[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
S1111—I think that you have somewhat misapprehended the feel- ings of Liberal Dissenters in relation to the subsidizing of Denominational Schools out of school rates.
Prominence may be given to the injustice of paying rate-money for the propagation of different religious creeds, because it can be felt, and can be presented as a real grievance. But I think you will find that the disappointment of Liberal Dissenters in the present Government is in this : —They did hope that the nation was on the eve of something better and more liberal than Denominational teaching ; they hoped that a national system of common schools would be established, that the children of parents of differents sects, Protestant and Romanist, might be gathered together in a common place, and might learn practically a lesson of Christianity which the parents have as yet failed to learn ; they ventured to hope that common schools might teach children of an older growth that there is something to be learnt better than " distinctive church principles ;" they did hope, nay, more, they had some confidence, that a Liberal Government such as the present promised to be would have had at heart some scheme to bring about such a national education ; but their hopes have been for the present utterly frustrated. A Liberal Government has pro- vided a Tory education ; instead of fostering a common school it is doing its utmost to strengthen denominationalism, instead of pouring oil on the troubled water of Sectarianism, it is adding petroYeum to the fire ; instead of loosening the prejudices of the adult, it is providing for the strait-lacing of the very infant. Hence feelings of bitter disappointment in the present Government on the part of Liberal Dissenters ; and one would have thought that they would have the sympathies of a Liberal Spectator.
I would venture to suggest a solution of the educational difficulty, and a solution that might ultimately do something to solve the vexed question of a State Church. Let there be common schools, supported entirely by rates, or if that be objectionable, by rates and school foes ; and let there be compulsory attendance ; in these common schools let there be teaching common toall,—secular, if you please to call it, but it is good for all that,—and if any number of parents wish their children to be taught any distinctive church principles, let them or their friends provide for it by payment of extra fees.
It is surely the business of parents or of their church friends to provide for any kind of distinctive church teaching ; it is the business of the State to provide for the teaching of that which is common to all.--I am, Sir, &c., AN INDEPENDENT.
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