3S2 THE SCHOOL BOARDS xv 



stone thoroughly tore to pieces, of enacting that the teach- 

 ing of all school-masters in the new schools should be strict- 

 ly 'undenominational.' The Cowper-Temple clause was, 

 we repeat, proposed simply to tide over the difficulty. It 

 was to satisfy the Nonconformists and the ' unsectarian,' as 

 distinct from the secular party of the League, by forbidding 

 all distinctive 'catechisms and formularies,' which might 

 have the effect of openly assigning the schools to this or 

 that religious body. It refused, at the same time, to at- 

 tempt the impossible task of defining what was undenomi- 

 national ; and its author even contended, if we understood 

 him correctly, that it would in no way, even indirectly, in- 

 terfere with the substantial teacliing of any master in any 

 school. This assertion we always believed to be untenable; 

 we could not see how, in the face of this clause, a distinctly 

 denominational tone could be honestly given to schools 

 nominally general. But beyond this mere suggestion of an 

 attempt at a general tone of comprehensiveness in religious 

 teaching it was not intended to go, and only because such 

 was its limitation was it accepted by the Government and 

 by the House. 



" But now we are told that it is to be construed as doing 

 precisely that which it refused to do. A ' formulary,' it 

 seems, is a collection of formulas, and formulas are simply 

 propositions of whatever kind touching religious faith. All 

 such propositions, if they cannot be accepted by all Christian 

 denominations, are to be proscribed ; and it is added signifi- 

 cantly that the Jews also are a denomination, and so that 

 any teaching distinctively Christian is perhaps to be ex- 

 cluded, lest it should interfere with their freedom and 

 rights. Are we then to fall back on the simple reading of 

 the letter of the Bible? No! this, it is granted, would be 

 an ' unworthy pretence.' The teacher is to give ' grammati- 

 cal, geographical, or historical explanations;' but he is to 

 keep clear of ' theology proper,' because, as Professor Hux- 

 ley takes great pains to prove, there is no theological teach- 

 ing which is not opposed by some sect or othor, from Ko- 



