NATIONAL EDUCATION. THE SCHEMES OF THE LEAGUE AND UNION COMPARED.

We extract the following very clear comparison of the two schemes for education from the Westminster Gazette:

The National Education League" and the 'National Education Union" have a common object-to secure the education of every child in the country. They are agreed that this has not yet been accomplished; and that, in order to its accomplishment, both the school attendance of children and the supply of good schools must be somehow largely increased. So far they agreed; but here their agreement ends. As regards the means whereby this common object may be best attained, and as regards the principles on which these means shall be based, they are uncompromisingly opposed to each other.

PROGRAMME OF UNION.

1.-Means for Increasing School Attendance. The Union objects to direct compulsion on two grounds:-First, it is invidious that pains and penalties would be inflicted on the poorer classes, from which richer classes are exempt. And, second, it is unwholesome for society to take upon itself responsibilities which ought to rest upon parents.

The Union, therefore, proposes to confine direct compulsion to those children to whom the State stands in loco parentis, viz., to the idle, vagrant, and pauper children. (This is to be done by making the Certified Industrial Schools Act, and Mr. Evelyn Denison's Out-door Pauper Act compulsory.) For the rest, i.e., for all children of the independent poor the Union would apply such stimulus as is now applied to other classes. No one can enter the learned professions, nor be employed in the army, navy, or civil service, without evidence of education. This principle has also been applied to certain manufactures with good effect. Let it be made universal-that no child be allowed to earn wages without

evidence of education.

Thus it would become the direct interest, as well as duty, of the parent to provide for the education of his child; and we should have the parents with us, instead of against us, in the matter of their children's schooling.

To put it shortly, the Union proposes-(1.) For the vagrant and pauper children, direct compulsion. (2.) For the children of the independent wage-earning classes, a premium on education, the premium being the franchise of the labour market.

2.-Means for Increasing the Supply of Good Schools.

A real demand for good schools being thus secured, the Union believes, and all experience seems to prove it, that a sufficient supply will be created and maintained by the present system of voluntary effort, aided by

Government grants.

The supply has hitherto more than kept pace with the demand; our existing school-buildings could accommodate thirty per cent. more children than are in them, and their number is yearly increasing. But to stimulate the establishment of good schools in backward places, it is proposed that Government inspection should be made universal, and that local deficiencies should be annually reported to Parliament and published. And to bring the existing schools into harmony with public opinion and render them available to all, the Union would, by a carefullyworded conscience-clause, guarantee perfect liberty of religious teaching to the teacher, and perfect liberty of withdrawing his child therefrom to the parent.

Thus the Union would preserve and maintain the existing constitution of our schools (modified only by a universal conscience-clause), and would at the same time bring the pressure of public opinion to bear upon neglected places.*

PROGRAMME OF LEAGUE.

Such being the Conservative policy of the Union, it will be seen at once how directly opposite is the policy of the League. The League proposes to coerce ratepayers to maintain, and to coerce poor children to attend, an entirely new type of school, gratuitous, unsectarian, managed by boards of ratepayers-unsectarian" being interpreted to mean secular. All existing schools are to be gradually superseded, or as one of their speakers at Birmingham expressed it, "the existing system must go by a slow, sure, and I hope painless form of extinction." "The process" (as the Chairman, Mr. Dixon, kindly explained) "would be gradual, and no inconvenience would be felt by the transfer of schools It has been further suggested, by Canon Norris, that the proposed amendment of Mr. Evelyn Denison's Act (18 and 19 Vic., c. 34), might be made to meet the case of places-if any such were left-which (after due warning) failed to provide sufficient means of education for their children. For the law compelling Guardians to provide schooling for all children of out-door paupers, might be extended to mean that, where no school for them existed, one should be provided out of the rates, capable of accommodating also all the other children of the place;-such schools being in all cases held provisionally under trusts, which would allow them to be handed over to voluntary committees, whenever voluntary committees should come forward to take charge of them. Meantime, the schools would be constituted. in respect of religious instruction and management, as the separate pauper schools are (under 7 and 8 Vic., c. 101) only open, as day-schools, to all comers. It is very certain tha few, if any, places would endure such an unsatisfactory kind of school, involving such an additional burden on the rates (for these rate-schools should receive no annual grants from Government). Such rate-schools would be sure to be forestalled, or, at all events, rapidly absorbed by the voluntary denominational system of the country.

that would be continually taking place." The Chairman also explained how this gradual extinction of denominationalism was to be effected. All children whose parents or guardians objected to paying the school fee required by existing schools, were to come at once under the provisions of the new scheme-the existing school being required to modify its constitution to meet such cases, under pain of a rival rate-school being established.

Such is the scheme of the National Education League. The consequences of such a scheme can hardly have been seriously considered :— 1.—Financially, an income of more than half-a-million, now arising from school fees in inspected schools alone, is sacrificed.

An income of more than half-a-million now arising from voluntary subscriptions to inspected schools alone is also sacrificed.

To fill the void, two-thirds instead of one-third of the expense of National Education is to be granted by Parliament, and the remaining third is to be extorted from our overburdened ratepayers.

2. As regards School Management:-The appointment of teachers is to rest with boards of ratepayers. The cheapest will be appointed. All our existing training Colleges being closed, where will the League look for its teachers? If it train men on its own principles, will they be acceptable to our English parents?

3. As regards Parents:-However much they may wish their children to receive religious instruction at school, it is to be refused. Is this what England means by religious liberty? Contributing as they now do, one-third of the school's income, they have a considerable control over it; they have at least the power of withdrawing their child from must under a compulsory system)? a school which they dislike. Will they willingly surrender this (as they

the children that religion should die out of their daily school life, and 4. As regards the Children :-Will it be altogether wholesome for shrink into a Sunday observance?

If schools are to train human nature healthily. we cannot too carefully 5.-Is uniformity of type a thing to be desired in our schools? remember that "human nature is not a machine, to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree which tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing." requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the

6. Finally, if it be the State's office" to ensure the conditions necessary for the free growth of all human good,"+ is it well for the State to write up over the doors of our schools that Christ's Ministers are to have no admittance, and that if the Bible be read at all it be read "without note or comment?"

To sum up :

The League pushes religion out of our schools; the Union relies upon it as the mainspring of national education.

The League places school management in the hands of those who care least for it; the Union leaves it with those who have shown that they care the most for it.

The League gradually destroys all that we have done; the Union preserves and completes it.

The League kills by compulsion the feeling of parental responsibility; the Union fosters and stimulates it.

The League dries up voluntary effort, and throws the whole burden on taxation; the Union encourages voluntary effort and relieves taxation. The League makes the education of the poor a matter of police; the Union makes it a matter of Christian responsibility.

The League revolutionises our education system; the Union advances steadily on the lines of our national traditions.

Commenting upon the above the Westminster Gazette says:-"The issue of this struggle will prove of more importance to us Catholics than any event since the Emancipation, and yet there is amongst us an apathy on the matter which, to thoughtful minds, is simply appalling. ... We are asked to look our fears in the face and see whether they are not exaggerated. Religion has made its way despite free inquiry, and without State aid. It won the common people, it subdued the wise, it converted the rich, with no outside help, nay, in spite of every persecution.' This is true enough if the Catholic religion is meant; but the argument supposed to follow from it is a pure sophism; for, be it observed, the logical consequence-do away with State aid altogether, let there be the freest inquiry-is not the one deduced, but this one-let State aid be given, and confined to purely infidel schools, let there be the freest inquiry, but inquiry apart from, and independent of, all faith! We are told that nearly everything is on the side of Christianity in such a country as this, and that no child that goes to a secular school could help having 'the constant sense of something great, important, absorbing, lying beyond the region of his school teaching; nor need we dread that Christianity would cease to be taught. The Clergyman will still have within his reach those whose parents neglect them.' We have seldom come across an instance of ignorance so gross as shown by these words. They indicate a complete absence of even the slightest acquaintance with the practical working of schools. We have the profoundest conviction, from years of experience, that the influence for good which is brought to bear upon children is exercised almost wholly in the school.”

Afternoon's Post.

London: THOMAS BOSWORTH, 198. High Holborn, to whom Business Communications and Advertisements should be Addressed.

Under Lord Palmerston's Administration an enormous sum was expended on fortifications for Portsmouth, both by sea

THERE is little definite information to be had in regard to the Council at the Vatican. The Roman Catholic journals contradict each other, and the Westminster Gazette warns its readers that the Tablet is no more worthy of confidence than the ordinary daily papers. All, however, one way or other, testify to the strongly marked division of opinion existing in the Assembly, and if, as seems for every reason probable, the report be true that four English Bishops have joined the party opposed to declaring the Infallibility of the Pope, we may feel more confident than ever, knowing the wonderful ability which combines with their moderation. We trust that those who are labouring to promote a better understanding between the divided members of the Christian Family may be induced to bestir themselves and endeavour by their prayers, and in every way they can, to strengthen and support them in their effort to uphold the Faith.

We publish a letter from the Secretary of the A.P.U.C. to the Daily News, contradicting the report of their correspondent in Rome, that the Association has employed two wellknown English Clergymen to lay the question of Anglican Orders before the Committee of the Council appointed to consider the subject. Those who belong to the Association need hardly be reminded that as prayer is its sole means of action such a proceeding would have been impossible even if desired by those having the working of the A.P.U.C. in their guidance. The other day Sir Stafford Northcote shocked his old friends by the welcome he offered to Dr. Temple on assuming the charge of the Exeter Diocese. Now we have him expatiating on the benefits of Free Trade, and producing the stale fallacies of the Radical school, in opposition to the desire for Reciprocity which practical experience of the evil of onesided Free Trade has induced our working people to call for v gorously, Surely any reasonable being can perceive that if our manufacturers are prohibited from selling their goods in France by an import duty, while the French manufacturer

Ministry are doing their best to render them useless by bringing down that important port in every way. The Royal Naval College is reported to be about to be closed, and another thousand Dockyard labourers will, in a few weeks, be thrown upon their own resources-a woeful prospect truly in a place depending so much on the Dockyard for its life. At the last election one Conservative was returned, but there can be no doubt that two are safe to come in next time.

Mr. Forster's speech adds to the apprehension raised by Mr. Bright in regard to the measures likely to be introduced into Parliament by the Ministry. That a Godless democracy should desire atheistical schools is fitting, but we trust the day is far distant when Englishmen would allow their childrea to be left in ignorance of God's Word and agree to exclude religion from our schools. We must not, however, rest satisfied that the measure cannot pass. Organisation is necessary, and should be commenced at once, to oppose the assault on religious education which threatens our Universities with having the tests by which hitherto their religious tone has been defined abolished, reducing them to the same godless condition with which our parish schools are threatened. The old Whigs may be depended on for aid to defend their own lands, but having no higher ideas of the Church than as a "Branch of the Civil Service" they will not aid us in defence of religion, or in preserving either Church property from desecration or the Church herself from disestablishment.

We regret to hear that the Emigration League find themselves wholly unable to provide means of emigration for the thousands who, being out of work, apply to them. Under these circumstances we trust that all will unite in pressing upon the Government the imperative necessity for their taking immediate and effective action. Hitherto they have only added to the evil by reducing the number of men employed on public works.

In our last we published a letter from Archdeacon Denison complaining that we had misunderstood him, but we fail to discover that such is the case. He proposes, as we stated at first, that the Lower House of Convocation should merely record its protest against the Consecration of Dr. Temple and his appointment to the See of Exeter. This appears to us wholly unequal to the necessities of the case. In another page we give the ancient rules and Canons which Dr. Temple's consecration broke, and if, as appears from them, a consecration so performed is invalid, it follows that Dr. Temple is no Bishop. Under these circumstances we would call upon Convocation to take action, whereby the doubt may be removed, so that if Dr. Temple's consecration be really null and void, steps may at once be taken to save the Exeter Diocese from the sacrilege and confusion which arises from a Priest performing Episcopal acts without being of the Episcopal Order.

Courtesy to the weaker sex leads us to say that our contemporary the "English Churchwoman" is heartily welcome to appropriate anything we print. It would, however, be agreeable to our feelings to have an from. It is surely rather cruel to expose the ignorance of a Cambridgeoccasional acknowledgement of the source the information was derived shire Clergyman, who has supported the old lady for nineteen years, by publishing his misstatement that the "English Churchman" is the cheapest Church paper published. The complaint of a poor Curate that his Rector, though requiring him to profess belief in Baptismal Regeneraquoted last week on Wednesday from the "English Churchman," actually tion, only allows him to read half the Baptismal Service, which we recurs on Thursday in its columns.

The Rev. C. H. Bennington, to the Rectory of Rollesby, Norfolk.

B.

The Rev. E. G. Doughty, Rector of Martlesham, to be Inspector of Schools for the Deanery of Carlesford.

The Rev. F. R. Gorton, Curate of Badingham, to be Inspector of Schools for the Deanery of Hoxne.

The Rev. Charles Norris Gray, Curate of St. John's, Kidderminster, to the Vicarage of Hemsley-with-Pockley.

The Rev. H. L. Harkness, to the Vicarage of Berrow.

The Rev. John Hodgson Iles, Rector of Wolverhampton. to be Prebendary in Lichfield Cathedral.

The Rev. W. Jackman, Vicar of Falkenham, to be Inspector of Schools for the Deanery of Ipswich.

The Rev. Thomas Bucknall Lloyd, Vicar of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, to be Prebendary in Lichfield Cathedral.

The Rev. E. H. Loring, Rector of Gillingham, to the Rural Deanery of Brook. The Rev. Prebendary Owen, to the Rectory of Wonston, Hants. Patron for this turn, The Crown.

The Rev. J. Paul, to the Rectory of St. Helen, Worcester.

The Rev. D. H. Spencer, Curate of Nuneaton, to the Vicarage of Winsham. The Rev. E. Walpole Warren, late Curate of Diss, to the Rectory of Compton Martin, near Bristol.

Home and Foreign Church News.

The Bishop of London has been added to the Ritual Commission. The Convocation of the Province of York will meet on Feb. 22nd. The Bishop of Lincoln reopened the Church of Harworth last week. Dr. Rowland Williams, one of the contributors to Essays and Reviews," died last week. The Bishop of London has taken up his residence at London House for the Parliamentary season.

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A stained-glass window, illustrating the Te Deum, has been placed in St. Mary's Church, Bloxham.

The Queen has given £100 towards the. erection of Ryde Parish Church.

It is announced that Dr. Massingham has declined the Bishopric of

Sierra Leone.

The Vicar of Doncaster intimates that he has introduced into the Parish Church Hymns Ancient and Modern in place of "Mercer." The Ritual Commission has sent its Report on the Lectionary to the Queen.

Lord Feversham has presented one of the Livings in his gift to Mr. Gray, a son of the Bishop of Capetown.

The Bishop-Designate of Manchester has arrived in that city on a visit to his cousin, Mrs. Barrett.

The Liverpool Post states that the Archbishop of York has invited the Eastern Patriarch, Archbishop Lycurcus, of Syra, to pay a visit to him. Archdeacon Mackenzie will be consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Lincoln on the Feast of the Purification.

The Rev. G. Body preached on Sunday week in the nave of York Minster to a congregation of upwards of 3,000 persons.

A Dublin paper states that every R.C. Priest in Ireland is to be supplied by the Government with six copies of Mr. Bright's speeches. The Dedication Festival of St. Paul's Church, Lorrimore-square, is being observed. It commenced on Monday with Evensong and a Sermon by

Mr. Mackon ochie.

It is said that Archdeacon Parry will not be presented for consecration as Suffragan of the Archbishop of Canterbury until after Easter. The Archbishop will, if possible, officiate.

At St. John's Church, Torquay, on Sunday week, a sum of 2.0007. in gold was placed in the offertory by one donor towards the completion of the Church. Archdeacon Denison has given notice to the Secretary of the S.P.G. that he will oppose the election of Bishop Temple in the event of his being proposed for election as Vice-President.

of St. Paul's Cathedral has just been uncovered. Another one is about A beautiful stained-glass window on the north side of the chancel to be placed on the south side.

The Rev. John Power, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Pembroke College, has been elected to the Mastership of Pembroke College, rendered vacant by the death of the Rev. Dr. Ainslie.

The Liverpool Select Vestry, with one dissentient, have resolved to cushion the seats in the Workhouse Chapel occupied. by the Workhouse Officials. The deal boards are considered sufficient for the paupers.

The Rev. Charles Waldegrave Sandford, Senior Censor of Christ Church, Oxford, has been appointed Commissary in certain matters, and Senior Resident Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is well known in Oxford as a College Tutor.

At the monthly meeting of the S.P.G., on Friday, it was stated by the Standing Committee that the new Bishops would be proposed for election en masse as Vice-Presidents at the annual meeting on the 18th of February.

On Tuesday-week, Lord Wharncliffe presided at a Church Conference at Leeds, when the question of middle-class education was discussed. It was ultimately decided that additional public schools for the middle classes should be established in Yorkshire.

The Rev. E. H. Bickersteth proposes that the "Evangelical" Churches should be opened for Special Services during the first ten days of Lent. Sound High Churchmen will have frequent Services in their Churches during the whole of Lent, as a matter of course.

In the ensuing Parliamentary Session, besides the twenty-four Bishops, there will be nine Clerical peers entitled to seats, viz., the Earls of Carlisle and Buckinghamshire, Lords Saye and Sele, Scarsdale, Dynevor, Auckland, Brodrick, O'Neill, and Buckhurst.

An inmate of the Sisterhood attached to St. Paul's Church, Brighton, has lately died, and bequeathed some of her property to an official of the institution. Certain of her relations are endeavouring to set this aside on the ground of "undue influence."

On Friday the Bishop of Bath and Wells opened a new school in his Diocese, and in an earnest address urged all lovers of the Bible to resist as a matter of life and death, all attemps to exclude religious instruction from the schools of the country. Mere secular education must inevitably produce widespread infidelity and indifference to religion.

A correspondent of the North Wales Chronicle commenting on a Sermon by the Bishop of Bangor, complaining of the Cathedral congregation for neglecting the Holy Communion and taking no interest in leaving the Cathedral before the Holy Communion is celebrated, and not the Ordination Service, justly observes on the impropriety of the choir being present at Ordinations.

It is noted that the Rev. J. Hall, Incumbent of Knockholt, near Sevenoaks, after twenty-six years' Ministry in the Church of England, fifteen of which have been spent in Lis present Incumbency, enjoys a net income of 297. 15s. 6d. a-year. A grant of 1007. has just been offered to Mr. Hall by the trustees of a charity, upon the condition that the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty will grant a similar amount.

In the revised Lectionary proposed to Her Majesty we observe with regret that instead of the words "Morning and Evening Prayer," as contained in the Order prefixed to the Prayer Book, the Romish terms "Matins" and "Even song" are to be used. We do not consider the change unimportant. The words "Even song" imply intonation.Record.

On the appointment to the See of St. Asaph the Spectator remarks that "Mr. Gladstone is lucky. He has actually found a Clergyman, who is a Welsh scholar, a commentator on Sophocles, and an Evangelical of the moderate but decided school, and has made him Bishop of St. Asaph. To please the Church, the Record, Wales, and the Spectator all together, -what a hit!"

It is stated in the Guardian that the bells of St. Clement's Church. Sandwich, have been sold in order to obtain funds to restore the central tower of this ancient and interesting edifice, all the efforts to obtain the needful money having failed. Some three years ago when a similar act Canterbury to prevent its execution. was contemplated an injunction was issued by the late Archbishop of

has been conferred on the Ven. Basil Jones, Archdeacon and Prebendary The papers publish an announcement that the Bishopric of St. Asaph of York, and Vicar of Bishopsthorpe. The Record says "We have nothing to allege against the appointment of a moderate High Churchman; but the paragraph going the round of the newspapers, to the effect that he belongs to the Evangelical section of the Church, is only calculated to delude."