The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-06 00:00:00

Shrewsbury, Archdeacon St. Clair, the Rev. Canon
Harvey, Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, Mr. Hubbard,
M.P., Mr. Walter, M.P., the Rev. R. Burgess, &c.

The committee in their report remarked on the
success which had attended the special efforts which
marked the 50th anniversary of the society, the
result of which had been an addition to its income

for the year, and also a more general eppreciation
of the services which it hail rendered to Church

education. They had aided the work of Eche°
building according to the scale of grants iu force
last year, the number of cases being 156—an in.

_ .
crease en that voted. The proportion of cases in

which no assistance was received from the Com-

mittee of Council on Education was larger than in
the preceding year. Since the last audit the

reasurer had been authorised to pay £4,541

on account of 175 schoolrooms, calculated

to accommodate 19,451 children, and 80
teachers' residences, which bad been com-

pleted. The total number of- schools united
to the society, without including those in union
only with diocesan boards, was now 11,909,
of which 184 had been added during the
past year. The committee were glad to find that
for the present the peeumary arrangements be-

tween the Committee of Council and the training
schools was not to be disturbed. The committee
had continued during the past year to vote to such

of the diocesan boards as had co-operated with the

society a sum of money to meet a like sum set apart
by the board, the joint fund being distributed by
the board towards providing schools with books,

materials, and apparatus• They had also enter-
tained applications for assistance of the same kind
from managers of schools in those dioceses in which
the boards of education had not co-operated with

the society. They had not, however, been able lo
meet all the applications submitted to them. The
usual steady increase of business in the depository
had been maintained, the sales during the past year -
having amounted to upwards of £26,000, being
nearly £2,000 in advance of those of the preceding
year. Specimens of the society's publications, and
of models of articles of school furniture most com-
monly in use, were now exhibited in the educational
department of the International Exhibition. The
local depots continued for the most part to maintain
their efficiency ; and during the past year grants
had been made for establishing depots at Halifax
and Warrington. As regarded the Welsh educa-
tion fund, the committee regretted the reduction
in the contributions—which had amounted only
yearly, on an average of the last three years, to
£1,200, and they regretted it the more as there
had been recently manifested on the part of the
State a disposition to limit the grants hitherto
made for the support of training schools. The
reports of the diocesan boards showed that a
keen interest was felt throughout the country
as to the operation of the revised code, and most of
the boards had memorialised the Committee of. Cou-
ncil against the proposed changes. Diocesan inspec-
tion had been well maintained wherever it had been
set on foot, and there was a steady and increasing
demand for the forms of inspection furnished by the
society. Last year grants had been voted in aid of
the erection of two additional training schools,

which, when completed, would make the number of
diocesan institutions 20-9 for masters, and 11 for
mistresses, exclusive of 3 belonging to the society,
2 in Wales, and 4 others connected with the Church
of England. Those institutions accommodated last
year 979 male, and 860 female pupils. Referring
to the Committee'of Council on Education the com-
mittee regretted they had been compelled during
the past year to remonstrate with the Lord Presi-

dent on several cases in England where a grant in
aid of building a church school had been refused,
because the chance of union with the society, which
wouldbe inconsistent with the "Conscience Clause,"
was proposed to be inserted in the trust deed—the
cases being those of country parishes in which two
schools could scarcely be maintained, and in which
a certain portion of the population was returned as
not belonging to the Church of England. It seemed
just that a grant should, in such cases, be voted pro-
portionate to the number of children in the parish
whose parents desired they should be brought up in
the religious tenets of the Church of England. The
committee thus alluded to the revised code :
" The code, however, after three modifications,
has now been acquiesced in by the House of Commons.
It is matter of satisfaction that the Order of Council
of August 10, 1840, settling the terms on which
inspectors for Church of England schools are to be
nominated and dismissed, and also the instructions
to those inspectors relative to the examination of
Church schools in religious teaching, all reference
to which was omitted in the revised code in its
original shape, are now distinctly recognised as in
force. The committee are persuaded that the clergy
and other managers of Church schools will feel the
importance of this recognition. As to other points
of this revised code, the committee
share in the
objections expressed by some of those members of
the House of Commons who gave an unwilling
assent to its adoption by the house. In particular
they would advert to the large falling off which
they believe will ensue ein th number of pupil.
consequent difficulties which
teachers, and to the
must ensue to the training schools, which have been
built at great cost both to individuals and to the
public, and which have been raised to their present
condition by the encouragement and the grants of
the Privy Council, The committee expect that
further and important alterations will be found
necessary in the revised code, and they trust that
these will be of such a character as to maintain that
system of religious education, which they are con-
vinced is indispensable to the well-being of the
country."
Mr. Hubbard, M.P., the Rev. Edward Monro, of
Leeds, Mr. Walter, M.P., the Rev. R. Gregory, of
Lambeth, and the Rev. Canon Miller, subsequently
addressed the meeting, in moving and seconding
resolutions expressive of the objects of the society,
, and especially pointing out the necessity of watch-
ing the future progress of the revised code. A vote
of thanks to the right rev. chairman terminated the
proceedings.