The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-04-07 00:00:00

presen

lands of the executive government.
After a few words from Mr. ACLAND, who opposed the

motion,
Lord ASHLEY replied, and withdrew his motion i❑ the be-
lief that from what he had heard it might interfere prejudi-
cially with the exertions making by the government.
The motion was then withdrawn, and the house adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-WEDNESDAY

The Players of Interludes Bill and the Admiralty Lands

were severa
hat the disc

,scion in each case

Liould be taken on going

;talon was presented against the return of Mr. Fitzroy
fn,- the borough of Cambridge, which was referred to
lection.

ittee of
lbury Witr

sees' Indemnity Bill passed through
committee, and the Sudbury Disfranchisement Bill was read
a third time and passed, when the house adjourned at five

7Librrpool (ttanbatt.

FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 7, 1543

The opposition to the education clauses of the pro-
posed factory bill progresses apace, as indeed we anti-
cipated. On Tuesday evening petitions against them
were presented by Mr. Busfield, to the number of 40,
from various parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire;
by Mr. Aldam, M.P. for Leeds, to the number of no
less than 160 (1) ; by some dozen other members, four
or five each; making, in all, some 300 petitions in one
day ! No slight movement this amongst the " minis-
ters and congregations of all denominations ;" and we
only pray that government may have firmness suffi-
cient to withstand such a pelting shower of dissenting
manifestoes.

Amongst these petitions we observe that a consider-
able number profess to emanate from parties calling
themselves " Sunday School Unions," " Catholic Sun-
day Schools," " Teachers of Sunday Schools," and
even from the " scholars" of such schools. Now we
can quite comprehend how some dissenting congrega-
tions, of whom dissenting factory-owners are the lead-
ing personages, can have been brought to petition
against this bill. The fact that a restriction of the
hours of labour, for children under the age of 13,
forms a portion of the measure ; the fact that the hours
devoted to educational purposes must. be an entire
forenoon or afternoon ; and the circumstance, men-
tioned by the factory inspector, by whose report the
necessity for this measure is so convincingly proved,
that " the principal obstacles in the way of education,
for tue children of the factory population, he has
found to arise from the dissenting body ;" furnish to-
gethe* jrufficient to dissipate any feelings of surprise at
the h yiility of these parties to the present bill. We
can c I,:'lprehend, too, by what process of ratiocination
dissar I,:leg ministers, whose attention to the course of
edaza.4 'n in the existing factory schools has been so
exeltsi A fy (9, should view with somewhat of shame,
mingl with dissatisfaction, the adoption of a sys-
tem, wsrthy of the name of education, the superin-
tende*e of which is to be placed in the hands of the
indep.3kient clergy of the Church of England. These
are in*lligible affairs; but what Sunday school unions,
Sund* school teachers, or Sunday scholars, have pro-
perly to do with the matter in hand, we profess we are
wholl— unable to divine !
It i 3 true that, by the bill of Sir James Graham, the
children who attend the factory schools in the week-
days will be required to attend it also on Sundays.
The children of Church of England parents will be re-
(wired to receive Church of England instruction, on

those days, and to attend the established place o
worship. The children of dissenting parents, on the
other hand, will not be required to receive anythirq

beyond scriptural teaching, and will be permitted ti
attend their own places of worship, care being takes
that they do so attend them. 'What earthly objectia

have dissenting Sunday school unions, or teachers, tl
offer to such an arrangement, if the motives whicl
impel them to their duties be in reality to promote th
spread of religious education amongst the rising corn
munity ? They lose, it is true, a few dissenting chil

dren, having the assurance that their. moral and rel
pious training will be properly cared for, and that n

)rts—no unworthy effor

—ot proselytisr

be exercised upon thorn. As a set-off against th.

r own sphere of usefulness must 1

We never

rd tha

dieted witt

,ora of wealth; th

e vastness of ti:

of means bewaile

bscriptions for Sunday-school purposes ur

!easingiy solicited, on the very plea of the insijicienc

to meet the giant extent of the evil

moral and spiritual destitution !