When a grammar-school shall have been made into another kind of school under the provisions of this Act, it is still to be considered a grammar-school, and subject to the jurisdiction of the or dinary as heretofore.
In case there shall be in any city, town, or place, any grammar-school or gram mar-schools with insufficient revenues, they may be united, with the consent of the visitor, patron, and governor of every school to be effected thereby. The legal meaning of city and town (township) is sufficiently precise, but " place" has no legal meaning, and the framers of the Act have forgotten to give it one in their 25th section, which treats of the construc tion of terms in that Act.
The court is also empowered (§ 14) to enlarge the powers of those who have " authority by way of visitation or other wise in respect of the discipline of any grammar-school ;" and where no autho rity by way of visitation is vested in any known person, the bishop of the diocese may apply to the Court of Chancery, stating the facts, and the court may, if it so think fit, give the bishop liberty to visit and regulate the said school iu re spect of the discipline, but not otherwise. This provision, for various reasons, will prove completely inoperative.
The Act gives a summary remedy against masters who hold the premises of any grammar-school after dismissal, or after ceasing to be masters. Such mas ters are to be turned out in like manner as is provided in the case of other persons holding over, by the Act of the first and second of Victoria, entitled "An Act to facilitate the Recovery of Possession of Tenements after due Determination of the Tenancy." All applications to the court under this Act may be (not must) made by petition only, and such petitions are to be pre sented, heard, and determined according to the provisions of the 52 Gee. III. e. 101.
The Act saves the rights of the ordi nary. It is also declared not to extend ." to the universities of Oxford or Cam bridge, or to any college or hall within the same, or to the university of London, or any colleges connected therewith, or to the university of Durham, or to the col leges of St. David's or St. Bees, or the grammar-schools of Westminster, Eton, Winchester, Harrow, Charter-House, Rugby, Merchant Tailors', St. Paul's, Christ's Hospital, Birmingham, Man chester, or Macclesfield, or Lowth, or such schools as form part of any cathe dral or collegiate church." But the exemption does not extend to the gram mar-schools of which the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or the colleges and halls within the same, are trustees, though these schools were excepted from the Commissioners' inquiry by the 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 71.
Endowments for Education are pro bably nearly as old as endowments for the support of the church. Before the Reformation there were schools connected with many religious foundations, and there were also many private endowments for education. Perhaps one of the oldest schools of which anything is known is the school of Canterbury. Theodore, who was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury in 668 (according to some authorities), founded a school or college by licence from the pope. This school certainly existed for a long time ; and there is a record of a suit before the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1321, between the rector of the grammar-schools of the city (sup posed to be Theodore's school or its re presentative) and the rector of St. Mar tin's, who kept a school in right of the church. The object of the suit was to limit the rector of St. Martin's in the number of his scholars. This school probably existed till the Reformation, at least this is the time when the present King's school of Canterbury was esta blished by Henry VIII., and probably on the ruins of the old school. Before the Reformation schools were also connected with chantries, and it was the duty of the priest to teach the children grammar and singing. There are still various indica tions of this connection between schools and religious foundations in the fact that some schools are still, or were till lately, kept in the church, or in a building which was part of it. There are many schools still in existence which were founded before the Reformation, but a very great number were founded immediately after :hat event, and one professed object of king Edward VI. in dissolving the chan tries and other religious foundations then existing was for the purpose of establishing grammar-schools, as appears from the re cital of the Act for that purpose (1 Ed. VI. c. 141. [CHANTny.] Though the Act was much abused, the king did found a considerable number of schools, now commonly called King Ed ward's Schools, out of tithes that for merly belonged to religious houses or chantry lands ; and many of these schools, owing to the improved value of their pro perty, are now among the richest founda tions of the kind in England In these, as in many other grammar-schools, a certain number of persons were incorpo rated as trustees and governors, and pro vision was made for a master and usher. At that time the endowments varied in annual value from twenty to thirty and forty pounds per annum.