The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-10 00:00:00

SCRIPTURAL EDUCATION

A PARALLEL CASE TO THE EDUCATION QUESTION IN THE

LIVEIWOOL TOWN COUNCIL

We have been repeatedly told, by the opponents of the
tem of education in the corporation schools, that

present

_a appeal to a court of law would compel the Education
Committee to provide a system of education containing just
that quantity or that lack of religious instruction which
might square with the religious, or the non-religious, pre-
judices of all classes of the community,—by which Maho-
medan and Pagan, Jew and Mormonite, Atheist and
Christian might lovingly imbibe learnin:4 and morality to-
gether, and be taught to worship their various deities by the
same teachers, and under the same roof. A case, however.
has just been tried in a superior court which will test some-
what severely the doctrines of the philosophers by whom
this version of the law upon such matters has been put forth.
The case, or rather the cases, to which we refer were those
of " The'Attorney-General v. Cullur»," and "The sane v.
Le Grice," and related to the disposal of a surplus fund,
arising from some charities in Bury St. Edmunds, to the pur-
poses of education. The circumstances were stated briefly
to be the following :

" In 1547, the parishioners agreed amongst themselves to
sell the church plate, weighing upwards of forty stone, and
bought with the money arising from the sale a large portion
of land belonging to the crown. A small portion of the in-
come arising from that estate, which amounts at the present
day to £9OO per annum, they appropriated to the repairs of
the church, and the remainder to the support of the poor. In
1833, the information was filed by the Attorney-General at
the relation of certain inhabitants of Bury : and, in 1836, it
was referred to the Master to inquire and ascertain, amongst
other things, the amount of the property, and to approve of
a scheme for the future management of the estates and ap-
plication of the income. The Master had found, amongst
other things, that it would be proper to build and support
three schools in Bury out of the surplus income, namely, a
commercial school, for the instruction of 150 boys; a poor
boys' school, for the instruction of 300 boys; and a poor
girls' school, for the instruction of 150 girls. The Master's
report left it to the trustees to appoint masters and mistresses,
without stating of what religious persuasion they should be ;
and went on to provide, that a sufficient and convenient por-
tion of the school-monies should be set apart daily for read-
ing the Scripture lessons prepared for the use of the Irish
National Schools, and the authorised version of the Scrip-
tures, or such part thereof as the trustees should think pro-
per ; and that no other religious instruction should be intro-
duced into the schools. To this portion of the scheme, the
defendants, who were some of the trustees, objected, and pro-
posed, that the masters and mistresses should be members of
the Church of England, and should give general religious and
moral instruction to all the scholars in such books as the go-
vernors should select, and on Sunday should give religious
instruction according to the doctrines of the Church of Eng-
land, to those children whose parents did not object to their
receiving the same.
We have here then—setting aside the difference of the
source from which the funds to be expended are derived—a
parallel case to that of the Liverpool corporation. It is
agreed on all hands in the St. Edmunds case, that the fund
and the education to be provided by it is intended for the
benefit of all the inhabitants of the parish; and the widest
application contended for by the opponents of the present
system has never gone beyond this.

The objection, too, urged against the adoption of a scrip-
tural system, was precisely that of .the liberal party in this
town, for it was argued, on the behalf of the Dissenters of
Bury St. Edmunds, that as the education in question was to
be provided " from funds, to which the children of Dissenters
are equally entitled with those of members of the church of
England, unless the former are to be permitted to participate
in the advantage of education thus to be provided, they can-
not but feel that they have just cause of complaint. If it be
directed, that the schoolmasters and mistresses should be
members of the Church of England, the schools will be im-
mediately impressed with the character of Church of England
schools, to which conscientious Dissenters will not send
their children. All that is now asked is, that no such direc-
tion shall be made—not that it shall be directed that the
master shall be a Dissenter."

In addition to this general plea it was urged also that the
funds having originally derived from the Roman Catholic
church, ought, in part at least, to be devoted to the education
of children in the faith of that church, in reply to which it was
well and truly maintained that the donors of such funds
were members of the Catholic church, though an erring
branch of that church ; and that, as the Church of England
is that Catholic church purified by the reformation, but still
the ancient Catholic church, the application of the funds for
the benefit of her members will be, in fact, to apply them for
the benefit of persons professing the same faith as the do-
nors." And with respect to dissenters it was equally well
agreed that " It cannot be said that dissenters, as such, are
entitled to the fund ; for, at the time of the donations, which
were of the periods of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth, no
dissent was allowed ; and no one could be what is now under-
stood by the term,' dissenter.' Under these circumstances
we contend, that a direction should be made, that the masters
of the schools should not only be members of the Church of
England, but also clergymen of that church."
The following- judgment was then delivered by Sir
Knight Bruce, V.C. :.—lf there be any education, it must
clearly be accompanied by instruction in religion, for
without religion education would be a by-word and a mere
mockery. If there be education, and therefore instruction
in religion, what possible standard can the court have, or with
propriety adopt, other than the established religion of the
country ? Suppose the schoolmaster to be a conscientious
Anabaptist, what then? Is there to be no exposition of the
Scriptures ? If there were to be, then the parties must look
out for some gentleman professing all the tolerated religions
in the country. A master, not believing in the doctrines of
the Trinity, may be called on to interpret such portions of
the Scripture as relate to that doctrine, and he may do that
which is unfortunately but too general with regard to the
Bible, namely, skip those parts which present the difficulty.
I can very well understand the argument, that no part of the
funds of the charity ought to be applied to the purposes of
education, that is perfectly intelligible; but it would be worse
than mockery to say, that there should be education without
religious instruction. if it be held, that religious instruc-
tion is to be given, the court can see no guide, no standard,
by which it can be governed, but by the Established Church.
If any other were adopted, the varieties of religions taught
would be as infinite as the changes of dissent are perpetual.
The scheme, in my judgment, does not provide for religious
The defect is, not that it does not provide for
religious instruction according to the doctrines and practice
of the Church of England ; but that it does not provide at
all for what, I can consider, religious instruction. If educa-
tion, of course I mean education including religious instruc-
tion, is to be provided for, I apprehend it must be according
to the doctrines and principles of the Church of England. 1
know notother standard or guide to which the court can re-
sort. Dissenting as Ido from the present scheme, so far as
it relates to the purposes of education, I must send that part
back to the master, for the purpose of his reviewing his re-
port, unless some other course can be hereafter suggested.
If education he part of the scheme, it is in my judgment
clear, that whatever may be the particular course of instruc-
tion, or of exemption, if any, as to any part of the instruc-
tion, the masters and mistresses must be members of the
Church of England. I cannot think it at present necessary
to say, that either of the masters should be aclergyman ; but
certainly all of them should be members of the Church of
England, and no other course of religious instruction should
be adopted than that which is in conformity with that church.
I make these observations, upon the hypothesis, that it may
ultimately be thought right that a provision for education
should form part of the scheme, a matter upon which I do
not mean to bind myself by any opinion at present, but re-
serve for future consideration. 1 shall, therefore, refer it
back to the master to review his report, and to consider whe-
ther, having regard to the nature of the charity, and to the
present state and condition of the town of Bury, it is fit and
proper that any provision should be made for education ; and
if the master shall be of opinion in the affirmative, then that
it shall be declared that there is to be no master, mistress, or
teacher appointed, who is not a member of the Church of
England ; and that no other course of religious instruction
shall be adopted, except in conformity with that church.
The master, upon this, will send back a scheme, either in-
cluding or not including education. If he include it, be must
include declarations, one affirmative and one negative. By
" affirmative," I mean, that every master, mistress, and
teacher shall be a member of the Church of England ; by
" negative," that no other course of religious instructionshall be adopted than in conformity with that church. If
the master find in the negative, as to a provision being made
for education, then he will suggest some other scheme for
the employment of the fund, which is now proposed to be
applied to the building of the schools. I would willingly
have disposed of the question without sending it back to the
master if I could have done so ; but as I see there arc views
which have possibly not been brought with sufficient clear-
ness and fullness before the master, I cannot take upon
myself to do so.
March 24.—0 n this day, Cooper informed the court, that
all parties had agreed to modify the scheme as to education
as follows :—That the masters and mistresses of the schools
should be members of the Church of England ; and that,
during one hour at least of each school day, the master
should give religious instruction to all the scholars ; such re-
ligious instruction to be confined to the reading and explana-
tion of the Scriptures; and on every Lord's day only he
should give instruction in the liturgy. catechism, and articles
of the Church of England, to such of the boys whose parents
are in communion with that church ; and that all the scholars
should be required to repair twice every Lord's day to
church. Provided, nevertheless, that any two of the trus-
tees, by a note in writing, might excuse from attendance at
church any of the scholars who were children of parents not
in communion with the Church of England.
Sir Knight theß scheme,e. —Had
as
paasrtiite srenlaottesagreed, lca must
have referred
back to the master. I wish it to be distinctly understood,
have the
er
that the grounds on which I proceeded, were not
a int the° n:aery-,
understanding
quence of my entertaining any preference for the Established
Church, but from the absolute necessity of the case. I
only
sanction this scheme on the clear
that all parties before the court agree to it in its present mo-
dified shape. It is clearly more beneficial to the
members
the Church of England than to those who are tso The
of
result of the scheme will therefore be, that alllotlie(teachers
must be members of the Church of England; by wlc'"ehrl
mean that religion cannot be taught without interpretation.
The court is bound to state some standard of interpretations
and there would be insurmountable difficulties in stating any
other rule of interpretation than that which accords with the
doctrines oftbe Established Church.

instruction

TRUE BENEFICENCE.—a gentleman of the name of Slade,
an eminent and opulent merchant, a native of the town of
Poole, has undertaken to build at his own expense, five new
churches in the colony of Newfoundland. .

-----
CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE.—An old man named Don?:11i:
now upwards of 80 years of age, and resident at Q"83.-ti'ojn' ,
Falmouth, has actually slept every night, without e?lceP
since his birth, in the same house.—Cornwall Gazelle.
.i
now
THE BRITISH QUEEN.—This splendid steam -;11; go,uth-
the property of the Belgian Government, arribve Capt. Keane.
arnpton Water, on Thursday, commanded
,yand the officers
The crew consists of nearly one hundred raen
halo from Antwerp
are all Englishmen. She is to go
to New York, and back, calling at Sort; from Antwerp, and.
oil board nearly one hundred passeeungcoe
h she sailed, on Satur-
retpton. She had
received more at Southampton. paw
hence
for New York. old and experienced
A small sailing boat, containing
and three men servants,
an
boatman, of the name of __Stevens,i ngs, was upset in a sudden
belonging to families at lls,
squall, about a mile the shore off St. Leonard's on
all on board perished.—Trig/!tortperished.—Trig/!tortWednesday mile from
when

i7otrodN:rrotros 1 ehye
aHdalhl
sLraertgciansi
Herald.
early
10th, •
the Duke of Lancaster a yeomanry cavalry, which corps
LoridnFthraen:nissuEing
permanent
germtoonn,ctr,
is ordered to asssmble on the for eight days

WLEY'S CHARITIES.—The judges are, on next
duty.
LADY HE morning,) to deiver thr oinion i th n e
th l
f Lords, on eaw question s Submitted for t •
heir
House 0 .
with respect
consideration,
the present Lord Chancellor, consi
• ielding £3,000 a year. Her '3 Hewiey's
aynsliceipllobre,inthgata
uTnriii
Tuesday,
• Presbyterian, it was
nitanan- (this
decided by the Vice-Chancellor,
i partss pl a c
were taken to
tarian-Presbylerians could r •
also
creme no part of it, and the
afterwards by
UacnbnadirtaltarfYtia:n trustees were
peal, objections eodfbtyhetheevciodueorto.e
rOcandapir;
Chancery, and the judges
these objections, which
were asked for their opinions on
day, (this day.) The they are now to pronounce on Tues-
pase is, of course, important to the
parties, but it is also . important to the public, in order to
have settled the •
principle of the law of evidence which it in-
volves.

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