The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-30 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1870.

IT will be a Thrtunate thing for the Liberal party
if Mr. Forster's bill has rio worse consequence than
deferring the settlement of the education question until
next year. This in itself would be no light misfortune.
The fact that we are in this matter behind most
other nations which are behind us in other points
denoting progress in civilisation, is a serious re-
proach to us. There are indications that this re-
proach will not be removed for some time to
come, that the Government measure may lead to a
disruption of the Liberal party, and an indefinite
postponement of the great work of a thorough and
complete system of national education. The opposi-
tion to Mr. Forster's bill is unfortunately by no
means confined to points of detail. It is directed
against fundamental principles, it is based upon an
inveterate antagonism to that portion of the com-
munity which hitherto has almost alone conducted
the education of the working classes in England. In
England national education has been considered a
religious duty. Therefore, until lately, only those
persons who have acknowledged religious obligations
have undertaken it. Political economy has, however, at
last overtaken religion, and the politician, no less
than the theologian, now admits the duty of the
community to see that every class is educated. No
one could do otherwise than rejoice at the result.
But, unhappily, the politician pure and simple, who
has little respect for religion, seeks to reap where he
has not sown, and to gather where he has not
strawed. He would not only compete with his pre-
decessors on equal terms, but he would exclude them
from the course. It is impossible not to recognise
this fact in looking over the list of amendments
to the Education Bill which have been placed upon
the notice paper of the House of Commons by the
advanced Liberals. Men like Sir Charles Dilke, Mr,
Dixon, and Mr. Hibbert, are unmistakeably Secu-
larists, and their object is not to protect children
from what their parents would consider false religious
teaching, but to forbid raligious teaching altogether. It
is to this end that all their proposals directly or
indirectly tend. This is what they are thinking of,
not only when dealing with the conscience clause, but
also when urging that the year of grace during
which a district may provide itself with a voluntary
school shall be withdrawn, and that the existing
denominational schools shall be made free. Once
deprive the denominational schools of their sub-
scriptions and their school-pence, and they must be
dependent upon the rates, and if dependent upon the
rates, it is hoped that the ratepayers will forbid all
religious instruction because they will not be able to
agree upon any. In other words the whole of the
existing machinery is to be destroyed in order to
satisfy the secularist antipathy to religion. The
large sum derived from the children's pence, the
other large sum derived from the voluntary sub-
scriptions of the parson, the squire, and their friends,
are to be surrendered for this object. Working-class
parents are to have their sense of independence and
self-respect destroyed for this object. For this
object the class which now finds it a heavy burden
to pay for the education of its own children is to be
called upon to pay for the education of the class just
below it. In fact for this object there is to be a
complete revolution.
Will the Secularists succeed ? That depends upon
the course taken by the English Dissenters. Hitherto
many of them have allowed themselves to be tools in
the hands of Secularists. They do not, indeed, go so
far as to say that there shall be no religious teaching,
but fearing that Churchmen will vntinue to keep
the lead in education, and that therefore the more
religious teaching there is the more distinctively
Church it will be, they have determined to reduce
the amount to a minimum. The Bible is to be read
without note or comment, as though that would be
of any benefit to those who heard it. It is easy
enough to test this by examining the children in a
school where the Bible lesson has been badly and
mechanically taught. The answers will shew how
utterly the children have failed to comprehend
even where there has been some sort of ex-
planation. How can we hope for a better
result where there has been no explanation ?
A. conscience clause would meet all real difficulty in
the matter, or at the utmost it might be provided
(as Mr. Jacob Bright proposes) that nu religious
catechism or formulary shall be taught. But this
does not satisfy that class of Dissenters whose dis-
sent is political rather than religious, who grudge
the Church its social status rather than disapprove
of its dogmas. No regard is paid to the fact that
the clergy in acceding to the conscience clause
have made a great concession. They get no thanks
for their liberality in allowing this provision
to be in force in schools which they have built with
the intention of giving Church teaching. It is but
very recently that they have yielded this point,
but there has been no answering spirit of good-will.
Rather, surrender of the point has encouraged those
outside the Church to demand surrender of all,
Henceforth, if the Secularists and the political Dis-
senters can prevail, not only Dissenting, but also
Church children will be denied religious instruc-
tion in schools built by religious men, and which they
certainly would not have built if they had supposed
that any such veto as this would have been placed
upon what they deem a most important part of edu-
cation. To shew the length to which these allies
would go we have only to point to the amendments
whereby efficient schools now supported by voluntary
subscriptions would be converted into rate-sup-
ported schools. Secularists and political Dissenters
would actually prefer to entrust vestries and boards
of guardians with the education of the working
classes than to entrust the clergy and
the gentry. The fault of the latter has
been too much zeal. It is not a fault
which the vestrymen and guardians are likely to
commit. The one weak point of Mr. Forster's bill
was that such nersons should he commissioned with