EDUCATION. (Hansard, 17 June 1853)

The BISHOP of SALISBURY

rose to put certain questions to the Lord President of the Council on the subject of the Minutes 329 of the Committee of Council of Education, dated April 2, 1853. The right rev. Prelate was understood to say that he could assure their Lordships that, in the questions he was about to ask, and in the few remarks with which he proposed to preface them, it was not his intention to make any attack on the Committee of the Privy Council, over which the noble Earl presided with so much ability and judgment, still less to attempt in any way to disturb those relations between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities of the State, in respect to the education of the people which had now subsisted for some years, and had been attended with great advantages; and although he would not say that they were incapable of improvement, or were in all respects such as might be desired, still he would venture to say that since the period when the differences by which those relations were interrupted some years ago had been removed, it had been his constant endeavour to maintain them unimpaired, and to promote the objects which they were designed to effect. He would add that he had not joined in any of the attacks made, he thought without sufficient reason, on the general principles upon which the Committee of Council had administered the national grants for education. When mistakes had occurred, as he thought sometimes had been the case, it had been his object to put the most favourable construction upon them, and by all the means in his power to remove misapprehensions. He said this for the purpose of showing that he was not an opponent of the existing relations between the Church and the State with respect to education; but was, on the contrary, so far as humble abilities went, their supporter and advocate. It was, nevertheless, the fact, that those relations, although in the main satisfactory, and perhaps altogether the best that the existing circumstances of the country would allow to be established, entailed this disadvantage—that they had had the effect of removing this important branch of the public administration from the cognisance of their Lordships' House. It was only in the other House of Parliament that any effectual alteration or supervision could be exercised. Their Lordships only knew what plan was proposed for the administration of the grants when the Minutes of Council were laid upon the table, and after the measures had been finally resolved upon; and when the Minutes had been laid upon the table, they almost carried with 330 them the force and effect of an Act of Parliament. He was therefore anxious to call the attention of the noble Earl and Her Majesty's Government to this matter, in order that such modifications and Amendments might be effected in the Minute to which his questions would relate, as should be calculated to extend its usefulness, and which would make it deserving the cordial and unanimous support of their Lordships. Great progress bad been made by the aid of the State grants in diffusing education in the large and populous towns and districts of the country. But these advantages had been accompanied by this drawback, that the places in the rural districts possessing small populations, and whose case did not present itself before the public in so striking and conspicuous a manner as that of the large towns, had not received all the attention which their wants and necessities demanded; and it was with the view of remedying these defects in the small country districts that the present Minute was framed, and to the principle of it he was anxious to give his cordial support. But it appeared in some points to require amendment, and in others explanation, in order that it might be clearly understood and satisfactorily put in execution. He had recently presided at a large meeting of secretaries and other persons connected with diocesan and district societies for the promotion of education, and he had taken the opportunity of calling their attention to this Minute. He found the same points of doubt which had occurred to his own mind had presented themselves to many of the gentlemen who attended that meeting, and who unanimously agreed in requesting him to obtain some explanation on the subject from the noble Earl. The questions he wished to ask of the noble Earl the President of the Committee of Council were these—1. Whether the Minute is applicable to mixed schools of boys and girls, as well as to schools in which boys and girls are educated separately? And, if so, in what manner the estimate for a grant is to be made? His second question related to the conditions imposed requiring the schools entitled to share in the grant to possess a certain amount of income in the shape of voluntary subscriptions; and as there existed great uncertainty in the Minute, which it was desirable to have removed, with regard to the mode in which it was intended to determine the income of a school derived from other than Government sources; he 331 wished therefore to ask—2. Whether it is required that the income of the school from the specified sources should amount to the rate named in respect of the whole number of children on the register of the school, or only in respect of the children in behalf of whom a grant is claimed? His third question related to the condition imposed on the schools eligible to the grant with respect to the attendance of the children. The attendance required by the Minute from each child was 192 days per annum, which was calculated at the rate of four days in the week for forty-eight weeks in the year. Now, the universal testimony in the rural parishes of his own diocese was, that parents could not possibly spare their children for so large a portion of the year as forty-eight weeks, on account of their services being required at harvest time, and other reasons. He, therefore, begged to ask—3. Whether the Minute may be so modified as not to require so long a period of attendance on the part of the scholars, or, if not, so as to allow the calculation to be made on the aggregate attendance of the whole school, and not on the separate attendance of each child? His remaining questions were—4. Whether in schools in which, under the provisions of any trust deed a portion of the children are necessarily admitted without payment, the attendance of such children may nevertheless be calculated in the claim for a grant? 5. Whether the condition as to the holding of a certificate by the master or mistress may be dispensed with (at least for the present), the condition as to the efficiency of the school, according to the subordinate regulation, Sec. 8, being equally enforced? In conclusion, the right rev. Prelate said, that if the Minute were altered in those respects he had mentioned, it would seem to him so well suited for its purpose that the only regret he should then have would be that its application was not universal, but that it was proposed to call into operation any other measures. He deemed it to be of prime importance, in reference to the success of our educational efforts, that the present basis of voluntary efforts, combined with State assistance, should not be disturbed. He was the more confirmed in this opinion from having had the opportunity of seeing the view taken of the state of education in this country by a very intelligent and enlightened foreigner, M. Eugène Rendu, sent on a special mission for this purpose by the Minister of Public Instruction in France. That gen- 332 tleman, after a very accurate and intelligent survey of the existing state of education in this country, which showed that he fully appreciated our deficiencies as well as our progress, and the evils as well as the advantages of our social state, summed up his observations with this remarkable expression—that if he were called upon to express in a word the law of educational development in the United Kingdom, he would define it thus—"Respect on the part of the State for voluntary efforts, confidence on the part of voluntary efforts in the State." And he then went on to urge upon the Minister of Public Instruction in France that the lesson France was to learn from the institutions of England was that of a more determined effort for the development of voluntary efforts; and, as necessary in order to this, the impressing upon all schools, at any price (coúte qui coúte) an essentially and practically religious direction. He (the Bishop of Salisbury) confessed that such sentiments appeared to him to deserve their gravest attention, and this especially at a moment when the efforts of so many of those who claimed for themselves the title of advocates of the education of the people pointed in an altogether contrary direction—in a direction tending at once to the disparagement and discouragement of voluntary efforts, and to the tampering with those religious principles from which alone we could hope that such voluntary efforts would proceed. If we had learnt anything—and he believed we had—in the efforts and struggles of these thirteen years, it was the importance of not offending the religious convictions of those, be they members of the Church or of any other denomination, whom we desired to enlist in the cause of education; and, again, that religion was not to be taught in vague generalities, which all might receive but no man would profit by; that it was not to be separated into general and particular, but that in a religious system definite religious teaching must pervade the whole; and those who held a definite system of religious truth must be allowed to impart it to those under their care in such manner as they should themselves think best. He was able to give his support to this Minute, because he saw in it a means of great practical encouragement to the education of the people, based oh the principle of stimulating voluntary efforts, in harmony with the steps which had already been taken with such 333 good success in the same direction, and not interfering with that religious liberty or religious truth which they were determined by every means in their power to uphold. But he could not say the same should they come to the question of local rates, compulsory assessments, or town-council committees. Here they would be entering upon ground new, untried, perilous, divergent from the course in which they had hitherto advanced, if not opposed to it, and which he feared would lead to disappointment and disaster as its results. He could not approve of such a course, because be believed, in the first place, that it would be found nearly, if not altogether, inoperative: because, secondly, so far as it operated at all, it would do so only in laying the foundation of a new subject of strife and local agitation in every city and town throughout the length and breadth of the land; and, thirdly, because he saw, as its necessary consequence, a perilous interference with religious liberty, and, in the not remote future, a growing danger to religious truth. He knew that this was not now the time or opportunity for entering further upon these points; but he hoped it was not unsuitable to make this reference to a subject of so great importance, and so immediately connected with that upon which he had been addressing their Lordships. He would not, however, further trespass upon them, but would leave the noble Earl to answer the questions he had put to him.