Further evidence of how wiser counsels are prevailing among the
Church leaders is to be found in the Report of the Committee appointed to deal with the Bill presented to the Lower House of Convocation (Canterbury) on Wednesday. For the tone and temper of that Report we have nothing but praise. It makes no unfair attempt to discredit the Bill, and the amendments proposed are substantially of the kind suggested in these pages and in the Bishop of Ripon's letter. On Thursday the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Upper House of his Province made a speech which was also satis- factory from the point of view of peace and common-sense. He was quite prepared, he declared, to endorse all he had said in 1894 in regard to religious teaching in Board-schools. A very welcome utterance at the present moment is the pastoral letter of the Bishop of Carlisle. Its guiding thought is the necessity for preventing the establishment of secularism. We must add that, in response to a motion by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Crewe has promised on behalf of the Government a complete Return of the syllabuses issued by the local educational authorities in counties and boroughs.
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