550 HISTORY 



its control of the Colony. They saw in the state church a danger to religious 

 equality. At this time when the negroes were coining to command them- 

 selves as free subjects, it seemed meet to the dissenters to break up this survival 

 of an old order of things before the new citizenship became adjusted to it. 

 Thus would future generations be spared the necessity of throwing off a 

 vexatious system, that would in their day become more securely fastened on 

 the Colony. The churchmen had been so accustomed to the control of the 

 schools, dictating their policies and imposing their spirit on them, that they 

 were reluctant to surrender that privilege. They could not regard lightly 

 such agitation as this. It caused serious concern to them that the movement 

 had arisen. They resisted with a determination second only to that of those 

 who were assailing their church. The old prejudices that had existed in 

 former times in the mother country were here to control the conduct of men. 

 The Governor, though not active in the contest, was as filled with prejudice 

 as any man within the confines of the Bahamas. Only slight advantages were 

 gained at this time, but the grasp of the church was shaken. The contest was 

 to be kept up until the Church of England in the Bahamas was disendowed 

 and denied a preference in claims on the public purse. 



Upon the location of an archdeacon in the Bahamas the incumbent of 

 that position was made a member of the school board and chairman of the 

 body.™" In the following year the number of the commissioners was changed 

 to seven, exclusive of the archdeacon. They were all laymen and appointed 

 anmially by the Governor.""' Changes were made in response to representa- 

 tions of the dissenters that their clergy were excluded from membership on 

 the board. Whether Prancis Cockburn was partially responsible for the dis- 

 sensions in the board, during his administration, is not easily determinable. 

 It appears, however, that that body was less disturbed after his departure from 

 the Colony. It is probable that the excited feelings of the people had had 

 time to grow calm, when his successor arrived. On the expiration of the 

 education act of 1844 objection to it was so strong that it could not be re- 

 newed. An attempt was made to give the new board a more exclusively 

 Church of England formation. This was met by more extensive demands 

 on the part of the dissenters. The new board was created as a committee of 

 the Executive Council. The board could regulate the religious and secular 

 work for the schools, but any minister had power to protest against any books 



™ 7 Vic, 14. 



■"" 8 Vic, 13 and Mattiew to Stanley, No. 100. 



