Page:The "Conscience Clause" (Denison, 1866).djvu/7



Mr. Prolocutor,—The Resolution I have to move is as follows:

When in 1839 the Civil Power applied itself to the question of aiding the school-teaching of the poor, it found that teaching conducted mainly, if not altogether, in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, upon the denominational principle.

Exceptions were recognised by the Minute of December 3rd, 1839; but neither this nor any other—including the case of British and Foreign schools, appreciably affect the statement just made. School teaching of the poor in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, was then in all four denominational. It has remained, and is still, in all four denominational, though in Ireland the principle has been for some years under considerable disfavour on the part of the Civil Power; and it has been the basis of the whole recognised system of the Committee of Council on Education, and, up to 1856, its practice, that it be aided as such.

It is hardly necessary to say that it is not the natural tendency of a Civil Power, governing a people of many denominations, to dispense its aid upon the denominational principle. Its natural tendency is to deal with school teaching, as with all other