The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-11 00:00:00

THE EXTENSION OF EDUCATION.-11R. BRITE.S BILL

Acknowledging that the above bill deserves a
full and candid coneideration and that few persons are so
competent as Mr. Bruce to deal with the subject, the
Times contends that scarcely any arguments were alleged
yesterday by the supporters of the bill to show that a
system of rating for educational purposes would lead to
improvement in the quality or the vigour of our educa-
tional machinery. We have had some experience of
bodies elected by ratepayers. Is there any reason to
believe that they would take a large view of their
obligations, and tax the community to the full
extent of the educational requirements of their district
The question now raised is nothing more nor less than
whether we will abandon the voluntary principle of our
present system and substitute a compulsory principle.
Now, if the field were clear, there might be a good deal to
be said on both sides of this question. But it is a point
never to be overlooked that the field is not clear. The
voluntary system is in possession of the ground, and the
Times believes it can be extended among poorer districts
whether in town or country, and that there is no necessity
for entering on an entirely unfamiliar path.

The Doily Nees has no doubt that the lateness of the
period for which the second reading of Mr. Bruce's bill
was fixed and the other business before parliament alone
saved the government from a somewhat damaging defeat.
li ennocarcely be said that the necessity of some new mea-
sures for increasing the means of education was seriously
disputed and the question which occupied the attention
of the house was the but mean., of supplying Etch EcLz,a,
as might be required. One of the peculiarities of Mr.
Bruce's bill is that the existing schools are to be left
under their existing management, so that the denomina-
tional schools in anydistrict will continue denominational,
but, if adopted by the School Committee, they will be
entitled to share in the local rate. But in all such cases,
the school so adopted must admit a conscience clause.
It must be admitted that in dealing with the
proposed bill the government must have felt
considerable embarrassment. Both Lord Stanley and
Sir J. Palcington have declared themselves in
favour of rates, but then no minister could less
afford to be liberal on this subject than the Home
Secretary and the member for the University of Oxfonl.
It is not, on the whole, surprising that the government
should have expressed their determinist hostility to the
introduction of any plan which should in the slightest
degree tend to interfere with that supremacy which the
clergy so dearly prize. The time, however, must come
when this supremacy in schools for the poor must be modi-
fied by the introduction of a conscience clause ; for, as
Mr. Gladstone said, unless this point is conceded, the
denominational system is inevitably doomed.

The Post says the Home Secretary was perhaps justified
in excusing the refusal of the government either to take
charge of the bill or provide a substitute for it, on the plea
that their hands are full of work which they find it impoe.
sible to dispose of. It must not, however, be forgotten
that the government have now passed a bill which will
throw political lower into the hands of large numbers of
individuals hitherto believed to be unfitted for the enjoy-
ment of such a privilege, and it becomes three who have
called these masses into political being to take care that
they be duly qualified for their new phase of existence.
Mr. Hardy admitted that sooner or later the question of
national education must be dealt with on a broad and com-
prehensive basis ; and the Post, for its part, says, the
sooner the better.

In the opinion of the Herald, Mr. Bruce's "crude inno-
vations" are as unconstitutional as they are repulsive to
English feelings, and uncalled for.

Although the bill was talked out of the house, the Star
believes the cause of education in this country has ad-
vanced another step. A scheme—defective, it may be, in
some particulars, but as a whole both comprehensive in its
scope and well digested in its details—has been laid be.
fore parliament, and has been the subject of a debate of
which the friends of popular education have no reason to
be ashamed.