clergy of the Church of England have made to found and maintain schools, too frequently, and especially in the smaller parishes, almost unassisted by laymen. They have struggled to provide for the young of Christ's flock that education which it is their duty to give; and I should be sorry to say anything in this Congress with regard to the future, which did not at the same time, convey to the clergy of the Church of England the sense entertained by the laity of their great and successful exertions.

Now for one or two practical points. I for one cannot prevail upon myself to take that sanguine view of the future of state-aided schools. I believe the clause known as the Cowper-Temple Clause is destined to bear bitter fruit to this country; and I therefore hope every effort will be made in the present and in the future to maintain the voluntary system, in opposition to that of the rate-aided schools; for you must remember we shall not have Mr. Cowper Temple to interpret his clause, which would have to be determined by the Committee of the Privy Council from time to time; and, judging from the past, I cannot bring myself to believe that the interpretation which will be put upon the clause by the authorized officials will be in accordance with what the Right Hon. gentleman endeavours to lay down. When you say you cannot teach distinctive formulæ, you mean one of two things. That is, you are either to teach distinctive doctrine in other words, or not to teach it at all. Now, we believe every doctrine in the Church Catechism to be found in the Bible. But I want to know,-looking at the matter from a Church point of view,—will the Committee of Privy Council tolerate the teaching of such a doctrine of the Catholic faith as baptism, founded on the text, "Suffer little children to come unto Me?" If the Government refuse to tolerate the teaching of the Church in rate-aided Schools, I suppose all Churchmen must deplore the establishment of School Boards; but if, on the other hand, we are permitted to have denominational teaching, taught out of the Bible, shall we not be keeping the word of promise to the ear and breaking it to the hope. To avoid, therefore, all doubt upon the matter, I hope that rate-aided Schools will be avoided as much as possible.

There is one most practical point which has not been touched upon; and I am speaking to many here who are managers of Church Schools. I think it is of the utmost importance to us that we should preserve the Freeholds of our Schools. So long as we do that, we may submit to terms from year to year for the annual grant; but it is necessary, looking to the future, and the consequences which may afterwards be entailed upon us, to retain the Freeholds, and preserve them in trust for the Church, whatever may happen hereafter. Annual grants, we know, may be offered from year to year; but if we don't like the conditions attached to them, we need not take them. If, however, you part with your Freeholds, and allow them to be transferred to the School Boards, you will be parting with the most valuable part of your educational apparatus, which, probably, you will not be able to regain. Therefore, I hope that if the School Trustees and Managers find, through circumstances, that they are unable to maintain the Schools upon the present voluntary system, and that it is necessary to come to terms in any way with the School Boards, I hope they will avail themselves of the powers of the Act to lease them for a nominal or other sum, instead of allowing them to pass into other hands in perpetuity. And the benevolent purposes of the Act would be extended just as much by these means, and the interests of the ratepayers would also be as fully promoted ; but I caution you against parting with your property entirely, and thus losing the Freeholds of our Church Schools.

I also wish to touch upon something which fell from Mr. Cowie. It is with great diffidence I venture to differ from one who has had such practical experience in the work of education and inspection. But I listened with some alarm to his observations with reference to the Government grant, and the application of the Conscience Clause, in connection with which he mentioned that we were not to proselytise the children of Dissenters. Now, it appears to me, that the Conscience Clause in the Act of Parliament differs greatly from the Conscience Clause which has been urged upon the Church in past years. The Conscience Clause hitherto in force forbade teachers to teach children doctrines to which objection was taken; but the new Clause is one to enable parents to

withdraw their children. The obligation is therefore altered. It is removed from the teacher, and thrown upon the parents, who may withdraw their children from teaching of which they disapprove. That liberty being given to the parents, I think it imposes upon the Managers of Schools the privilege and the duty of seeing that all the children who are not withdrawn, are fully instructed in the Catholic faith, according to the teaching of the Church of England.

The Right Rev. the BISHOP SUFFRAGAN OF DOVER.

I HAVE come to learn what I can for my own Parish. I, with my brother Suffragan, whose work lies further north, stand proudly at the head of a body of Clergymen,-I trust not a useless body in the Church-the assistant Curates; and I came here to-day to learn what I can for the benefit of my own parish, or rather parishes,-of East and West Kent. I am glad to find, my lord, that for the most part, not wholly, we have been agreed to day not to fight over again needless battles-not to strive to prop up against the wall and beat down once more to the ground those dead bodies which night after night, during the past Session, strewed the Parliament arena. Of course, it is perfectly reasonable and natural that each one of us Clergymen and laymen should still hold to his own conviction-to his own deliberate opinion as to the best kind of religious national education. But, at the same time, it is equally necessary for us now to meet manfully, face to face, those influences which have been evoked, from this or that cause, from the abyss of political and social agitation or speculation. When the shipman finds that the wind has suddenly changed that it is no longer abaft and favourable, his duty surely is to trim and alter his sails, in order to meet the change of surrounding circumstance; and if he cannot make the desired haven by a straight course, to attain that object by methods, possibly not so direct, but nevertheless, every whit as honest and legitimate. Many believe that had we been left alone, the system which, (thank God,) has not been ineffectual for the past thirty years, would shortly have found its perfect fruit in filling the vacant spaces of our land with not inefficient Schools. I use the adjective advisedly. Who knows better than the Clergyman of a parish that here and there are the children whom no persuasion whatever can drive into the National School? And so now the Legislature has interposed; and I think if there be a grievance to Churchmen, it may summed up in this small compass,-viz., that the whole matter has been somewhat sudden, and that we had very little notice, and have very little time in which to turn ourselves round. But Parliament says to us now,—(and when anything is said about the duty of obeying the law, I venture to ask, who but the Clergy are the first teachers in every parish of obedience to the law?)—Parliament says, “Moral persuasion and gentle compulsion are not enough; some more powerful engine must be brought on to the scene and set in motion. You shall build Schools large enough, not merely to hold the children who will come to school, but those children who will not come." The thin end of the wedge will be soon followed by the broad end—the less gentle compulsion of the Magistrate, and the 5s. fine. That is, as I take it, the challenge thrown down before us, and we take it up readily and cheerfully. In the different meetings held about the country in various dioceses-in your lordship's diocese, the diocese of Canterbury, and elsewhere- —we have looked the situation well in the face, and have determined, God helping us, in the short time at our disposal, to do our best to fill this gap and to meet this emergency. We believe in the Education we are giving to our National School children. As to the religious difficulty, we have never met with even the ghost of its shadow in our parishes, and I trust we never shall see it. We believe in the Education we are giving the mingling of secular with definite religious training. And now we have it in our power to make the most of this Act,- -an Act framed under circumstances of extreme difficulty, carried through Parliament, and brought to its present condition, only by the most indomitable patience of that man to whom we owe so much-Mr. Forster, a man not necessarily the friend of the Clergy or the Church but one who feels and

be

Bishop Suffragan of Dover. J. H. Kennaway, Esq., M.P. 121

recognises the fact that Education owes much to the Clergy and the Church. Taking our stand now upon this Act-upon our own principles and upon the principles of the Church to which we have the happiness to belong, we can go on educating the children of the poor entrusted to our charge, if only we determine to exert ourselves. One last word,—for that alarm-bell which lies in ambush there, beneath the Secretary's finger, reminds me I must cease. I believe firmly that, if at this crisis we were to act in any other way whatever-if we were to show the slightest symptoms of faint heart or a feeble mind—if we were to content ourselves with folding our arms and drifting helplessly and hopelessly towards this untried order of things, the very first to lift up their hands and eyes in utter amazement, the very first to point the finger at us as deserting the flag under which we have won so much Educational success, would be those who, perhaps, often only in the heat of discussion, (for we honour many of them for their works' sake, as in their hearts I trust they honour us,) have said the hardest and most unkind things of ourselves as a Church, or as Educators of the English people.

J. H. KENNAWAY, ESQ., M.P.

I AM sure you will all think it is a matter for great congratulation that at this special time when the Church of England seems to be so much upon her trial before the world and the nation, there should be this unanimous testimony spoken of by Earl Beauchamp, and others, extorted not only from our friends and from Parliament, but from our foes also, that she was the first to discern the interests of Education in this country, and to resolve to step forward to supply the deficiency. This I maintain has given her a vantage ground which no accident of situation could have done; and I think many will have felt it hard that when she had a special claim upon the consideration of the country, this special claim should have been met by the imposition of a special disability, and that those forms which she had deliberately chosen as the best vehicle for conveying religious instruction should be forbidden in the new Schools. At the same time, the friends of the Church and of religious Education felt that it lay with them, when this compromise was offered to them, to decide between accepting it or throwing their force against the Bill, and perhaps ensuring its rejection, and incurring the responsibility of prolonging an agitation—no one knew how long—and that which was the most pernicious of all, a religious agitation. Therefore it was that they consented to accept this compromise, feeling after all that it affected the form more than the substance, and that, while the liberty of religious Education was continued to the Church of England, she need not be afraid of not holding her own against all opposing obstacles. But we must leave the past and look to the present; and one cannot but fear that with many, looking at past labours, weighed down with past sacrifices, and perhaps disgusted at the treatment they seem to have received, there is some inclination to remit their exertions and cast upon the State entirely that responsibility which for the first time she has taken upon herself. I hope if this is to be the thought, it will be but a momentary one. If the Church of England is to maintain her high position, as she has done through past ages, and is doing now, she must rise to a sense of her new responsibilities-she must show that she, at least, however narrow others may be, can adapt herself to the new circumstances, and can hold her own, as she has always done hitherto, remembering that as her exertions are, so will be her influence-as her sacrifices, so her success. Turning to practical things, we shall, without doubt, endeavour to carry on old Schools, encouraged by the additional grant which is promised. I hope that we shall step into the new fields opened to us, and in the short time that remains, that we shall avail ourselves of it by building new Schools and supplying the deficiencies. I believe the Church will do this; I believe she will not entrust those whom she has tenderly loved and cared for to the tender mercies of a School Board, or to men who think it their first duty to keep down the rates, and their second to educate the children. I think the Board will have an obnoxious task in recommending a new rate to the inhabitants, rendered the more so by the fears of the

community. I think the rate will not be found acceptable; and without appealing to the sacrifices made in the past, and our endeavours in respect to the future, we shall have the people on our side.

One other word. I feel that in working out this Act, so long as we abandon no principle, so long as we distinctly claim our religious teaching, it will be a great thing, as far as we can, to co-operate with Nonconformists. By so doing we shall strengthen the hands of the Church, promote harmony in our parishes, and find that after all, the bonds which unite us, are many more than those that keep us apart; and I am sure we may look for good results. In the Church Schools, worked as they will be under the Conscience Clause, the Members of Dissenting bodies will be as it were the guardians of that liberty of withdrawal from religious instruction which the State has afforded in regard to their children. I would ask you to consider whether it would not be possible in certain cases to ask a Dissenter-as a matter of course, a pious and religious Dissenter to become one of the managing body. I think then, instead of his being an outsider looking on with suspicion-I refer of course to cases where Dissenters are in a large minorityyou will have him on your side, and instead of objections being raised and difficulties cast in the way, there would be a great incentive to a harmonious working of the whole system. We must remember that liberty of religious instructions has been conceded to us in the face of the assertion that there was no such thing as a religious difficulty. Let us be resolved by these means, such as I have been putting forward, to harmonize the working of this Act, and give no cause to the enemies of religious instruction to say that by our religious dissensions we are hindering the Education of the children of this country.

The Rev. J. B. SWEET, Vicar of Scalby.

HOWEVER wise it may be for a lady, who finds herself forced into an undesirable union, to scan in the most favourable light her prospects of future happiness, I think wisdom dictates that she should also consider what will be the difficulties with which she may be brought into contact,-what the constitutional, moral, or other impediments to happiness she may have to meet. Now, on the same ground, however hopeful the prospect of the working of this new Act may be, as preceding speakers have depicted it, by the aid of the faithful clergy never deserting a plank of the ship so long as it will float beneath them, and by that tender interpretation of hard clauses, of which we have had such questionable illustrations this morning; however great results may arise from cordial co-operation so long as we do not sacrifice our principles, we must not close our eyes to certain features of this Act,—to certain leading characteristics of it,—to which the attention of the Education Department itself, by means of this Congress, may be profitably drawn, and which certainly are not favourable to the happy conclusions hitherto arrived at.

As I am situated, in a parish with a coast-line of thirteen miles, with six self-rating townships under my own charge, and with schools eight miles apart, and all large schools, affected by this Act, I have been called upon to give close attention to its provisions. And I conceive that the Department, which possibly may work with the most favourable results, may as easily run its head against a passive opposition of a character it has never contemplated. For the Act bears most hardly on the very men who had sacrificed time, toil, and money, and manifested great earnestness from a quarter to half a century, for the promotion of that very object for the advancement of which the Department was instituted. Now, I would warn it first of all—(1) That if they bear hardly upon existing efficient teachers, by cashiering or snubbing them simply because uncertificated, they will raise a passive resistance throughout the land:—(2) Secondly, that by refusing to recognise efficient voluntary schools as public elementary schools, they will certainly run counter to our most reasonable feelings and interests :—(3) And thirdly, that by a senti mental use of their arbitrary powers in regard to real or supposed improvement of school

premises-for example, as to windows, which one inspector may declare should be diamond-shaped; while another, perhaps, by-and-by, will say they must be of plate-glass --by requiring wooden floors, where the population walk in wooden shoes-by demanding that fire-places and windows shall have a distinct mathematical relation-by requiring a quarter of an acre for a play-ground in a country place where thousands of acres are open to the population-or by snubbing a good teacher on account of mere provincialism -they may move us to a passive resistance which would be ultimately fatal to the

measure.

Further, this resistance may be provoked (4) by enforcing the addition of a Conscience Clause to old and new school deeds over and above the Time Table Conscience Clause of the Act, or by requiring a conveyance deed at all where the grant is only annual and the school has been hitherto supported by its owners. Again it may be aroused (5) by persisting in giving only the same three months for building grants, and six months for improvements or additions, alike to small and extensive parishes, whether to one such as I lately left in Norfolk, which you might almost cover with a pocket handkerchief, or to one such as I now hold, as large as half of what a diocese ought to be; or (6) by not giving equal compulsory powers to Voluntary as to Board Schools, both with regard to attendance and sites. Certainly, in the matter of attendance, the managers of voluntary schools should have equal power with boards, and should at least be enabled to compel children to attend, if they neglected to do so, by showing just cause before a Magistrate. The Department may further merit resistance (7) by not suffering a free education to be given in the one school as in the other, and by thus again putting voluntary schools at a disadvantage as compared with Board Schools.

The necessity for such a warning as this is forced upon my conscience by certain other indications of the spirit which breathes in this despotic Act,-I mean (1) the power taken under the 12th section to force a School Board on a district already both efficiently and sufficiently provided—(2) The palpable concession to a creedless minority, patent in almost all its provisions-(3) The sort of bribe held out to men to form themselves into School Boards by the almost uncontrolled permission to effect a lavish expenditure at the cost of other persons, and by the license to pass bye-laws, and by their exemption from the cost of legal proceedings, provoked by their own peculiarities-and (4) by the astounding and most invidious fact, that whilst rate-built schools cost their promoters next to nothing, and furnish an inferior article, their managers themselves may actually be paid for their work at our cost, whilst voluntary schools, really educating, and costly to their promoters, may receive no aid whatever.

I have one or two suggestions to add in conclusion. For there is a great danger, quite apart from those things I have mentioned, lest School Discipline, of which the Department has never shown an intelligent idea, but which is as important to a useful Education as sound teaching, be rendered impossible by the folly of Boards and Committees, and by that departmental love of popularity, which may encourage parental interference for political ends. I would warn Congress and the public against trusting either to indefiniteness in religious teaching, or to that sentimentalism which discards chastisement for repeated offences. In every Elementary School we must labour to subdue self-will, and fit our scholars for subsequent usefulness, by enforcing respect for authority, whether temporal or spiritual. But this can only be done by firm discipline going hand in hand with sound doctrine, and by the School rules not only being written upon the doors, but actually carried out, so that neither parent nor child may with impunity dispute or disregard them.

The Rev. HENRY BRASS, Incumbent of St. Matthew's, Redhill. I SHOULD not venture to take up the valuable time of this meeting by making a speech; but I merely wish to suggest a difficulty which has occurred to me, and which I think