The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-24 00:00:00

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dation of every class-book on moral philosophy. It is
utterly impossible to teach youth their duties to God
and man without having recourse to the revealed will
of God. We grant that it is possible to carry into
operation a system of national education of an ex-
clusively secular character, in which the Bible may
be entirely dispensed with. But that is not the
question. What we maintain is, that it is impractica-
ble to separate .ethiCal from religions instruction. In
our opinion the terms are convertible ; and so they are
in practice. The editor of the British Farmer's Ma-
gazine has, indeed, tacitly acknowledged the correctness
of the preceding remarks. We infer this from the fol-
lowing passage in his last article on the subject under
discussion The precept of the Saviour, 'Do unto
others as ye would they should do unto you,' is the
very essence of Christianity ; it is universally acknow-
ledged ; all men are agreed in it, the Christian and the
Infidel alike; and is it not the sum and substance of
ethics ? Wherefore, then, would religion suffer by
teaching Christ's precept, and that only, as far as mo-
rals are concerned, in public schools ?" Here we have
an unqualified admission that the only ethical or moral
instruction necessary is a precept of Christianity. How
does such a system "exclude religious instruction ?"
We now come to the practical illustration of our
views. The editor of the British Farmer's Magazine
imagines a difficulty which has no existence, when he
states that there can be no system of national educa-
tion devised by man, including religious teaching, that
shall meet universal approbation, or even the approba-
tion of the majority." To meet this supposed diffi-
culty our Opponent suggests a system of ethical in-
struction which, by his own showing, is actually de-
rived from the Bible ! But we have said that the dif-
ficulty which he wishes to overcome is imaginary. We
believe that it is quite practicable to devise a system of
national education which would meet, in the first in-
stance, with the approbation of the majority, and, ulti-
mately, secure universal approbation. A system in ac-
cordance with the Church of England would effectually
fanswer this end. The doctrines of the church, as set
orth in her catechism, her liturgy, her crees, er ar-
ticles, and her homilies, are almost identical
with those
held by the great mass of Dissenters in this country.
In those doctrines the great majority of the youth of
Great Britain, that receive any instruction at all, are,
at the present moment, educated. Those doctrines are
taught to hundreds of thousands of children in
the schools connected with the Church of Eng-
land. They- are also taught to hundreds of thou-
sands in Sabbath and Other schools which are
not connected with the Church. What objection,
therefore, can there exist to the adoption of a sys-
tem of national education which shall include re-
ligious instruction in the doctrines of the Church of
England, leaving out minor points of discipline in the
case qf Dissenters ? We have found no practical ob-
stacle, in our own experience, to such a system. IN'e
have ourselves superintended schools in connection
With the Church, in which a very large proportion of
the scholars in attendance were the children of Dis-
senters. We never heard from the parents of these
any complaints respecting the course of religious in-
struction adopted. We do not believe that such com-
plaints would be preferred by any but Roman Catho-
lics, Socinians, or infidels. Does our opponent mean
to insinuate that the three classes just mentioned con-
stitute a numerical majority of the population of this