THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY'S VIEWS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12477, 12 April 1906, Page 8

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY'S VIEWS.

(Received April 11th, 11.24 p.m.) LONDON, April 11. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in a letter to the Secretary of the National Society for Promoting Education Principles of the Established Church, says that tho Education Bill withdraws from Churchmen the right to carry out those principles which successive Governments of all parties for half a century have encouraged them to maintain, and brings voluntary schools at one stroke to an end, involving trust property, given in many instances by donors who aro still alive, for the very purpose of securing what is now proscriocd. Churchmen should take immediate counsel to meet thie far-reaching and grave emergency. [The Archbishop of Canterbury vraa recently asked for advice as to tho position Churchmen should take tip on tho forthcoming Education Bill. In his reply ho said:—"You think that somo words from mc might be helpful to thoso who want now to make up their minds as to what they ought to do if a law were to be passed which traversed their conscientious convictions; and, like many of my correspondents, you point, not dimly, to the possibility of what is oddly and rather inappropriately called 'passive , resistance. I am certain that I shall have your concurrence when I express my emphatic opinion that in no circumstances within the range of practical poseibilities could such action on our part be justifiable. When people talk in this connection About the 'sacred light of rebellion as the ultimate resource of an oppressed people, , and so forth, they seem to mc to have lost all sense of hustorio proportion. Few things in the recent political contentions have surprised end disquieted mc more than the marked abstinence on the part of some of our leading statesmen from any open denunciation of a course of action so contrary to the elementary principles of representative government. Am I wrong in believing that every wise and thoughtful public man wonkJ, when off the platform, unhesitatingly denounce as preposterous and, except for party purposes, deplorable, tho conduct, whicn has in public been virtually condoned by silence, while its records have been paraded for use iff the political literature of the election? Should we, in spite of all our efforts, be called upon to endure tho enactment of a law which violates our conscientious convictions os to what, in the highest interests of the children, ie educationally right and fair, we must set ourselves with strenuous perseverance to got it mended. But at least while it remains the law, constitutionally enacted and constitutionally applied, loyal Churchmen will act as law-abiding citiwns of a Christian country. In the meantime, we can, I think, render euch a contingency more and more remote by making everybody understand the reasonableness, the fairness, and, I should like to add, the true 'liberalism' of the principles for which we have from the first contended—the principle that an efficient school shall not be crippled, or closed, simply bo-

cati.se within its working hours the children arc taught the faith of their parents, and arc taught it by mon and women who moan what they say."]