The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1879-09-02 00:00:00

" GODLE3B ' EDUCATION.

At • late muting of the Sheffield School Beard, Mr. Don-
caster celled Use attention of the Used to a report winch
had recently appeared in the Sheffield independent of •
ai noon preached tie the Rio. 11. r'slionn, in S. raul'a
Church, in aid of Charts, mice acbooh He thought some
portion of the rev. gentieuisn'a reninks hue upon the
work of that Baird, and ought not to be allowed to pass
unnoticed. Actor reading an extract (rout the report
referred to, Mr. D.lnC.4llLer said Untee remarks were cal-
culated to prejunive the public mind mainst School Beards
and their work. Mr. Balloon ad"pted in his *cumin two
words which had been used fit quently of Is, ti-riles,
ittlucation"--af applied to the education given at School
Bunt schools, and went on to speak of it.. "degrading
religion in the eyes of the children." He (Mr. Doncaster)
asked whether it was not a tact that 95 per cent. of all the
School Board schools in the coutitry had Use Bible
read in them and religious instruction given, accord-
ing to the capacities, of the children : It was
well known that in Sheffield the Bible was taught
in the Burst school, beside' which they held
theological colmination, amongst the children ;
and be considered the results of thus examinations in the
various schools had been uniformly satisfactory. Ile did
not understand what was meant by" Godless teducatiou."
If they went to the root of it, it seemed to him the Ray.
H. Balloon, and those who thought with low, meant "an
' education without distinct denominational teaching" ;
and if that were.,, he (Mr. Doncaster) confused he was
! not troubled at such " Godless education," nor did be
think the parent, of the children Attending elementary
schools would he troubled. As to Mr. Fallootig remark.
able statement about crime in Birmingham, it was
singularly unfortunate he should have quoted statements
from a London passer no not having lite • contradicted, for
when m lone ago u December last they appeared in the
Pall Mall Gazette, they were officially answered and
contradicted by tie statistics of Major Bend, the chief of
police in Birmingham, and proved to be entirely
erroneous. Mr. 13 ncaster quoted statistics showing that
there wu • larger amount of crime and drunkenness In
Liverpool. Manchester, and Ludo than in Birmingham ;
and comparing the number, per 1,000 of the population, ot
known thieves •nri suuticlime ci.aractenbroughtlstfore the
magistratts in IC7 at Birmingham. Leeds, and Sheffield,
the proportion was 383, 423. and 341 respectively, from
which it would appear that the three towns were much on
an equality both as regarded the vigilance of their police
and the number of thrlr criminal (ileum So much for
the effect of " isodless educatiots" in Birmingham. Mr.
Balloon said in Birmingham education had been conducted
for seven years on secular principle*. He (Mr. Doncaster)
MILS not going to .0 any, king for Or as:stoat the restem
the Birmingham School Board had adopted, bet he wished
it to be fully understood that in the Board Schools of
Birmingham religious instruction was not neglected.
The difference between Birmlngbarn and Sbefileld was
that there religious instruction we. given at a great
sacrifice of time and labour by voluntary teachers, conx.
prising both ministers and Lyman, secular teaching only
being paid for out of the rates, whilst in Sheffield religious
instruction was also paid for. Was it at all probable that
the vicar of Birmingham, Canon Wilkinson, would have
transferred his school to the Birmingham School Board if
he thought the tendency of the action of that Board bad
' been to degrade religion in the eyes of the children! la
Sheffield, at ell events, there bail been no hoetility shown
on the part of the Siltoul Board towards denominational
schools. The Bawd had 1111,d those whools with schol Ira
and the officers if the Board hid given the tame attention
to them as to the Board schools.