The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-09
MIR. LLOYD GEORGE ANSWERS BALFOUR Easier to be Logical in Criti- cism Than in Action" ASKS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM "If Right Is Given One Denomination It Should Be Given AL" Says
 Speaker In House of
 Commons.

London. May S.--In the course of the debate In the house of commons today on the education bill David loyd-George president of the board of trade, answer Ing the claim of former Premier Balfour conservative for logical settlement of the educational question: said 1t was easier to be logical In criticism than in action. Of four Illogical" settlements, the first was purely secular, the second frankly denominatlonal all round. the third a common religious syllabus. and the fourth was, he might say, that there could not be a common religious syllabus between Protestant and Catholic. This was the settlement had in Germany, Quebec and Holland. It was a recognition that fundamental differences could not be solved
 The speaker said that he had examined these various settlements in order to show why the government had concluded that the last of the four was the only one it could propound in the clrcum- stances, having regard not merely to logic, but to something stronger, that Is, the facts of the situation It was said they should give the same right of re- ligious teaching to every denomination, but the assumption was that none had dogmas except the Church of England an assumption with touch of arrogance In it. Non-conformists had given the best pledge of the sincerity of their be- liefs in their own individual dogmas. It was not so easy to be a non-conformist fin the rural villages of England, where those on whom the people depend for their living went to the village church of the big landlords, who if offended would make life intolerable What right had any one to assume that the dogmas of the church was everything in the eyes of the law, and that these poor despised chapels were of no account?
 All Should Have Rights.
 If right were given one denomination, It should be given all. The bill assumes that the non-conformists would not do anything but pay the rates and obey the law, and that it was the business of the Anglicans to make the law and profit thereby. States, MT. Lloyd-George said do not bring up sectarians, but citizens The government remedy for the difficulty was a common syllabus. It seemed to him the differences were largely artificial in Protestant churches, and that the real difference between the advanced theo- logian and the old one was one of political differences between liberals and conserva- tives.
 What Is occurring in England, Mr. Lloyd-George, declared, was part of a gen. eral movement that had occurred In every democratic country in tne world. There were three democratic countries-America, France and England. What is taking place In those countries showed that de- mocracy had come to the conclusion that clericalism is its enemy. There is no use saying there is hatred of a special church it was the instinct of three great demo- cratic people moving towards what they believed was liberty of conscience The people had made up their minds to stand and rally round the Bible, which they were anxious should be placed in the hands of their children, that no eccle- siast or politician should be allowed to interfere between child and the great book which had saved England from darkness in the past and would continue to illumine the gloom that might oppress her In the future and principles which would perhaps bring about a better state of things than their parents had enjoyed