The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-06 00:00:00

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

The LORD CHANCELLoliha;itigtaken his seat
on the Woolsack, the Order of the Day for the Debate upon
the Resolutions respecting National Education was called
for. It having been read,
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY had had the
honour of presenting numerous' petitions against the
scheme of education proposed by her Majesty's Govern-
ment, in the prayer of which he cordially concurred.
They prayed that their Lordships would avert the evils
which threatened the Church, from the appointment of a
Committee of the Privy Council, to superintend the ap-
' plication of all money voted for the purposes of education.
That concurrence and a sense of his duty, had placed him
in a situation very distressing to himself, viz., in opposi-
tion to her Majesty's Government. He had never
before been in a situation which gave him more
pain or concern, but a sense of what he considered a
oarairourt duty, compelled him to take it. Standing in
the position in which he was placed, charged as he was
with the care of the Church, with the guardianship of the
rising generation, with their moral and religious educa-
tion, he could not help coming forward on the present
Occasion. If he had had any hesitation upon his
own part, he could not have resisted the call that
had been made upon him. lie would not say by
the Clergy, but by all the friends of the Church, not
only so, but by a very numerous body of Dis-
senters. It might be said that the Clergy acted
from interested motives; but could that charge apply to a
body most highly respectable from the number of its mem.
bers—from its piety and its freedom from political bias ? It
was impossible that they could be actuated by any regard
for the Church—it was against that principle called libe-
ral, which they were afraid would sacrifice the real inte-
rests of the people to political considerations that they pe-
titioned. In his opinion, and in that of the friends of the
Church, that principle was one which affected the very
foundations, not of the Church, but, of religion it-
self. Much had been said with regard to the conduct of
the Clergy upon this question. It was said they wished
to retain the peopl -• in ignorance—that they were actuated
by bigotry, and that they opposed this plan on interested
motives. There was no foundation whatever for saying so.
They were the friends of education, and were willing to
go even further than those who reviled them—they were
anxious to add to the moral and classical instruction of the
people the great and high sanction of religion.—( Hear.)
They were accused also of bigotry. If by this was meant
a decided attachment to the Church, and all that was dear
to it, he trusted they would plead guilty to the charge,
for he apprehended that no man in his senses but
would give them credit for the feeling of that kind. It
was stated that they arrogated to themselves the power of
instilling their own doctrines into the minds of the whole
people; they did no such thing. All they wanted was,
that the children of parents belonging to their own flocks
should not be taken out of their hands, but that they
should be their instructors in the high principles of re•
sligion—that they should be taught the same doctrines and
religious faith as their parents professed. Before entering
fully into the question he wished to give a short history of
the education of the poor in this country. At the time of
the Reformation, the ignorance existing in the land was
most astonishing, and efforts were made to put an
end to it, but those efforts were confined to
the teaching and enlightening of the upper classes
and grammar schools, for the purpose of teaching Latin,
was all that was done at that time. It was not till the
close of the 17th century, 1685 he believed was the year,
in which the first charity school was erected by the friends
of the Church. In the beginning of the last century it was
found that there was great need of instruction, when a
society of Churchmen came forward and established those
charity schools in this great metropolis. That. boon vitas
Knowledge,
xll
ti"gi;jsea°Cnc:ll iiesiudlcrdh! schools
ween se7raacbAuenleirdtieedstthiuuylhecdefdadoeteewrisenorpdPan:s:triihiorrnniselge:
brntloc England
nei
etandlualagts)sta:Croni
almost
tfcdhnhi etracahNsi :stpoe thereslaieat
periodsen tS ooi s
present
Omth t Of course
make
Esta-
blished
p centurytt
eha le-
tb the
friendshd want Co fhotuhfrec educationhC.
l
aawoTunf
Their
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La,istlnwoogc
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7seees t.
ehge3
neglected
established,
ntalseeh.schoolsi
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deo
uwwrt cahieal
nai rtet
educatinghot f,
howe uona nfsmdi
tp08(
imputation
1837, had
iaheoownao,nddoip
tolBhtenn7ho,
under
or
reeffounda-
tion. clergy
ua theirnschildren.,
dinanationalhaving
p
m
y
ttani
no
dttsh•
ew
phrici`Vasprinciples
itpntrlooe
professed
esnsfeetxdhpaaet crteeldi
Churchthatgio n
eptrhuwre
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iecnr
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sde
day
oc
act in opposition
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sa members,seovueiriyd
class
would ofoet been communityth
eWaso an, o
worse
eto
sy
system
mexpected
education, tbat they
and
educate children in principles in opposition to their Own ?
Although they confined their instruction to the doctrines
and precepts of their own Church, yet they were not ex-
clusive ; children of every description were admitted into
these schools. But it had been said that they insisted on
having these children taught in the principles of the Estab-
lished Church; and could it be said they were wrong in
so doing? The boon had been thankfully accepted by
many, and might have been conscientiously accepted by all
Dissenters, as nothing but the doctrines of pure Christianity
were taught in those schools. There was nothing
taught in them that could be offensive to any deno-
mination of Christians ; and he co .Id see no reason why
Dissenters should not allow their children to come to such
schools, indeed, many of them did so, and the only corn•
plaint made was some slight exception which was taken at
some of the words of the Catechism. At most of these
schools the children were obliged to attend the public wor-
ship of the Established Church ; but if the parents of the
children chose to take them to other places of worship, per-
mission was granted to them to do so. In one school in
Westminster there were forty Roman Catholic children
attending, and he could not see why they should not do so,
for if ever in our excellent Liturgy there had been found
expressions insulting to the Roman Catholics, they did
not exist now, but had been expunged by the good sense of
those who had reviewed the Liturgy in after times. He
trusted that what he bad said would be sufficient to im-

press their Lordships with the importance of this subject,
in which the State had no right to inferfere, and he trusted
that what he had said would be sufficient to vindicate
the clergy and the friends of the Church from the
charge that they were desirous of keeping the people in
ignorance or of withholding instruction from the children

ofthe Dissenters. From the returns which had been made
it appeared that since 1833 the exertions of the friends of
the Church in the cause of education had exceeded those

of the Dissenters as twenty to one; but it was not, there-
fore to be supposed that the children of Dissenters were
absolutely without education, because many of these child-
ren had been educated in the schools connected with the
Church. But still it could not be denied that there was a
great deficiency even now in the means for providing for
the education of the country. No people were more,
VA are of this deficiency than the members of the Church,
more particularly the members of that Society of which he
had been speaking,and they were labouring to reduce de-
ficiency, and to introduce education still more extensively.
Great exertions had been made by them during the past
and the present year, and be trusted they would prove suc-
cessful. The friends of the Church had come forward in
a manner which did them the greatest credit, and he
trusted that their hopes and expectations would be real-
ize
intended They
d'
to extend haedend devised
aplan of education which
was through the whole Kingdom. It
was proposed to establish diocesian schools, for the put..
pose of training teachers, as the want of properly qualified
teachers had been very seriously felt. He hoped a good
effect would follow from this plan. It was also proposed,
under the superintendence of the Bishops and the Chapters
to establish schools in every district, under the care of the
minister of the parish. This would give the agricultural
population the means of obtaining religious and moral in-
struction, and the superintendence would tend to establish
a uniformity of proceedings throughout these schools, and
he hoped to see the system so successfully established, as
that every clergyman should consider himself as responsible
for the good conduct of his schools, as for the due perfor-
mance of his duties in the Church. It'
to neglect his duties f a clergyman were
to neglect his duties in the Church, he would lose all cha-
racter among his honest brethren, and he hoped the same
hbeen he considered the relation in
to the State the number of its
of its doctrines, which tended to the
to ensure obedience to the laws of
twhhi re-
gardingni
egh‘vt
teuhl
edc
stheauhkroec
ohpl
sls.at co eo
‘di
vf
pmuertsnubi et r
ofs ,
vtihr et u
e, purity
a nd
the State, he thought the Church could not be accused of
arrogating too much to itself, if it looked up to the Go-
vernment for support. Ile thought its claims could hardly
be resisted, and he would say,that the
Government ought
to have so much confidence in the Church as to entrust the
re, and to refrain from in-
etadrufecraitniounvio.ifththite
in peoplete execution
He thought tl;at Where there was a grant of public money
to its e
of its duties.—( Cheers. )
a
the public had a right to kwy that that money had been
properly applied, and the politic: wi,):44 be satisfied if the
Government had the assurance that the schools iyou;4 by
ek'clently conducted as far as secular learning was eon-
, eernad, Leaving the instruction in religion to be conducted
by the Members pf the Church. But this could not be