The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-17 00:00:00

THE EDUCATION BILL.

Extra Parliamentary operations in connection with the
Education Bill proceed with undiminished vigour. After
the conference of the League's council and delegates on
Wednesday morning, a large public meeting was held at
Exeter Hall in the evening. Mr. George Dixon presided,
and was supported by several M.P.'s The Hon. Auberon
Herbert, M.P., spoke in favour of absolute, as opposed
to permissive, compulsion. He also demanded that the
new national schools should be free. He considered that
when the householder had paid his rates his children
should be allowed to attend school without further
charge. He knew that poverty in this country was
a great crime against society, perhaps one of the
greatest crimes, unless it were to hold heretical opinions
about the land question. That was a greater crime,
but he thought they would allow that, at all events, they
might ask that whatever might be the difficulties a man
might have to struggle through in life his children may be
ensured that good education which shall fit them for the
struggle of life in their turn. Then arose the question—
Are you to have religious teaching in your national
schools? He ventured to say that the State was the
great organisation of the land to attend to our material
wants; and the churches of this country were organisa-
tions to attend to our spiritual wants. When he
found the State anxious to take upon its shoulders
business which did not belong to it, he could not
help remarking that the State had not fulfilled so
very well its own business as to entitle it to take this new
work upon itself. If it would turn its hand towards
making our army a national institution, our universities.
national institutions, and our public schools steps by
which a man might climb, he thought it would be better
occupied. The conscience of one man was as good as that
of another, and if any man could rise and say you were
making him subscribe to an education in which he
did not believe, so long as one man could do
that he said they had an unjust law upon their
statute book, and he called upon the State to remedy it.
—Mr. Walter Morrison, M.P., felt sure that the money
raised from rates could notustly be expended in teaching
dogmatic theology.—Mr. Winterbotham, M.P., spoke in
favour of postponing the Government Bill to another
session unless further amendments were introduced. The
bill, as it stood, would give nothing but denominational
schools. Opponents were to be found who ob-
bected to religion being taught by the State,
ut did not object to its being taught by
the parish. They objected to religion being taught
by grants, but they did not object to its being
taught by rates. The difference was all on the
wrong side. It was said that Parliament was unable
to decide these questions, but the local vestry was able
to decide. The parish should sit it out and fight it anew
every twelve months. He believed that would be the
effect of the bill. The majority of the vestry could
say whether Mahometanism, Judaism, or any form of
Christianity should be taught in the school. The League
objected to that scheme. The only conclusion that seemed
to meet with general acceptance was that a certain num-
ber of sects should agree together and dictate to the rest.
They sought to form a new State religion out of these
sects, and to make that the religion of the whole. He
did not think that this was fair, and he was sorry to see
that some of the Nonconformists held to it. He
should object to having his religion toned and
watered down to whatever the State would pay for. The
conclusion they must ultimately come to was that secular
teaching must be given by the State, and that voluntary
zeal, which has never been wanting, and which was burn-
ing as brightly in England now as it ever was, would
supply the rest.—Mr. Beales spoke in favour of the
League, as did others, the Rev. J. Barham Zincke, chap-
lain to the Queen, protesting against making the minority
pay for the religion of the majority.—Mr. Fawcett, M.P.,
declared that the State Church should shortly be assailed
by those who loved religious equality. Although he
was an unworthy person to raise such a question, he
would give this pledge, that the question of State esta-
blishments shall, before the end of another session, be
raised on the broadest possible issue. No measure of
education could be satisfactory, or worthy of the accep-
tance of the country, which does not guarantee the
education of every child. We had not yet, in this
country, felt the influence of democracy—that was to
diminish, as far as possible, the advantages of birth and
of wealth, so that every man should feel he has a chance
of developing his abilities, and that, if he has intellectual
power, there is no position in this country to which he
may not aspire. He warned the Government, that
although they might by the assistance of Tory votes,
triumph over those who represent the people, that would
be a dearly-bought victory.

Other meetings were held in different places. In the
Tower Hamlets there was a strong gathering in support
of the religious clauses of the Government Bill. Mr.
Octavius E. Coope presided, and said that the
religious difficulty had been much exaggerated. He
had never found in it the East-end schools with
which he was connected, because he had respected the
religious convictions of parents. He was now ready to
adopt the conscience clause, and, although he might make
a wry face at it, to swallow the time-table clause.—Other
speakers followed, but ultimately some members of the
International Workmen's Society interrupted the pro-
ceedings, and violently broke up the gathering.—At
Cambridge the Nonconformists met and passed a resolu-
tion, declaring that no system of education ought to be
established in which religion was to be taught at the
expense of the ratepayers.
The Wesleyan sub-committee appointed to consider the
Government amendments has maintained the objections
formulated by the General Education Committee ap-
pointed by the Wesleyan body. The General Committee,
a short time ago, reported divers defects in the bill, and
the sub-committee declare that these amendments do not
remove those defects. The following are some of the points
on which the Wesleyans are determined to oppose Mr.
Forster's Bill :-1. They desiderate the formation of
school boards in every district immediately on the Act
coming into force. 2. They ask for the exclusion of all de-
nominational formulas, such as creeds and catechisms,
from rate-aided schools. 3. That no person except the
school teacher shall give instruction in religion in
the School Board schools. 4. That in any inquiry
as to educational deficiency to be made under the Bill,
no school shall be considered to give efficient
instruction which does not offer education on con-
ditions fair and equal to all, and accept the
Conscience Clause prescribed by the Bill. 5. That Go-
vernment grants for the building_ of denominational
schools shall be discontinued. 6. That no clergyman
priest, member of any religious order, or minister of
any religious denomination should be appointed
school teacher in any public elementary school
within the meaning of the Act. 7. The wording of
Mr. Forster's amendment, discontinuin? denominational
inspection, was not considered satisfactory, as it
would permit the inspectors, in their private capacity, to
inspect the schools in their peculiar department of deno-
minational religion. 8. That no by-law of any School
Board affecting religious instruction shall have force
unless it receive the sanction of the Education Depart-
ment. 9. That no by-law of the School Boards should
prohibit the reading of the Scriptures or instruction out
of the Scriptures by the school teachers.

Sir Hercules G. R. Robinson, Governor of Cey.
lon, will probably succeed Lord Napier as Governor oi
Madras.

LONDON PAIIPERISM.—In the first week of June
there were 134,096 persons in receipt of parochial relief in
the metropolis, of over 33,212 were in the workhouses,
and 100,884 were out-door paupers. This was an increase
of 4,379 on the numbers in the corresponding period of
last year, but a decrease of 47,000 on the figures at the end
of February.

DESTRUCTION OF A WORSTED MILL.-011 Wed-
nesday morning a fire broke out in Messrs. Fallow and
Shaw's worsted mills, Wakefield, and in about two hours
the whole of the contents were destroyed. The damage
is estimated at £lO,OOO. Several persons narrowly escaped
with their lives, and the adjoining buildings, including
the West Riding prison, were only preserved. by great
exertions.

ONE BOY DROWNED BY A.NOTHER.—An inquest
has been held at Pleasington, near Garstang, on the body
of a lad named John Parring. It appeared that the lad
had been an inmate of Pleasington Reformatory, and had
soiled his trousers. The governor instructed an elder lad
to " duck " him in the pond, and during the " process"
the deceased got out of his depth, and was drowned. The
jury returned a verdict of "Death from misadventure."

THE WESLEYANS IN IRELAND. The annual
religious conference of the Wesleyans in Dublin is ex-
pected to have more than usual interest. It is believed
that one of the subjects discussed will be the position of
the Wesleyan Methodists with reference to Irish national
education. Some years ago the body, which previously
had been opposed to the mixed system of education on
pretty nearly the same grounds as the Episcopal Church
Education Society, placed its schools under the National
Board, and is now as strenuous in supporting the existing
system as are the Presbyterians of Ulster.

THE Loss OF THE EARL OF ELGIN.—The Court
of Inquiry, investigating the circumstances under which
the Earl of Elgin was lost in a collision with anothez
vessel—the Jesmond, in May last, off Staithes, have
decided that although the greater weight of evidence is in
favour of the Jesmond, neither of the ships were entirely
free from blame. The Court is further of opinion that
the masters of neither ship can be held responsible for the
collision, as, in both instances, duly certificated officers
were left in charge of their respective vessels. The Court
further find that everything was done that could be, on
the part of the Jesmond, assisted by a portion of the
crew of the Elgin, to save life after the disaster.—Northern
Daily Express.

THE ST. GOTHARD RAILWAY. Tho Berlin
papers refer to the interpellation of M. Mony with respect
to the St. Gothard Railway, and those who ordinarily
incline to Count Bismarck's policy are eager to shew
that the affair has no political signification whatever. The
North German Gazette, in order to prove that French
susceptibilities need not be aroused in regard to
the projected railway, points to the terms of
the Berne Protocol, which requires that the Swiss Federal
Government should give its conseLt to any transfer of the
St. Gothard Railway, and also states that Count Bis-
marck's speech on this subject in the Reichstag of the
25th of May, has been misrepresented in certain quar-
ters. His exact meaning was that the Confede-
rated Governments were convinced of the necessity of creat-
ing a communication between Germany and Italy, which
would depend entirely on the intermediate neutral country
of Switzerland, and would not be interfered with by any
of the great European Powers. France is anxious that
the great international communication should depend
entirely on the neutral State through which it passes, and
as Prussia is equally desirous to secure the neutrality the
North German Gazette does not think the good understand-
ng between the two countries will be compromised.