Page:The Conscience Clause (Oakley, 1866).djvu/48

36 I. "Because the Church—having agreed in 1839-40, and subsequently in 1847-52, to receive from the State grants towards building schools upon the definite basis and express understanding that there was to be no interference of any kind on the part of the State with the course and order of her teaching in such schools—may not now help the State to do wrong in setting up a claim so to interfere, and in making the recognition of such claim a condition of grants."

I understand by these dates the periods at which the original draft trust deeds were under discussion and that during which the Management Clauses controversy was running its course.

I deny both the "understanding" and the "interference."

1. As to the "understanding" that there was to be no "interference," I find that the following words were put into the mouth of her Majesty by the Government of the day, in the Order of Council appointing the Committee of Council on Education:—"Her Majesty's wish that the children and teachers instructed should be duly trained in the principles of the "Christian religion, while the rights of conscience should he respected." This point of respecting conscientious differences of opinion has never been withdrawn; it has always been kept before the eyes of the Church and the National Society in trust deeds and management clauses. Till the constitution of the Committee of Council, the National Society and the British and Foreign School Society had been unreservedly trusted. When a special board of administration was appointed ad hoc, the point was recognised in the terms of their appointment; they walked straight up to the difficulty; they laid hold of it; they never have, and they never will, let it out of their grasp. An "understanding" that the Church was to do as she pleased with the money given by Parliament for education never was, never could have been, never can be, given.

2. Next as to the "interference." Interference in the sense