Lord Hugh Cecil's vigorous and able speech on the Education
Bill, made at Edinburgh on Tuesday, contains a Passage which deserves quotation. There was, he declared, one weak spot in the Bill as it was now framed. In a certain number of districts the parent had no choice as to what school he should send his children to. "He thought a !eat improvement would be made in the Bill if some pro- vision were inserted allowing either the child to be taken out of the school for the purpose of religious instruction, or, if arrangements could be made, and discipline allowed, for the child to be instructed by special teachers. That would com- plete the justice from the religious point of view of the settlement of the Bill." That suggestion would afford proof, if any proof were needed, that the advocates of the cause of the Church school do not desire to force their religious tenets on the children of unwilling parents, but merely that they desire to give to the children of willing parents an education which on the religious side shall be inspired by the doctrines of the Church of England.
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