The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-21 00:00:00

SECULAR EDUCATION.

THE annual " National School Conference" was
held at Manchester, on Wednesday, as usual, before
the assembling of Parliament. Mr. ALEXANDER
HENRY, who presided, stated, in a brief opening
address, that the meeting was convened entirely for
business purposes, in order to review the educa-
tional progress effected during the past, and proside
new agencies of advancement for the coming, year. On
these heads he stated

" Since our last conference considerable activity has
been manifested beyond our pale in relation to the ques-
tion of education. The Manchester anal Salford education
scheme has been brought before the Parliament and the
country. Lord John Russell has presented an educational
bill to the House of Commons. The National Public
School Association has also prepared a draft bill, and a
committee of the House of Commons has celeeted
voluminous body of evidence on the subject of education.
The Manchester and Salford bill, differing in essential
particulars from the scheme of this association, will again
be presented to Parliament during the ensuing session.
Lord John Russell will again, it is supposed, bring in his
bill, and it is intended to press forward the bill of the
National Public School Association also. These facts are
worthy of your grave consideration, and your advice and
hearty co-operation, with a view tosuccesaful parliamentary
action, is much desired."

The chief speoch delivered during the subsequent
proceedings was that of Mr. COBDEN, in support of
a resolution introduced by Mr. S. Lucas, setting
forth

" the neoessity of providing sound primary instruction for,
every child, that the present means of public instruction are

SATURDAY,

inadequate to this end, and that the necessary hinds for the
purpose should Le raised by local rates; the control of Ina
rates, and the management cd the schools to be sup
po
thereby, being vested iu committees elected for that purpou
the ratepayers."
In commenting upon this resolution Mr. Cobden
controverted the allegation that the scheme of the
conference throw into abeyance the multitudes of
schools and educational establishments [drew),
existing for the service of the lower orders. Nothing
of the sort, he remarked :

" We always contemplated making use of them under
the system we advocate. We say then, if the managers of
any existing school, whether national schools in the ova'
villages of this country, or British and Foreign Schools, or
National Schools in the large towns of the manufacturing
districts, we say to the managers and committees of those
schools, if you are ready to separate your secular from your
religious instruction, if you will only be so reasonable, so
rational, as to say that at certain hours you will give
reading, writing, and arithmetic lessons, and at certain
hours you will give your religious education, we will then
unite to meet you by giving, out of the public rates, as
much as shall be necessary for the whole of your secular
education, on condition that your schoolroom shall he
available to the whole population of the district in which
you are situated, and that you shall be in good faith bound
not to attempt to convert your schoolrooms during the
time of secular teaching to purposes of sectarian proselytism,
(` Hear,' and applause.)"
Mr. Cobden proceeded to enlarge upon the excel-
lences of a strictly secular system of education ; con-
trasting the results of schools where the pupils were
taught political economy and physiology with those
in which they learned the catechism. He declared
that nothing was easier than completely to secularise
the national schools, if only the work were set about
in earnest, and calculated upon various grounds that
among the industrial classes of the country fully 50
per cent. out of their total number were growing up
in the most utter ignorance.
Resolutions were afterwards passed recording the
approval of the conference to this secular system of
education, recommending the additional establish-
ment of industrial schools, and suggesting the
propriety of taking steps for the introduction into
Parliament of a permissive bill at the earliest
possible period of the coming session. The pro.
ceedings lasted several hours, and the conference
did not break up until late in the afternoon.
In the evening a public meeting was held in the
theatre of the Mechanics' Institution. More than 1,000
persons were present, being all that the place could
hold. The proceedings on this occasion were not, as
in the morning, strictly limited to business matters,
and more scope was accordingly given for general
discussion. Mr. Cobden then made another speech,
which was preceded by long addresses from Mr.
Milner Gibson and Mr. Bright. The general tenor
of these orations was to insist upon the soundness of
the three great principles adopted by the Conference
for the development of education, "local rates, local
management, and liberty of conscience."