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when they are so far fetched , 3 rdly . The master is , however , to teach , one afternoon in a week , the Church Cateclusm to the children of Churchmen , and the same manual , with such extracts from the Liturgy as the clergyman may select , on Sunday evening 3 He is also to attend the children of the
Establishment to Church once every JLord ' s-day . In both cases , Dissenting children are to be excused . All this appears to me very right , unless > indeed , it might be ( as I think it would ) an » improvement if religious instruction were confined to the
Sunday evenings , which would surely afford sufficient time for learning the Church Catechism and extracts from the Liturgy , The Dissenters then would have the same instruction in the week as the Church children , and on Sundays would be taken care of by their
own ministers and friends . This , indeed , appears the only practicable plan for teaching religion to poor children at all . For , to have different systems taught in the same school
would be impossible ; and it would be unreasonable to expect the clergy , especially in large parishes where they have so many other duties , to engage in the drudgery of teaching little children their catechism . To hear them
repeat it when taught , is a different matter . But < c the rule and the exception both tend , " says the Nonconformist , * ' to divide children into the orthodox
and heterodox , the favoured many , and the tolerated but despised few . " If this objection be followed up , it goes to prove that there should be no establishment of religion ; and the tone in which it is delivered reminds me of a
remark I have heard of an old Dissenting lady , that f * if there was High Church , there was High Chapel too !" But surely , as long as there is an Establishment so predominant in respect of wealth , influence and
numbers , as the Church of England undoubtedly is , every candid Dissenter must allow that it may justly claim the precedence , and that it cannot be expected , even in a scheme of general utility , to meet the minor sects on terms of perfect equality .
So far , I confess , I can see no valid objection to the provisions of the Bill ; and these are its most important features . But to allow the single veto of
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the clergyman , to set aside the election of the parishioners , does appear to me extremely objectionable , and altogether improper . I should object
also , to giving him the right of admitting to the schools , such poor children as may be proper objects of gratuitous instruction ; for he would certainly admit none who would not go to church . This should be vested in the
churchwardens and overseers , the proper and legal guardians of the poor . The powers of visitation are equally objectionable . To make the bishops visitors , can be of no real service . The clergyman may be proper enough ; but he should not be the only visitor . The
churchwarden is equally proper ; and , perhaps , it would be as well to unite with them one or more parishioners , to be chosen at the annual vestry . The visitors , generally , to have the appointment of the books of instruction , &c , and , when unanimous , they
might have the power of suspension or removal of the master ; with an appeal , however , to a parish meeting , or to the Justices at the Quarter Sessions . The Bill , as it stands , would , undoubtedly , make the school-master the humble dependant of the parson .
It has been well remarked , on the visitorial power proposed in the Bill , that it is the very same which has been found so inefficacious in the great schools ; and that Mr . Brougham , who has taken so much pains to expose the abuses in these old establishments
should think this machinery the most proper to introduce into his new scheme , is indeed extraordinary . It is remarkable , also , what little use he makes of the churchwardens . These
ancient officers , who have a co-ordinate power with the rector in the church itself , and the especial guardianship of the poor , are almost overlooked in this Bill for the education of the people .
But the Bill might , surely , be so modified as to retain , on the one hand , such provisions as would give the precedence , and every reasonable degree of influence , to the Establishment , and at the same time be free from any
just objections on the part of others . I could have wished , therefore , that the Dissenters , instead of condemning it in toto , and with such warmth as they seem to feel , would calmly rm ve proposed a modification of it . The honourable mover is a man to listen to
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156 On the Objections to Mr . Brougham ? & Bill .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1821, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2498/page/28/
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