appoint him or them upon the said committee, and of of whom the following shall be the first appointed:

persons,

The said last-mentioned persons continuing to be members of the Church of England, and also to be residents, or to have a beneficial interest, to the extent of a life estate at the least, in real property, situated in the said and to be subscribers in the current year, to the amount of twenty shillings at the least, to the said school; and any vacancy which may occur in the number of persons last-mentioned by death, resignation, incapacity, or otherwise, shall be filled up by the election of a person or persons having a like qualification: such election to be vested in the subscribers to the said school to the amount of ten shillings per annum at the least, and qualified in other respects as the persons to be elected."-National Society's Monthly Paper, No. xxii. pp. 3, 4.

Clause C leaves the appointment of a committee contingent upon the discretion of the Bishop, who is empowered to direct it if he sees fit, and, in the event of his doing so, vests the management of the school in

"a committee, consisting of the

of

of the said parish for

shall

the time being, his licensed curate or curates, if the appoint him or them upon the said committee, or, in the absence or incapacity of the , then of the officiating minister, and other persons, to be nominated and appointed by the said or minister, as the case may be, out of persons in communion with the Church of England, and residents, or having a beneficial interest, to the extent of a life estate at the least, in real property, situated in the said parish, and subscribers in the current year, to the amount of twenty shillings at least, to the said school; and any vacancy which may occur in the number of persons last-mentioned, by death, resignation, incapacity, or otherwise, shall be filled up by the election of a person or persons having a like qualification: such election to be vested in the subscribers to the said school to the amount of ten shillings per annum at the least, and qualified in other respects as the persons to be elected."-National Society's Monthly Paper, No. xxii. p. 5.

Lastly, Clause D varies the same provision as follows:

for

"A committee, consisting of the minister of the said the time being, his licensed curate or curates, if the minister shall appoint him or them upon the said committee, and of of whom the following shall be the first appointed, namely:

persons,

the said last-mentioned persons continuing to be members of the Church of England; and any vacancy which may occur in the number of persons last-mentioned, by death, resignation, or incapacity, or otherwise, shall be filled up by the election of a person or persons, being members of the Church of England, such election to be vested in the remaining members of the said committee, until the Bishop of the

diocese in which the school is situate shall, in writing, direct that such person or persons shall be elected by the subscribers to the said school; and thereupon the election shall be vested in the subscribers to the said school to the amount of ten shillings per annum at the least, and qualified in other respects as the persons to be elected."-National Society's Monthly Paper, No. xxii. p. 6.

The chief points of objection, which at once suggest themselves on perusal of these clauses, are, that the obnoxious distinction between secular and religious instruction is covertly, and by implication, re-introduced, and that the qualification for taking a part in the management of the school is so loosely worded, as to offer no guarantee whatever for a committee of bona fide Churchmen, that is, of communicant members of the Church; but rather, to make the nearest approach possible under the circumstances, to the principle of Lord John Russell's Resolutions, which place the school under the management of a committee of rate-payers.

In both these respects the Management Clauses constitute a plain violation of the limits of State interference settled between the Archbishop and the Committee of Council, and affirmed by the Order in Council of August 10th, 1840. The dictation of the Committee of Council, with regard to the constitution of the body of managers, was, in itself, and irrespectively of the propriety or otherwise of the terms of that constitution, an encroachment upon that freedom of action to which, after the compact of 1840, Churchmen were clearly entitled. And, as regards the distinction between secular and religious education, the terms of the settlement of 1840 are exactly reversed; for it was the condition of inspection agreed upon in 1840, to impose a limit upon the Government inspector, who is not to take cognizance of religious instruction, leaving the school in all respects to be managed by the Church, in whatever way the founders of the school may see fit; on the contrary, the Management Clauses impose the limitation upon the Church, as represented by her Bishops and Clergy, giving them cognizance of the religious instruction only, and reserving the general management of the school to a body much more liable, from the very laxity of its constitution, to be brought under the control of the Committee of Council; a provision but too likely, in practice, to lead to the reproduction, on a small scale, within the managing body of every parochial school, of the unhappy divisions caused by political parties in the State.

But if the tenor of these Clauses was objectionable, the manner of their introduction was still more so. After the conclusion, in 1840, of a solemn compact between the authorities in

Church and State, the Archbishop on one hand, and the Privy Council on the other, respecting the conditions of assistance from the Parliamentary grant, fresh conditions were now imposed, and that without so much as the courtesy of a communication with the Heads of the Church, or with the Committee of the National Society; nay, as far as the evidence of the published Minutes goes, without any previous direction or authority from the Committee of Council itself, simply at the will and dictation of its Secretary, whose disposition to constitute himself "Minister of Education" is sufficiently notorious to render any remark of ours on that point superfluous. The subtle proceeding resorted to by him for procuring the insertion of one or other of the clauses in the trust-deeds of Church schools, was soon brought under the notice of the Committee of the National Society, by applicants distressed and perplexed by these new terms of admission to a share in the public grant. The result was a communication from the Committee of the Society to the Secretary of the Committee of Council, in which the Committee of the National Society express themselves desirous "that the promoters of education throughout the country should have the same liberty of choice, as to the constitution of the schools, which has hitherto been conceded to them, both by the Committee of Council and the National Society." Somewhat inconsistently with this desire, and, we cannot but think, rather incautiously, the Committee of the Society added to this remonstrance an offer "to concur with the Committee of Council in recommending the above Clauses to applicants for aid, it being understood that the applicants may select the clause most adapted to their own case;" and with a further stipulation, that "the moral and religious superintendence of the school," instead of "the superintendence of the religious instruction of the scholars," should be vested in the minister, with an appeal to the Bishop 3.

3

This remonstrance of the Committee of the National Society, is dated May 12th, 1846; but no notice was taken of it till the 29th of September following, three months after the return of the Whigs to office, when the Secretary of the Committee of Council informed the Archbishop that "my Lords" consented to concede to the minister, not indeed "the moral and religious superintendence of the school," but "the superintendence of the moral and religious instruction of the scholars." This half-concession was, however, coupled with a somewhat peremptory intimation, that "my Lords are desirous that no doubt should exist,

3 National Society's Monthly Paper, No. xxii. pp. 1, 2, and Minutes of Committee of Council, 1846, vol. ii. p. 25.

that the National Society are prepared to employ their influence with the promoters of parochial schools, on all occasions, to procure the adoption of the Clauses." In his reply to this communication, the Archbishop, on behalf of the Committee of the Society, acquiesced in the alteration of the terms respecting "the superintendence of the moral and religious instruction," and repeated the "expression of their desire, that the promoters of education throughout the country should have the same liberty of choice, as to the constitution of their schools, as had hitherto been conceded to them, both by the Committee of Council, and by the National Society." To this letter of the Archbishop no reply whatever was vouchsafed by Mr. Kay Shuttleworth; but on the 28th of June, 1847, the three letters were placed on the Minutes of the Committee of Council, and a series of Resolutions was added, by which the Secretary was 'instructed to recommend the adoption in each case of such one of the above-mentioned Management Clauses, as may appear most suitable to the character and number of the population of the school district." For the guidance of the Secretary, the Committee further defined the cases in which each one of the Management Clauses should be so recommended. The cases so defined were :—

66

1. Populous districts of towns, in which the intelligent and wealthy inhabitants are numerous. In these cases, Clause A was to be recommended, with a modification, giving, as previously agreed, to the clergyman "the superintendence of the moral and religious instruction," but still confining the appeal to the Bishop to "the religious instruction,”—or any regulation connected therewith.

2. Towns and villages, in which the well-educated and wealthy classes may be less numerous, and rural parishes having not less than 500 inhabitants, with at least three or more resident gentlemen or intelligent yeomen, manufacturers or tradesmen. Here Clause B was ordered to be recommended, with the same modifications as to moral and religious instruction as in Clause A.

3. Rural parishes, containing fewer than 500 inhabitants, and all districts in which, from poverty and ignorance, the number of subscribers is limited to very few individuals, and great difficulty is experienced in providing a succession of school managers. In such cases, Clause D was to be recommended, modified as before.

4. Very small rural parishes, in which the resident inhabitants are all illiterate and indifferent to the education of the poor, and in which the clergyman has, by his exertions and sacrifices, given proofs of his zeal for the education of his parishioners. For this case, Clause C was reserved as a special and singular concession. Thus far, the Minute of the Committee still preserves the ex

pression "recommend;" but the conclusion of the Minute contains language which clearly implies that the adoption of the Clauses was intended to be made compulsory. Some modifications of the various Clauses are specified, which, it is said, "may be permitted;" and the whole concludes with this ominous addition:

"That any case in which the promoters of the erection of a Churchof-England school shall desire to depart, in any respect, from these arrangements, for the management of their school, whether as considered in relation to the character and numbers of the population of the school district or otherwise, the question thus arising shall be submitted to the special consideration of the Lord President, in order that, if he think it expedient, he may lay the case before the Committee of Council on Education

As usual, this Minute of the Committee was reserved in petto; the cardinal Secretary of the Committee acting the part of Pope to himself, and opening his own mouth on the transactions of the "Secret Consistory," at such times as he judged to be most convenient. The effect only of the Minute was felt by the applicants for aid, who were subjected to its rules with the utmost stringency; a circumstance which led to much discussion of the question in public prints and periodicals, and to multiplied communications with, and deliberations by, both the Committee of the National Society and Diocesan Education Boards. Eventually the Archbishop, as President of the Society, was requested to open a further negotiation with the Lord President of the Council, upon the basis of a "memorandum," drawn up for this purpose, and dated April, 1848. In this memorandum, after recounting the history of the Management Clauses up to the still unanswered letter of the Archbishop, of November 23rd, 1846, the Committee of the Society say:—

"Since the adoption by the Committee of Council on Education of the existing management clauses, the Committee of the National Society have received strong remonstrances from the Clergy and laity in various parts of the country, which convince them that much dissatisfaction has arisen among the promoters of schools in connexion with the Church, of such a character as to threaten greatly to interfere with those endeavours for extending education amongst the poorer classes, which have been of late so zealously made, and from which such beneficial results have been obtained.

"The dissatisfaction which has been expressed, appears to the Com

See for the whole of this Minute, the "Minutes of the Committee of Council" for 1846, vol. i. pp. 25-33.