42 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [n. 



circumstance that, so far as I can judge, their labour is 

 in vain. 



Supposing that the London School Board contains, as 

 it probably will do, a majority of sectaries ; and that they 

 carry over the heads of a minority, a resolution that 

 certain theological formulas, about which they all happen 

 to agree, say, for example, the doctrine of the Trinity, 

 shall be taught in the schools. Do they fondly imagine 

 that the minority will not at once dispute their interpreta- 

 tion of the Act, and appeal to the Education Department 

 to settle that dispute ? And if so, do they suppose that 

 any Minister of Education, who wants to keep his place, 

 will tighten boundaries which the Legislature has left 

 loose ; and will give a " final decision " which shall be 

 offensive to every Unitarian and to every Jew in the 

 House of Commons, besides creating a precedent which 

 will afterwards be used to the injury of every Noncon- 

 formist ? The editor of the Guardian tells his friends 

 sternly to resist every attempt to throw the burden of 

 making the teaching undenominational on the managers, 

 and thanks me for the warning I have given him. I 

 return the thanks, with interest, for his warning, as to 

 the course the party he represents intends to pursue, and 

 for enabling me thus to draw public attention to a 

 perfectly constitutional and effectual mode of check- 

 mating them. 



And, in truth, it is wonderful to note the surprising 

 entanglement into which our able editor gets himself in 

 the struggle between his native honesty and judgment 

 and the necessities of his party. " "We could not see/' 

 says he, " in the face of this clause how a distinct de- 

 nominational tone could be honestly given to schools 

 nominally general." There speaks the honest and clear- 

 headed man. "Any attempt to throw the burden of 

 making the teaching undenominational must be sternly 



