PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS. 377 



erected, with the means of 

 providing them, so as only to 

 throw upon the inhabitants the 

 burthen of paying the school- 

 master's salary, which ought 

 certainly not to exceed twenty- 

 four pounds a year. It appears 

 to your committee, that a suffi- 

 cient supply of schoolmasters 

 may be procured for this sum, 

 allowing them the benefits of 

 taking scholars, who can aflFord 

 to pay, and permitting them of 

 course to occupy their leisure 

 hours in other pursuits. The 

 expense attending this invaluable 

 system in Scotland, is found to 

 be so very trifling, that it is never 

 made the subject of complaint 

 by any of the landholders. 



Your Committee forbear to 

 inquire minutely in what manner 

 this system ought to be connected 

 with the church establishment. 

 That such a connexion ought to 

 be formed appears manifest ; it is 

 dictated by a regard to the 

 prosperity and stability of both 

 systems, and in Scotland the two 

 are mutually connected together. 

 But a difficulty arises in England, 

 which is not to be found there. 

 The great body of the Dissenters 

 from the Scottish Church differ 

 iittle, if at all, in doctrine, from 

 the establishment ; they are sepa- 

 rated only by certain opinions of 

 a political rather than a religious 

 nature, respecting the right of 

 patronage, and by some shades 

 of distinction as to church disci- 

 pline ; so that they may consci- 

 entiously send their children to 

 parish schools connected with 

 the establishment and teaching 

 its catechism. In England the 

 case is widely different ; and it 

 appears to your Committee 



essentially necessary that this 

 circumstance be carefully consi- 

 dered in the devising arrange- 

 ments of the system. To place the 

 choice of the schoolmaster in the 

 parish vestry, subject to the 

 approbation of the parson, and 

 the visitation of the diocesan ; 

 but to provide that the children 

 of sectarians shall not be com- 

 pelled to learn any catechism or 

 attend any church, other than 

 those of their parents, seems to 

 your Committee the safest path 

 by which the legislature can 

 hope to obtain the desirable 

 objects of security to the estab- 

 lishment on the one hand, and 

 justice to the dissenters on the 

 other. 



The more extended inquiries 

 of your Committee this session 

 have amply confirmed the opinion 

 which a more limited investiga- 

 tion had led them to form two 

 years ago, upon the neglect and 

 abuse of charitable funds con- 

 nected with education. They 

 must refer to the Appendix and. 

 the Tables, for the very import- 

 ant details of this branch of the 

 subject ; but they must add, that 

 although in many cases those 

 large funds appear to have been 

 misapplied through ignorance, or 

 mismanaged through carelessness, 

 yet that some instances of abuse 

 have presented themselves, of 

 such a nature, as would have led 

 them to recommend at an earlier 

 period of the session, the institu- 

 tion of proceedings for more 

 promptly checking misappropria- 

 tions, both in the particular cases, 

 and by the force of a salutary 

 example. From the investiga- 

 tions of the commission about to 

 be issued under the authority of 



an 



