Lord Salisbury, in presiding at the meeting of the National
Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in Church Principles, on Tuesday, delivered a reasonable and thoughtful -defence of the principle of denominational schools, which the report, by the way, showed to be very prosperons,—bnt injured that defence by adopting the absurd proposal which some of the friends of denominational education have lately brought for- ward, that subscribers to denominational schools should be -exempted, so far as their contribution goes, from the rates im- posed in their district for Board schools. We have shown else- where that a rate is imposed for the benefit of the district, and must be expended by those who axe responsible to the whole people of the district ; that a denominational school managed by private persons can never be made so responsible ; and that there can be no security that a school so managed supplies what the local public want. On all these and on other grounds it is simply bizarre to propose that what a householder contributes to a denominational school managed by a committee of private gentlemen, shall be regarded as if what he so contributes were equivalent to what is demanded for a public purpose under public control.
Previous page
