Lord Salisbury made a remarkable speech at Limehouse on 'Thursday
about religious teaching. He does not think the Board-schools will eat up the voluntary schools, but rather, if anything, that the voluntary schools will win the battle. -They are, he thinks, essential to that religious liberty to which he believes the English people to be immovably attached. The Cowper-Temple compromise which has worked well for twenty-five years, has this defect, that it erases the formularies, which are like hedges, not beautiful in themselves, but protections for the flowers and fruits. In the absence of formularies, there is a tendency towards doc- trines which are fatal to Christianity, and these doctrines the religious English will not have taught to their children. 'The sound system is that under which a man would pay his education rate to the school which he approves, and it is towards that that we must gradually advance. The State will not be suffered to act like a Russian censor, and black out any religious opinions of which it does not approve. That is all more or less sound; but before discussing it we should like to see some indication of the method through which Lord Salisbury would try to secure his undoubtedly Liberal end.
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