TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE EDUCATION BILL.
WE shall not attempt to deal with the rhetorical excursions and alarums of the second reading debate. The eloquence displayed on both sides was only important in so far as it gave indications of a spirit of compromise. That spirit of compromise, we are happy to say, is already in the air. Even the extremists among the Bishops and clergy are beginning to recognise that it is a matter both of duty and policy on the part of loyal adherents of the Church not to oppose the Govern- ment Bill tooth and nail, but to endeavour to 'base upon it what may prove a national settlement. On the other hand, the Nonconformist extremists and the strenuous political advocates of the Bill are beginning to realise that though it may be good to have a giant's strength, it is base to use it like a giant, and that they will not secure the confidence of the best part of the nation if they insist upon their pound of flesh, and declare that they will have the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill. When the Bill was introduced, and again a fortnight ago, we ventured to make certain suggestions for amendment which would, we believe, render the Bill acceptable to reasonable men on both sides. Shortly, our suggestions were :— (1) 'That the Government should abandon the proposal under which teachers in transferred non-provided schools are prevented from giving religious instruction on the two days when facilities for denominational education are allowed.
(2) That facilities for denominational teaching should be given to all denominations in all provided schools.
(3) That when extended facilities are granted, they should be granted, not by counting heads, but when the local authority has convinced itself that the grant of extended facilities would be just to the children of the denomination to which such facilities are granted and would inflict no injury on the minority owing to accommo- dation being available elsewhere.
(4) That the proposals in regard to the Commission of three should be reconsidered.
(5) That both the denominational instruction given under facilities and the undenominational instruction given in the ordinary school curriculum should be given in school hours, though subject, of course, to a Conscience Clause.
(6) That in the transferred non-provided schools a certain proportion of the teachers should be chosen from the denomination to which the freehold of the school belonged.
(7) Finally—and this we regarded as the most important of our suggestions—we proposed that any Voluntary school that desired to contract itself, as it were, out of our present localised system of education should be allowed to do so, and to return to the status quo ante 1902. In other words, we proposed that any Voluntary school might abandon all local rate-aid, and obtain merely a Government grant as before 1902. Such contracting out, however, should only be allowed in areas where there were more than one school.
We are glad to find that these proposals have met with support in two most influential quarters,—and in both cases from strong supporters of the present Government. The Bishop of Hereford in his admirable letter in Monday's Times proposes a series of amend- ments almost identical with those proposed by us, while the British Weekly, one of the ablest and most influential organs of Nonconformist opinion in the country, sets forth in its issue of Thursday a scheme for contracting out esactly similar to that proposed by us on April 28th. We will deal, to begin with, with the Bishop of Hereford's letter. The first concession asked for by the Bishop is that teachers who may be willing to give denominational ilstruction should be allowed to do so. His next is that facilities should be granted in all schools. His third is that the proposals in regard to the Commission should be modified to give a right of appeal. His fourth is that a. local authority should not be allowed arbitrarily to refuse special facilities where the children in a school are virtually all of one denomination, • and there is for others a choice of schools within. reach. The Bishop adds his belief that there is a very general desire among Churoh- men and Nonconformists that the simple Bible teaching' provided by the Bill should be 'given within the obligatory school hours. It will be seen, therefore, that the Bishop's proposals are practically the same as those advocated by us from the beginning, though we may go a little further than the Bishop in certain particulars. Before we leave' the subject of the Bishop's letter to the Times, we should like to draw attention to the excellent pastoral letter lately addressed by him to the clergy of his diocese. We have read. nothing during the present controversy which is conceived in a wiser or more reasonable spirit, or in one more worthy of the holder of a Bishop's great and sacred office in the national Church. Those who are inclined to imagine that the Bishop of Hereford thinks too much of the interests of the Liberal Party and too little of those of the Church should send for his letter, which is printed. in the Hergord Diocesan Messenger for May, and may be obtained from Messrs. Wilson and Phillips, Hereford, price 3d.
We must deal next with the British Weekly's article on the proposal to contract out, which it heads "Clause IV. —An Olive Branch." The only matter of importance on which the British Weekly differs from us is that it pro- poses that the right of contracting. out should not be, as we proposed, an alternative to Clause IV.—i.e., the extended facilities clause—but a substitute for it. We desire, as we pointed out in our article of April 28th, that in all areas other than single-school areas the managers and trustees of Voluntary schools should have three alterna- tives before them. We urged that "either they might make their bargain with the local authority and obtain facilities, or they might make use of the four-fifths clause, or, finally, they might appeal to the richer members of their denomination to provide sufficient funds to allow the school to contract itself out of the Act and return to the status quo ante 1902." The British Weekly would only leave two courses open to them,—either to obtain ordinary facilities, or else to contract out and return to the status quo ante 1902. The advantages which the British Weekly claims for the contracting-out proposal are advantages which we think most moderate Churchmen will be inclined to admit. First, says the British Weekly, the country would be saved from the "seething turmoil which would result from canvassing for a four-fifths majority." Next, the denominationalists of all kinds would not be able- to complain of confiscation, for they would be in no worse a position than they were before 1902, when there was no serious allegation of injustice. Thirdly, Noncon- formists would not be obliged to pay rates for denomi- national schools. "To pay them under the provisions of the four-fifths clause would," says the British Weekly, "be a complete desertion of the position taken up by the Passive Resisters." Fourthly, urges our contemporary, though the pecuniary terms would be less favourable than those contemplated by the Government, denominationalists would find compensation in the reality of their control, which would, of course, be complete. Finally, says the British Weekly, the arrangement would relieve the burden of the ratepayer. The British Weekly ends by the following significant warning addressed to Nonconformists who might be inclined to reject the proposal :—" Our friends may be quite sure that Englishmen will not long acquiesce in any plan that makes the State pay for simple Bible teaching, and refuses any aid to the Roman Catholic and Anglican Catholic parties who conscientiously believe that the teachingof the Bible without the interpretation of the Church is pernicious to religion. No matter how passion- ately the majority reject this view, it is quite certain that the minority who take it are as conscientious and as resolute as their opponents."
We do not, of course, know whether the leaders of the English Church and of the Roman Catholics and Jews will be willing to accept the olive branch thus offered, but for ourselves we can only say, as we said a fortnight ago, that we believe that in it lies the best solution of the question. The great advantage from the national point of view is that the clause gives, elasticity, and would act as a safety- valve to the _heated Jowl controversies which may, arise in, the carrying out of the Bill. We believe that in the case of a great number of Anglican schools a, little plain speaking and good feeling would enable the trustees to allow their schools to become provided schools, subject to the right of facilities plus the right of the teachers to teach if and when the Church could make voluntary arrangements with them so to do. In cases, however, where for any reason the owners of the Church schools were distrustful of the local authority, or felt a strong desire to carry on their own schools entirely under their.own management, they might feel called upon to ask their fellow-Churchmen to make the sacrifice required by contracting out. In all probability the very best Church schools would thus remain under Church management. Englishmen have a natural liking for voluntaryism, and in cases where schools are of exceptional merit, and therefore could make a real claim to be carried on as at present, we do not doubt that subscriptions would be raised without great difficulty. Again, the provision would prevent any injury being done to the consciences of those who object to part with the schools. "If you feel aggrieved, why do you not go back to the position before 1902 ? " would be a sufficient and a reasonable answer to those who com- plained of duress of conscience.
In view of all these circumstances, we would urge most strongly upon Liberals and Nonconformists the wisdom and justice of supporting the British Weekly in holding out the olive branch on behalf of the Nonconformists, and we would equally urge upon Churchmen and Roman Catholics the wisdom of accepting it. No doubt if either the Nonconformists or the extreme Churchmen and Roman Catholics prefer to continue the battle rather than make peace, and intimate that fact to the party politicians on either side, those party politicians will be delighted to con- tinue the struggle. We would venture to suggest, however, that in truth the higher interests neither of Nonconformity nor of the Church have anything to gain by prolonging the strife to the bitter end. What is most urgently needed now is what we have ventured to call a safety- valve. Such a device for letting off the steam which might otherwise cause a dangerous explosion is provided by the contracting-out proposal, and therefore we hold that it should. be accepted. We do not, of course, suggest that its acceptance will immediately please everybody, or still all the waves of controversy that have been aroused. It will, however, prevent an explosion ; and if it can only be applied in conjunction with the amendments set forth by us and the Bishop of Hereford, we believe that we may at last reach a settlement which will be national, though possibly leaving a certain sense of grievance and soreness among extremists on both sides.
We feel we cannot end what we have written without heartily congratulating our contemporary the British Weekly upon the statesmanship and good sense which have induced its conductors to take up the question of contracting out. That was a very easy proposal for the Spectator to make. It is one which called for courage and independence when made by an organ of Nonconformist opinion. If, then, any good results should flow, as we trust they may flow, from the suggestion, we shall be the first to admit that the credit of those good results will belong, not to us, but to our contemporary.
Previous page
