School Children and Dogma 189 



education had been controlled by the Established 

 Church, and by other denominational religious bodies, 

 and the quality and quantity of the instruction pro- 

 vided, for financial and various other reasons, had been 

 extremely unsatisfactor}'. But a long and furious 

 battle had raged around the religious question ; ele- 

 mentary education was now to be national, compuls- 

 ory, and universal ; where religious bodies maintained 

 schools that complied with certain fixed standards of 

 efficiency, attendance of children at these was to be 

 regarded as satisfactory^, and in addition to the ordin- 

 ary subjects, such theological and religious teaching 

 as the supporting bodies chose might be added. 

 But in the schools for all and sundry, under the 

 control of boards representing the whole population, 

 and deriving that part of their income represented by 

 the subscriptions of the religious bodies in the denom- 

 inational schools from public rates, levied on the whole 

 population, was any definite creed to be inculcated ? 

 The extreme Church party, perhaps naturally, held that 

 the creed established by law in the land should be taught 

 in these new schools ; extreme supporters of other 

 creeds, and a majority of ordinar}^ people of all creeds 

 or of no creeds, objected to a new establishment of a 

 sectarian doctrine, even though that sectarian doctrine 

 were the doctrine of the national religion. The final 

 result of the dispute as codified in the Act of Parlia- 

 ment was what was known as the Cowper- Temple 

 Clause : " No religious catechism or religious formulary 

 which is distinctive of any particular denomination 

 shall be taught in the school." The actual value of 

 any clause, however it ma}- appear to be a fair com- 

 promise, depends on the spirit in which it is practically 

 interpreted, and no sooner had the Act been passed 



