RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "EPROTATOR.1 Sr,—In your issue of April 28th there is a letter from Alderman Macfarlane, Chairman of the West Hartlepool Education Committee, sending you a syllabus of the religious instruction current in the provided schools of that town, which you were pleased to commend, and to print the prayers used. I am glad Mr. Macfarlane has called attention to what was and is being done, and to the spirit which animated those who com- piled the syllabus, and the town which accepted so reasonable a settlement, so I wish to carry the information further. Mr. Birrell referred to Hampshire, but in the populous county of Durham the same state of things has long existed, largely aided by the practical piety and statesmanship of the late Bishop of Durham, Dr. Westkott. The Bishop held con- ferences on the subject soon after he came to Durham, at which Churchmen and Nonconformists interested in religious education in elementary schools were present. He afterwards issued a statement in which he said he had inquired into the syllabus and practical working of the large Boards in the diocese—Sunderland, Gateshead, Shields, West Hartlepool, and others—and commended them as good, and a founda- tion worthy to build further religious training upon, and appealed to his friends to use them and to work with others. I am able to say, as a Chairman of the late Board and a member of the County Council authority, that good work has been done, and, peace has reigned for many years in the county, by the joint efforts of Church- men and Nonconformists, clerical and lay, in the administra- tion of the provided schools. Surely what London, Hamp- shire, Durham, and others can do, cannot be bad for others. A curious coincidence causes me to write to you. My Spectator did not come last Monday ; but last evening my daughter brought me a copy which a gentleman had given her in a restaurant on the Col di Tenda, and from the high Alps I got a sight of my townsman's letter. An hour afterwards I received a letter from Canon Savage, Vicar of Halifax, asking "if Ald. Macfarlane is not wrong in saying the syllabus WWI set up by the first Board (a Church majority) elected." The Alderman's memory is a little at fault: the syllabus was the joint work of Canon Savage (then Chairman) and myself (Vice-Chairman) at the request of the Board, as he says, "some years later, after the old religious rivalry had been largely allayed." "The matter is unimportant," the Canon says; but I venture to differ from him. The willing endeavour of a High Churchman, as he is, and a strong Nonconformist, as I am, to make peace and pursue it, has brought peace to our town, and though not all that either side wants for com- pleteness, gives a basis which religious teachers can improve, and is surely a model for consideration.—I am, Sir, &c.,
GEORGE H. BAINES (of West Hartlepool).
Villa Olympia, Cimiez, Nice, May 5th, 1906.
[How is it that in the concrete we are always coming upon admirable examples of tolerance, good sense, and mutual confidence shown by strong Churchmen and strong Nonconformists, and at the same time we are always hearing it declared in the abstract that no true Churchman can ever willingly consent to the establishment of Noncon- formity under the name of undenominational teaching, 0, that Nonconformists and Churchmen cannot possibly agree as to the fundamental truths of Christianity P Nevertheless, as soon as sensible men get together round a Committee-table the impossible happens.—En. Spectator.]
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