Page:The "Conscience Clause" (Denison, 1866).djvu/37

33 proceedings with the Church. Now it is true that human policy may change its principles, and it does so continually. But the Church cannot. If then the Civil Power think that it can no longer assist the Church of England upon her own principles; if the denominational principle is to be abandoned in England, and the State system brought into its place—for the two cannot possibly co-exist in connection with State aid—let the Civil Power say so in so many words by an Act of Parliament, or at least by an Order in Council as in 1837-40. Then, after debates in both Houses of Parliament, Orders in Council settled the principles. But there is no such sanction of the "Conscience Clause," which has introduced a principle wholly new in practice as respects Church schools. Indeed in the only Act which has any connection with the subject—the Endowed Schools Act, it is provided that the Act "shall not extend to any school established by, or to be established by, or in union with, or to be in connection with the National Society." I say then let us have an Act of Parliament—if Parliament can be persuaded to pass such an Act, which I do not believe—or at least an Order in Council, if Her Majesty in Council can be persuaded to pass such order, which I do not believe—saying that the State can no longer assist the schools of the Church of England upon the principles of the Church of England; and that, in connection with State aid, the denominational system is to be superseded by the State system, or what Sir J. K. Shuttleworth calls "an universal system of well-ordered elementary schools;" and then we should know where we were and look our whole position in the lace. But under no circumstances may the Committee of Council—which is charged with the administration of a certain point upon certain definite and acknowledged principles mutually agreed upon, and whose powers have never been supposed to extend beyond matters of detail—take upon itself to supersede or override fundamental principles on the part of the Civil Power. This then is my answer, and I submit that it is complete.