3
from the innovations and corruptions of Rome, and free also from the spirit of ecclesiastical disorder, which, unhappily, characterized the Reformation in some of the other parts of Europe.
And first, I would make this admission, that, so far as I have been able to gather, the elections to the School Boards have been very fair. I mean that all parties are fairly represented upon them. This was, no doubt, due to the operation of what is called the cumulative vote, which was happily incorporated with the Education Act of last year, and which the House of Commons this year, with such remarkable unanimity,[1] resolved to maintain. But then, let us observe, what results we have arrived at. We have bodies elected, containing elements almost as discordant as the House of Commons itself comprehends, and the very nature of the case demands that the religion of such bodies should be almost entirely colourless and negative.
If the majority alone had been represented, no doubt we might have had in some places strong Church Boards, in others strong Wesleyan Boards, in others again, strong Roman Catholic Boards. And then, even with the unhappy limitation of liberty (as I shall always consider it) of clause 14,[2] we might have had definite religious teaching, even without distinctive formularies. But under present circumstances, the thing seems to me impossible.
You have observed, no doubt, the strength of the hold which the Church still has upon our populations, as evinced by the ease with which Church candidates have been elected on School Boards in large towns, often at the head of the poll, and I daresay you have been pleased, as I have, to see that the national respect for the clergy, which noisy demagogues are fond of denying, has shown itself in the fact that the rector or vicar of the parish has not infrequently been elected chairman of the Board. But you cannot have failed to be im-
- ↑ NOTE B.—Mr. Dixon (M.P. for Birmingham), on 7th March, 1871, brought in a Bill to repeal the cumulative voting clauses of the Elementary Education Act; the Bill bore the names of Mr. Dixon, Mr. Hayley Potter, Mr. Jacob Bright, and Mr. Muniz. Mr. Dixon moved the second reading on the 12th July, but was opposed on both sides of the House; and only supported by Mr. Vernon Harcourt. The second reading was negatived without a division.
- ↑ NOTE C.—Clause 14, Subsection 2, of the Elementary Education Act, provides that "No religious catechism, or religious formulary which is distinctive of any particular religious denomination, shall be taught in the School," i.e., in a School "provided by a School Board."
