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REGISTER OF ECCLESIASTICAL DOCUMENTS".
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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Register Of Ecclesiastical Documents".
REGISTER OF ECCLESIASTICAL DOCUMENTS " .
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Report from the Select Committee on ike Education of the Lower Orders . Thb Select Committeee appointed to inquire into the education of the lower orders , and to report their observations thereupon , together with the minutes of the evidence taken before them from time to
time to the House ; and who were instructed to extend their inquiries to Scotland , have considered the matters to them referred , and agreed upon the following Report : — Your Committee rejoice in being * able to state , that since their first appointment in 1816 , when they examined the state of the metropolis , there is every reason to believe that the exertions of charitable individuals
and public bodies have increased , notwithstanding the severe pressure of the times ; and that a great augmentation has taken place in the means provided for the instruction of the poor in that quarter . They are bappy in beiag able to add , that the discussion excited by the Pirst Report , and the arguments urged in the Committee to
various patrons of charities who were examined as witnesses , have had the salutary effect of improving the administration of those institutions , and inculcating the importance of rather bestowing their funds in merely educating a larg-er number , than in giving both instruction and other assistance to a more confined number of
children . As the management of those excellent establishments is necessarily placed beyond the controul of the legislature , it is only by the effects of such candid discussions that improvements in them can be effected * Since the inquiries of your Committee hare been extended to the whole Island ,
they have had reason to conclude that the means of educating the poor are steadily increasing in all considerable towns , as well as in the metropolis . A circular letter has been addressed to all the clergy in England , Scotland and Wales , requiring- answers to queries , of which a copy will be found in the Appendix * It is impossible to bestow
too much commendation upon the alacrity shewn by those reverend persons in coinplying with this requisition ; and the honest zeal which they displayed to promote the great object of universal education , is truly worthy of the pastors of the people , and the teachers of that gospel which was preached to the . poor .
If pur Committee have lost no time in directing and superintending the work of digesting the valuable information contained in the returns , according to a convenient plan , which will put the House in possession of all this information in a tabular
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form . They have received important assistance in this and the other objects of their inquiry , from two learned barristers ^ Mr . Parry and Mr Koe of the Court of Chancery , who have devoted much of their time to the subject .
It appears clearly from the returns , as well as from other sources , that a very great deficiency exists in the means of educating- the pooiv wherever the population is thin , and scattered over country districts . The efforts of individuals combined in societies are almost wholly confined to populous places .
Another point to which it is material to direct the attention of Parliament , regards the two opposite principles , of founding schools for children of all sortsy and fop those oaly who belong to the Established Church . Where the means exist of erecting two schools , one upon each principle ,
education is not checked by the exclusive plan being adopted in one of them , because the other may comprehend the children of sectaries . Id places where only one school can be supported , it is manifest that any regulations which exclude Dissenters , deprive the poor of that body of all means of education .
Your Committee , however , have the greatest satisfaction in observing , that in many schools where the national system is adopted , an increasing degree of liberality prevails , and that the church catechism is
only taught , and attendance at the established place of public worship only required , of those whose parents belong to the establishment ; due assurance being * obtained that the children of sectaries
shall learn the principles and attend the ordinances of religion , according to the doctrines and forms to which their families are attached . It is with equal pleasure that yottr € Jom ' ttee have found reason to conclude , that t ne Roman Catholic poor are anxious to avail themselves of those Protestant schools
establ lshed in their neighbourhood , in which no catechism is taught- and they indulge a hope , that the clergy of that persuasion may offer no discouragement to their a ttendance , more especially as they appear , in one instance , to have contributed to the support of schools , provided that no catechism was taught , and no religious
observances exacted . It is contrary to the doctrine , as well as the discipline , of tne Romish Church , to allow any Protestant to interfere with those matters , and consequently it is impossible for Romanists to send their children to any school where they form part of the plan . Your Committee are happy in being
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1818, page 652, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2481/page/52/
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