Page:Undenominationalism.djvu/9

5 The present Government bill aims, on the whole, at preventing the disappearance of denominational schools. Probably the larger part of the opposition would prefer that they should disappear. The strength of the opposition rests perhaps mainly in this, that this "undenominationalism" is only the true logical completion of the principle which on the whole has been taken for granted as the basis of the national attitude concerning education, since education became a national affair. On the other hand, the difficulty of the Government position turns largely upon this, that they appear to be endeavouring to counteract an outcome of the basal principle which has been for many years taken nationally for granted, without challenging the justice of the principle itself. It is very difficult to justify a large measure of relief to denominational schools on a basis of undenominational principle. If it is an axiomatic principle that all education provided nationally by the community ought to eschew denominational distinctiveness of every kind; then a national measure for preserving denominational education from being superseded by undenominational is an inconsistency which is open at every turn to the most damaging attacks. To a very large part of the community, strangely enough, the principle just stated does appear to be axiomatic, and indeed selfevident. No wonder that opponents of the bill are often jubilantly confident in their consistency, and that its supporters, even though they feel themselves at bottom to be right, are conscious of a most uncomfortable uncertainty of logic.

But is the principle true? Is it compatible with any real justice or any real liberalism? So long as national "undenominationalism" appears only as a supplement to a serious machinery of denominational education, the inherent viciousness of its assumptions is less apparent. But when there is danger of its occupying