5 MARCH 1904, Page 23

Justice in Education. By W. Sanday. (Longmans and Co. is.

net.)—We hope that this "word for peace" may not have been spoken in vain. "I cannot help wondering," writes Canon Sanday, after a fair, and even kindly, reference to the subject, "how far the School Board system is responsible for the very imperfect Christianization of our great cities." It is not irrelevant to remark that the Daily News census of 1902-3, recently published, shows less favourable figures than the British Weekly census of 1886,—and during these sixteen years the School Boards have been pushing to the wall the schools of the denominations. What else could be expected ? Was ever a grown man or woman converted by undenominational preaching ? Will undenomi- national teaching—which must avoid, of course, all definite in- struction on the Person of Christ—ever lay hold of a child? We cannot go through Dr. Sunday's arguments ; indeed, it is needless; it must suffice to say that they are clearly and temperately stated. But the real objection to the Education Act is that it is the logical deduction from the fact of the Established Church. Let us apply a familiar apologlie. A visitor from another planet alights in an English parish. He sees the church : it is the church of the State, he is told ; he sees the school : that also is of the State. How it would astonish him to find out that the doctrine taught in the one is forbidden in the other ! How can the people be other than "imperfectly Christianized" if the age of impression is denied its best opportunities ?