The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-30 00:00:00

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—Several very influential friends of the Church
ave thought that the publication of the enclosed cor-
respondence in your widely circulated journal would be
advantageous to its interests, and acceptable to the
great body of its members.
If your opinion should coincide with theirs, you are
quite welcome to make what use of it you please, my-
self only regretting that the great point now at issue
between her Majesty's Government and the friends of
the Church of England has not had a better advocate,
in this particular case, than the humble individual who
is now addressing you.
It will be proper to inform you, that this correspond..
ence arose out of an applica•ion made on my part to the
National Society for a grant of money towards building
a school-room in this town for the use of the children
of the poor. The application was favourably received,
and a minute was passed to the Treasury, the usual
practice, for 781. Before, however, the time came for
the payment of the grant, the Committee of Council on
Education thought fit to pass a resolution, that in fu-
ture no grants of the public money should be made for
such purposes without the parties receiving the same
first subscribing to the subjoined resolution. An offer
of the 781. upon these terms was made to me, and re-
plied to in letter No. I ; hence tha correspondence.
I am, Sir, yours,
HENRY T. DOWLER.
The Vicarage, Aldeburgh, Oct. 05.
Resolution referred to above, marked A :—" The
right of inspection will be required by the Committee in
all cases. Inspectors, authorized by her Majesty in
Council, will be appointed from time to time to visit
schools, to be henceforth aided by public money. The
inspectors will not interfere with the religious instruc-
tion, or discipline, or management, of the school, it being
their object to .collect facts and information, and to re-
port the result of their inspections to the Committee of
Council." •

(No. I.)
The Vicarage, Aldeburgh, Oct, 8,1839.
Sir—l have the honour to acknowledge the favour of
your letter of September, accompanying the offer of a
grant (under conditions) of 781. from the Committee of
Council on Education, towards building a school-room
in this town for the use of, the children of the poor. -
After mature consideration, much as the amount
stated would be acceptable under ordinary circumstances,
I feel it my duty respectfully to decline accepting, the
grant, coupled with the condition on which it is offered.
'My reasons for so doing are as follow !
That, being a clergyman of the Church of England, I
feel my self responsible for the education of the poor com-
mitted to my charge being conformable to the faith and
practice of the established religion of the country.
That in consequence I should considi.r myself highly
reprehensible were Ito sanction, in any way, the interfe-
rence of others, not recognized or sanctioned by the
rulers of that Church, with the education of those
over whom lam placed as their " spiritual pastor and
master."

That the condition upon which the grant is offered
being such as to authorize the interference on the part
of the Committee of Council with the management of
the school, strikes directly at the root of this principle,
which in my opinion should influence the conduct of the
clergy of the Established Church; because, the right
of this interference being once recognized and acted
upon, there is no guarantee but that at some future
period it may be converted into a most powerful weapon
for inflicting deep and deadly injury on the Church, and
through the Church on Protestantism itself.
Upon these grounds, with much regret, I beg re-
spectfully to decline the acceptance of the grant,
I have the honour to be, Sir, your faithful servant,
Harry Chester,„Esq. HENRY T. DOWLER.

Committee. of Council on Education, Council-office,
Whitehall, Oct. 14, 1839.
• Rev. Sir,—l am directed by the Lordsof the Com-
mittee of Council on Education, to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of your letter of the Bth of October, 1839.
If your letter had simply declined the offer of the
grant communicated to you in Mr. Chester's letter of
the 26th of September, it would be no part of my duty
to do more than acquaint you that your letter would be
laid before the Committee of Council ; but the reasons
which you assign for declining the grant appear to be
founded on a misapprehension of the conditions upon
which it is offered ; and therefore I am instructed to
enter into the following explanation.
Mr. Chester's letter of the 26th ult. conveyed to you
their Lordships' offer of a grant upon certain conditions
which were contained in a certificate, of which I now
enclose a t additional copy. If you accept the grant
upon these conditions their LordAips are unable to see
that they will ultimately have the power to impose any
Further conditions upon )ou or upon the school, in re-
spect of the present grant. •
It is the intention of their Lordships that one or
more inspectors should be appOinted specially to visit
Church of England.,§cbgols, that no person not being a
member of the Chuich of Ergland should be appointed
to discharge this important duty ; and it is further the
wish and intention of their Lordshipsio select in pre-
ference, other qualifications betnt-equal, clergymen of
the Church of England to ihspot schools connected
with the Church. With respect to the management and
discipline of the schools, the inspectors will be in-
structed to examine and report, but not to interfere or
to regulate.
The Lords of the Committee are anxious to afford to
the promoters and managers of all school: the fullest
possible assurance that in accepting the public money,
coupled with the condition of inspection, they will not
in any degree endanger the religious principles upon
which the schools are established. The regulation
marked A expressly excludes all interference, and their
Lordships are unable to perceive that the occasional
visits of the inspector, with powers defined and re-
stricted within the limits of a mutual agreement, can in
any way diminish, add to, or injuriously affect the re-
sponsibility of a parochial minister or the influence of
the authorities of the Church.
I have the honour to be, Rev. Sir, your obedient
servant, • , • J. P. KAY.
The Rev. H. T. Dowler. •-; ' • ' •

The Vicarage, Aldeburgh, Oct. 16, 1839.
Sir—d have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 14th inst.

The perusal of it does not at all remove the objec-
tions which influenced me at first in declining the offer of
a grant of the public money on the part of the Commit-
tee on Education towards the fund for building a school-
room in this town for the use of the children of the
poor.

The idea of claiming a right of inspection, without at
the same time possessing the power of remedying any
supposed defect in the discipline of the schools which
that inspection might bring to light, appears
to me an anomaly which it is difficult to under-
stand, and that it should be insi.Fted on without
some important ultimate aim and object appears
equally strange and unreasonable, for that this inspec-
tion is not merely intended to furnish data for statisti-
cal purposes, seems to be contradicted by the fact that
the National Society has offered, as I understand, to
supply the Lords of her Majesty's Treasury with the
fullest information upon every-point which their Lordships
may require, and which offer, I am told, has not been
accepted. Besides, the very terms of the condition it-
self upon which the grant is offered would appear to
warrant any interference with the " instruction, or dis-
cipline, or management" of the school that was not strictly
" religious," since it is plain that these words refer
clearly to their antecedent " religious," and to that
alone, leaving therefore, all other " instruction, or dis-
cipline, or management," entirely at the control of the
Committee of Council on Education. Now, if this be
so, it is of course needless that I should point out
the discord and the danger that would arise from „this
interference being exercised by those who might
not be friendly to the interests of the Esta-
blished Church. It is no answer, I think, to this to say,
that the Committee intend to appoint as inspectors mem-
bers or clergymen of the Church of England only ; for
it is not so much what we might apprehend from the
measures adopted by the present Committee, but where
is the guarantee, I would ask, that some future Com-
mittee may not be composed of men who shall not only
be unfriendly to, or regardless of, the welfare of the
Church of England, but men who may be enemies of
that Church, nay, men who might conscientiously deem
it their duty, and think that they did God service by so
acting', if they could trample that Church under foot
altogether and set up their own upon its ruins t.
It is to avoid the possibility of such a contingency as
this that the conduct of the clergy should, I think, be
directed under the present trying emergency, and it is
with this impr'ssion that I feel it again my duty respect-
fully to decline the acceptance of the grant, shackled as
it is with a condition to which I cannot conscientiously,
assent.—l have the, honour to Le, Sir, your faithful

servant,
J. Y. Kay, M.D.

HENRY T. DOWLER.

CORONER'S INQUEST.—FATAL ACCIDENT
ON THE_ RIVER. LEA.—Yesterday morning an inquest
was held before Mr. Baker, at the Jolly Anglers,
Lea-bridge, on the body of Thomas Austin, a fine
youn:4 man, 2l years of age, who lost his life by the
upsetting of a boat. Henry Cann stated that he and
the deceased, who was a tailor residing in Bermond-
sey, were in a small boat fishing in the river, nearly
opposite to Mr. Lee's brick fields. The deceased, who
was rowing, was about to transfbr the oars to him,
when one slipped into the water, and they both made
tahegrasp towards where it floated, and thus sunk
m
which
immediately
of the boat at that side under water,
lyturned over, and immersed
them in the water.ediat e
The
y clung to the
boat some time,
which kept turninm
overthe
shore, ve r y rapidly, and at length
witness swam towards
He and those iii the boat
eb
de f. ot ro ew he er d
sr e
wha c he er de
it was picked up by a boatwhich came to his assist-
ance.the deceased was struggling
, a half a
e thenh procured, and
ur bad elapsed. I
reached him he sank. Dra inge thewe r water, but before they
the body brought
u 9
Verdict—" Accidentpallyfter drowaed."n