§ Order of the Day for the Third Reading read.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 3a"—(The Bishop of Oxford.)
THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, he could not allow the Bill to be read a third time without making a few observations which he had intended to make on a former stage of the Bill, and to move an Amendment; but it was not his intention to trouble their Lordships to divide upon the Bill. Their Lordships were aware how largo was the number of grammar schools established in this country, and of the injunction that required that the scholars should attend the parish church. It had been a great object of the Court of Chancery so to arrange matters that these schools should educate the children of Dissenters, for a large number of Dissenters did not object that their children should attend divine worship in the parish church, though they did object that the religious tenets of 1369 their children should be interfered with by private religious teaching. The effect of this Bill would be, he contended, to set aside altogether the injunctions of these grammar schools in this respect, and would offer opportunities for the teaching of doctrines at variance with the known and received doctrines of the Church of England. The 71st canon strictly enjoined that no minister should administer the Holy Sacrament in any private house, except in cases of necessity, and not frequently in any chapel, so that families intending to communicate should ordinarily attend the parish church. Now virtually this Bill repealed that canon. In these times it was of special importance that the religious education of youth should be imparted openly, and in such a manner as that its nature should be known to the parents; but this Bill was so framed as to have an entirely opposite effect. He hoped the Bill would not be allowed to pass the other House without serious consideration.
THE BISHOP OF OXFORDdenied that it was the principle that in all grammar schools the scholars should attend the parish church. So far from that, in a very large number of them it was provided that prayers should be read in the school-room or in some appropriate room. He had received letters from the masters of such grammar schools showing the exceeding difficulty that arose, sometimes owing to the crotchets of a new clergyman interfering with the long-standing arrangements of the schools, and throwing all into disorder. The object of the Bill was not to provide for those populous schools where there was not room for the scholars in the parish church, but to make them more perfect in the matter of religious instruction. Parliament should never forget that the parents of children select the schoolmaster to whom they would commit their children; but they could not use that freedom of choice with regard to the priest in whose parish the school might be situated. It was, therefore, palpable they were carrying out the view of the parents with regard to religious teaching in placing it in the hands of the conductors of those schools. He believed the majority of their Lordships were in favour of the Bill.
§ On Question, Resolved in the Affirmative: Bill read 3a accordingly, and passed, and sent to the Commons.