interests, and which had been resisted by Churchmen, was unduly favouring the cause of the Established Church." (1) The two fundamental principles of action laid down by the Department were, that aid should be limited (1) to cases of great deficiency and where vigorous efforts had been made. to provide funds-and (2) where the daily reading of the Scripture formed part of the instruction. Preference was given to schools in connection with the National and British and Foreign School Societies, and afterwards to those which did not enforce a rule by which children were compelled to learn a catechism or attend a place of worship, to which parents objected on religious grounds. The effect of the first requirement was to exclude the poorest districts where education was most required; that of the second was to shut out many first-class schools-such as the Birkbeck schools-the Williams school at Edinburgh, and other schools of a similar character in Glasgow, Manchester, London, and other towns, and these remained under this exclusion up to the Act of 1870. It was not to be expected that the friends of national education would rest satisfied with these partial and insufficint means—but for many years it was almost impossible to make progress. The Central Society of education was dissolved. Mr. Wyse the chairman was taken into the Treasury, and Mr. Duppa, the Secretary died. In the patronage of methods of education, the Committee of Council were careful to exclude all which originated with men of liberal opinions or who had been distinguished as educational reformers. It was not until the Lancashire public school Association was formed in 1847, that men of this character were able to make their voice heard, or or that an active educational propaganda was again undertaken in the country. 1 Walpole's History, 3, 490. 2 Westminster Review, 1851, 402. who were In Parliament there was a small group of men, intensely dissatisfied with the state of education and the tardy pace at which the Government was proceeding, and who protested against its grants as paltry and discreditable. Amongst them were Mr. Ewart, Mr. Milner Gibson, Dr. Bowring, Mr. Childers, Mr. Slaney, and Mr. Roebuck. In 1841 Mr. Ewart moved for the appointment of a minister of public instruction. (1) This motion was frequently renewed in subsequent sessions, and it led finally to the appointment of the Vice-President of the Council, and the annual statement on the education vote. In the same year Mr. Slaney introduced a bill to enable rural parishes to levy a school rate and make their own arrangements as to schools, with powers to the magistrates to relieve those who dissented on the ground of religious scruples. (2) But it did not get beyond the first reading. The The Whigs were now in opposition. Lord Melbourne had been succeeded by Sir Robert Peel, who had constructed the Ministry whose great achievement, a few years later, was the repeal of the Corn Laws. Sir James Graham, who, up to 1837, had been returned as a Liberal and professed follower of Lord Althorp, had gone over to the Conservatives, and was the Home Secretary in the new Ministry. Mr. Gladstone was also a member of the Government. Ministry adhered to the Minutes of 1839, and carried out the policy in education of their predecessors, which had been avowedly based on a compromise dictated by the Tories and the Church. In the administration of the Department, the alliance between it and the Church was cemented by the change of Government. Sir R. Peel was a statesman after the heart of the Church party. On all matters affecting their interests he consulted the heads of the Church, and with Bishop Blomfield, who has been called an "Ecclesiastical 1 Hansard, T. S., 57, 936. 2 Ibid, 58, 799. Peel," he maintained the most intimate and confidential relations. (1) The Dissenters were disposed to look with suspicion on all measures proceeding from such a Government. Sir James Graham had earned their special distrust by his apostacy from Liberal principles. The way was thus prepared for the vehement opposition to the educational clauses of his Factory Bill, which was the prominent feature of the session of 1843. At the beginning of the session, a profound impression was created in the House by a motion of Lord Ashley in regard to educational deficiences. He relied on the reports of the Factory and School Inspectors, on that of the Children's Employment Commission, and those of the Statistical Societies of Manchester and Birmingham, to prove the failure of the Factory Acts, the vast educational destitution, and the frightful results of ignorance. Sir James Graham took the occasion to explain the views of the Government. He expressed their desire "to lay aside all party feelings, all religious differences, to endeavour to find some neutral ground on which they could build something approaching to a scheme of national education with a due regard to the just wishes of the Established Church on the one hand, and studious attention to the honest scruples of Dissenters on the other." (2) This was the preface to the famous factory education scheme, which aroused the utmost consternation and indignation amongst Dissenters, and which first taught them the extent of their power in opposing legislation hostile to their principles. The Government bill was not in any sense a large educational measure. It provided for the compulsory education of children in workhouses, and those employed in woollen, flax, silk, and cotton manufactories. It reduced the hours of labour for children between eight and thirteen years of age, to 1 Blomfield's Life, 218. 2 Hansard, T. S., 67, 47. six and a half hours per day, and required that they should attend school for at least three hours. For these purposes the Government offered to make loans for the erection of schools, which were to be maintained out of the poor rate. The trust clauses became the special point of attack. They confided the management to a body of seven trustees, composed of the clergyman and churchwardens ex-officio, and four others, of whom two, having a property qualification, were to be appointed by the magistrates, and two were to be mill owners. The appointment of the master, who was required to be a member of the Established Church, was placed in the hands of the trustees, subject to the approval of the Bishop. The right of inspection was reserved to the clerical trustees and to the Committee of Council. The constitution of the trust was humourously offered by the Government as a guarantee that no undue religious influence would be used, and there was a conscience clause for the children of parents who objected to the teaching of the catechism and attendance at Church. The plan, says Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, was "received with a simple and calm acquiesence by the Established Church." (1) But Sir Robert Inglis said that it did not give enough to Churchmen, and would prevent them from teaching what they believed to be the truth. On the part of the Opposition, Lord John Russell gave a qualified approval to the Bill on its introduction. Mr. Hawes, on behalf of the Dissenters, and Mr. Smith O'Brien, as representing the Roman Catholics, opposed it. The Bill, however, passed the second reading without a division, Sir James Graham explaining that the constitution of the Boards was a matter of detail. But the true nature and effect of the measure were quickly perceived. "It must gradually subvert and supersede the independent schools, which had been established by the 1 The School, &c., 67. spontaneous charity of individuals and congregations, and especially those which owed their origin and success to the working of the British and Foreign School Society. Sooner or later a uniform system of Anglican teaching would obviously be introduced, instead of that which prevailed, and which naturally reflected every diversity of creed. All sects of Nonconformists concurred in opposing the Bill." (1) Mr. Hume, Mr. Hawes, Mr. C. Wood (Lord Halifax), Mr. Stansfeld, Mr. M. Phillips, Lord John Russell, Mr. Ewart, Sir George Grey, Mr. Milner Gibson, and Mr. Cobden united in opposing its progress, on the grounds that it rated all classes and gave the management to one-that it imposed a rate for teaching Church doctrines, and that under the guise of education it was an attempt to recruit for the Church. Mr. Cobden ridiculed it as a proposal for national education. It would provide only for some 60,000 children, and imposed Church doctrines upon a population, the majority of which were Dissenters. (2) Great meetings were held in the large towns to oppose it, and resolutions pledging resistance to it were passed by all bodies of Dissenters. A mass of petitions, such as were never known in Parliament before, were presented against it. (3) The discussion was revived in the House of Commons on a series of resolutions proposed by Lord John Russell, demanding the adequate representation of the ratepayers, the teaching of the Scriptures, the separate teaching of other religious books, the liberty to attend any Church or Sunday School, the support of training schools, grants for teaching and in aid of voluntary efforts, and opposing the disqualification of masters on religious grounds. As the result of the debates so raised the Home Secretary undertook to bring forward amendments. 1 Life of Graham, by Torrens, 2, 234. 2 Hansard, T. S., 67, 1469. |