Page:The Conscience Clause in 1866.djvu/39

35 which I claim for my own conscience, and the conscience of Church teachers generally, I freely concede to the ministers and teachers of all other denominations. That was the principle and the practice of the Parliamentary plan, before the Committee of Council hampered it with this clause. Take away the Conscience Clause, and there will again be liberty of conscience to all. In point of fact, however, the clause is intended as a restraint only on the teaching of the Church. This I will show you in a moment; but first let me expose the delusion that it does not affect all our schools, but only some of them. The pretence at present is that it applies only to places where the population is insufficient for more than one school. In point of fact, this was not the case with Llanelly, where the clause was first imposed. In point of principle such a distinction is not possible, and is not intended, to be maintained; it is only the thin end of the wedge. If the principle be a sound one, it will and ought to prevail in all grants, annual as well as building. This was openly declared by Lord Granville before the Committee of the House of Commons, and I entirely agree with his lordship in that proposition. If the principle be, as I contend, bad and vicious, then it ought not to be suffered in any one school. No Churchman has a right to be indifferent because the evil has not yet reached himself.

And now let us observe, sir, a little closer the practical bearing of this clause on the different forms of religion amongst us: these may all be reduced to three classes. There is one form of religion which reads the Holy Scriptures in strict subjection to the teaching of the Church, and recognises no Church but that which owns the supremacy of the See of Rome. The members of this faith believe that no religious instruction can be imparted, and they refuse to attempt any, except in connection with their own doctrine, worship, and sacraments. That is one form of religion in England, and the Committee of Council respect it. They say, "Yours is a religion which we must acknowledge in its integrity, though it is not our own. No Protestant shall be entitled to send his child into your schools, saying, 'Teach me this child the Christian religion, but leave out that little tenet about the supremacy of the Church of Rome.'" The Roman Catholic teacher may answer, "If you come here, you