The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-14 00:00:00

THE CORPORATION SCHOOLS

The MAYOR read the following memorial in reference to
the school question, which he had received from Mr. Robt.
Roskell, the chairman of a meeting of the Roman Catholics
held on the 10th instant.

TO THE MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF rim BOROUGH

OF LIVERPOOL.
The Memorial of- the Catholics of Liverpool, agreed to at a
Meeting held on the 10th day of January, one thousand

eight hundred and forty-two

The catholics of Liverpool beg most respectfully to solicit
the attention of the mayor and corporation to the following
memorial, respecting a resolution recently passed by them in
council, by virtue of which the Catholic authorised version
of the sacred scriptures has been discarded from the corpo-
ration schools, and Catholic children (should any of them
hereafter attend) will be required to use the Protestant Bible,
and to join the other children in a Protestant form of prayer.
Previous to the passing of the above-mentioned resolution,
the opinion of the Catholic clergy of the town respecting the
then contemplated changes was laid before the council; and,
these changes having since been adopted by the council, they
considered it their duty publicly to announce, last Sunday,
to their respective congregations, that Catholic parents can-
not, consistently with their religious principles, send their
children to the corporation schools so long as the new
arrangements are adhered to.
The Catholics of the town, both clergy and laity, now beg
most respectfully to submit to the council the followiug con-
siderations :

Under the present existing circumstances, the great mass
of the poor children of their communion must necessarily
be excluded from the corporation schools.
The number of poor Catholic children, requiring a gratui-
tous education, exceeds, by a very great majority, the poor
children of any other religious denomination. Hitherto the
Catholic children attending the corporation schools have sur-
passed in number the children of all other denominations.
After the withdrawal of the Catholic children from the
corporation schools, on the before-mentioned grounds, these
schools can, consequently, no longer be considered public
schools, but schools provided for the education of children
who either are not catliolics. or whose parents, being Catho-
lics, can be induced, by the bribe of secular education, to
withdraw themselves from the direction of their clergy in
religions matters.
It is a principle of government, sanctioned by the highest
names in philosophy, that those who govern should extend
their care to the whole body of the community, and not con-
fine it to one particular part. " Qui Reipublicie prrefuturi
aunt, duo Platonis praecepta teneant.. Unum ut utilitatern
civium sic tuentur ut qinecunque agunt ad cum referent.
Alterurn, ut totum corpus Reipublico curent, ne, dum par-
tern align= tuentur, reliquas deserant" (Cicero de officiis) ;
and, furthermore, that those who (in governing) •consult the
interests of one part of the citizens, whilst they neglect ano-
ther part, introduce into a city the most .pernicious of evils,
sedition and discord. " Qui autem parti civium consulunt,
partem negligunt,rem perniciosissi mum in civitatem inducunt,
seditionem atque discordiam." (Cicero de officiis.)
In accordance with this principle, the legislature of this
country, in the act which it passed for the regulation of mu-
nicipal corporations in England and Wales, and by virtue of
which the present corporation if Liverpool exists, has pro-
vided that " in case the borough fund shall be more than
sufficient for the purposes aforesaid, the surplus thereof shall
be applied, under the direction of the council, for the public
benefit of the inhabitants, and improvement of the borough."