The Express.
London, England, 1865-09-29 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29.

THE leader of the Conservative party in the
House of Commons is grievously to be pitied.
What avails all his inexhaustible filmset+ and leger-
demain? If he attempts to coquette with the wild
Irishman and Mr. POPS lIIINNISSY, his dangerous
flirtations are rudely shattered by a whiff of Lord
Dmix's irrepressible sarcasm. If he preaches
religious toleration, and almost entices one or two
stray dissenting farmers into the Conservative
fold, some yelping puppy or unappeasable bull-
dog frightens him off. It is bad enough to have
to repair the temerities of the RUPERT of debate, but
it is almost worse to have to endure the mischievous
effect of such a speech as that just delivered at Win-
chester by Lord Caattauvoic, under the inspiration
of that ecclesiastical fire-eater, Gsoitax ANTHONY
DENISON. Anyone who has taken the trouble to watch
the budding promise of Lord CA/MANTON knows
that he is a very young nobleman of the strongest
Tractarian views and of the feeblest judgment. But,
unfortunately, he has been permitted for a short
time to hold office, and in this country tenure of
office, however short, gives a man—however young
and however foolish—a certain importance. Arch-
deacon DENISON, with a zeal and shrewdness which
do him credit, has got hold of this youth—has
inoculated him with his own perverse bigotry on the
subject of National Education, and of course dic-
tated to him the speech embodying that bigotry,
which was duly delivered under his preceptor's per-
sonal superintendence at Winchester on Wednesday
afternoon last.

The ostensible object of the meeting was to
advocate the cause of education as represented by

the National Society ; but the real Object was to
denounce the obnoxious Conscience Clause, and
the alleged duplicity of the Committee on Educa-
tion. The meeting wee presided over by Lord
CARNAZVON, and be w•as supported by Sir &U-
-TOAD NOZTHCOTE, Sir WILLIAM HIATHOOTR, one of
the members for the county, and some of the dig-
nitaries of the Cathedral, the Archdeacons
of WINCHMITER. and SURREY, and last,

but not least, the Archdeacon of TAIHITON.
From a High Church point of view the meeting
was certainly " highly influential ;" but in any
other view it was of the smallest possible public
importance. To those who watch with anxiety the
signs of the times, and speculate upon the pros-
pects of a national system of education, the meet-
ing at Winchester is full of promise. But to Mr.
Datum and the Conservative leaders the con-
trast between the doctrines propounded by Lord C It-
NAILVON and those propounded by Sir JOHN
PA/CCM/TON—both colleagues of the Conservative
leader—must be almost painful FAucatlon, next
to Reform, is the subject most likely to attract the
attentift of the coining session. And yet educa-
tion is the subject upon which, it appears, the
Opposition are most conspicuously divided.
It is, of course, easy for any man of influence
to get up at a county meeting and raise a cry
amongst his friends and neighbours of " the
Church in danger," or "Godless education." It
is especially easy to alarm good people on such •
subject as " the Conscience Clause," and to rouse
indignation against the Committee of Council,
simply because so few people know anything
of the matter. But a nobleman in the
position of Lord CARNARVON, and those
who supported him at Winchester, should
rise superior to the tactics of Exeter Hall
or the spaniel' of Fenianism. They should
remember that the education of the people is an
important subject, and before they discuss it
they should carefully inform themselves by study-
ing the facts. What Lord Csansavow's notion
may be as to "the Conscience Clause" we will
not venture to explain. The explanation be
vouchsafed was empty and opaque. Bet whatever
be the terms of that Clause in his conception, it
is most certain that the consequences which he
anticipates can by no possibility follow from
the terms of the Clause as stated by the
Privy Council. Lord CARNARVON said " that
" this Conscience Clause and the changes
" consequent upon it amounted in point of fact to
"an diniinatiou of the religious element from
" teaching." And again, waxing more vehement,
he exclaimed, " Let them not disguise from them-
" selves what the real question was that was in-
" volved in all this." . . . "Were they
"prepared to allow Government to abolish the
" system of religious education as laid down and
" worked for many years, and to establish in lieu
"ofit a wholly different system—a mere colourless
" religious universe/ism which was applicable to
" every sect and distinctive of no deno-
" mination whatever ;" and much more to the
same effect. It is surely a pity that an
enthusiastic young Chum/man should be allowed
to prattle such ingenuous nonsense as this tirade. Of
course the Archdeacon never permitted his pupil to
read the obnoxious Conscience Clause, nor is it
possible that the faithful young man ever reed the
terms of it. If he had he would surely have dis-
covered that the effect of the Conscience Clause
is precisely the reverse of that attributed to it.
It is not enforced except is new building grants,
and in eases where, were it not enforced, the
children of Dissenters would be excluded from de-
riving soy benefit from the Parliamentary grant.