are more applications for children to fill the situation of clerks than the schools can provide for. They are so perfectly educated under the system adopted, that a more efficient class of teachers cannot elsewhere be found. I say it behoves us then, having the means within ourselves,—and as we are put on a footing with the rest of the community in respect to the Government grant,-to make efforts greater than we have hitherto made." The Resolutions of the Committee of Council, which have left a door open to the introduction into this Protestant land of an order of Popish monks, as the instruments of popular education at the public expense, were agreed to in December, 1847; but they were kept a profound secret during the whole of the last session. It was not till nearly the end of the session, when any decided move against them had become wholly impracticable, that they were presented to Parliament, and became by slow degrees known to the public out of doors. Whether the silence of both Houses on the subject, at a time when it was scarcely likely that members would take the trouble of examining the contents of a blue book of upwards of 600 folio pages, has been construed into such an acquiescence in the Minutes respecting Roman Catholic schools, as would justify the Committee in applying to that purpose any portion of the education grant of last year, we have not been able to ascertain". We trust, however, that before the Since the above was written, the Secretary of the Committee of Council has put forth the following Circular for the information of Roman Catholic school teachers:"Committee of Council on Education, Privy Council Office, Downing-street, March, 1849. "Sir, The Committee of Council have before them applications, under the Minutes of August and December, 1846, from the managers of schools, in various parts of the country, on behalf of their masters, requesting that they may be admitted to an examination for the certificates of merit, which are necessary to the enjoyment of augmentations of salary under those Minutes. "Their Lordships have reason to know that other candidates only await the announcement of the period when the examinations will occur, and of its chief conditions, ere they present their claims to be examined. It is, therefore, proposed that a general examination shall commence on the 10th and 22nd of April next, for purpose of awarding these certificates. the "It is desirable that you should explain to all persons interested in these general examinations, that it is a necessary preliminary to the admission of any candidate to them, that the trustees or managers of his school should make application for that purpose to the Secretary to the Committee of Council on Education, Council Office, Whitehall, when the proper forms required to be filled up will be immediately forwarded. "In cases where the managers or trustees have already made such an application, and have received the Circular No. XIII., it will be sufficient to enter the requisite particulars opposite to the three heads in the annexed fly-leaf, and to detach this fly-leaf when so filled up, and return it to this office. No further steps need then be taken, except to provide that the candidates present themselves at the time and place appointed, session is much further advanced, not only that question will be asked, but the whole subject will be brought under discussion, with a view, either to do away altogether with that excrescence upon our constitution, the Committee of Council on Education, or else to lay down, by a distinct legislative enactment, such definite limitations of its powers as to preclude it from further outrages upon the rights of the Church and the religious sense of the nation. The points which such a legislative enactment ought to embrace, are few and simple. 1. Provision ought to be made against any interference whatever on the part of the Committee of Council with the management of Church schools. Let the right of inspection on the terms agreed upon in 1840, and the right of ascertaining the legal tenure of the school premises in the hands of proper Church trustees, be secured. This is all the State has a right to ask. The State claims no right of interference with the internal government of the different Dissenting communities; why, then, should it claim a right of such interference with regard to the "The Lord President directs me to inform you that the examinations will commence at each of the places selected, on the day named, at six o'clock in the evening, in order to give time for the arrival of the candidates on that day, and at eight o'clock in the morning of each succeeding day. The examinations will be conducted in writing, and will be continued daily (Sunday excepted) from eight to eleven o'clock, and from two to five o'clock, and from six to eight o'clock. It will be necessary that every candidate should make arrangements for a daily attendance during one week; and masters who are candidates for the higher certificates, for the same attendance during some days of the following week. "The examinations will be held by T. W. M. Marshall, Esq., H.M. Inspector, at London, in the Roman Catholic school at St. John's Wood, on the 10th of April, and at Sunderland, in St. Mary's Roman Catholic school, on the 23rd of April. "The subjects in which each candidate will be examined, may be found by an examination of the enclosed broad sheet, which also contains full information as to the other conditions to be fulfilled, in order that grants in augmentation of the salaries of teachers may be obtained. "You are requested to bring this circular immediately under the attention of the managers of your school, and, if you desire to become a candidate at the approaching examination, to move them to take the preliminary steps above described, in order that you may be entitled to attend. "I have enclosed two copies of this letter in order that you may distribute them to such teachers as you may know to be anxious to offer themselves as candidates for certificates of merit. "It may be important that you should correct a prevalent misconception, that it is necessary, in order to entitle teachers to attend this examination, that their schools should hae been under inspection prior to the receipt of this circular. You are requested to inform all persons interested, that managers of schools may any time place their schools under inspection upon application at this cffice, and at the same time, upon filling up the necessary forms, obtain admission for their teachers to the examination. at "I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, Church? The vulgar reply, we are aware, is, that the Church being a State establishment, is bound to submit to such interference. We confess we do not see the cogency of this argument. The very fact that the Church is a State establishment implies that the Church's rules of internal government have the sanction of the State, and leaves, therefore, no legitimate scope for the interference with those rules on the part of a secular State authority, more especially if that authority be, as the Committee of Council on Education notoriously is, under the influence-not to say, under the control-of a party hostile to the Church. The State having recognised the Bishops, as the lawful rulers of the Church, has no right and no pretence to inflict upon her in her educational work the lay episcopate of Mr. Kay Shuttleworth, or of the Lord President of the Council for the time being. 2. Provision ought to be made against the appropriation of any part of the grant to the establishment or support of Popish schools, under whatever circumstances. The utmost respect for liberty of conscience does not demand that the State should lend its countenance and its aid to the inculcation of a religious system which sets the Word of God openly at nought. The case of Protestant Dissenters differs materially, in this respect, from that of the Romanists. We have no admiration for Dissenting education; but we are bound in fairness to say, that so long as the Dissenter teaches the scholars in his school to read the Bible, though he may instil along with it his own wrong-headed notions, he forges, in fact, weapons against himself. He establishes in the mind of the child a common ground of appeal, on which he may hereafter, as is the case in numberless instances, be convicted of his error, and brought to a better mind. The Romanist does no such thing. He inculcates no reverence for the Holy Scriptures; he keeps the Bible as much as possible out of the hands and from the knowledge of the people. To support Romish education is to be accessory to an open act of contempt against the Word of God; and, on that ground, we hold it to be absolutely impossible, without the greatest inconsistency and hypocrisy, for any State acquainted with that Word, and professing to reverence it, to assist in establishing and maintaining Popish schools. 3. Provision ought to be made against all attempts to foist upon the country, directly or indirectly, the exploded pet theory of secular education, in the hands of the State. Religion is more than a mere branch of instruction; it is the groundwork of all moral training in education, if it is not that, it is nothing at all. No man, whose teaching and moral management is not based upon religion, is fit to have the charge of a school; for he will of necessity exalt himself and his secular knowledge, and bring religion : into contempt in proportion as he has personal influence with his pupils and no public authority which does not recognise a positive and distinctive religion, is fit to train and to govern teachers. The very existence of such an authority is a slur cast upon religion; training schools, under its auspices, can never become anything else but nurseries of infidelity. These are weighty considerations, and the circumstances of the times upon which we have fallen are well calculated to give them all their due weight in our minds. A great struggle is in progress throughout the world; a struggle in which Popery attempts to reconquer its lost position, and infidelity seeks to substitute its communist dreams in the place of all religion. It would be madness to imagine that from that struggle this country will be altogether exempt: so far from it, the premonitory symptoms of the coming crisis are already upon us; and if we be wise, we shall set our house in order. If the rising generation is suffered to grow up in religious ignorance or indifference, the terrible retribution which has swept over almost every country in Europe will not spare us; it will light upon us with greater severity of vengeance, in proportion to the greater privileges which we have enjoyed. There is no time to be lost; we are not dealing with minor questions of controversy, but with questions on the sound decision of which, at this time, our whole existence as a Church and a nation depends. We cannot do better than conclude this earnest appeal to the nation's faith and wisdom by the eloquent words of Dr. Wordsworth, in his "National Warnings on National Education:" "Let us not delude ourselves, nor attempt to delude others, with the vain imagination, that it is enough for a nation to devote large sums of public money to popular instruction; and to stimulate the intellectual faculties of all classes of society by literary and scientific knowledge. The eye may be dazzled by specious results of mental proficiency : flattering reports may be drawn up and circulated of the progress of schools: a great and complex secular machinery may be organized and centralized, for the conduct of public instruction, as a neighbouring country has taught us by a terrible example, and yet no real permanent good may be effected; the national character may not be improved-it may not be more dignified-more humane-more Christian. On the contrary, it may have become more restless-more proud-more revólutionary-more unchristian-more anti-christian. And so national instruction may lead to national ruin. "Let us be sure of this, that the true greatness of a people depends, not on popular instruction, but on CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.' ART. VI.-The Doctrine of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in its Relation to Mankind and to the Church. By ROBERT ISAAC WILBERFORCE, A.M., Archdeacon of the East Riding. London: Murray. 1848. pp. 548. "MUCH depends," says the learned and accurate Waterland, "upon our having true and just sentiments of the Incarnation, in which the whole economy of our salvation is nearly concerned. To corrupt and deprave this doctrine is to defeat and frustrate, in a great measure, the Gospel of Christ which bringeth salvation: wherefore it is of everlasting concernment to us, not to be guilty of doing it ourselves, nor to take part with those that do'. Therefore all the ancient Catholic Creeds are so particular in delivering their statements of this doctrine; the two shorter ones comprehending it in more simple historical expositions of the fact, the Creed of St. Athanasius guarding it with more strict definitions against the corruptions of a later age. We know not how far Waterland may appear to have made good his argument, that this Creed was written before the Council of Ephesus. His date for its origin is earlier than those assigned by the critics who do not claim it for Athanasius; and yet it may appear somewhat too late, if we grant that the statements about our Lord's Incarnation have reference only to the errors of the Apollinarians. The errors of the Apollinarians had been synodically condemned, as it would appear, by St. Athanasius at Alexandria not long before his death, and by Damasus at Rome a few years later. The date of this Roman Synod, recorded by Theodoret, was, according to Pagi, A.D. 375; after which, though there were some movements of the sect at Antioch, and in other parts of the East, it appears to have been of no great extent or prevalence. St. Augustin speaks of it as scarcely having a remnant left in his time. (In Ps. xxix.) Is it then probable, that in a creed drawn up, as Waterland supposes, in A. D. 429 or 4302, the writer would have taken all this care to guard against a heresy which had had its day, without regard to others that were then beginning much more to occupy people's minds? For the commencement of the unhappy doctrine of Nestorius, as it is agreed, was made in a sermon preached on Christmas Day, A. D. 428. Waterland's arguments for supposing Hilary of Arles to be 1 Hist. of the Athan. Creed, c. x. Ibid. c. viii. |
