Page:The Conscience Clause (Oakley, 1866).djvu/68

56 arising to Dissenters. In evidence at once of this and of the moderation of the Council Office, and of the characteristic endeavour of English statesmen to stave off the discussion of a troublesome question as long as temporary arrangements would suffice, I will read an extract from the Minute of June 28, 1847, from which it will appear that my lords said, in fact, that they were very sorry for the Dissenters, that they did not want to press the Church, and that they would see what else could be done. Of course nothing but a Conscience Clause could be done. But this is the way they tried to deal with it in 1847, in reply to a deputation from the Wesleyan body:—

"Their lordships greatly regret that the children of Dissenters are not admissible into Church of England schools without these requirements, and they would rejoice in a change in the regulations of such schools providing for their admission.

While, on the other hand, my lords regard with respect and solicitude the scruples which religious parents among the poor may feel to permit their children to learn the Catechism of the Church of England, they have felt themselves precluded from insisting upon a condition which might at once exclude Church of England schools, or at least the majority of them, from the advantages to be derived under the Minutes of Council.

Their lordships hope that much may be expected from a careful review of the civil and political relations of the school, which has not at any previous period been so fully acknowledged to be a national institution. Regarded in this light, their lordships cannot but hope that the clergy and laity of the Church of England will admit that the view they take of the obligations resting upon them as to the inculcation of religious truth must be limited by their duty to recognise the state of the law as to the toleration of diversities in religious belief.