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from the attempt or instantl y removes the evil . No ex-officio visitor ean possess these advantages . Is any one aggrieved , he does not wait the uncertain advent of some stranger , ignorant of every local circumstance , and who comes with ears ready to receive the justification of the official delinquent . Application is at once made to a ratepayer or member of the committee ever on the spot , and the remedy is applied before the wound has had time to fester . But , says some friend to the sweet repose of unresisting slavery ,
these public meetings generate democratic and turb u lent dispositions . Good Sir , you are terrified by the unreal phantom of a disordered imagination . The spirit of the society is thus ever kept alive ; but that very fact absolutelv prevents any wild exertion of
strength ; for it annihilates all temptation to self-interest and ail opportunity for oppression . Indeed , when reduced to practice , we know full well that the whole subsides into the quiet of ordinary life , and that success seems rather to be endangered by apathy than violence . Our committee-meetings are held with few attendants and little
discussion ; for abuse has been prevented . The visitatorial power is not , however , dead nor sleeping , as in the case of exofficio visitors . Let any circumstance require attention , you are sure to meet a full committee prepared to investigate calmly and decide impartially . Will the system of ex-officio visitors
bear a comparison ? It is by no means impossible that the ex-officio visitor may feel but little interest in the success of the school ; he may even be an enemy to education . The committeeman is chosen because qualified to promote the interests entrusted to his care . The one , however baneful his
influence , cannot be removed , but remains a perpetual source of irritation and ill-humour ; the other loses his office , as a matter of course , at the end of the year , and , if found inefficient , is not re-chosen ; and , since inactivity is his fault , and self-interest has no
temptation , the affair passes without notice . Which system , then , is most likely to produce at first violent but unavailing contention , and , subsequently , despair and deadly acquiescence in every abase ? But , says some member of the Establishment , this is not putting us upon our proper foot-
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ing . We are the most numerous wealthy and powerful , and ought not to be bearded by every little sect . True , you are the most numerous and wealthy ; you will , therefore , form a decided majority of the rate-payers , and , without any unpleasant contentions , controul the whole . This is the natural and legitimate influence of numbers and wealth . You will possess almost absolute power without exciting any of the rancorous feeling which is invariably produced by a system of exclusion . That party feeling
cannot grow in such a soil , is a fact of every day ' s experience . In most coun - try towns , Dissenters of all sorts , differing not only in forms of ecclesiastical government , but in the most interesting articles of faith , unite like brethren in the promotion of education . In the town in which I live , a Lancasterian school has flourished for
several years , supported by the members of five chapels , of which two are Independent , one Methodist , one Calvinistie Baptist , and one Unitarian . The subscribers choose a committee , treasurer , &c . at the annual meeting , in perfect good humour , all being anxious that there should be a fair distribution
of power . The treasurer is an Independent Minister , and the schoolmaster a member of the Methodist connexion . We find our monthly meetings to be the continual source of increasing liberality and harmony ; and I have no hesitation in affirming , that the
Lancasterian system has proved as useful and improving to its supporters as to the scholars ; and I should hail the establishment of a national system upon this catholic principle , as the certain harbinger of universal charity in the Christian world .
2 . The only restriction that should form a component part of such a system is , that the school shall not be appropriated at any time to the teaching of any thing on which there exists a difference of opinion among the ratepayers , y The Bible , the Biim-e only , " should be written over its doors . No sect can consent to pay its contribution but upon this express condition . All beyond general education must be taught elsewhere- The present Sunday-schools are admirably adapted for this purpose , and will be rendered much more efficient than at present , since the whole time may
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356 On Mr . Brougham * * Education Bill .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1821, page 356, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2501/page/32/
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