SCHOOLS
559
SCHOOLS
special concession was made to the Church, but per-
mission was granted to individuals to open schools.
From 1833 to 1S50 members of rehgious orders or
priests could teach only in the State schools. After
1850 they were free, as citizens, to open schools of
their own, both primary and secondary. In 1886 a
blow was struck at free primary education by au-
thorization given to mayors and school inspectors
to oppose the opening of any private school on hy-
gienic or moral grounds. In 1888 came another at-
tack in the form of an order of the Council of State,
depriving communes and departments of the right to
grant appropriations for private schools. Finally in
1904 it was declared that "teaching of every grade
and every kind" is forbidden in France to the mem-
bers of the congregations. This resulted in the clos-
ing of 14,404 out of 16,904 "Congregational" schools.
Since that time the bishops have tried to reorganize
Catholic education by establishing private schools in
which the teachers are either laymen and laywomen
or secularized members of the congregations. In-
struction in religion in the State schools was optional
with the parents of the children by a decree of 1881.
In 1882 religious instruction in the primary schools of
the State was absolutely forbidden, and in 1886 re-
ligious and clerics were forbidden to teach in those
schools. In place of denominational religion there
was introduced first a species of "denominational
neutrality" and later, a "scientific religion" {en-
seignement critique). Within the present decade the
tendency of this teaching has been plainly seen in
the introduction of textbooks which are both anti-
clerical and anti-religious, with the result that bishops
are at present under indictment in France for daring
to warn the people of their dioceses against the use
of such books in the schools supported by the people.
D. In Belgium. — See Belgium; also pamphlet by Cardinal Dechamps, "Le Nouvcau projet de loi sur I'enseignement primaire" (Mechlin, 1879).
E. In England. — Until the beginning of the nine- teenth century there was no government system of primary schools in England, nor were any primary schools in receii)t of State aid. It was not until 1833 that government grants were made, and then the schools that benefited by the grants were either schools of the National and British Foreign Society, or, in any case, schools in which the Bible was to be read as part of the regular instruction. The civil disabilities under which Catholics suffered, and the restriction of grants in practice to Bible-reading schools excluded Catholic private schools from State aid until 1848. In 1856 and 1858 the conditions un- der which grants were given were made more favour- able to Catholics. From 1871 to 1903 the basic law of primary education in England was Forster's Ele- mentary Education Act of 1870. This Act, while it did not abolish the voluntary or denominational schools, established the Board-schools. These were to be supported from the rates or taxes, and governed by school boards elected by the people. The Govern- ment helped to build the school and, in places where the boards were judged culpably negligent, compelled them to build. In 1876 and 1880 supplementary en- actments were passed, called School Attendance Acts, which compel the attendance at either voluntary or Board-schools of all children under ten. The reli- gious difficulty was met at first by leaving the matter of religious instruction to the discretion of the local board. Later the "Conscience" clause and the " Cowper-Temple " clause were added, in order to satisfy the Anglicans and the Nonconformists. These clauses set aside a special hour for religious instruc- tion, attendance at which was to be entirely vol- untary, and forbade the use of "any catechism or rehgious formulary distinctive of any particular de- nomination". Catholics were able to accept these conditions in some localities. Meantime various en-
actments, for example in 1891 and 1897, were passed,
which lessened the burden of the voluntary schools.
The Bill of 1902, which became law in 1903, took the
power out of the hands of the school boards, vested it
in the town and county councils, and compelled these
to take over and maintain the voluntary schools.
This brought England in line with Scotland, where
a similar law was in force since 1872. The Non-
conformists, however, objected because in localities
where they were in the minority the rehgious instruc-
tion given in the schools would be denominational,
that is Anglican. To meet this objection Mr. Bir-
rell's Bill of 1906 was framed. But, after various
vicissitudes, the Bill was finally defeated, and never
became law. It would have had the effect of wiping
the voluntary schools out of existence and abolishing
all denominational instruction, a result which, appar-
ently, would be acceptable to the Nonconformists,
but is bitterly opposed by both Catholics and Angli-
cans. In 1870 the number of Catholic schools in Eng-
land and Wales was 354, providing for the education
of 101,933 children; while in 1906 the number of
schools had increased to 1062 and the attendance had
reached 284,746. This increase is largely due to the
zeal of tlie Catholic School Committee, now known
as the Catholic Education Council.
F. In Ireland. — The primary education of Catho- lics in Ireland is provided for by (1) schools under the management of the Irish Christian Brothers and other religious communities, which receive no part of the annual grant for primary education, and are free from government .supervision and inspection. In 1901 there were 97 of tlicse schools. (2) Private schools, which are also free, and do not share the annual grant. In 1901 there were 85 of these, but the report does not state how many of the.se are Catholic. (3) National Schools, endowed by the State, of which in 1901 there were 8569, with an attendance of 602,209. These were established by the Act of 1831 and are governed by that Act and subsequent statutes, au- thority being vested in the National Commi.ssioners of Education. The majority of the National Schools are taught by lay teachers. Many of the girls' schools are, however, taught by nuns, and boys' schools by Christian Brothers (of the Congregation of St. John Baptist de La Salle), Presentation, Ma- rist. Patrician, and Franciscan Brothers. The Act of 1831 aimed at separate instruction in religion. In places where it is at all practicable there is a National School for Catholics and one for Protestants in the same locality. Where the attendance is "mixed" there is a separate hour for religious instruction, at- tendance at which is voluntary. In Catholic sec- tions, or when the majority of children are Catholic, the manager is almost invariably the parish priest. The manager is the local school authority: he ap- points the teachers (subject to the approval of the commissioners), removes them, and conducts all the necessary correspondence with the commissioners. His powers and his duties are those of a school board. He is, if a priest, responsible to his bishop. By en- actment of the Maynooth Synod of 1900 he may not dismiss a teacher without submitting the case to the bishop of the diocese in which the school is situated. Of the seven training colleges for primary teachers, five are under the management of the Catholic bish- ops. The number of teachers trained in these col- leges is now more than double the number of untrained teachers. Religious instruction in the primary schools is given at a stated hour by the regular teachers of the school: this is supplemented by the local clergy, who have access, within reasonable limits, to the classroom for the purpose of religious instruc- tion. That these conditions are, on the whole, accept- able to the bishops is clear from the pastoral address issued in 1900 from the National Synod of May- nooth. It should be added, however, that it is due to
