The new Birmingham Board will be of use to all
England, if the majority try their secularistic experiment in a large way. It is said that they intend to open the Board Schools to denominational teachers out of school-hours, and if this be enly done with per- fect fairness as regards all denominations, which we do not doubt, we shall watch the experiment with interest, though we fear a factious ratepayer,—an Orangeman, say,—might object, and get a decree against the use of the school by Roman Catholic priests even in their turn. For our own parts, we expect the experiment to fail, both because the children will be apt to neglect the voluntary religious classes, and because those voluntary religious classes will not be con- ducted by any teachers to whom the-children are used, and who have earned their respect for their secular knowledge. How- ever the experiment can be tried nowhere under more advan- tageous circumstances than at Birmingham, where it will be almost a matter of life and death to the League to make it a successful one. If they would take a hint from an opponent, we would recommend them to give up the radically bad notiOn of prohibiting the secular masters from taking part in the religious teaching, and so trying their experiment without exposing it to the heavy disadvantages of by far the most absurd and most bigoted of the Manchester Conference's conditions.
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