A great demonstration consisting entirely of London lay- men—no clergy
and no women were present—was held at the Albert Hall on Monday night to protest against the Education Bill. Lord Hugh Cecil, who was in the chair, declared that many people believed that they were after all but a " priest. ridden crew "; but that was a mistake. If they were not going to take their religion from priests, still less were they going to take it from County Councils. The Bill now before Parlia- ment was an outrage to liberty of conscience and an insult to the religious convictions which they held. Religion must be the foundation and the essence of education, and they did not like a measure which put it as inferior not only to arithmetic, but even to running errands or playing hopscotch. They must make it clear that they regarded undenominationalism as the teaching of a new religion hostile to their own, and " subversive ultimately of Christianity itself."
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