The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-11-29 00:00:00

MR. FORSTER ON THE EDUCATION

ACT.

The Right Hon. W. E. Forster, M.P., made an lin.
portent speech at Liverpool, on Tuesday, on the once-
skin of laying the memorial stone of the first school
building erected by the Liverpool School Board. His
rinnarka involved an elaborate defence of the principles
of the Elementary Education Act, of the way in
which the Act hae been carried out, and of himself as
having directed the way in which it should be carried
out. The princl,le of the Act was, he said, t 3 sup-
ple cent the voluntary system, and not to destroy or
supplant it. When the bill was brought forward, what
was the business of the Government?

Of course there is one thing we could have done. We
could have done nothing. And I am told now somettat.
that we ought to have done nothing, mid that we ought to
have waited until public optiaton demanded an Education
Act We I, It 11l my belief that punlic opinion. in isinnialake
able Mr guage, did at that time dennird an E lucation Act.
It may be sod that we oiuht to have waited till public
Opinion told 1111 precisely what the Act er. to be I am quite
one of tits,' eh I think that legislators and 11 ...meets
must take aecouut of public °pluton, but I am not one of
three who believe that In measures of thM kind those whose
duty ill, to frame, to pass, and to administer the law should,
In Myrna to perform titer dotl, wait lobe told by the male
exactly what that law Li to be There Is rather • twaihrliabie
lane in cometutino with We 01 j lotion that we ought to have
dote nothing. Tis.ae who now may that It would have teen
better three y are ego to ha, noted thaa look the oppo.ife
aide. In s the Brouhm ie.. that itriar. we /meta
Ines to h•v waited I. was the Nielonal rtociety th tt then
Fled woo ,gh to Cart The Nat ou•I 80.1 ty eat" Give
cc time 111,1lt WO all till up all the gaps. Let or ry.t on
work or, and we will undertake that if WM It cell every
p. rt the alum ry ' Whst woe nue reply? "We ..annot
aff Ad to wait. We der, tnt trial to the ga se being ol en
in . We know tie? children are mut ling your nese, aol
that they will Iro Cr pln lei o•amm while yo 1 are
at twit g to rouse the coun ry. We in el hays security."
Went we said at that iline to the Nall mat ,octety
we s nsw lo t• e B rin'tigh am League—that we
•hould have acted cent's.y to our ditty bad we waited.
W., we to all. the prisons •nil the poor!-r s s to
Ii I tiled with sh I ten mall the ix.untry was prep teed to
support any spec a theory ? IVe are to danger econ.i tnlcialiy
from f len competiti m, and we ha. that in, trade will in,
taken from 0111 we do not get a he-ter i ducttlou (or nur
chill, n More than that, those ch-Urea *III In a short
{line became voters aid e•echsrs of our Government. It
eat therelme nec-scary, without a n consent's delay, that we
should It to wok to tr.,' In. system of uational duo .tints.
I must ask my Irl-n 'a of the League this queetion—aupp.i.
we had waited, do they lintel lhat the delay w mid hare
b. en to their advantage? By no menus. Tte deld would
have been hi; In posssmion it tie voluntary idled mana-
gers, who were the practical workers if education. The
lit ger we waited, the mitre powerful they wool I have Mr
come, an I the more &Id mill would have been the uudertak•
tog of • representative aysts,rn.

On the admioistration of the Act, &hint which he said
he had heard no complaint in the House of Commons,
bdr. For.ter said ;

The pi indult s upon which we have administered tie Act
are thews :—First, we have not thought it our duty to hamper
and hinder any voluntary managers, but we have thought
it our duty so insist upon their following the conditions of
the Act which I have described. decently, where school
hoards have hem formed, we have thought that we most
pay respe it, and give this ans,unt ul deference to i.he repro.
*t lAA too sea em: that IVO 011041 toAl •11' lie's, 11'1 er• re
1.i11.. e, o • re!wl •re el I h 4 k•ofe t •,.•il
.r. o • 4:, r .t. .0 t lie to ‘, it 4.
they should do the week and supply the educational di
ithench sot the c matey. While noise, that we have insisted
upon thdr supplying thom deficieucte, and we shall I oaist
up m It. At the mum time, we should have Ono ght that
we were acting contrary to the Act In forcing them to
put up scimois where they consider they are not Irritated.
In like manner I. the country pettabes and in the.gewos
where thee Lave been no *drool boards rennet we
Lavo sit Wo give you the opportnnity provided by
the At of aupp'ylnet the edecattorial deficiency, a ithont •
Sc 00 bard If you prefer to do so, but if you omit to supply
it we then must Imist upon your forming a.school board."
The really clinical., part of the whole Act Is what we are now
ehg ,geri in but lam glad to say, arshough Euglishmen do
not like bang driv,n, that this work of the Act In .riving
them—where they have hot forme i school boards—is being•
carried out moci better than I could have hoped or et period
And, lastly, we have not forgoste n the guts the the as etion
m the Ac which glees power to an a mool district, whether
Vs educational delicimcy was sup died or not, to form •
Pc 1.,01 board. hot we have endeavoured to facilitate the
ac,lon of the mection In two ways—grit, by making the con-
stituency the most popular cmstituency that, I think, exists
tor any porpom and, secondly, by giving them the pro-
le lion of toe Ballot. Well, now, unless we had admide-
term! the Act to the way I hare epoken of, we should
have been break-lig tea provisions. II would have
been Illegal to have done to without fresh legislation,
and I must go further and an, I think It would
be doubtful. I do not know whether I should Lot
say dish 'tourer's, for the Oovernment tr pass such an Act,
to introduce fresh legislation contrary to those principles
without, at any rate, the fullest proof of failure. I moat
here refer to my colleague and old and honoured friend, Mr.
Might—with whom I perhaps no not exactly see alike to the
Matter of education—although I shall not doubt for •
moment that he cares quite ae much about it, perhaps Indeed
more, than I do—on this practical matter, however, he and
I see alike, for he maim has seated that, although perhaps he
may donut one or tweet the pelt:lMO s I have descrieed, he
..114 len that they cannot be changed without sal jmilna
rliven to further proof. Well, be perhaps may expect It at
that proof will mutt In evidence of 111Iure, but Ins, more
Sahgulne Ido not expect (Ratite, judging IMO Olar pr meta
sue... In my own opt ion, these isat three years have
given no as much success lathe operation of the Act as we
could reasonably have hoped for.

Regarding the twtnty fifth section, shout which he
.111iel he we at 1.4 to see why so much was made of
it, Mr. Fonter

•
ide ivt think it was • very big mettar origin try, bat the
Amended Ed.-tiara Act wh ch Ire prime, last year mak,a it
a much smaller is. th ell Debora By that Act piton, last
ye r we have tat n away from the mil oi boards the very
taro, mai .rt"y . I children that were likely to be helped by
the school board-, end handout em ov. r to the gat I WIS.
1.00010 Cu po•e, taki• g she country Orono bout, that thret -
yourrhe, if not a gent many more, of the hlldren that would
hare c me inner the °pension cf tr e t•ehty skb clans.,
will. now come untie • the opereti to of the .w Act, because
they w.• Ibo the children of outdoor tattooer.. Fisher than
the-, I csn en'y its this much, that T, tea member of the
Gover.•mer•t—shd I have no doubt the Government would
most careful y cousider my proposition that may be male
to them to r. move any OA Won that msy be am
not n melt very sat gut .e of en. cese to this mat r,
became I spent days and weeks, I may my, hat year,
to trying what seemed to me all tooesible aollemes ; but,
speokleg for myself, I cars only my I would gladly consider
anything which would be lit. ly to meet the difficulty, pro-
I Tided what it does not take feorn the parent the right to
• choose amYtur petite elementary schools, chice gaga, of the
p s.llotlily ,im clot.. aud t,i• reason why I al here, as some
could think, so er4tlnatel, to this principle Is on two
ground.—first, because I thick It only Fut. Ido not think
that • poor man by remon of his poverty should lose his
right to choose a school when yolk neap& him to send his
children there ; secondly, because I believe compu don
impossible if poi take from him that right.
Mr. Forster declared that he had not, as the Noncon-
formists allege, been animated by • wish to sustain
the Established Church :
I neither tried 0 prop up the State Church nor to destroy
it, aid I must soy this much, that Ole E Incation Act is
the first Act, f believe, which has bent passeg by the
health I arliament eith respect to education, or siThctleg
religious matten—and it is Impossible to daily that it does
affect religious matter. in Which there hie been no men-
tion of the State Church, in which there has been no ple-
b roice g.van to it, and in wide.' it has heap, In hot, on-
Grisly ignared. it I waa a member of the Liberation
Sodh-ty, which I am not, and II I era determined to poll
down the Church as fast as I could, I do not see why
this Act, so farm I hem had anottiln to do with it,
"mold aot have been precisely whet it wee. Our ohj-ct
was to one all the forces for edu -Gen which we found
existing. and when we found the clew, or the pried, or
the dime oting ministers, or filly persons, la)m,n or
sp.rltnal meth r.a.ly to help us to the matter, we were
ready lo take their help.
Speaking for himself, Mr. Forster called forth loud ap-
plause by this declaration '' I will neer r consent my-
sell to be a party to a law which would prevent the
sohoolmatter or the mistress from giving instruction in
religion—to say that we should take hold of this
teacher and that teacher and to say to them they are
not to nay to our children anything at sill that may
affect their sonic, I really cannot understand how we
can our teaching." On the impoesibility and undesimi
ablentu, even if it wore possibis, of reilly separating
religious and secular teaching Mr. Forster spoke very
strongly. He said
- - -

It seems to me that • system of State edneatlon cap be
conducted upon two principles—upon the principle of teach.
Inc to the children everythi,,g which they cau learn within
the time which Is allotted to them, with the power in their
parruta to withdraw lilt= from that kind of teschlrg which
they think Is wrong to receive; ant that le the prmciple of
the Vacation Act; or it tea be cmducted upon the potent,
of teaching no hing but that Upon which el, rYbod7 to agreed,
mid that seems to be the prloc•ple of the League aud my
?etude among the Noneenform sts, to whom I am trying
In reply now as a friend of education. As net •mcatiunat
reformer, it seems to me thet the sound priectple of
limitation would be utterly destructive of any aoaud and
real lICUCItiOO. It Will tot SLOp at retglon—lt yid not stnp
4 instruction In oitechlame, or instruction even in the
Bible. Cared out lo ladle, it mast go frinher—to aver),
thing that &Sects religious maitre. Hitter, would have to
go Elotory is polemical: Ii cannot help l•Ing pternl,al
Ailed ci, advice, exhortation, reproof, during she time
that We matter or mummy her. to deal with tee children,
wood come under that limitation, for how it • master or
mletree• to tell • scholar tiht he must not li, ant at the
SAW time to he obliged th hold his or her tongue upon what
• beer elt• may constter to he the reason why that child
shonld not tell site? That is a thing which, and I am not
now talking merely shout the religions effects, I could never
assent to simply as an educational reformer 1 brier, to
take up that principle of limitation la to Mane the educe

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Ilan whit* yen give to the children, by limiting the pal trY to have to write end put them off, as we have been
amount of knowledge whloh, nadir any circumatoncte, you obliged to do."
ate this So afford. Take the Bible away, and what other
The bode are upstairs ; the book is kept down below,
men.hues you by wthati you can Wing some poesy and eon-
nets beyond the merest mote rtal knowledge to the child of the in which the applications are entered. Having amp
• poor parent? 'Wby, all the phllosopty and all the poetry them both, I have ventured to ask for your interest,
would dteoppew If we took from a large portion of them. hoping that by the good means of none of your readers
the oaths may be transferred front the book to the
at least, the Bible. Tblit principle of limitation would tenth
simply In this that you would give the poorest had of
material education; that you would merely teach them head. of the empty cribs.
te read and write and either, and nothing else. 1 could not
consent to secular system of education ma a legislator,
se a member of the Government or of Pornam•nt.
I feel that It would be wrong for the law thus
to taboo lel den I may my also as a Übend
Wise. I think It is illiberal In that manner to Interfere
with the wish of • large portion, the enormous majority, of
the Dorsett to have the two in ijeota brought together. I
must say thts—ahhouell many lien think me recreant from
the principles hi which I was born-1 hold etiU to the faith
of any oki Quaker lather. to this extent, that I am not one of
firma who thine we ought to draw this line b4ween religion
and other motipott, that semis. sobj -ate must be taught by
laymen, but relLitou must he hooded over to the clogymen
and the priests of all denominations.