The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-28 00:00:00

OXFORD, MAY 23.

In a convocation holden this day, it was resolved to affix
the university seal to a petition against the government plan
for public education. The following is a copy of the petition:
" To the Honourable the Commons of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament
assembled,
" The humble Petition of the Chancellors, Masters, and
Scholars of the University of Oxford,
" Showeth,—That your petitioners have seen the ' Papers
on Education,' presented to parliament by her Majesty's
command, and ordered by your honourable house to be
printed on the 12th of February, 1839, and also the ' Extract,'
printed by order of your honourable house, April 17, 1839,
from the minutes of the committee of council appointed to
superintend the application of any sums voted by parliament
for the purpose of promoting public education.'
" That your petitioners, far from being opposed to the
benevolent object contemplated in these papers, ' the exten-
sion of the blessings of sound and religious education,' are
heartily desirous that every member of the community may
share in those blessings ; but they believe, and they express
their belief with unfeigned regret, that this great cause will
be hindered rather than promoted by the methods proposed
in the documents to which they have referred.
" They do not, indeed, conceal from themselves the diffi-
culties opposed, by existing religious differences, to the ex-
tension of public education ; and deeply as they lament that
any of their fellow-subjects should dissent from the doctrine
or discipline of the national church, they cordially subscribe
to the wish expressed by her most gracious majesty, both
that the youth of this kingdom should be religiously brought
up, and that the rights of conscience should be respected.
" Your petitioners, nevertheless, cannot forget that the
established church is the only institution known to the laws
of this country as the authorised channel of public religious
instruction in England and Wales. They have, therefore,
seen, with equal surprise and concern, that in the formation
of a committee for the special purpose of extending, within
this portion of the empire, the blessings of sound and reli-
gious education, not only are laymen exclusively intrusted
with such important duties, but no provision is made that
the committee shall hereafter consist of members of the
church of England. They observe, also, the total absence
of any similar provision in the appointment of rector of
large normal and model schools, although religious education,
general and special, is the declared and principal object of
these establishments ; and, further, they find it expressly
provided, that licensed ministers of other religious persua-
sions shall, under certain circumstances, be authonsed by
the state to take part with ministers of the established
church in the religious instruction of children, brought up
in every variety of religious opinion, and yet assembled for
the purpose of public education in the same school.
" That your petitioners, entertaining other serious objec-
tions to the proposed scheme, forbear to enter into further
details, or to dwell upon the dangerous consequences which,
they-apprehend, would necessarily flow from the extension
of a similar system throughout the kingdom. They have
only adverted to a few particulars, which they believe to be
at open variance with the very principle of an establishment;
incompatible with any system of religious education properly
so called ; and directly calculated , to promote and to per-
petuate the most alarming and even opposite evils—indiffer-
ence to religion instead of love of truth, and never-ending
discord instead of unity and peace.

" Your petitioners, therefore, most humbly, but earnestly,
implore your honourable house to withhold your sanction
from the scheme for public education described in the above-
mentioned minutes of the committee of council ; and not to
countenance any, project for national maintenance of the
established church, and with the preservation of religious
peace and Christian truth.
" And your petitioners will ever pray," &c.

THE WESLEYAN METHODISTS AND THE MINIS-
TERIAL SCHEME OF EDUCATION.
A numerous and highly-respectable meeting of the united
committees, and others, was held on Tuesday, May 21, the
Rev. Thomas Jackson, president of the conference, in the
chair, when the following resolutions were passed unani-
mously :
On the motion of Thomas Allen, Esq., seconded by the Rev.
John Beecham,
" 1. Fhat this meeting, though strongly impressed, in
common with the whole connection of Wesleyan Methodists,
to which they belong, with the desirableness and importance
of extending, as widely as possible, the incalculable benefits
of a truly christian education, has seen with the greatest
regret and alarm a scheme of national education recently laid
before parliament, as approved by the committee of privy
council, and proposed to be carried into effect by a grant of
the public money."
On the motion of Thos. Farmer, Esq., seconded by Humphry
Sandwith, M.D.,
" 2. That, in addition to several objections, which deserve
the most grave and deliberate considerations, this meeting is
of opinion that the said scheme involves a direct violation of
the first principles of our protestant constitution ; inasmuch
as it contemplates the training and employing by the state
of Romish (among other) teachers, and particularly recog-
nises the corrupted Romish translations of the Holy Scrip-
tures as of equal authority with that authorised version,
which has so long obtained and preserved the suffrage and
preference of almost every body of protestant christians
among us, and is now, in fact, the great external link and
badge of English protestant communion."
On the motion of J. S. Elliott, Esq*, seconded by the Rev.
John Scott,
" 3. That such a practical recognition of the Roman. Ca-
tholic versions as the scheme involves, is in the highest degree
objectionable, not only on account of the unfaithful and per-
verted renderings which those versions contain, but also, and
additionally, because certain notes are generally connected
with them, which, in the judgment of all protestants, incul-
cate the most pernicious errors in doctrine and practice."
On the motion of the Rev. Dr. Bunting, seconded by Richard
Matthews, Esq.,
"4. That after much and anxious attention to the subject,
it is the opinion of this meeting, that any attempt to instruct,
in the same school, the children of the poorer classes (whose
parents, in the exercise of their undoubted rights as men and
Britons, belong to various christian denominations), by teach-
ing adapted to every prevailing variety of religious belief or
opinion, will, under the present circumstances of this free
country, be found impracticable ; and even if practicable, by
any conceivable compromise of conscientious principles and
preferences, could only lead to perpetual collision and incon-
venience, and would, in many instances, produce among the
children so incongruously mingled together, a dangerous
spirit of scepticism and unbelief."
On the motion of Thomas Frid, Esq., seconded by the Rev.
William Hatherton :
" 5. That for these and other reasons, this meeting feels it
to be an imperative duty that a petition to the honourable the
House of Commons against any grant of public money for
the prosecution of the scheme in question, should be forth-
with presented ; and most earnestly calls upon the Wesleyan
societies and congregations througout the kingdom, as they
value their protestant principles, and wish to retain, unin-
terrupted and undiminished, those facilities for doing good to
the rising generation of the poor, which by our happy consti-
tution they at present enjoy, to forward such petittons with-
out delay.',
On the motion of W. P. Judd, Esq. seconded by the Rev.
Samuel Jackson :
" 6. That the following form of petition, embodying the
substance of the preceding resolutions, be approved and re-
commended to the adoption of such of our friends as concur
in its sentiment and prayer."
On the motion of the Rev. J. Bowers, seconded by James
Hoby, Esq.:—
" 7. That a sub-committee be now formed for carrying the
above resolutions into effect."
On the motion of the Rev. E. Grindrod, seconded by Mr.
Chapelow :
" 8. That the proceedings of this meeting be advertised in
the Watchman, and such other papers as may be deemed ex-
pedient, and otherwise circulated under the direction of the
sub-committee."
" Signed, on behalf of the meeting,
" Thomas Jackson, President of the Conference."