instruction, wherever the number of children in attendance on the Model School belonging to any religious body dissenting from the Established Church, is such as to appear to this Committee to require such special provision.

"A portion of every day to be devoted to the reading of the Scriptures in the School, under the general direction of the Committee, and superintendence of the Rector; Roman Catholics, if their parents or guardians require it, to read their own version of the Scriptures, either at the time fixed for reading the Scriptures, or at the hours of special instruction."

The above scheme was made to comprehend Religion in its objects, not because this was considered the wisest, or the most practicable method, but because it was conceived to be the method most likely to disarm opposition. The event has proved the error of the calculation. No plan, however complete, liberal, or soundly based, could have arrayed a more formidable body of antagonists against it; while, at the same time, no plan giving so little, and containing so unfortunate a principle of discord and impracticability, could be expected to arouse the zeal of the real friends of an extended education. The one party is furious-the other is lukewarm; and the result cannot be long doubtful.

We are far from saying that, if all parties were sensible, wellmeaning, and sincere, children of all sects might not receive the elements of their religious education from the same teacher, and in the same school. That they might do so is proved by the experience of continental nations, and of several isolated cases in this country. But as long as sectarian animosity continues as bitter as, unhappily, it is with us, and as long as some sects persist in placing the essentials of Religion in doctrines which other sects repudiate, the only national system at once defensible and practicable, is one which shall render the education given and paid for by the Nation purely secular, and shall leave the religious instruction of the scholars to the Teachers already appointed and salaried by the various Denominations for that especial purpose: care being taken that an ample portion of time shall be set apart for that object, and devoted thereto.

That this is not only the only proper method, but the only one which can be extensively brought into operation in this country, is clearly shown by the following specimens of the objections urged against the proposed plan by various religious

sects:

Objections of the Wesleyan Methodists.

"We most decidedly object to the intended scheme, on the

strong grounds of conscience, and of our right to full religious liberty.

"We protest against being taxed for the teaching and maintenance of systems of religion which we, in common with the vast majority of our fellow countrymen, believe to be false and injurious.

"We protest, more especially, against our being compelled to support schools in which it is proposed to use versions of the Holy Scriptures, notoriously corrupt and unfaithful, and accompanied by notes, which, as we consider, contain the most absurd and pernicious doctrines.

"We think it would be an infringement of our rights, as a large and influential religious community, that after having paid a considerable proportion of the money expended in National Education, it would be impossible that the children of Wesleyan Methodists should avail themselves of its advantages, without being subjected to the dangers arising from the exhibition of rival sects, contending for rival versions of the Bible, and from the spirit of doubt, if not of absolute infidelity, in which that exhibition would be so likely to result.”

Objections of the Established Clergy.

'We indignantly protest against a plan which takes the religious education of the Nation out of the hands of that Church which the Nation has appointed to superintend it.

"We protest in the strongest terms against the distinction which is drawn by the Committee of Her Majesty's Privy Council, between religious education and doctrinal education,—a distinction wholly unwarranted by the Canons of our Church, and repugnant to those views of Christianity held by our Clergy, and established by our Law.

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We shall strenuously oppose the projected introduction of mutilated copies of the Scripture, whether for the purpose of humouring the whims, or soothing the prejudices, of either Papists or Socinians."

Objections of the Baptists.

"We cannot consent to a system which employs the taxes contributed by us in the service of the state, in paying, either directly or indirectly, for the promulgation of doctrines opposed to ours, and regarded by us as mistaken and dangerous."

We think the above summary of the objections felt by some of the most important religious denominations in the Country, to a scheme of general Education, of which miscellaneous re

ligious instruction forms a part, will suffice to show to the Government the impracticability of a plan, which, in other respects, is ably drawn up, and calculated to confer substantial benefits on the Community.

The error which the Privy Council have committed in the concoction of their present plan, appears to us to have arisen mainly from their too easy deference to the factious and unmeaning clamour prevalent last year, for "an Education based upon Religion." We wish for a precise definition of this demand. We confess it conveys no distinct idea to our minds. That Religion should form a part, and a large part of the subject-matter of all education, we comprehend, and shall require as earnestly as any one;–that a portion, and a considerable portion of each day should be devoted in all schools to the inculcation of moral and religious truth, none can regard as more important than we do. But how alphabetical instruction can be based upon religion, or how writing and geography can be taught on a religious basis, we are at a loss to understand. Since the late strenuous efforts to render the Bible the standard of orthodox Geology, we can, indeed, in some measure conceive how an exploded system of Astronomy can be based upon religion, as is actually done in the venerable University of Salamanca. But surely it must task the utmost ingenuity of the ablest divines whom Piety and Genius have combined to consecrate, to devise any method by which sound arithmetical knowledge can be based upon religion, and Vulgar Fractions, and the Rule of Three, religiously conveyed.

It is much to be regretted that our Rulers should have thoughtlessly given their sanction to so empty and absurd a cry, by attempting a modification of their scheme to humour it.

As Dissenters we may take this occasion of saying a passing word, in reply to a taunt frequently in the mouths of our orthodox antagonists. "You exclaim (say they) against the injustice of an Established Religion; yet you call for an Established Education. You demand the voluntary system in one case, and reject it in the other. Where is your boasted consistency?" We submit that there is no parallelism between the two cases: and the distinction is strong and manifest. The object of an Educational Board is the imparting of knowledge. The object of an Established Church is the propagation of opinions. The one gives to all what all want, and are willing to pay for. The other makes all pay for what a portion only desire to propagate, and the other portion to destroy.

It is too notorious to be concealed, that the present clamour against the proposed scheme of National Education, is, with a

vast proportion of those who make it, only a mask to cover their hostility to any scheme of education whatsoever. As such it ought to be sternly disregarded. If our Statesmen, careless alike of the interested opposition of one party, or the narrow prejudices of another, would only propound a plan, founded on a tenable principle, instead of on a clumsy compromise, or a timid halting between two opinions, and would lay it fairly and ably before the public, determined to abide by the result,we firmly believe that the whole enlightened portion of the community would rouse themselves in its behalf; and that three years would not elapse before the question was placed upon a footing from which no subsequent hostility could remove it. But their present system-of abandoning an impregnable, to take up an indefensible position, of offending the friends of Education, in order to pacify its enemies, is the weak magna. nimity of a man who should throw away his strongest weapons when in combat with a mortal foe.

W. R. G.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

I. THE Present position, prospects, and Christians. By John James Tayler, B.A. and Son. Pp. 28. 1839.

duties of Unitarian London: Smallfield

This is an exposition of the essential spirit of Religion, and of religious progress, in every way worthy of its Author's large, wise, earnest, and catholic mind. Our desire is to attract to it the attention of all who have not studied this last contribution to a subject which we rejoice to see is more and more occupying the Unitarian mind. Full of the best promise is the state of feeling and want amongst us, as Mr. Tayler finds it, and our own experience amply verifies his description.

"You may hear on all sides an universal call for the more earnest and affectionate preaching of the life-giving spirit of the Gospel, to the conscience and the heart; for a Christianity, which shall speak to the depths of our moral being as men, instead of irritating our vanity as sectarians; —which shall no more perplex our understandings with the thorny questions of metaphysical divinity, but shall call forth, unfold, and ripen, the slumbering affection and capacity, for all that is pure, noble, and exalted, of the humanity with which God has gifted us, and which the humblest dweller upon earth shares in common with the holy and sinless Saviour of men."-P. 7.

The exact position of Unitarianism, as a spiritual and positive interest, drawing its life from itself, and not from its relations to other dogmas and sects;—the circumstances, in fact, in which a purely spiritual and progressive Christianity has to maintain its existence, are stated with admirable concentration and clear

ness.

"No religious community can long maintain its independent existence and flourish, without a clear consciousness of its distinguishing principles and specific tendency; and simply to go back-without the assumption of a more vigorous life, or the experience of a stronger impulse to the negative generalities and cold abstractions of the critical spirit of the last century, would involve a great probability of our losing that animating consciousness altogether. In fact, the great, momentous question, which you, my friends, which all of us, have now to solve,—the question upon whose decision the prosperity, perhaps even the existence, of our churches must henceforth rest-is simply this; can we maintain a genuine catholicity of spirit without relapsing into languor and apathy?