Page:The Conscience Clause (Oakley, 1866).djvu/84

72 well as that of the members of the Church of England. Can the Government justly exclude from such school the children of those who have no other opportunity of gaining secular instruction, unless on the condition of their learning a religious formulary and attending a form of public worship to which the parents conscientiously object? And yet this is all that the so-called Conscience Clause implies. The objection is a theoretical objection which in practice vanishes entirely. Suppose no such condition were insisted on, what, I ask, would be the course which we should pursue in case a Dissenter brought his child for admission into our schools, making it a sine quâ non that he should attend Sunday-school and public worship in his own communion, and should not learn the Church Catechism? Should we shut our doors in the face of this child, and cruelly condemn him to that ignorance which would leave him a ready victim of the enemies of his body and soul? Should we dare to give up the religious influence which the Bible lesson given by ourselves, the very atmosphere of our presence, the interest which the children of our schools see we take in their welfare, is calculated to exercise over them? Should we prefer that they should sink into barbarians rather than continue Dissenters? And if it be said that the answer to these questions by a unanimous negative proves that it is unjust to impose upon clergymen such restrictions, let it be remembered that it is the duty of the Legislature, in the distribution of public money, to trust no one without security being taken that the trust cannot possibly be abused."

Nay! I venture on a crowning audacity. Some of you may have sometimes seen a newspaper called the Church and State Gazette. Some of you may have heard with me that it drew at least a part of its inspiration from the recognised fount of Western orthodoxy. Be this as it may, how shall I express my astonishment on finding in that journal, so lately as November 1,