^ 
 
 
 ^ a
 
 LI E) RAR.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS
 
 THE 
 
 PRESENT DIFFICULTIES OF VOLUNTAEY SCHOOLS 
 
 EEPOET OF THE PEOCEBDINGS 
 
 AT THE 
 
 NATIONAL SOCIETY'S 
 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 
 
 HELD IN THE 
 
 SOCIETY'S NEW ROOM, SANCTUARY, WESTMINSTER 
 
 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1875 
 
 including Speeches by 
 
 HIS GEACE THE AECHBISHOP OF CANTEEBUKY 
 
 THE MAEQUIS OF SALISBUEY 
 THE EAEL OF SHAFTESBUEY 
 THE BISHOP OF LICHFIELD 
 
 LOED LYTTELTOX 
 LOED EEDESDALE 
 ME. HUGH BIELEY, M.P. 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE & CO., NEW-STREET SQUAEE, LONDON 
 
 1875
 
 ANNUAL MEETING 
 
 OP 
 
 THE NATIONAL SOCIETY. 
 
 E Sixty-fourth Annual Meeting of the National Society for 
 Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of 
 the Established Church was held on Wednesday, the 9th June 
 1875, at the new room erected over the Society's Depository at 
 Westminster. The Archbishop of Canterbury presided, and was supported 
 by the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of Hereford, Litshfield, Llandaff 
 Bangor, Kochester, and St. Asaph, the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of 
 Shaftesbury, Earl Nelson, Lord Lyttelton, Lord Ptedesdale, Mr. Huo-h 
 Birley, M.P., Mr. W. U. Heygate, M.P., Mr. Beresford-Hope, M.P., Lieut.- 
 Oeneral Sir Kichard Wilbraham, Archdeacon Jennings, Hon. Henry Walpole 
 Canon Gregory, Mr. P. Cazenove, Mr. Shaw Stewart, and other gentlemen. The 
 attendance was large, and included many of the London and country clero-y. 
 
 His Grace the Primate delivered the following address : 
 
 beg to say a very few words before 
 
 My lords, ladies, and gentlemen, I 
 we commence the actual business of 
 
 this 
 
 meeting. 
 
 cannot address a 
 meeting of the National Society in this room to-day without thinkino- of our 
 revered friend Archdeacon Sinclair (hear, hear), who has been so recently 
 taken away from amonsgt us, and whatever vote the society might come to 
 on the loss it has sustained by his death, it would, I am sure, be unanimous 
 (Hear, hear.) I believe it has been thought that the best mode of markino- our 
 sense of the loss which the Church of England has sustained by his death°was 
 to insert a passage on the subject in the Report which has been circulated • 
 and I desire now to express my personal sense of the loss which not only the 
 Church of England, but the cause of Scriptural and Church of Eno-land educa- 
 tion, have sustained. The term of years during which he served this Society 
 was long extended, and everyone who knows the Society will testify that he 
 served it faithfully. (Cheers.) He not only served it faithfully, but he served 
 it under very difficult circumstances j and I do believe that it is mainly owino 
 to his tact, good sense, and perseverance that the cause of education is in the 
 position in which we are enabled to report it to be to-day. I believe that he
 
 did great service to tLe National Society ; that he did great service, through 
 the National Society, to the nation at large ; and that he roused the nation to a 
 full understanding of the importance of many of the issues which have been 
 brought before the public during the past few years, and some of which remain 
 to be settled in the years that are before us. (Hear, hear.) We cannot say 
 that the death of Archdeacon Sinclair was premature, for he had lived to an 
 advanced age, and he had the satisfaction in his advanced years of being able 
 to serve the Church with vigour up to within a few days of his death. (Cheers.) 
 Perhaps I ought now to say one or two words with regard to the position of 
 the National Society at the present moment. It will be scarcely necessary for 
 me in this meeting to urge the importance of maintaining the National Society. 
 But there are persons outside these walls who have doubts on that subject : who 
 think that, partly by what has been done in the way of legislation as to educa- 
 tion, and still more, perhaps, by results which are likely to follow in the years 
 that are coming, the work of the National Society will be gradually super- 
 seded in this country ; and that we are only prolonging its existence unnecessa- 
 rily when, in fact, it has done its work, and a new system has been inaugurated 
 which will certainly before long supersede it. I do not at all myself, any more- 
 than the meeting, entertain at present that view of the matter. (Cheers.) I 
 believe that there never was a time when the National Society, professing the 
 principles that it does, was more needed in the country than it is now. (Cheers.)' 
 What has taken place with regard to education during the last few years is,, 
 as I understand it, that a great compromise has been effected on the subject of 
 education under Parliamentary sanction. Now, a compromise may mean one 
 of two things. It may mean that people are ready to sacrifice principle to ex- 
 pediency, and are willing not to insist on their principles because of certain 
 advantages which they think are to be attained by sacrificing them, or because 
 they think that nothing further is to be gained by insisting upon them. But 
 there is another sense of the word ' compromise ' which, perhaps, is more really 
 applicable in this case. It is said that Englishmen are fond of compromises. 
 I understand that to mean that we in England are quite ready to allow all 
 principles which are true to have fair-play — that we are in favour of public dis- 
 cussion to an extent which is allowed nowhere else — and therefore every prin- 
 ciple which has any truth at the bottom of it is sure to be allowed fair-play. 
 Now, there are certain principles with regard to education of which we have 
 heard a great deal in past years, and of which we are likely to hear more in the 
 time to come. One principle which has been very much insisted upon is this 
 — that all parents are really responsible for the education, and especially for the 
 religious education, of their children ; that you are, therefore, not entitled, in 
 the name of the State, or in the name of the Church, or in the name of any- 
 body whatsoever, to step in between the parent and the child, and to 
 annul by any acts of yours that union which God Almighty has 
 formed between them ; and that, consequently, if the conscience of the 
 parent disapprove of the form of education which you are anxious to give to 
 his child, you are bound to listen to his conscientious objections. That is a 
 principle which, when clearly stated in fall discussion, very few people in the 
 present day are anxious to disallow. But there is another principle which is 
 almost as important, that the State in a well-regulated country has a sort of 
 parental authority in reference to all its subjects j and that if you find there 
 are parents who altogether neglect their children, as you would not allow any 
 cruelty to the child's body, so neither are you to allow tyranny over the child's 
 mind ; and that, therefore, the State may step in and take the place of the parent, -^»^ 
 
 _ UIUC ^
 
 and discharge the duties which the parent, if he were alive to his responsi- 
 bilities, would himself perform. Now, if this be true of the State, it is still more 
 true of the Christian Church, which stands, of course, in such a relation to all 
 its members that it is bound to protect them against any attempts to deprive 
 them of the blessings of the Gospel. (Cheers.) While, then, we fully allow 
 the general authority of the parent to regulate the religious instruction of his 
 child, we cannot give up the right of the State to see that the child is cared 
 for on the one side, and still less can we give up the right of the Church to 
 perform its duty of giving full Gospel instruction to all who are capable 
 of receiving it. (Cheers.) Now take these principles and let them work. 
 That is what we have attempted to do in some of the recent arrangements 
 with regard to education. Whether we have hit upon the right way of allow- 
 ing these two principles to have full force time alone can show. The effort 
 has been to give fair-play to both sets of principles. Whether we have hit upon 
 the best mode of solving the difficulty, or not, has still to be seen ; bat while the 
 difficulty is unsolved, there must certainly remain a great duty on the part of 
 the National Society to maintain its old principles, and to see that no sacri- 
 fice is made of that which we esteem to be so valuable. (Cheers.) I will 
 now turn for a moment to another point. There is, no doubt, a very wide- 
 spread belief throughout the country at the present moment, that the sort of 
 religious instruction which is suitable to children is of a very simple kind indeed. 
 We all probably in our own families show our belief in this principle by the 
 kind of instruction which we give to our children. A simple statement of the 
 simple facts and truths of the Gospel, having as little^f controversy as pos- 
 sible mixed up with them — this is the sort "of instruction which we each of us 
 desire to give in our own nurseries to our own children ; and we cannot, there- 
 fore, be surprised that we should hear from all parts of the^country a demand 
 for a very simple and, as men call it, an undogmatic system of instruction 
 to be given generally in the religious teaching of schools. Controversy is, of 
 course, totally unsuited to the minds of children. The minute technical dis- 
 tinctions of theology are quite beyond their comprehension. The simple 
 teaching of Our Lord and Saviour and the simplest statement and doctrines of 
 Christianity — these are what parents^desire to give to their own children, and 
 these are what, not unnaturally, a great number of persons throughout the 
 community demand should be taught to the children in our schools. But 
 then, this principle, excellent as it is, may be strained into a statement that we 
 are to have no'^Christian doctrine taught. (Hear, hear.) Why, is it really 
 necessary to point out that to teach Christianity without doctrine is an absolute 
 absurdity ? (Cheers.) For Christianity is a series of doctrines (hear, hear) ; 
 and the question is, not whether we are to have doctrine or no doctrine, but 
 whether we are to teach the simple doctrines that are suitable for children, or to 
 go off into theological niceties which not children only, but perhaps a great many 
 grown-up people, cannot thoroughly understand. While, then, on the one 
 hand, we are quite willing to admit that we ought not to force minute points 
 of theology upon the unformed minds of children, on the other hand we 
 altogether repudiate the idea that you can have Christianity without doc- 
 trine, or any sort of education suitable for human souls which is not built 
 upon doctrine. (Hear, hear.) Now, a compromise has been made on this 
 subject, and I am not here either to defend or to assail it ; because, having 
 got a system which we can use, it is wiser for us to see how to use it in 
 the best way we can, than, by striving after what we cannot get, to run the 
 risk of losing what we have got. I have my private opinion on this subject
 
 but that has nothing to do with the present meeting. What I wish to point 
 out is, that as the compromise is in an unfinished state, and as the public mind 
 is unsettled upon it, the National Society would be extremely blind to its duty 
 if it handed over the work to the party which maintains only one of the pro- 
 positions to which I have alluded. I believe there is a great fallacy in the 
 public mind at the present moment, as to the possibility of giving undogmatic 
 teaching. Of course everything turns on the definition of terms, and when we 
 have defined ' dogma ' and ' dogmatic teaching,' we may be able to decide the 
 question ; but that it is possible to teach children with immortal souls without 
 any reference to the Being who made them — that it is possible to teach children, 
 with souls redeemed by the Blood of Christ, without any reference to the Saviour 
 who redeemed them, or by talking of Him merely as you would talk of any 
 human philosopher or ordinary teacher — this I, for one, altogether repudiate- 
 (Cheers.) And if we can only maintain here in England, for some years to 
 come, a distinct recognition of the absolute necessity of basing all teaching on 
 religious truth, and showing that religious truth depends on doctrine, I feel 
 confident that the mists that have'gathered around this subject will disappear, 
 and the clear intelligence of the English people will feel that the cause to which 
 this Society is plegded is the cause of truth^and of religion. (Cheers.) I am 
 perfectly sure that it is not the desire of the great body of the English nation to 
 sacrifice the- Christianity of the country. (Cheers.) What course may be 
 taken in the future I cannot say, but of this I feel as confident as I do of the 
 excellence of the English character — that the time will speedily come when 
 many of the foolish sayings which are current in the present day will be set 
 aside, and when men will realise that no teacher worthy of the name will go 
 into a school fettered, and not allowed to speak of Almighty God to the children 
 and not to breathe the name of, or express his sentiments as to, that Great 
 Being through whose death children and teacher alike can alone hope for 
 happiness either here or hereafter. (Cheers.) With these views as to the 
 duty which devolves on the National Society at the present time, I call upon 
 the Earl of Shaftesbury to move the first Resolution. (Cheers.) 
 The Earl of SsArTESBTJEY moved the foUowiug Eesolution : — 
 
 * That the Eeport be approved, and the thanks of the Meeting be tendered 
 to the Committee for their'labours in the interest of Religious Education, 
 and especially for their successful exertions, since the passing the Edu- 
 cation Act of 1870, to adapt the measures of the National Society as the 
 organof the Church in matters of Education to the altered requirements 
 of the time.' 
 
 His Lordship said :— It is true that we are in a crisis — a crisis not only as 
 to religious education, but to the Church itself j and I cannot speak without a 
 feeling of deep emotion upon this question, because I feel, and most assuredly 
 believe, that if religion be severed from national education, national education 
 would be severed from the Church and from the clergy, and one half of the 
 duties of the clergy would be taken from them. If that time ever arrives when 
 the clergy are driven from the schoolroom, and confined to the functions of the 
 pulpit, one half of the argument for maintaining the Establisned Church will 
 have been destroyed, and the remaining half will be valueless, and will be trans- 
 ferred to the balance of our opponents, who will turn it against us with vigorous 
 effect. (Hear, hear.) This explains in a great measure why many of them are 
 so ardent in favour of the establishment of School Boards and the enforcement 
 of the principle of compulsion. They know that such Boards will never give 
 the distinctive education that is given through the National Society j and
 
 while compulsion is a thing that we can do little with and nothing without, 
 I ventured to say formerly, as I will now repeat, that I believe no Parliament 
 that is or about to be will ever give the power of compelling the attendance of 
 children to denominational schools; and this being the case, we can per- 
 fectly understand the certain and irresistible progress of the School Boards. 
 The real question is, in what way we are to maintain for our children the 
 true, full, and complete teaching of the Gospel of Christ, to maintain their 
 right to be brought up in the ^ nurture and admonition of the Lord ' ? We 
 have no desire to include controversial points in our education, but there 
 are distinctive truths which must be impressed upon the minds of children, 
 and which they are as capable of understanding as the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury himself; and it is only in voluntary and denominational schools that 
 these truths are received and expressed. I must say that I look with utter dis- 
 may upon that lukewarm form of belief and that lukewarm system of religious 
 knowledge which characterise Board Schools. A large proportion of these 
 schools give a sort of dose of warm water which is neither nourishing nor 
 agreeable. (Laughter.) That is all the children get, and we know what the 
 Bible says of such teaching. The children have a right to the true juice of the 
 grape, the true fruit of the genuine vine of the Gospel (cheers) ; and it is for 
 the National Society to help forward by every effort in their power the asser- 
 tion for the children of these realms of this indefeasible right. (Cheers.) I 
 know, indeed, that the wisest and best of the Nonconformists are at one with 
 us in reference to the teaching of distinctive truths. The other day one of the 
 greatest of them said to me, in a letter—' The Board Schools are taking every- 
 thing from us, and we must do what we can for the instruction of our children 
 in that truth which they will never get at except under the voluntary and 
 denominational system.' (Hear, hear.) I can foresee too the tyne when a Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer— not perhaps of the present Government, but of some 
 future one — will rise in his place in Parliament and say to us : ' We must in 
 future withhold grants from denominational schools ; we have given you every 
 power, by means of an Act of Parliament, to institute School Boards and spread 
 education, and we cannot any longer give large grants to schools which are. not 
 purely national.' I feel perfectly certain that such a time is near at hand ; and 
 I am inclined to think, from what I see in the public prints, that such a pro- 
 posal would not be without favour or acceptance (hear, hear) ; and we cannot 
 doubt that when that time comes, we shall be hardly driven in reference to the 
 maintenance of denominational and dogmatic teaching in our schools. We 
 must be prepared for that terrible issue. The School Boards are advancing in 
 all directions, armed with the mysterious and irresistible word 'inefficient.' 
 In the metropolis they have already destroyed a great number of our best 
 schools through the use of that word. It is a dreadful word, because it is un- 
 defined, and because there is no appeal against it. I may be called an alarmist on 
 this question, but in my opinion it is a very good thing to be an alarmist in re- 
 ference to such a matter, if alarm does not unnerve us, but increases our vigour. 
 (Hear, hear.) I confess thati was never more alarmed in my life than when I read 
 the report of a speech which was recently made by a bishop of the Church of 
 England at a meeting after I had left the chair. The right reverend prelate is re- 
 ported to have said that ' he did not think they had any reason to be afraid of 
 Board Schools.' Why, they are the very things that we have cause to be afraid 
 of. (Hear, hear.) ' It was quite true,' he went on to say— let the meeting mark 
 this admission — ' that those schools had taken away a large proportion of chil- 
 dren from the day-schools.' Well, surely that was like taking the part of
 
 8 
 
 Hamlet out of the play. (Hear, hear.) Then he went on to say that ^ there was 
 still ample room for their efforts in Sunday-schools, which could not be injured 
 by the new educational system.' I believe that Sunday-schools will be injured 
 by the new system, and I would ask anyone present whether he thinks Sunday- 
 schools can ever adequately Tsupplement defective teaching in day-schools ? 
 (Hear, hear.) Is it not a fact that in America the Sunday-schools can only 
 with great difficulty attract 40 per cent, of the children who attend the day- 
 schools ? — while as regards ragged schools in London, of which I have had 
 some experience (cheers), I may remark that very few of those who have been 
 absorbed in the Board Schools have returned on Sundays to the place where they 
 were trained in the ' nurture and admonition of the Lord.' Sunday-schools can 
 never do the work of day-schools. It is exceedingly difficult, remembering how 
 corrupt the heart of man is, to produce any impression on those who have been 
 engaged for six days consecutively in learning secular matters ; indeed, it will 
 be next to impossible to obtain their attendance, and in many cases such prig- 
 gishness will have been produced in the mind, that the children will be more 
 like peacocks than boys and girls — in fact, they will become so conceited that 
 they will look upon secular knowledge as the ne plus ultra of mankind. But 
 is nothing to be done ? Yes, much. I implore you to make every effort you 
 can to promote the object of this Society ! Appeal to the wealthy and to the 
 great to come forward and use their wealth and influence for the maintenance 
 of the great system of religious teaching which this Society supports. Appeal 
 to the people at large. Do not be afraid of the people. (Hear, hear.) Tell 
 them Mother Church made them what they are, and will watch over them, 
 and make them better than they are if they will receive her beneficent teaching. 
 (Cheers.) Be instant in season and out of season 5 multiply your living agents ; 
 leave not a stone unturned ; show that you are ready and determined for the 
 conflict J let there be no blinking, let there be no shrinking, let there be no 
 fearing ; go forward, resolved that you will fight the good fight of faith, deter- 
 mined that everything shall rest, not upon the modern rock of St. Peter at 
 Kome, but upon that Kock of which alone we know anything from Scripture — 
 the Bock of Ages ! (Cheers.) 
 
 The Marquis of Salisbtjkt, in seconding the Resolution, said : — I understand 
 this Resolution to imply that the National Society is not set aside, but that it 
 has still a noble work left to do. The attitude which the Society has taken 
 with respect to recent educational legislation seems to me to be eminently wise. 
 It has not given up its efforts in despair, but it has taken the best possible 
 position it could take under the circumstances 5 it has recognised the necessity 
 of falling into the new order of things, and of making the best of the matter in 
 the interest of the Church. Parliament, as you are aware, adopts the wise 
 principle that when, after long controversy, it has settled a question, it will not 
 be induced to reopen that question until it has been enlightened by very con- 
 siderable experience ; and this rule, I believe, will be followed in the present 
 case. We may thus take it for granted that our existing legislation is that 
 which will govern the education of this country for many years. But it is a 
 great mistake to say that the Act of 1870 has stopped, or was intended to stop, 
 denominational education. What the Act of 1870 said was this : ^ The efforts 
 of voluntary bodies have failed to meet the necessities of every place, or the 
 wishes of the population, and where they have failed we will supplement them. 
 In many parts of the country voluntary action is sufficient and is more accept- 
 able to the people, and therefore we will leave it to the population to choose 
 its own system.' This great trial, this inquest of the nation, is going on at
 
 9 
 
 this very time. In every part of tlie country tlie people are being asked whicli 
 system they will adopt, and the National Society and its action will decide 
 the verdict in many cases. In parishes where there are wealthy people we 
 may trust to their making the efforts that are required, hut that is not the 
 case in all. There are many parishes where the poor people desire that the 
 denominational system shall he maintained, and there the National Society 
 may step in and do an infinity of good, by keeping up during the crisis the 
 system which the people value. By its grants it may prevent those parishes 
 from sliding into the School Board system. And this reminds me of one of 
 the details of the Act of 1870 on which I have always looked with the 
 greatest impatience, by which when a School Board is once thrust upon a parish 
 nothing can remove it. This is a great evil, but the business of the National 
 Society is to remember that by vigorous efforts many of the rural districts 
 may be prevented from sliding into a system which they hate. It has been 
 said, and said justly, that Board Schools are an experiment. What the issue of 
 that experiment may be I will not pretend to discuss, but this at least is clear, 
 that it is exposed to considerable and increasing unpopularity. The dislike of 
 the undenominational teaching in the Board Schools is increasing more and 
 more, and people are feeling the evils of a system in which the very outlines 
 of Christian doctrine are effaced. But there are other evils to which the 
 School Boards are liable. It is evident that schools cost money, and it is a 
 fact, which apparently the ratepayers are only just beginning to find out, and 
 in the case of School Board Schools they cost a great deal of money. 
 I do not wish to cast upon the Boards the slightest imputation of extravagance — 
 on the contrary, I believe they do the best they can under the circumstances ; 
 but the system itself involves expenses from which, even if the expenditure 
 were met by the rates, the denominational sj^stem would be free. Thus, then, 
 we have the religious feeling on the one hand, and the ratepayers' feeling on 
 the other, and it is impossible not to see that these feelings may ultimately rise 
 to such a height as to impose a check upon the School Board system. Be- 
 tween this day and that crisis, however, there will be a time in which we may 
 save the rural schools ; and if we fail to take advantage of it, they will be gone 
 for ever. This is, then, a time not for ordinary but for special exertions ; and 
 while I have no wish to depreciate in the least degree the good done by the 
 School Boards, or the motives of their members, it must be remembered that 
 they are becoming distasteful to the population, and injurious to the religious 
 faith of the people ; and yet, notwithstanding all this, they may be submitted 
 to, unless this Society, the organisation to which they look for succour, assists 
 them in good time. As to the religious bearing of the National Society's work 
 it is not my province to speak, but I must remind you that the Society is not 
 simply an educating organisation, but represents the most distinctive marks of 
 the principles of the Church of England, and therefore it deserves our support. 
 It bears the banner of definite religion. Many good people believe that 
 Christianity may best be preserved, and its spread promoted, by blurring its 
 outlines and veiling its distinctive features. Men are, in fact, coming to realise, 
 that if you wish to teach the Christian belief you must not be afraid to say 
 what you believe, and that to teach the Christian faith you must not begin by 
 saying that no particular truth is of special importance. That is a symptom of 
 the public mind which it is the duty of the National Society to foster and 
 strengthen. It is the special function of the Society to discharge this duty, and 
 in doing so it will be supported by all who wish well to the Church of England. 
 (Cheers.)
 
 10 
 
 The Resolution was supported by Mr. Hugh Bielet,M.P. for Manchester, who 
 apologised for occupying such an early place in the programme, because he had 
 to go to the House of Commons to vote against Mr. Dixon's motion for Universal 
 Compulsion. Mr. Birley said : — Since the establishment of the Society it has 
 passed through what I will term the three periods of its existence. In the first, 
 from 1811 to 1839, its task was fulfilled almost entirely by private and voluntary 
 effort ; in the second period, from 1839 to 1870, the State assisted in the work of 
 primary education, and very materially stimulated it • and since 1870, the date of 
 the passing of the Education Act, the Society has entered on its third period, and 
 I entirely concur in the opinion that in the future the Society will occupy even 
 a more important position than it has held in the past. The results brought 
 out in the Report I regard with the utmost satisfaction, as it is proved beyond 
 a doubt that the great mass of children in the Elementary Schools of the 
 country are in Church of England schools. After referring to other educational 
 statistics, Mr. Birley continued ; I consider that the pressure under which 
 Church Schools are now labouring, owing to the operation of the School 
 Board system and other causes, deserves the most serious consideration. The 
 National Society can do much to assist schools which are suffering in this way, 
 not only by giving grants of materiel^ but also by offering pecuniary aid in cases 
 where there is any difficulty in the maintenance of pupil-teachers j and with the 
 reports of the Inspectors before them, it will not be difficult to guard against 
 any improper application of the funds. Notwithstanding the observations of 
 Lord Salisbury, who has urged that there is little cause for alarm from the 
 growth of School Boards, I think we have much to fear in one sense, although 
 in another we have nothing to fear, for I believe that if Voluntary Schools are. 
 properly worked the education given in them will be superior to that afforded 
 in the Board Schools. I have no belief in the superiority of Board Schools. 
 Their managers may be gentlemen of the highest ability, and most earnest in 
 the discharge of their duties ; but they cannot go into their schools day after 
 day, as the managers of Voluntary Schools can, and in any case the kindly 
 word of the Voluntary School manager is far more powerful for good than the 
 merely official visit of the Board School manager. On all grounds I deprecate 
 the exhibition of too great a jealousy of Board Schools, for I contend that 
 their teachers and managers will ultimately see how much they have to gain 
 from the maintenance of friendly relations with Church Schools. The School 
 Boards ere long will have a hard time before them, for they are incurring the 
 illwill of the ratepayers, and ultimately those who are at present among their 
 members would shrink from the duties imposed upon them. One thing I will 
 urge on the friends of all Church Schools, to see to it that the education they 
 offer is the best of its kind, and given in the best possible way. Believe me 
 the best principle for Compulsory Education is a thoroughly good education. 
 Then, again, I must add that I am anxious to see the National Society doing 
 more to found and maintain Middle-class Schools. If the primary education 
 of the country is continually improved, if children are to have the opportunity 
 of getting upward even to the University, the middle-class education must also 
 be advanced ; and I believe it would be a great impulse not only to the children, 
 but to the masters and mistresses in the Elementary Schools, if they had the 
 prospect, after a certain number of years, of being promoted to Middle-class 
 Schools, with better opportunities and increased emoluments. 
 
 The second Resolution — ' That in the opinion of this Meeting the supporters 
 of Voluntary Schools are, under the present system, placed at an unfair disad- 
 vantage ' — was^ proposed by Lord LTTTELTOisr, who said : The proposition
 
 11 
 
 affirmed in this Resolution is one the urgency of which must have been foreseen 
 by the friends of the voluntary system^ at the time when the Education Act was 
 passed, and which is becoming more and more manifest every day. I do not wish 
 to argue the general case of School Boards against Voluntary Schools, because I 
 know there are some friends of Education and even some Conservatives who 
 prefer the principle of School Boards, and doubt whether the two principles 
 can coexist. But I assume that now, as at the time of the passing of the Act 
 of 1870, every leading statesman and advocate of that Act desires that the two 
 systems should coexist. Opinions were expressed in 1870 in ever}'- variety of 
 form, asserting that the new system was to be introduced as supplementary to 
 the old — that they were both to coexist, and that where the old system was suf- 
 ficient the new was not to be imposed. This view was held by many of the 
 most eminent members of both Houses — by Mr. Forster, Mr. Lowe, Mr. Glad- 
 stone, Mr. Bruce, Lord Ripon, Mr. Gathorne Hardy, Lord Sandon, the Duke 
 of Richmond, and others. The other acceptation of the Act is erroneous, by 
 which, instead of the School Boards being introduced as supplementary and 
 secondary, they have been held to be primary and fundamental. In this case 
 there has been a complete inversion of the proper order of things, and that 
 which should have been made ancillary and concurrent has been put first. In 
 fact the only party which has represented the true state of the case is the 
 Birmingham League, for they say that from their point of view the Act is 
 erroneous, because it sanctions two principles which cannot coexist, and that 
 the Voluntary system ought to be destroyed. But how could it be 
 expected that difficulties should not arise ? The material advantages of the 
 School Boards are enormous. They have, to begin with, an unlimited purse, 
 as inexhaustible as the Poor Rate ; and when, therefore, we see their 
 magnificent buildings rising, as by the enchanter's wandf we need not 
 wonder. Those, then, who argue that the two principles can coexist, must rely 
 either on the national feeling in favour of religious education, or else on the 
 aversion to School Board expenditure. But as far as the latter is concerned, 
 the objection, it seems, is not to the principle, but only to the excess to which it 
 is carried. As to the religious feeling this, doubtless, is very powerful, but it 
 is hard on the friends of Voluntary Schools to have to rely on that alone to 
 compete with that which depends for support on unlimited resources. And 
 what has the experience of the last five years shown ? The present Government 
 have shown clearly that they have every desire to act on the policy of their pre- 
 decessors in office in availing themselves of voluntary effort. But, on the other 
 hand, the Bishop of London, at a recent meeting, said he believed the danger 
 was passing away, and that we had seen the worst of it. The Bishop could, I am 
 confident, only have referred to his own diocese, where it is true that only a few 
 schools have been actually transferred to Boards ; but even in London, as in every 
 part of the country, the inequality of conditions is being more and more felt, and 
 the efforts of the managers to maintain the Voluntary Schools can only be com- 
 pared to the slow and gradual loosening of the hand of the drowning man from 
 the boat by which he is escaping destruction. If the Bishop had known what 
 the Committee of this Society know he would have spoken less hopefully. 
 The Committee is about to address the Education Department, and it is hoped 
 that this grievance will be alleviated. I am not unmindful of the difficult posi- 
 tion of those who are charged with the administration of the Education 
 Department, but I have spoken in the interests of the Church of England and 
 of the children of the Church. It is the case of freedom versus restraint. We do 
 not want to teach what may be unfitted for children, but we claim to be allowed
 
 12 
 
 to clioose wliat we think fit. I know tke diificulties of statesmen and politicians, 
 and if national education cannot be carried on without the sacrifice of part of 
 religious teaching, then we must consider the case ; but that is not yet proved. 
 The Bishop of Lichfield, after explaining that he had only undertaken 
 to second the Resolution because of the unavoidable absence of his Grace the 
 Archbishop of York, said : — The only difficulty which I see in the Resolution 
 arises from the abstract terms in which it is drawn up. What I desiderate in 
 it is, that while admitting the disadvantages to which it refers, some remedy 
 for them should be suggested. There is in the minds of many persons, whose 
 organ is, I suppose, to be found in the Birmingham League, a disposition to 
 destroy the denominational system, not only in the Church of England, but 
 in all other bodies, and I fear that those other bodies are not as ready as we 
 could wish, to join the Church in fighting the common foe. Fight, however, 
 we must, and my advice would take the form of Trochu's at the Siege of Paris : 
 'Combattre! combattre encore! combattre toujours!' or, as the New Zealander 
 would say, ' Ake, Ake, Ake — Ever, Ever, Ever ! ' There can be no doubt that 
 the National Society and the schools affiliated to it represent a very large majority 
 of the nation which is in favour of denominational education, and we may say 
 that the practical friends of religious education are in the proportion of at 
 least three to one to those who support any other system. "We have 1,200,000 
 children in our Church schools, and not more than 400,000 in the secular schools. 
 Why, then, should the Church be deprived of her position ? Why should the 
 eight millions she has spent be taken away ? — for taken away it is, when the 
 schools built on the faith of the rules of the National Society are converted 
 into Board schools, where, as the Archbishop truly said, there is no religious, 
 instruction at all that is worthy of the name. The injustice must be manifest 
 to all, but it is one of the disabilities under which the Church of England 
 labours. I once heard Mr. Forster say that the spread of Board Schools all 
 over the country was [only a question of time, and everyone is beginning to 
 realise that Voluntary Schools are entering on a period of great difficulty. I 
 have even heard of it at Lichfield, and if there is a Board School there, I am 
 inclined to believe there must be one everywhere. The difficulty," in the first 
 place, very naturally arises from the circumstance that people do not like to 
 pay twice. If they pay rates, they have also to pay their voluntary subscrip- 
 tions, and hence the Voluntary Schools labour under this great disadvantage, 
 which seems to increase rather than to diminish, and, as a consequence, the 
 number of Voluntary Schools is likely to fall off" throughout the country. But, 
 again, there are many who believe that compulsory attendance is desirable, on 
 the principle that children, who would otherwise be playing truant, are forced to 
 go to school. Why, then, should not the Government give the same power of 
 compulsion to denominational schools which it accords to Board schools ? If it 
 is desirable in one case, it is surely desirable in all. These, then, are the 
 hindrances which place Voluntary Schools at a disadvantage, and I suppose that 
 the Resolution means that steps should be taken in the Legislature to obtain a 
 remedy. I must confess that I have little hope of help from that quarter. 
 I believe we must look within ourselves, and to the blessing of God ; and 
 that blessing, which has been so freely accorded to the National 
 Society in the past, will, we may hope, be increased in proportion to the 
 difficulties which are multiplying around us. What, then, are the reme- 
 dies within our reach, which we may hope to find successful? First, 
 there is the matter of funds. No one who looks at the fact that 
 there are 1,117,461 children in our Church of England schools, can doubt that
 
 13 
 
 an immense number of persons are interested in them, and will maintain them, 
 even if double, treble, or even quadruple funds are required. Provided we are 
 agreed on this point, that our own schools must and shall be maintained, the 
 prospect is very far from being'hopeless. It may be done, and it will be done, 
 even if the few have to do it, as is, unfortunately, too often the case with the 
 support of the great London societies, in which the few have to do all the 
 work. But we must give to the work which is in jeopardy, we must give 
 out of our savings, and, if needful, give twice or even three times our accus- 
 tomed subscriptions. The balance-sheet shows that I am not overestimating 
 the elasticity of our revenue, and the Keport gives us also exceeding great 
 comfort, especially in what is said by Canon Norris. I may add that I know 
 of a case in which a Board school was established against the wishes of the 
 clergyman of the parish, and in which the ladies of the district at once 
 opened and conducted a Church school; and to this school the parents 
 preferred to send their children, because they objected to the secular system 
 of the Board school. The value of ladies' teaching may be estimated from 
 the results mentioned by Canon Norris in his Report for 1874, in which he 
 says that it is a striking fact that the seven colleges which stood highest in 
 his marks for teaching last year were all women's colleges. The mean mark for 
 women's teaching was 63 in 1873, and Q7 in 1874 ; and for the men, 55 in 1873, 
 and 60 in 1874 ; and he adds, ' This difference quite corresponds with my 
 own general impression, that women of that age handle religious subjects 
 more impressively and more spiritually than men.' We, then, of the masculine 
 gender must hide our diminished heads, and we must look to the women of 
 England to find a remedy for the evils we deplore, by assisting in our night schools, 
 and especially in our Sunday-schools. I believe that we have a great bank of 
 teaching in the Christian mothers of England — that we have thousands of women 
 amongst us who will continue to teach the principles of the Chuit^h diligently to 
 her children. But, then, there is another great question as regards the teachers 
 of the future — the pupil-teachers of the present. Will they take the side of the 
 Church or of the State ? Everything depends on the tone and teaching which 
 they carry into the training institutions. Whence can they derive it, if not 
 from the clergy ? The work cannot all be done in the two years during which 
 they are in the training colleges, and therefore I wish to ask the clergy of Eng- 
 land whether they are satisfied with the statement of Canon Norris, that of the 
 students who went up to him for examination last year only 29 per cent, had 
 received help from their clergymen ? I do really hope that, under the pressure 
 of the disabilities under which we are labouring, we shall revise every part ot 
 our present system, and this in particular. I remember a clergyman who had 
 been reading a book, which all should read who have not read it — ' The Life 
 of Bishop Patteson ' — and who said that the thing which struck him most in 
 the Bishop's career was the way in which he taught himself. He began in 
 the morning, and he went on until the evening, teaching in twenty different 
 languages, in order that he might be able the more fully and perfectly to do 
 the work to which he was called. And if we remember that this is a question 
 of communicating, as a clergyman only can communicate, religious teaching to 
 those who are to form the next generation of teachers, I cannot be satisfied 
 with 29 per cent. — why, I should have expected 99 per cent. I speak, of course, 
 partly as a missionary bishop. We had no trained schoolmasters, and it is true 
 of every missionary that he holds it to be his duty, that as Our Blessed Saviour 
 taught as well as preached so he must follow his example. There is room for 
 a great change in this respect, and I am convinced that if the English clergy will
 
 14 
 
 only give half an liour a day to tlie instruction and lielp of their pupil-teachers, 
 they will be attracted to the teaching of the Church, and will become so firmly 
 fixed and rooted in the principles of our holy religion that nothing will move 
 them — just as in the case of the Woodard Middle-class Schools, where thou- 
 sands of young men carry out in their lives the principles taught them in those 
 admirable institutions. I trust, then, that we shall not give way, but strive to 
 the utmost to fulfil our duty. (Cheers.) 
 
 Lord Redesdale, in proposing that the thanks of the meeting be presented 
 to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, said : — I must confess that my 
 views of the position are somewhat different from those of one or two of the 
 speakers. I do not think we ought to sit still. We have a grievance, and we 
 ought to say so. "We are rated to support School Board schools, and we 
 have a conscientious objection to education without religion. We all remember 
 the Church-rates grievance, and we know what came of that. Well, the 
 Church ought to say what the opponents of Church-rates said then. Parlia- 
 ment is to be influenced. It is not at all hostile to the maintenance of de- 
 nominational schools, and if we come forward and state our grievances boldly, 
 firmly, and clearly, we shall have a great advantage in the discussions which 
 will take place in the Legislature. I hope, then, that the Society will prepare 
 a form of petition. It is nonsense to sit still and hope that something will 
 be done for us if we do not ask. It is no use to act on the principle of religious 
 liberty in one way and not in another. We conceive that if we pay for educa- 
 tion the money ought to go to support the teaching of our religion, and the 
 Church cannot exert herself too much in defence of this view, and to press it 
 upon the country. 
 
 His Lordship then proceeded to move the Hesolution, with which he said, 
 he felt confidence everyone would agree ; and after it had been seconded by 
 the Bishop of Hereford, who expressed the deep sense of obligation which the 
 meeting felt to His Grace, who had, notwithstanding the great calls upon his 
 time, come down to preside over them, the proposition was put to the meeting, 
 and carried amid general applause. 
 
 The Aechbishop of Canteebijey then pronounced the Benediction, and 
 the proceedings closed.
 
 PAST WORK OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 Since its formation in 1811, the Society has expended nearly a niillion 
 in promoting the Education of the Children of the Poor in the prin- 
 ciples of the Established Church, involving an expenditure of at least 
 twelve times as much from other sources for the same end. 
 
 WORK OF THE SOCIETY SINCE THE PASSING OF THE 
 EDUCATION ACT (1870). 
 
 Building Grants. — Since the passing of the Education Act o£ 
 1870, the Society has voted £93,190 for building and enlarging Schools 
 in 2,000 places. These grants will assist in providing school accom- 
 modation for nearly 300,000 additional children. 
 
 Grants to Training Colleges. — During the same period, 
 grants to the amount of .£1,060 have been voted for the enlargement 
 of Church Training Colleges, and £14,305 have been paid towards the 
 maintenance of students in these Training Colleges, whilst a further 
 sum of £1,535 has been expended to secure the examination of the 
 students in Religious Knowledge. 
 
 Grants for Books, Fittings, Certificated Teachers, 
 and Repairs and Improvements.— During the past two 
 
 years grants to the amount of £3,859 have been voted for books, 
 fittings, and repairs and improvements, and for the employment of a 
 Certificated Teacher for the first time. 
 
 Grants for Diocesan Inspection.— The Society has ex- 
 pended £268 during the past five years in providing Schedules for the 
 use of the Diocesan Inspectors. It has also recently decided to vote 
 grants for the Diocesan Inspection of Schools, and up to the present time 
 grants to the amount of £600 have been voted to ten dioceses. 
 
 Expenditure for advice to School Managers.— 
 
 Since August 1870, the Society has expended £891 in giving advice 
 to School Managers with reference to their position under the Educa- 
 tion Act, and in resisting the violation of School Trusts, either by an. 
 imnecessary transfer to a School Board, or by transferring on such 
 terms as are unduly subversive of the original School Trusts. 
 
 Cheques or Draffs should be made payable to the Treasurer or hearer 
 {not order), and crossed ' Messrs. Drummond.' 
 
 Post-office Orders may be made payable to James Duncan, at the 
 Charing- Cross Post-office, and forwarded to the National Society's 
 Office, Sanctuary, Westminster. 
 
 June 11, 1875.
 
 NATIONAL SOCIETY 
 
 Churchmen are earnestly requested to meet the pressing 
 wants of the Society hy means of Donations and 
 Annual Subscriptions^ and thus enable the Committee 
 to give a favourable response to the numerous and 
 urgent applications for aid that are being daily received. 
 
 THE SOCIETY'S WOEK. 
 
 1. To build and enlarge Church Schools. 
 
 2. To protect the 14,000 Schools in union with the Society, 
 and other Church Schools, in which a sound secular as well as 
 religious education is given. 
 
 3. To increase the efficiency of the poorer class of Church 
 Schools by means of grants towards fittings, T)00ks, and 
 repairs. 
 
 4. To enable Church Schools not at present assisted by 
 Grovernment to become efficient Public Elementary Schools, 
 by grants towards the employment of a Certificated Teacher 
 for the first time. 
 
 5. To maintain the existing Church Training Colleges, 
 and to provide for the examination of the students in religious 
 knowledge. 
 
 6. To foster an efficient system for the diocesan inspection 
 of Church Schools under the direction of the Bishop of each 
 diocese. 
 
 7. To diffuse the most recent and trustworthy information 
 on educational topics, and to give advice to School Managers. 
 
 8. Grenerally to adopt every legitimate means for the 
 maintenance and extension of the voluntary system of 
 Church Education which has proved so great a blessing to this 
 nation.
 
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