The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-16 00:00:00

Zifig "17'..41 ~r 5
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LON DON WEDNESDAY, _MARCH 16, 1870,

and Mr. Illingworth that we feel the smallest
forbearance. They, unless they believe irt religion,
have absolutely •no rats= &etre, and yet they
are attempting to delay this beneficent and much-
needed national reform simply because they i nagine
that Churchmen may obtain from it more advantage
than themselves. They have every guarantee for
raligious liberty that they can require. The clergy,
after having battled against the Conscience Clause,
have surrendered unanimously, and henceforth the
enforcement of that clause will be the condition of the
annual Government grant, so that even in schools
built by -Churchmen, and supported wholly
by Churchmen, no child will be compelled
to receive religions teaching if its parents object. This,
in itself, is an immense concession; but this is not
all. Mr.,Forster's bill proposes that wherever any
school is established by a school-board, the majority
of the members of that board shall decide if there shall or
shall not he religious teaching, and if they determine
in the affirmative they shall also decide what the
teaching shall be. This propoSal Mr. Mi all does not like
because he believes that in many villages Churchmen'
will be in the majority. But even supposing that

tremendous calamity should occur, what then ? The
child of Dissenting parents is protected by the Con-
science Clause. It is free to go to any Sunday school,
or to receive any religious teaching its parents please,
or none at all. How could the force of "civil

and religious liberty" farther go ? Then, too, if this
great question is to be decided solely by " the lore
of nicely-calculated less and more," let Noncon-
formists remember that if they are in a minority in
the villages they will often be in a majority in the

towns. They must, to use a homely proverb, learn
to take the fat and the lean together.
The strange thing about this controversy is that
the disputants do not see that what is called secular
education is really the most thoroughly denomina-
tional education, and that what is called denomina-

tional education is least open tl the objection of
clericism which the secularists so strongly dislike. If
r2ligion •is to be utterly banished from the school and

left entirely to the ministers of religion we forbid
the children to learn elementary undogmatic teaching
at the hands of a layman—the schoolmaster—and

compel him to learn it from one, who belongs
to the clerical profession, and who will be

sure to teach the maximum of doctrine,
which the childish mind can receive.

Much has been said about the Irish system, and Mr.
Dixon's friends profess to be greatly enamoured of

it, and to dread lest anything done in England should
render it impossible for us to maintain the existing
system in the sister island. If a system be judged

by its fruits, the Irish certainly has not been part

cularly successful in teaching either loyalty, obedi-
ence, or charity. Moreover, the cases of Ireland and

England are widely different. But independently
of that we are by no means prepared to say that the
undenominational schools ought to be maintained in
any part of the country in defiance of the wishes of
the great majority of the people. Certainly Mr.
Dixon and his friends must increase greatly in
numbers before they can persuade Government to

pass a law whereby the Bible shall be the only text
book forbidden to the teacher of our youth,

FUNERAL OF COUNT MONfALEMBERT.

The funeral of the Count de Montalembert took
place to-day in the church of St. Clotilde. The death
of the Count has produced a great sensation amongst
ail classes in Paris. Since Sunday morning the hotel
of the deceased in the Rue du Bac has been thronged
with visi tors calling to bring their sentiments of condo-
lence. Thedeceased leaves a widow and four daughters,
the eldest of whom is a Sister in the Convent of the
Sacre-Cceur. The second, Elizabeth, mirried ten
yoars ago the Count de Meaux, and inhabits the
Chateau of Montbrison. The two others, Mdlles.
Madeleine and_ Th6ritse, resided with their father.
The Count was allied through his wife to the Merode
family.

THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE' BOAT
RACE.

The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race has been
definitely 'fixed for Wednesday, April 6th. The
_
Oxford crew leave Oxford for London this day
week.

THE EASTER MONDAY VOLUNTEER RE

VIEW.

A new site for the forthcoming annual Volunteer
Review has been marked out on tho-Bright,rt Downs,
and in all probability will be accepted. I; is tituate
about four miles from the town, on the n: rth-east of
Newmarket Hill, and is said to posfss many advan-
tag(s not found in those occupied in former years—
viz., Bevendean Valley, 1V hite hawk Valley, and
Ovingdvan. Its distance from the 'owe, I:,.wever, is
a serious drawback. The cornmarviing officers will
visit all three sites on Saturday next. 'lle list
of subscriptions towards defraying the local expenses
connected with the review now amount to nearly
£l,OOO,

IT is rather a large assumption which papers like
the Tall Mall Gazette and the Daily Yews make, that
the Liberals below the gangway, still more that the
13ss than half a hundred of them who belong to the
alucation League, represent the IA hole Liberal party.
This being so, the warning to the Government that
it is dangerous to rely ',upon the votes of the Oppo-
sition, in order to defeat the most thorough-going of
their supporters, is just a little impertinent.
There are Liberals and Liberals, and these who make
the greatest claim to the title, not seldom hive the
least light-to it. There is no inconsiderable section
of them who, if they had been Italians, would have
raved like Garibaldi against "those enemies of the
human race, the priests ;" but who, being sober
Englishmen, content themselves with opposing any
measure which they think will give any power to
the teachers of religion. It is this latent hos-
tility to : the
_clergy of " all denominations "
which has made staunch Nonconformists, like
Mr. Miall and Mr. Illingworth, overcome the
Puritan's love for the Bible, and oppose any sort of
religious teaching in schools. In this opposition
they are joined by men (it would be unfair to men-
tion names) who have an inveterate hostility to any
sort of dogmatic religion; who are, in fact, more or
less secularists in the technical as well as in
the general sense of the word. -We confess that
we have small patience with either of these classes.
But we have less with the first than with the second.
The second do believe that dogmatic historical
religious teaching •is mischievous, and they have,
therefore, a perfect right to prevent such teaching
from being given in schools, which as ratepayers
they may be called upon to support, if only they
think there is any chance of converting the great
mass of their fellow-countrymen to their
opinions. They can hardly believe that there is, and
in the present state of public sentiment and convic-
tion, we hold that they are liable to serious censure
for attempting to hinder- the great national-work of
education in order to give effect to au idea which
not one person in a thousand entertains.
But it is for Nonconformists like Mr. Miall