THE COMING EDUCATION BILL.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR:1 Sut,—In your article on the coming Education Bill (Spectator, January 11th) you state that the real difficulty of the con- tracting-out scheme is the amount of the Government grant ; but in my opinion there is another much greater difficulty, and that is that it would be no settlement of the grievance created by the Act of 1902 in single-school parishes in our rural and agricultural districts. The contracting-out principle • would leave the Nonconformist grievance, such as it is, in the same position as at present, whilst reviving more or less the -grievance of denominational schools, of which the Education Act of 1902 was the very unfortunate result.
I. venture to suggest another mode of arriving at a fair and reasonable settlement of the religious question in Christian Protestant schools, which include nearly all schools in single-school areas. I think most reasonable : Christian Protestants will agree with me that it is more important to secure Christian religious teaching in all schools than sectarian: dogma in a few schools in this country. Therefore let Christian Churchmen and Christian Nonconformists endeavour first to secure the teaching of Christian religious principles by the teachers within school hours in all elementary schools in accordance with the funda- mental truths of Christianity as set forth in the Apostles' Creed and the Ten Commandments. Secondly, let us try to preserve denominational religious teaching on two days in each week within school hours in single-school areas where such teaching is desired by parents; and in order to avoid any conscientious grievance where such teaching is given by duly qualified teachers, able and willing to give it, let the owners or managers remit the rent of the schoolrooms, or a reasonable 'portion thereof. And thirdly, in all such denominational schools let Section VI. (2) of the Act of 1902 be amended, and the managers in future consist of two foundation managers, two managers appointed by the parents of the children, and two by the local authority.
I suggest the above proposals, not as a perfect solution, but as the basis of a fair settlement; and I would remind your readers that in July, 1906, a manifesto was issued by the Protestant Nonconformists in which they stated that they regarded "instruction in the Biblical truth as an essential factor in the education of the young" ; and further stated "that instruction given in Holy Scripture should not be inconsistent with the Apostles' Creed, which represents the general consent of Christendom in the funda- mental facts of the Christian religion." I have not here referred to the Roman Catholics or the Jews because they are *very few indeed in our single-school areas, and it is in these parishes that the Act of 1902 has created the Nonconformist grievance which has been so absurdly exaggerated for political Purposes, and also because no compromise which might be acceptable to Protestant Churchmen and Protestant Noncon- formists could be acceptable to either the Roman Catholic priests or the Jewish faith, and not out of any want of sympathy with their conscientious deeire for further facilities.
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