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reduced under the same category by lowering the Church into a Sect.
I see that Mr. Rogers, the author of the scheme, writes as follows in a letter published in the Times, Monday, January 29, 1866.
"The great aim of the schools (which will be carried on upon the principle of day-schools only) will be to prepare the scholars for the industrial and commercial work of life, and none will be excluded from the benefits to be derived from them. It is the opinion of the Committee, in which I entirely concur, that while religion must necessarily be the guiding principle of all education, in a school of this nature, open to all classes in a community like that of the City of London, and considering that the children will be immediately under home influence, the distinctive doctrinal teaching should be left to parents and to those ministers of religion whom they may select for the purpose.
"William Rogers.
"D. P., Esq., London Assurance Company."
It appears, then, to be as I expected; "preparation for the industrial and commercial work of life" as carried on in this school is to be carried on, so far as the school is concerned, wholly without religious teaching properly so called. Mr. Rogers says, "distinctive religious teaching,^* meaning, I suppose, that there may be indistinctive religious teaching in the school. What this may be I do not profess to understand, and I should like to haev Mr. Rogers under examination for ten minutes about it. But there is another thing about which Mr. Rogers says nothing. What about prayers morning and evening in the school? Are there to be any prayers, or are the scholars to be prepared for the industrial and commercial work of life in a place which has no prayers? If any prayers, I suppose they are to be on the indistinctive principle. The scholars of every school must be under discipline: it is implied in the idea of a school;
