40 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [n. 



be cautioned against allowing their schools to be made places of 

 proselytism : but when this is done, the case is simple enough. 

 Leave the masters under this general understanding to teach freely ; if 

 there is ground of complaint, let it be made, but leave the onus pro- 

 bandi on the objectors. For extreme peculiarities of belief or unbelief 

 there is the Conscience Clause ; as to the mass of parents, they will be 

 more anxious to have religion taught than afraid of its assuming this 

 or that particular shade. They will trust the school-managers and 

 teachers till they have reason to distrust them, and experience has 

 shown that they may trust them safely enough. Any attempt to 

 throw the burden of making the teaching undenominational upon the 

 managers must be sternly resisted : it is simply evading the intentions 

 of the Act in an elaborate attempt to carry them out. We thank 

 Professor Huxley for the warning. To bo forewarned is to be fore- 

 armed." 



A good deal of light seems to me to be thrown on the 

 practical significance of the opinions expressed in the 

 foregoing extract by the following interesting letter, 

 which appeared in the same paper : 



" SIB, I venture to send to you the substance of a correspondence 

 with the Education Department upon the question of the lawfulness 

 of religious teaching in rate schools under section 14 (2) of the Act. 

 I asked whether the words * which is distinctive,' &c., taken gram- 

 matically as limiting the prohibition of any religious formulary, might 

 be construed as allowing (subject, however, to the other provisions of 

 the Act) any religious formulary common to any two denominations 

 anywhere in England to be taught in such schools ; and if practically 

 the limit could not be so extended, but would have to be fixed accord- 

 ing to the special circumstances of each district, then what degree of 

 general acceptance in a district would exempt such a formulary from 

 the prohibition ? The answer to this was as follows : ' It was under- 

 stood, when clause 14 of the Education Act was discussed in the House 

 of Commons, that, according to a well-known rule of interpreting Acts 

 of Parliament, "denomination ' must be held to include "denomina- 

 tions." When any dispute is referred to the Education Department 

 under the last paragraph of section 16, it will be dealt with according 

 to the circumstances of the case.' 



" Upon my asking further if I might hence infer that the lawfulness 

 of teaching any religious formulary in a rate school would thus depend 

 exclusively on local circumstances, and would accordingly be so decided 

 by the Education Department in case of dispute, I was informed in 



