23 MAY 1874, Page 15

THE RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY.

(To THE EDITOR OF THE SPEOTATOR.1 SIR,—I have lately become acquainted with some facts which may help us to estimate the real magnitude of the religious difficulty.

The Archdeaconry of Nottingham contains a population of 320,000. The number of children taught in schools belonging to the Church of England is 41,393. The cases in which objection has been raised by parents to the instruction of their children in the Church Catechism number something less than the odd hundreds. In six instances only has objection been made to reli- gious instruction generally ; in two of them by a Jew, and in the other four by a parent of strong religious feelings who preferred to keep this part of the teaching of his children in his own hands.