The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-04-16 00:00:00

THE GOVERNMENT EDUCATION HILL.

On Prieto. bight a numerously attended public meet.
lug of the supporters of the National Education Union
and other friendsof the religious education of the people
wan held in it. Jarnees-hall, London. The Earl of
Shaftesbury, KG., occupied the chair, and was sup-
ported by the Duke of NorP•umberland, the Duke of
Norfolk, the Marquis of Salisbury, the Eal of
H arowby, Lord Howard of Glossop. Lord Eustace
Cecil. M.P., Earl Percy, M.P., Lord Sandon, H P.,
Mr. W. H. Smith, M. P., Colonel Akroyd, M P.,
Mr. Bereoford Hope, M.P., Mr. Confine«, M.P., Mr.
Cunliffe Brooks, M.P., M. Augh Birley, P.,
Rev. Dr. 13arty, c.

The Chitharan, who was loudly cheered on rising, said that
were met on that important occasion in this ligh century, in
this age of progress, to a period of civil and religious freedom,
after so many OM fl,ets and dispute, on religious grounds, to
support the cause I f religion in the national education of the
country, and to protest against toe exclusion or discourage-
ment of religious teaching in our schools. They were there
to demand impartial Justice, and to enforce those great
principles of religious liberty f.ir which they had so long and
ardently contended. The necessity for a great measure of
national activation twine on au sides admitted Her Majesty's
Government had brought in a bill which bal.been Committed
to the care of as sble end upright roan--Mr rmater and if he
had been all powsrinl to bathe the measure there would have
been no neind for their gathering In that hall. Brit this was not
54, end then were therefore asked to support those great
principles which the right lion gentleman had enunciated.
It was not for that meeting to consider detail.. Their bur. -
mess was with the great principles involve.lin the question—
whether the children of tide country, under a system
national education, shoat or should not receive the Bible
and religious teaching? (Hear, hear.) Now, the bill brought
forward by the Government was not by any means all they
wished or had • right to demand but lit did net do all
they could desire for religious teaching, at lend it did not
ate, over on the other side and exclude it from one national
schools. The bill left the people to stride *Meth.n they
would hove renal .us teaching or net, 0,1. d the reaptitisibinty
of dechk g meat rest upon local bodes, and not fall
with its full weight upon the national shoulders. Hear)
The "religious eitticulty was not, he believed, felt by
the great mass of the people. The feeling through int
the country was with them. A Inindred amendments
had been proposed, all more or lesa coming to*arls
the proposition they desired to carry, but, all falling
short of the mark. They mutt now mate a very
decided effort to carry their point, and secure the teaching
if the Bible as an essential, and not as an extra. (Hear.)
Religious teaching must be given within school hours.
(liar.) Let this he done, and they would grant as many
conscience clauses and time tables as their wiveraaries could
possibly desire ; to relegate religious teaching to odds
and ends of time would be an outrage upon Vie national
feelings and agrees violation of religions liberty. If their
opp•rnents had their way they would be called upon by public
taxes and 103111 rates to contribute to the foundation of
schools from which the Word of (toil tied all rellgiods teach-
ing would be tr.:hided, lilt to which they were to be cont.
pellet! so ten their children, where the children would
learn that the State had determinist religion to he a se-
condary and by no means necessary part Cl .Im-orlon. The
noble earl concluded an eloquent speech by adjuring those
present, by the honour of the nation and the safety of the
people, to work with heart and soul to secnre that tt,e
children of Great Britain should be nurtured in the faith,
fear, and admonition of the Lord.

Mr. Cowper-Temple, hf.P., proposed the first reso-
lution as follows :
..That In the opinion of this meeting any system of Na-
tional Elementery Elocution which excludes religioUS teach.
lug from schools or discourages it is wholly unsmistactory
and unworthy of national stipport."

Mr. T. Hushes, M.D., Seconded the resolution, which wes
carried unanimously. He mid than be should be appearing
before them under false colours If he did not state that he
was a member of the Education League. Lie J Mied that or.
gaol/tattoo bec Anse it was the first that started In this
country which put on its banner 'National Education '—
compulsory if necessary, rate-supported, and perfectly fair
to all sects and denominations lasher. untry. He ,till stord
to those four principles, and it was because he did so that
he was then before them. It never was a part of the pro-
gramnie ,If that society to exclude religious teaching. That
Imue had been raised since its formation by a very small
minority of that society, composed, no doubt, of re* able
men, who advocated secular teaching, lie believed that the
country would emphatically declare against seeular educa-
tion If they looked at the public schools of this country,
from the highest In the land down to the Ragged Schools,
they would tin,d ln etethent of religious teaching in all.
Nothing tculd 'oe more relacklevous, am Dr. Arnold and
clhelis had shown, than to allow ahoy to separate the idea of
religion from Mu school-work.

The Marquis of Salisbury, who, on rising to propose the I
next resolution, was received with long-continued cheering,
said he had to give the practical commentary to the theoretical
propositions already laid before the meetmg Their duty lay
in earnest action and steady determination to show by prac-
tical resolutions the feelings Which had been enthusiastically
expres•ed lv tttt atainubly. Mr. Hughes had wisely spoken,
an.. with ,hrlstian feeling, upon the folly of our sectarian
differences. There was nothing which could filial! followers
of the Christian religion with deeper melancholy than to see
that, with so much experience of the value of that religion,
they were not clearer to agreement. thit, in *newer to the
reproaches brought against them on account of their sectarian
differences in hindering their combination for the purposes
of education, he would ask them to look at tin. platform.
Ile had listened with admiration to the hearty Protest-
antiain of their noble chairman, which always met with a
warm response from an assembly of Englishmen, and
while those eloquent and burning words were being uttered
he had reflected that there were sitting beside him on
that platform Roman Catholics who, probably, if they
had spoken would have retorted on his Protestantism with
anti-Pr testantism as eloquent and ci burning ; but he had
also reflected that Protestants and Roman Catholic., having
nothing in common except their lore for one Saviour, had
met together on that rdatforin hi furtherance ef a common
cause. When a difference which seemed at times world-wide
shrunk Into insignificance It became necessary to ask the
cause *latch brought them all together. Depend upon it, the
foundations of their oommon faith were not lightly threat-
ened when men, differing so widely, could meet together in
ref...a to the invitation of that association. There was no
difference so wide between Christians as that which separated
Christians and those who proposed that no Christianity
should he taught in schools. They 11111 not altogether like the
Government measure, Alla if they had to frame an educational
polity for themselves it would not probably be the same as
that of the bill now before the Home of C.,mmon.. They
felt, however, that • desire such as had never before
been expressed had arisen for a system of national edu-
cation, and they felt bound to sink every difference which
could by any stretch of language be culled • minor point.
When, however, they had made these concessions there
arose a sect of philosophers—not the Birmingham League—
who said that their consciences were injured If any religions
teaching at all was given to the children in rate supported
schools. Now, he would ask these gentlemen of extinifiltely
delicate conscience to remember that Christians had con-
sciences as well as themselves. The emit mass of the work-
trig people believed that education without religion was not
,to be desired for their children. The philosophers to whom
he referred proposed, however, to take their children
whether they would or no, to send them to school, to work
then, through the hours of the day, cull to exclude from the
education of their nands that one subject upon which their
minds should dwell. If he took his neighbour's horse it,d
rode it for twelve hours a day, it might I.e said that the
owner wee not prevented from riding it afterwards. This
was the whole question at inane between the supporters of
religious education and the Secularists. Religion mutt either
be taught or opposed There was no neutrality in this matter.
( Near, hear j Religions zeal was by far the most powerful
agency In the proinotion of education This might be the
offspring of a detestable superstition. Ile would not cutest
that point, but the fact remained that this religious zeal of
the various Christian denominations had covered the land
with churches and schools, and the question for practical
politicians dealing with human motives was whether they
would have this vast force agalmt them or on their side.
What the Union did was to recognize this craving for
na-
tional education awl yearning for religious instruction. It
. was incontestible that the active force of the opposition to ,
this movement was hostility to religion, partly the reaction of
former controversies, which had produced a feeling of anti- !
religious propagandism. The more influential and distin-
guished Noncomformisti were on the side of the Union ; but
a small section, using their religious organisation for
political end., had consented to plan the part of catspaw iii
this matter. (Cheers and interruption) The crisis was one
of uncommon danger, and one which called upon all Chris-
tians to join together in earnest and long-sustained defence
of the great principles now at stake. (Much cheering.) The
no,b,lchrttreisigmcwliggedpheyatoonvill;i—gned
by
the chairman,
on behalf of the meeting for presentation to Parliament .
" That your petitioner, view with great alarm the at-
tempts now being made to introduce a purely secular system
of elementary education, and to exclude the Bible and all
definite religions teaching from primary schools.
"That your petitioners are satisfied that exclusively secu-
lar teaching Is opposed to the desires and convictions of the
great bulk of the people of this country, wbo are in favour of
Christian teaching for a Chilatisul nation.

" Your petitioners, therefore, pray that your honourable
House will adopt Mose principles of the FAucation Bill
which provides for liberty of religious instruction in all
public schools."

- Mr. C Buxton, M.P , in seconding the resolution, said he
hoped it would be remembered that they were seeking
lib,rty of religious teaching. They did not want to force re-
neons teaching where the parents of the children were
opposed to It. The one thing they sought was that where
the parents desired education to be ase,Mated with religion
the State should not step in to refuse them that hoots. He
was not himself opposed to some of those restrictions as to
the Pine and mousier of religious teaching which might seem
necessary as a fair compromise between contending parties.
It seemed to him very Important that the ministers of reli-
gion should not be driven out of the schools, while there
amid be no doubt that many educational reformers were
bent upon expelling them lie was quite able to sympathize
with those who felt • dislike to the idea of the education of
the people being a work of charity under the patronage of
their superiors, anti he was glad to find the people more de-
Strom than formerly, that the education of their children
should be their own business.

Mr. Thotnas Chambers, M. P., and Mr. Beresford
Hope. M.P., supported the resolution, which was
carried unanimously,