Page:The Conscience Clause (Oakley, 1866).djvu/34

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the question, and will no longer refuse to sanction formally the principle and the rule which the majority of its own members practise, and which the best of its apologists defend.

Alternative Conscience Clauses.I may as well, perhaps, in this connection call your attention to the fact that an alternative of two Conscience Clauses (see note) is offered to the promoters of Church schools in parishes only fit for one school.^[2]

The former of the two has been long in use, and is, in fact, coeval with the existence of the Committee of Council, and the

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Or as the case may be.
↑ Alternative Conscience Clauses.
(Old Form.)

"And it is hereby declared that the instruction at the said school shall comprise at least the following branches of school learning, namely, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography. Scripture history, and (in the case of girls) needlework; and it is hereby further declared that it shall be a fundamental regulation and practice of the said school that the Bible be daily read therein, and that no child shall be required to learn any catechism or other religious formulary, or to attend any Sunday-school or place of worship, to which respectively his or her parent or other person having the custody of such child shall on religious grounds object, but the selection of such Sunday-school and place of worship shall in all cases be left to the free choice of such parent or person without the child's thereby incurring any loss of the benefits and privileges of the school the trustees whereof are hereby declared."

Or, as proposed in correspondence between the Committee of Council on Education and the National Society:—

"The said committee shall be bound to make such orders as shall provide for admitting to the benefits of the school the children of parents not in communion with the^[1] Church of England as by law established: but such orders shall be confined to the exemption of such children, if their parents desire it, from attendance at the public worship, and from instruction in the doctrine or formularies of the said Church^[1] and shall not otherwise interfere with the religious teaching of the scholars, as fixed by these present, and shall not authorise any other religious instruction to be given in the school."

[P22-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Or as the case may be.

[2] Alternative Conscience Clauses.
(Old Form.)

"And it is hereby declared that the instruction at the said school shall comprise at least the following branches of school learning, namely, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography. Scripture history, and (in the case of girls) needlework; and it is hereby further declared that it shall be a fundamental regulation and practice of the said school that the Bible be daily read therein, and that no child shall be required to learn any catechism or other religious formulary, or to attend any Sunday-school or place of worship, to which respectively his or her parent or other person having the custody of such child shall on religious grounds object, but the selection of such Sunday-school and place of worship shall in all cases be left to the free choice of such parent or person without the child's thereby incurring any loss of the benefits and privileges of the school the trustees whereof are hereby declared."

Or, as proposed in correspondence between the Committee of Council on Education and the National Society:—

"The said committee shall be bound to make such orders as shall provide for admitting to the benefits of the school the children of parents not in communion with the^[1] Church of England as by law established: but such orders shall be confined to the exemption of such children, if their parents desire it, from attendance at the public worship, and from instruction in the doctrine or formularies of the said Church^[1] and shall not otherwise interfere with the religious teaching of the scholars, as fixed by these present, and shall not authorise any other religious instruction to be given in the school."

[2]

[1]