18 NOVEMBER 1871, Page 11

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS' C0A1MrSSI0NERS AND THE NONCONFORMISTS. - rTo TII5 EDITOR Or TUN "SPBOTATOR.1 SK11,—Your correspondent " Alpha " has entirely mistaken the purport of the letter we addressed to the Daily News on Novem- ber 4. We did not "bring forward as a crucial instance of un- fairness the scheme for a school at Bridgewater which became law last Session which places four clergymen ex-quicie on the govern- iug body," nor did we assert that that special scheme was "unjust to Dissenters." Mr. Roby in his letter to us conveying the decision of the department with reference to clerical ex-officio governors, suggested that we had overlooked the distinction made by Clause 10 of the Endowed Schools' Act between denominational and an- denominational schools, and in correcting this impression, while showing that we had carefully observed the distinction, we in- stanced the Bridgewater scheme as illustrating the profuseness with which the Commissioners indulged their predilection for clerical governors when unfettered by Clause 17.

What we assert is that the governing bodies of those schools which are not excepted by Clause 10 from the operation of Clause 17, and are therefore undenominational in their character, are so arranged as to secure upon them an overwhelming majority of members of the Church of England, and also that in various details of the schemes the same partiality is displayed- We hope that early next Session the whole of the facts will be brought under the attention of .Parliament.—We are, Sir, &o.,

R. W. DALE, H. W. OnassisEsr, I/on. Secs.