The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1871-05-30 00:00:00

Ile State says, and wisely says, that
am, fa'r tte own part is concerned the people shall be
derst..l. Do thought they must show it was an at.
nid to legislate for education, in which I, spect bad
lieO'e shown to the •tirit • f religious teaching. It watt,
t .trefore, the duty eti the Clime& to rise to the occa-
sion, aud to take up the wetk which OA in his good
providence seemed to have prepared fey them, Pre.
bably there never was an oecitaoli Ittetts eventful ;
to thon if
ne,v,. , rehcion would be the stronger for
true
their (gents. and when the State distinctly mount*,
It. ellim to reli,tious iii.truction, the Church may well
wept the charge. and show itselfrrady to undertake
the duty. The sound bad bee not n true ; the
hed, without hesitation, been 'omitted ; Gov rn-
°uffie‘ nt was &heady almost overwhelmei with th wcrk
which volnutsry a tfort fail bron upi is it. W
other Alone the clinreli
haill I,
y 51i,14101110, VII till/ tUbi u
This boa u shoe*. not eul) by the • it •Y.• If
but even by the school beards wher, they la, ..p
',demisted. In these a religious basis of e, location hid
in meet ii stance, been decided on. Th.: Mk` of our
on windy afforded touch etc ,ur.ngeitient ; 2,750
weans in that arehdeaceery had, in litt:e mere than a I
• s cued • petit,oa deprecating any alterstien
us
that 1,..t; of the bill which offeced the conscience
claws. The claim was admitted to be a just one, and I
a that they asked and more was fitiellr conceded in i
the Act- And up to this time, neither in any borough
curis sly parish, so far as he was aware, had any
spilitation for • school hoard been made. It was now
viaer.lly understood that the requirements of the Aot
• bs un tif sohnols were made efficient, sufficient,
psi te.itahle. "Sufficiency" was nr.derstsed to mean
oreeneeeletion for one-lath of the population, and
lass good reason to hope that where this was
got already provided, the necessary additions would
we/where be made. Some considerable aid bad been
gjVCU by disinterested indieiduals. Societies bad done
; and the Special Fund, under the Bishop's
leer, amounted, on the 12th April, to £1,340. The
~..darei of " efficiency" bad not yet been defined,
no doubt, it included all the soli, cts taught
p viously ; and the i revision is" suit able" when
pada within • reasonable distance of the home of
tray child who can avail himself of inatruction
within his parents' means without being asked to
ac, t any religious in truction to which he may
The efficiency of • 50e0.4 toilet be made to
fist sith the master or mistress, and this led the
luiescen to training sobeels ; for it Is, he said,
as axiom that good teachers must be first well
taught. lie system of training schools bail brought
into eaistence schools that are now training 2,600
students at a cost of £101,0014 of which 173,000 Is pro-
riled by Parliament, and K 31,000 from other sources.
lo cur owe dio:easi we had • school for mistresses,
which demands our warmest support, and of which
Yrebeedary Ilorrishnd lately written : —Owing to the
lialtre.st -aLTI,II
t ter.' ellSlllPrgiltVglrhsoo6 tlelhasyoungawfoatllefour,
the last two years." As the Committee of Council had
removed all religious sobjecte from the evaminstions, I
moth. r mode of testing its religious knowledge had ,
beau provided. Up to December 720 mistresses had '
been sent out from it. The Archdeacon drew attention
to a Deans whereby considerable relief had been given I
to small schools :—Bef ore a grant could be obtained it I
was nee, sury to have a certificated teacher, but there ,
were sustain exceptions. He enumerated these, and
wrested o hope that many schools ,would be able to
obtain • grant by the aid of assistant teachers. On the
satj. et of lhooesan Inspection he remarked that there
were in any questions connected with that, which would
some before them at some future time, and it was not
improbable that the National Society and the Christian
lise•ledge Society would provide funds for the coat
el religious inspection. With the compulsory atten-
dance he fount no fault ; attendance at schools bad
been their greatest school 'Mau ty, but he suggested
that by the co-operation of the proprietors of the
soil and the tenants with the managers of
schools— the non-employment of children under 10
10 years of age—the aloptiln of the half time system
niployers constituting themselves"truaut officers,"
tie lithculty would vanish. The number of attendauces
sal now raised from 200 to 210, but • remarkable taw-
ny:ie. had been made in favour of the rural districts,
Clete the number of attendances is reduced to 150. Au
alt, INA should be made to secure 150 half-days for
childrcn who have to labour between the ages of 10 and
L... The essmetion of eaddren over 10 who pus • cer-
tain standard of examination was of great import/Awe.
Farmer.' and others to whom the provisions of the set
applied had proved good assistants in whipping up scho-
lars. There was no reason to doubt that the voluntary
support of schools amounting; to £500.000 • year would
cease. in the view of many, no doubt, an equal and
Lair division of the expense ef oducatloo was desirable.
but let us hope a bidher motive would prevail. For
his own part hei was not fearful. Sad indeed as it was
to see the old foundations giving way, yet there were
such signs of earnestness in this work of e legation that
we may venture to take courage and believe that the
Church will, in days to come, not less than in old time,
be the nursing mother of her children.