The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-16 00:00:00

FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE RAILWAY.

A surface man, named Macpherson, while jumping off
a ballast train this morning was knocked down by a,
passenger train near Stirling and killed, He leaves a
wife and three children. Macpherson was a discharged
sf Mier, and had earned the Crimean, China and Indian
medals.

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN PRACTICE.
Mr. Paynter Allen has just made an inquiry, conducted
under the auspices of the Society of Arts, into the exist-
ing state of education in Richmond, Twickenham, Mort-
lake, and neighbourhood. Mr. Allen gave special
attention to the religious difficulty. Some of his remarks
on the actual value of the religious teaching under
the existing system are worth notice. He says that the
present religious instruction is inefficient and bad. In
one of the three large parishes the clergy abstain almost
altogether from visiting the schools in their minis-
terial capacity, religion being left t the teachers,
who would be glad to be relieved from the respon-
sibility. Thereis a similar abstinence in most of the
other parishes. But where the elf tgy really undertake
this task they do so spasmodically, and the teachers are
unanimous in pronouncing their instruction worthless.
Ministers would stand aghast at the opinions expressed
by their subordinates of the mode, as well as of the
value, of their lessons. Their teaching is said to be
mechanical, their exegesis elevated far above the
comprehension of the children ; they do not engage
attention by aptitude in awakening sympathy, and their
catechumens are consequently more often mystified than
instructed or enlightened. As an illustration of the
justice of these charges, an instance may be mentioned, as
stated to me, of a lad in a primary school, who, having
been allowed to take the Sacrament, was overheard by the
head-master to say, in reply to some inquiries by the other
boys in his class relative to the wine, that if he had known
he should have had so little of it he would not have
given himself the trouble he did in preparation.
A curate taking an earnest personal interest in
an evening school frankly says he has never entered
the day schools for the purpose of givinc, instruction.
Another minister, who also leaves religion to the school-
master, says his experience leads to the impression that
the only Bible knowledge with which children are gene-
rally familiar consists of the anecdotes in the life of
Joseph. The simplicity and attractiveness of that narra-
tive have too often recommended it for indiscriminate
reading, and this fact has led gentlemen of high position
in this district, as sincerely anxious as the clergy or any
others can be that religion should not be reelected in
our ~ehools, to ask whether there is no impropriety
in allowing certain passages in the life of the Patriarch to
be read in mixed schools, with boys and girls at the age of
puberty ; and if it is not putting a teacher in a most
awkward and painful position to compel him to be witness
to a curiosity and remarks which he is helpless to repress.
In this connection, too, a reference may bb made to a,
practice, which assuredly would appear out of place were
we not so accustomed to it, of requiring children to be
present and to respond during special services for women
in the church. Nor is the Catechism itself entirely free
from passages upon which a teacher must not venture to
comment. These questions do not appear to be unworthy
the attention of our high ecclesiastical authorities, par-
ticularly as it is said and believed by some that some
things daily repeated very carelessly in schools were
not intended for children's ears at all. There is one
school in the district which has obtrined the reputation
of devoting more than ordinary attention to religioug
knowledge, and inquiries were instituted in every part 01
the parish, and among all classes of employers with the
view of ascertaining what character boys with these
advantages maintained in their situations. Among
tradespeople the complaint was common that no confi-
dence could be placed in them until their fifteenth
or sixteenth year, when the discipline they bad
gradually. learned in previous situations began to tell
upon their conduct. A. well-known physician said the
boys he engaged from this school to carry medicine turned
out very bad, and that in Richmond generally that was
their repute. The newsagent at one of the railway stations
states that the majority of the boys he has had from the
same school have gone wrong; one stole a sovereign
from him. A lady, who was accustomed to select
a boy from the school for her page, lost so many
articles by one after another that she has determined not
again to have a page. From these facts the conclusiOn is
that the formulas of doctrine which constitute the staple
of religious teaching in the primary schools, whatever
their value or the constancy of their repetition, do not,
in point of fact, give any appreciable advantage of
character to boys instructed in them over those who have
been taught to observe the plainer rules of practical
Christianity.