Page:The "Conscience Clause" (Denison, 1866).djvu/32

28 I cite in this place Sir J. K. Shuttleworth's account of the present position, taken from the report of a speech made by him in Lancashire, Wednesday, January 24, 1866. It includes his view of the "Conscience Clause" matter, and is interesting and important, as all that comes from him in this matter must be:—

"THE SCHOOL IN ITS POLITICAL RELATIONS.

"This was the subject of an address delivered by Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth on Wednesday evening at the annual meeting of the East Lancashire Union of Educational Institutes. The elementary day and evening school is but the porch, but it is indispensable to this training of the citizen. A Liberal Government cannot neglect national education without a fatal inconsistency. I have, therefore, asked myself anxiously why the Government grant has been lately curtailed; why half the pupil-teachers in Great Britain are being swept away; why, with this crippling of the machinery of the day-schools, the training colleges for male students in the Church of England are deprived of two-fifths of their supply of trained apprentices, and the other colleges of one-fourth; why there is an apparent sanction given to the idea that the schooling of the workman's child ceases at eleven years of age, and that he can do no more than to read, write, and cipher in the elementary school; why University scholars are chained to the mean drudgery of examining poor children in three rude elements; and why, by throwing the support of schools more and more on voluntary resources, the question is raised, in contradiction to all our traditions, whether national education is a function or interest of the State in any degree whatever. My own opinion was that the Revised Code—even if its principles were sound, from which I have declared my dissent—was prematurely introduced, and that the details of its machinery and conditions were extremely defective, and certain to produce a deterioration in the education which had been provided. But it is impossible either to submit to its destructive influences, or to resist the appeal which Mr. Walter makes on behalf of the uninspected schools. The country will not stand by and see half the pupil-teachers swept away, and the training colleges gradually drained of students, nor will it turn