of our fostering care. Let the teachers be encouraged, and the elder scholars instructed in the great things of religion; and as the major part of the teachers are young persons, I would affectionately exhort them, in every possible way, both by precept and example, to lead their charge to the reverent observance of the Lord's-day, and the earnest seeking for the way of life. 3. I have also found that inquirer's meetings have often been attended with good results. Many persons, whose state of mind might have remained unknown, and who might have been unnoticed, have been brought through these meetings to receive personal and christian admonition and consolation. It is highly desirable that there should be more attention paid to inquirers' meetings, both by senior and junior members, in encouraging those who are earnestly solicitous for their salvation to attend them, and in being present themselves to assist in conducting them efficiently. It is a question worthy of consideration, whether meetings of this sort should be permanent, and attended to every Lord's-day; but however that may be, it is desirable, whenever they are held, that there should not be a good attendance of active and zealous members. 4. As much depends on the mode and spirit with which the Word of life is administered, both as to the edification of saints and the conversion of sinners, you will excuse me in adding, that it is highly important your minister should have a due place in your prayers. In the closet, in the family, and at the social meeting, "Brethren, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified." Recollect, that your minister is a man of like passions with yourselves, and needs the mercy and grace he proclaims to others as much they do; and that it is only as a minister enjoys a deep sense of divine things, and the consolations of the Gospel in his own heart, that he can be prepared to communicate instruction and consolation to them that hear him. And finally, Remember that your course will soon be finished. The aspect of the Church to-day is very different from what it was in years that are far past, not only as to the increased number of those who are present, but in the absence of many whose presence was invariably enjoyed at the Lord's-table. They are gone into the invisible world; their work is done -their pilgrimage ended; and we, too, one by one in coming years shall follow them, and the place that now knows us will know us no more. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." "Thus far his arm hath led me on; SIR JAMES GRAHAM'S EDUCATION BILL. J. G. PERHAPS no movement of the high church party when in the possession of the reins of government, during the last fifty years, has been so decidedly hostile to the spirit of civil and religious freedom, or excited so much alarm and solicitude amongst the entire ranks of those who are not connected with the established church, as the bill now before parliament "for regulating the employment of children and young persons in factories, and for the better education of children in factory districts." With us it is more than matter of grave doubt, whether the superintendence of education is, in a free country, within the legitimate province of government. The protection of person and property, seems to us to include the entire of the duties of governors. When they provide for religious instruction, by establishing and endowing a particular sect; by making its bishops, nobles; and by constituting its priests an exclusive hierarchy; they are allied with "the man of sin," and set up an authority in religion other than that of the head of the Church. The protection and toleration of dissenters is at variance with the system of establishments; and strong and clear as are the natural rights of all men, these are only partially secured to dissenters, by laws which restrain the operation of the establishment principle. The fact is, that all state religious establishments are at variance with christianity, and with the rights and liberties of men. If the state provide by law for the education of the people, it will be difficult to show that such provision can be so arranged as not to interfere with liberty. To compel a man to pay for that from which he derives no benefit, is unjust; to require him to entrust the education of his children to persons whom he does not approve, is tyranny. But however this question might be settled, the provisions of Sir Jas. Graham's Bill are such as to excite just abhorrence. The leading provisions of this Bill are given in a letter to lord Wharncliffe, by Edward Baines, Junr., of Leeds. He shows that 1st. "The Bill, for the first time, enacts that schools shall be built and supported, where any of the great manufactures are carried on, partly out of the Poor's Rate. Twothirds of the sum required for building a school may be advanced out of public money, viz., one-third from the parliamentary grant through the Committee of Council, and one-third out of the Poor's Rate. Whatever deficiency may exist in the means for the annual support of the school, is also to be paid out of the Poor's Rate. 2nd. "The Rate payers are not, directly or indirectly, to have any species of control or influence over the schools, nor any check upon the expenditure. 3rd. "The Bill not only for the first time authorizes the building and maintenance of schools out of the Poor's Rate, but it also for the first time places schools, thus paid for out of the public money, under the control and management of the clergy of the established church, and with such provisions as would make them exclusively church schools. 4th. "The Bill provides no assistance whatever for any other class of schools. 5th. "It actually forbids the employment of a child in any manfacture who does not attend one of these church schools,-except only that children may attend a national school, a British or Foreign school, or a school within the factory where they work, but only after those schools shall have been reported by an inspector of schools to be efficiently conducted" (of which he is the sole judge); and it gives no pecuniary aid to such schools. 66 6th. "It makes it unlawful for factory children to attend any Wesleyan, Independent, Baptist, or other denominational day-school. 7th. "It enforces the attendance of the children at the church schools, by penalties both on the mill-owner and on the parents, unless there should be a national or British school in the district, or a school within the factory. 8th. "The schools to be built and supported out of the Poor's Rates are to be under the management of seven trustees; of whom the only permanent one is to be the clergyman of the parish.-two others are to be churchwardens, chosen (when there is a greater number of churchwardens than two) by the clergyman,—and the remaining four are to be annually appointed by the justices for the place or division. 9th. "The clerical trustee is to be the permanent chairman of the trustees,-to have a casting vole,—to have the sole and exclusive superintendence of the religious instruction -to direct the master as to the religious instruction to be given, to have the exclusive selection of the religious books to be used, to instruct, catechise, and examine the children in the principles of their religion,—and in all this to be perfectly IRRESPONSIBLE, the inspector of schools being expressly forbid even to inquire into the religious instruction given, to examine the scholars upon it, or to make any report thereon, unless he receive authority for that purpose from the archbishop or bishop. 10th. 11th. "The master and his assistants are to be appointed by the bishop. "The schools are to be Sunday schools as well as Day-schools; and the scholars are to attend the established church once every Sunday: But with the following excep tions, namely, that a child may be exempted from receiving religious instruction in the Day-school, from attending the school on the Sunday, and from attending the church, if "the parent shall notify to the master that, on the ground of religious objection, he desires such scholar not to attend the worship of the church of England," or to receive religious instruction on week days, or to attend the church school on Sunday. 12th. "The church catechism and such portions of the liturgy as the clergyman may select, may be taught for one hour, out of three, every morning and every afternoon, except to the children whose parents shall object. 6 13th. "A mill-owner, having a school within his own premises, is obliged to have the church catechism and liturgy taught there to any child being a member of the church of England.'" He then adds: "Now, my lord, it is evident that these provisions have been studiously and carefully planned, for the purpose of impairing, and ultimately destroying, all other schools for the operative children in manufacturing districts, and drawing the whole rising generation into these church schools, there to be educated under the exclusive and irresponsible control of the clergy. "Such is the view entertained of them by all the religious bodies not connected with the establishment, as your lordship may see by the proceedings of the meeting at Leeds, on Thursday, and by the resolutions of various bodies of dissenters in London. "To make this more clear to your lordship, who are not likely so soon to perceive the whole bearing of these provisions on the dissenting communities as they themselves are, permit me to offer a few additional remarks. I request your lordship to observe, That dissenters are to be compelled to pay towards the support of schools where religious doctrines are taught of which they disapprove,schools closely bound to an establishment from which the dissenters conscientiously separate themselves,-schools put under the absolute (I may almost say the sole) control of the clergy,-in which no dissenter can possibly be employed either as master or assistant,—and in which the children of dissenters are to receive no religious instruction, unless they consent to receive that of the clergyman, who would of course do his utmost to proselytize them. "That not only are dissenters to be obliged to pay for these church schools, but those who belong to the operative classes will be compelled, in the vast majority of instances, to send their children there, however opposed to their inclination. It will be unlawful for them to educate their own children in the schools of their own community!!! That not only must they pay for exclusive church schools, and send their children to them, but they are themselves debarred from receiving one farthing from the poor's rates towards their own schools. Nor is this all, but they must pay towards schools which are manifestly designed and calculated to impoverish and undermine the Day-schools and Sunday-schools of their several religious communities. "That the seeming exceptions made in favour of the dissenters are, at the very best, no more than abstaining from the most intolerable and wicked violence to conscience ever practised in any country; and that in reality they scarcely amount to such abstinence. For consider the excessively painful, invidious, and difficult position in which an illiterate and dependant workman would be placed, in having to make a formal protest, "on the ground of religious objection," against his child receiving the instructions of the clergyman of the parish, attending the school on Sunday, and going with the other scholars to church. And consider the painful position of a young child, as yet quite ignorant of the grounds of its parents' objections, placed in marked opposition to the master, the clergyman, the trustees, and the greater part of its school-fellows. Such would be the pain and difficulty of the position, that with most parents and most children it would amount to moral torture: and the probable effect would be, that in nineteen cases out of twenty, the children would be allowed to do just as their fellows did, and to be trained up in principles from which their parents conscientiously dissent. This is what the authors of the Bill expect. And this is the deep scheme for getting the education of the whole people into the hands of the clergy. "That this Bill is calculated to impair, and ultimately to destroy, an immense number of Sunday-schools now existing in connexion with the Dissenting bodies, schools to which your lordship alluded with gratitude, as "an example" to the church,-schools very dear to the teachers, who are hundreds of thousands in number, the flower of the intelligence and piety of the dissenting Churches, and great numbers of them warmly attached to the scholars, whom they have instructed, visited, watched over, and prayed for, year after year, without fee or reward. "That the bill would also impoverish and ultimately supersede the valuable day schools established by the Wesleyans, Independents, and other bodies, in various parts of the kingdom,-thus destroying the property as well as blighting the hopes of those communities. "That the parish clergyman, as clerical trustee, having two churchwardens of his own choice for coadjutors, and having a casting vote, would have so overwhelming a power among the trustees as to be absolute in the school. At any meeting where less than the whole number of trustees attended, he and his churchwardens (with his casting vote) would constitute the majority. His own permanence in the office would alone give him the real management; his exclusive authority in the giving or directing of religious instruction, and in the choice of religious books, would place the most important department of education under his arbitrary control; whilst his exemption from all responsibility whatever for the conduct of this department would be one of the severest trials to human virtue, and would certainly lead to abuse. "That such being the natural and necessary effects of the Bill, it would be felt by every religious community, except the church, to be an intolerable insult and injury; it would wound their consciences, exasperate their feelings, and stir up a religious strife which must either lead to the extermination of dissent or the downfall of the establishment. "That the mighty and fatal corruption which has been growing up within the last few years in the church, and which is rapidly bringing back the clergy of the establishment to the doctrines, the rites, and the spirit of Popery, would make the attempt to place clergymen over the schools incomparably more hateful and revolting than it would have been before that great corruption took its rise. In "That not only would the dissenters be aggrieved by this Bill, but also all the evangelical clergymen and churchmen, whose day schools and Sunday schools would be compelled to give way to the new schools. Leeds, for example, there are schools of both kinds, supported by evangelical churchmen, whose dread and abhorrence of the modern semiPopery is as deep as that of the dissenters, but who must see that the new system would gradually bring all their schools under the control of our Puseyite vicar. And indeed the Sunday schools of the evangelical church would be far more likely to suffer than those of the dissenters, because the parents of the church children in the factory district schools would have no assignable reason for preventing the children from attending those schools on the Sunday, even though they might prefer the Sunday-schools of the evangelical church. "That the new factory district schools, with the poor's rate at their back, might employ so many masters and assistants, and purchase such an apparatus, as would make them really superior to the existing schools; in which case they would draw off the children from existing schools, both public and private. And the more especially would they attract all the factory children, because they would be purposely and peculiarly adapted to their convenience; and because it would be more agreeable, both to parents and children, that the latter should attend the same school on Sunday and on the week day. "Let me further remark to your lordship, that in the manufacturing districts, for which this measure is especially intended, the dissenting congregations are more numerous than those of the church, and the Sunday-schools of the dissenters contain a much greater number of children than the church Sunday-schools. This being the case, the measure would be the more injurious, the more ungrateful, and the more exasperating. "And now, my lord, I appeal to your candour and your judgment-Is this scheme for exclusive church education to be supported out of the poor's rates, a scheme just, fair, impartial, prudent, or even safe? Is it one which your lordship, pledged by your public declarations of eight short months since, can regard with approbation, or even with patience? Is it not in total and flagrant opposition to the policy to which you then pledged the government? Is not the scheme a gross insult to YOURSELF, after the avowals you have made before the country? Can you, as a man of honour, do other than insist upon the withdrawment of the education clauses from the Factory Bill? Would you not be "ashamed to hold the situation you fill," when a measure so outrageously contradicting the "fairness," "impartiality," and "equality," you have advocated was brought forward? This Bill, my lord, is a declaration of war against all the dissenters in the kingdom." It is refreshing to perceive the attention this Bill is securing in the country. The Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, are all up against it. Whether the origin of this Bill is to be ascribed to the tardiness of dissenters to assert and vindicate their legitimate rights, so that the intolerant party have been encouraged by their truckling subserviency; or whether it has been occasioned by the extra activity of dissenters during the last ten years in earnestly asserting their principles, and thus awakening the fears of the high church party, it is not needful for us now to determine; though we rather incline to the latter view. One thing, however, is certain; it is a blow aimed at their liberties, has been, and, we trust, will be, vigorously opposed. |