THE ARCHBISHOP AND THE SCHOOLS

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 26, 31 January 1907, Page 6

THE ARCHBISHOP AND THE SCHOOLS

The Archbishop of Canterbury was { reported yesterday to havo stated in an ' address to the Diocesan Education Society at Ramsgate "that if the Government would begin afresh on a simpler plan, and with a genuino desire to meet the difficulties shown in recent debates, the prospects of success were not inconsiderable." Though tho Archbishop of Canterbury took the responsibility of voting with tho majority of the House of Lords in the final division which killed the Education Bill, there aro few of tho protagonists on either side of tho controversy whoso attitude throughout has given them a better title to a respectful hearing on the question i of compromise; but wo aro bound to say that we do not see the faintest possibility of tho adoption by tho present Government of any '^simpler plan" that would not be moro distasteful to the Archbishop and his Church than tho last. 'Mi*. Birrell's Bill was of the nature of a compromise to start with, and as practically all tho amendments introduced into it during its long and stormy passage through the Legislature v/ere ot the nature of further concessions to the Church of England, the loyalty to tho Government of the militant Nonconformity, which had kept the quostion rankling all these years, was strained to the uttermost. Our cable messages hardly did justice to tho feelinga of relief with which the ultimate wreck of tho Bill was greeted by the Nonconformists. "I am very glad that it is wrecked," said Dr. Clifford, "considering the increase which had been raado during tho last- few daya in the number of concessions. . . Had it been passed, il would have increased very largely tho indignation which the fourth i clause had alfeady created among the Liberals of tho country, and would havo gono far to weaken tho attachment of Liberals to their own party." In the same spirit, tho leading organ of Welsh Liberalism, the South Wales Daily News, declared that "Wales cannot but rejoice at tho failuro of the negotiations. The Bill was unjust to Nonconformists, even in its original form, and it provided a million a year as a permanent endowment of tho Anglican and Roman Catholic sects.' . . The Plan of Campaign becomes once more operative, this_ time with greater determination.. It is a fight to finish. '-

With this spirit animating come of the '< most stalwart of their supporters, it is easy to realise that the chagrin with which Ministers watched the ruin wrought by the House of Lords upon the labours which had occupied them for so many months was not unmingled -with a feeling of relief. If peace is impossible, it is nt least better to quarrel with your pnemies than with, your own supporters, and from this point of view the House of Lords has given the Government the preferable alternative. Lord Cr'ewe'B parting words on the Bill are at any rate directly in point. "He warned them not to accept the concessions which had been made for. use in the future, for he would he surprised if the time should ever come ■when he or any one else on his side would urge the concessions again." Now, Lord Crewe is not an extremist, and his official announcement at the funeral of the Bill musfc ourely be taken to represent the deliberate determination of the Cabinet. Not more but fewer concessions to the denominationalists must be the mark of the Bill which Mr. R. M'Kenna, the new Minister of Education, must, shortly be introducing into the House of Commons; and the Archbishop's suggestion appears to be absolutely visionary. "It would," said he, "be deplorable if tho Government repudiated tfie virtual bargain made in 1870 that denominational teaching should be maintained in the schools which fc he church had built at a cost of £25,000,000." Dr. Clifford's answer, of course, will bo that it was the EstabMshed Church which first departed from the bargam of 1870 by securing from Mr. Bal- °»' «?, special privileges of the Act of 1902. Ihe logical outcome of rate-aid, according to the Nonconformists and thp Liberals generally, is public control, and though they do not yet see that the logical outcome of public control is secular education, they are steadily, albeit for the most part unconsciously, working towards it. Thai is surely the "simpler plan," which alone can bring peace /from these bickerings to church and chapel, to Parliament and the schools.