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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.
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Untitled Article
hfications as to , reading , writing attd accounts , and of these 1 should requite actual proof before I a ^ ttiitted the m , their occupation in all Iar £ e parishes would quite preclude that regular attention to a school , on which its success depend , fiut they are still more objectionable on account of their dependance upon the good-will of the clergy , though this I suspect to be the chief reason of their being pointed out by the Bill as suitable candidates . * The choice bf the master is vested , as it ought to be , in the parishioners , who have to pay him , and who alone
are interested in his competency ; but this choice is subject to the approbation of the parson of the parish , who may reject the successful candidate , though coming before him with all the suffrages of the parish , and direct the parish officers to issue notices for a new election . " The parson has here , "
says Mr . Brougham triumphantly , " a veto , not a nominal , but a real and effectual veto . " He is to assign no reasons . He is invested with a species of royalty . His sic volo is enough . By this means , the situation , says our popular senator , is prevented from becoming a matter of canvass , and the
nified mode of performing a religious ser vice . " Of the desirableness of raising the characters of such parish-clerks as this , there can be no doubt ; but whether the whole frame of national education should be bent and shaped to this object , and whether an act of parliament should be passed , the preamble of which asserts the necessity of teaching good morals , while one of the clauses provides for the
possibility of such a creature as the clerical mole-catcher being the parish teacher , arc different questions . * In so objectionable a Bill , one is glad to discover any provision which bespeaks a regard to liberty in the mind of its framer , and therefore it must not be overlooked , that it is proposed to be enacted that the schoolmasters under the act shall not be entitled by their houses and gardens , which are to be allotted
them by parishesi to vote for members of parliament . Why is this , but because it is foreseen that in the constitution of the system , they will be under the influence of the clergy ? As good an argument , surely , against the whole system , ag for the denial of the elective fran'chise . ¦ ¦ ¦
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The Nonconformist . No ^ XIX . S&
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majority a ^ e precluded frbjfri $ ecti % * mi tm ^^ er person . This is striking a blov ^ oil ' - the ifab e of democracy— - though tne worst insult is thfet of giving the people a voice , and thfen rendering it nugatory by the clerical A . -Ife ^^ veto . *
Contemplating the two last provisions of the Bill , we might almost be justified in giving it the title of •* A Bill for raising the spiritual and
temporal condition of that ancient order , the parish-clerks , and for enabling the clergy to exercise an absolute power over certain of his Majesty ' s subjects , and to stultify the proceedings of their parishioners /*
The visitation of the schools is to be all clerical . The officiating minister of the parish is to have access to them for the purposes of examination at all times . The ordinary of the diocese is eag officio visitor . By himself or the dean , or chancellor or archdeacon , he
may remove the master or superannuate him on a pension after a certain term of service . The design of " uniting and knitting the schools " with the Church Establishment , is still and well kept up . All , in short , is of a piece . The minister , but with the advice of the
churchwardens , it is true , though to them is given no veto , is to fix the rate of " Quarter-pence , " as it is called , for the schooling . And he again , with the same advice , may recommend any very poor child to be admitted without paying . What is this but giving him
the power of granting education freely to the children of his own servants , dependants and favourites ; and in reality providing a gratuitous education tor the offspring of poor Churchmen , which it is not likel y that poor Dissenters would ever be in sufficient
favour with the parish priest , whose ministrations they desert , or shew by their absence that they disregard , to obtain for their own families ? Again , the minister is to fix the hours of teaching and the times of vacation . No book is to be used in
the schools without his consent . The * By another notable provision fotf enabling the parson to rule in hia * own parish , he is to have the approval or rejection of any usher whom the master may wish to introduce into the school .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1821, page 29, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2496/page/29/
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