The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-12 00:00:00

After a few words from Mr. gLANEY and Mr. CAREW,

Lord J. RUSSELL wished to make some remarks on ac-
count of what had fallen from the Hon. Member for Oxford.
The Hon. Member for Oldham had expressed a hope that
they did not intend to give up the expectation of being able
to establish a general national system of education, and he
(Lord J. Russell) had at once replied that he did not give
up the hope, but that they meant to keep it in view. From
that the Hon. Member for Oxford most strangely concluded
that the scheme which the Government meant to adopt was
that of the Hon. Member for Oldham. There was nothing
in what he said to justify such an interference. When the
scheme of the Hon. Member for Oldham was before the
House, he (Lord J. Russell) stated his objections to it. He
differed from the Hon. Member for Oldham then and now.
He thought there were two essential requisites to be observed
in a general national system of education—one was, that se •
cular education should not'be separated from religious educa-
tion, the other, that no child brouc.fht up at the cost of the
public funds should be compelled to attend to any reli-
gious instruction to which his parents conscientiously ob-
jected. With respect to the differences between the National
Society and the Committee of Privy Council, the latter had
always carried on its correspondence with the society, with
a view to coming to an agreement on those counts of differ-
ence. It was always insisted on by the Committee of Council
that there should be lay members on the committees of
management of the schools, and when the National Society
said that the lay members should be communicants of the
Church of England the Committee of Council agreed to it.
There remained, however, one point of difference—the Com-
mittee of Council were not prepared to afford aid to schools
where the secular instruction was entirely placed under the
direction of clerical persons, so that where the clergy differed
from all the lay members of the committee of management of
a school, and appealed to the bishop, and the bishop should
go with the clergy against the lay members, that decision
should not govern the conduct of the committee. It appeared
to the Committee of Council that such a course was fraught
with injurious consequences, and he (Lord J. Russell), feeling
jealous of any increase of power accruing to the clergy, whe-
ther belonging to the Establishment or any other communion,
entertained a great objection to the proposal of the society
in the matter; and he did not think that the confidence of
the clergy had been lost by that decision. Looking, at least
to the proportion of the funds granted to each communion,
there was no ground to suppose that it had ; for nearly 79
per cent. was granted to the National Society's schools; 9
per cent. to the British and Foreign schools, per cent. to
the W esleyans, and * per cent. to the Roman Catholics.
With respect to the question of the Right Hon. Gentleman
(Mr. Gladstone), it appeared it was proposed that the master
and mistress should be communicants of the Church of Eng-
land, whereas the terms of the union with the National So-
ciety were that the masters and mistresses should be members
of the Church of England, and the Committee of Council
thought it was better to adhere strictly to the terms of the
National Society.
Mr. GLADSTONE, in that case, hoped the decision
would be re- considered.