings to trustees for a school on the plan of the British and Foreign School Society. No. 3. Conveyance of a site or buildings to trustees for a parish school, not being in connexion with the National Society or the British and Foreign School Society. No. 4. Conveyance of a site or buildings to trustees for a Church of England school, not being a parish church nor in connexion with the National or British and Foreign School Society. No. 5. Conveyance of a site or buildings to trustees for a school not being a parish school, nor in connexion with the National or British and Foreign School Society. No. 6. Conveyance of a site of buildings by a spiritual corporation sole, with the consent of the bishop, for a National school. No. 7. Conveyance of a site or buildings by a spiritual corporation sole, with the consent of the bishop, to trustees for a National school. No. 8. Conveyance of a site or buildings by a spiritual corporation sole, with the consent of the bishop, to trustees for a parish school. The Committee of Council have directed these Forms to be printed separately, and are ready to furnish a copy of any one of them to any gentleman preparing to erect a school-house which is to be conveyed to trustees. I have the honour to be, Your obedient servant, J. P. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH. SIR, Committee of Council on Education, IN reference to your application for aid from the Parliamentary grant to defray a portion of the annual expenses incurred for the support of the school at , I am directed by the Committee of Council to transmit to you the enclosed copy of their regulations of the 24th of September. I am to request you to observe that your application for such assistance can only be entertained under special circumstances; and I am to inform you that my Lords will be chiefly disposed to grant such aid in cases in which they receive sufficient evidence of the great deficiency of the means of education in the vicinity of such schools, when they are convinced that the utmost efforts have been made by the inhabitants for their support, and when relief from a temporary embarrassment would probably ensure the permanent prosperity of the school. My Lords are of opinion that schools will be most extensively useful when supported by the exertions of the school-committees and other benevolent individuals by whom they have been founded. The grant of money voted by Parliament was intended to encourage, not to supersede or impair, such local exertions; applications for aid to defray the annual expenses of a school can, therefore, only be admitted in consequence of difficulties of a peculiar character, rendering the case an exception to general rules. I am, therefore, to request you to examine and reply to the enclosed series of questions, when my Lords will proceed to the further consideration of your application. I have the honour to be Your obedient servant. Questions.-Form (B). 1. Whether the school is connected with the National Society, or British and Foreign School Society? 2. What is the tenure on which the site of the school is held? 3. Who are the trustees? 4. State the form in which the object to which the building is devoted is expressed in the trust deed. 5. State the length, breadth, and height of each of the school-rooms, by internal measurement. 6. Is a master's residence attached to the school? 7. Who are the chief promoters of the school? State their names, professions, &c. |