Page:The Conscience Clause (Oakley, 1866).djvu/83

71 of any school could get rid of it at any time, as they can now of the inspector's visit, by renouncing the grant. (3) In the case of building grants, the managers should have the power of freeing themselves of the clause at any future time, simply by returning the money. This would meet the dislike that most people have of doing anything that will bind their successors for ever, and would allay the fear that exists lest the State should gradually enslave the Church. With these limitations, I believe a liberal and large-hearted Church can accept the Conscience Clause without compromise of its principles, and with a practical advantage to itself."

Nor can I content myself with the protection of a single The charge of authority from among the clergy, especially when so broad an Browne. ægis has been extended over me, and one so well adapted to sustain the arrows of Archdeacon Denison, as that under which I am about to shelter myself. Another Archdeacon from the West (Θεοι ὲιδι καὶ ἠμιν)—Archdeacon Denison's equal in academical and ecclesiastical honours, nay, his coadjutor in the same diocese—the Archdeacon of Bath—has charged his clergy; by one of those happy compensations which the well-balanced structure of our Church so frequently provides, in language the exact contradictory of that of his brother of Taunton. Archdeacon Browne says—

"The question of the compulsory insertion of a Conscience Clause into the trust deed of a Church school when aid is sought out of the Parliamentary grant for education involves some difficulty which we must approach in an impartial spirit. Take the case for which alone the Committee of Privy Council wish to provide, and to which their Lordships strictly confine themselves, viz., when it is proposed to build a Church school as the only one available for a population containing Dissenters. An application is made for assistance to build this school out of a fund to which the taxation of Nonconformists contributes as