over popular made a grant of money to aid private schools in t work. This government aid was steadily increased, in 1870 was supplemented by a measure allowing erection and equipment of schools at the public expen The notion, however, of separating education entir from religious instruction is steadily resisted by a lar portion of all the religious people in England, althoug they cannot agree as to the exact nature of the religio instruction to be given. Naturally the members of th Established Church have been slow to relinquish the ancient authority over education, and in 1902 the Con servative government strengthened their control by a law which was designed to give uniformity to the whole system, and at the same time to put the burden of maintaining religious schools (of which the Anglican Church has the large majority) principally upon the government. This measure aroused heated opposition upon the part of the other sects, and carried the educational question into politics. A recent writer briefly sums up the situation as follows: 306. The The history of modern education may not unfairly be reprecontroversy sented as a gradual process of transfer from Church to State, from clerical to lay hands. And unless modern history is about to reverse its course, democracy to fall into the background, and adapted) and government to revert to the hands of the unchosen few, there is no reason to doubt that this process will go on, and education will become the affair of State and municipal departments. Progress in England, if equally certain, has been more gradual and less logical than in most countries; and the course of national education, like everything else, has been tardy, partial, and the subject of continual compromise. Still, if we look at its conditions a century ago and its position to-day, we cannot fail to trace in it the general tendency, and to forecast with some confidence its future. Sooner or later, education, at least primary and secondary, is destined to be conducted by the government of this country, assisted by local authorities, but removed from the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical bodies. . . . Up to 1870 the churches, for the most part, ran the schools, with large government aid. In olden times the Church held the management of other great departments of public life, -hos- clergy in t pitals, relief of the poor, administration of wills, etc., long since work of transferred to lay hands. The clergy, who worked on the whole education honestly and well, nevertheless proved unequal to the task of education. But at last the State took up the matter and estab- Establishlished in many cities school boards with power to erect build- ment of lo ings, employ teachers, and conduct free elementary schools. At the same time the State permitted the Anglican, Catholic, and Nonconformist churches to do what they could, and increased the amount of public money granted to them. The board system, being public and energetic, has had an enormous success, and its energy has also improved, by example, the rival system. Nevertheless the dual arrangement has never worked without friction; the clericals often went on to the board with the main intention of protecting their own schools from competition, and there are few large boards which have not witnessed a perpetual conflict at least at election times - between the ecclesiastical and civil ideas which were at work. the school county an The new law is governed by two main ideas. The first is to Education transfer the local administration from the school boards to taken from bodies supervised and partly nominated by the county and town boards an councils, and to confide to these bodies secondary as well as put in the primary education. Unification is the alleged principle. Uni- hands of fication may be a good object- in the end. But to remove town cour from office at a stroke all those persons who have shown themselves capable and enthusiastic in the promotion of primary education in recent years is a strange way of advancing it. To put primary teaching into the hands of city and county councils, whose purposes, thoughts, and traditions are occupied with wholly different matters, seems a hazardous experiment. And to give to such bodies the central and of secondary The government must support the clerical schools The Dis to refuse to pay taxes The second idea which led to the framing of the law permanent fortification of the clerical schools, by thro almost the last penny of their financial burden on to p funds, while leaving them under ecclesiastical managem for the appointment by the public authority of one third of managers is practically insufficient either to secure fair pla the Nonconformist children in the rural districts, or to ch the enslavement to the clergy of about half the teach profession. No wonder that proposals like these have roused the m senters about determined hostility amongst all Liberals, and especially among the Nonconformists, who, usually the most pronounced and ha working of Liberals, are in this case fighting a special battle their own. So strong is the hostility that many Dissenters eminence and influence are proposing to meet the rate which the law imposes for the support of the clerical schools with a refusal to pay, a passive resistance on the lines of that which destroyed the old Church rates. People smile at this plan, as if it were a mere explosion of political hatred, an idle threat, which would not survive a few sales of furniture by auction. They are much mistaken. The matter is under the careful consideration of six hundred local councils of the Nonconformist churches, and if the plan be adopted it will probably be done deliberately, as a definite mode of warfare, and carried on by men who know how to organize it and are tenacious in temper.1 Section 87. The Irish Question Among the many questions which have confronted the British Parliament in its government of Ireland during the nineteenth century, the religious issue has been most prominent. After the Catholic "emancipation" of 1829, which admitted Catholics to Parliament and to 1 Many Dissenters did refuse to pay taxes, but they finally gave up that line of resistance and began an agitation against the new educational law, which contributed greatly in 1906 to the defeat of the Conservatives, the party which had passed the measure. civil and military offices, Irish reformers concentrated their attention upon the special privileges enjoyed by the English Church, which had been established in Ireland at the time of the Protestant Reformation. By law the Irish were compelled to pay tithes to support a church whose doctrines they did not believe. Quite naturally they openly resisted the payment of tithes ; the measures which they adopted are described in the parliamentary reports. Testimony of Colonel Sir John Harvey Protest Ireland On the 3d of March I moved into Graigue with 120 men 307. Ho of the county of Kilkenny constabulary, and remained a period tithes f of two months, during which time the police were indefat- clergy igable in their exertions, out every day, and frequently twice collecte a day, and traversing a great extent of country upon every excursion; the whole population was constantly on the watch, and signals made announcing the approach of the drivers and police; the cattle were driven home by the farmers whenever it was possible, and placed under lock and key; and as the law did not permit doors to be broken, the seizures made were not so numerous as would otherwise have been the case. Question. What has been the mode of opposition which has Tithes been adopted by the people to the enforcement of the rights to colled of the clergyman under the Composition Act? Answer. I have described some of them, in the evasion of the law, by removing their cattle. The cattle that are distrained under the Composition Act must be seized between sunrise and sunset. The law does not empower the driver to force a door or a bolt, and I am doubtful whether it authorizes him to raise a latch; so that the means of evasion are quite within the reach of the people. By doing what we did at Graigue, employing an overwhelming force, and applying that force to one particular parish for a period of two months, we were enabled, at the end of that two months, to collect about one third of the arrears due to the clergyman and by that period another arrear of when so are used No one will buy cattle taken for tithes Crowds assemble to collection of prevent the tithes government could bring to bear in the county of Kilkenny, Q. Suppose you had succeeded in distraining the cattle the full amount of the tithe, was there any possibility of findi purchasers? Ans. Certainly not. Q. Supposing purchasers had been found, had they an means of disposing of the cattle which they had purchased Ans. Certainly not; they must be still protected through the whole country; they must find food in the country, where every individual was denounced who ventured to furnish that food. The cattle were invariably branded with the word "tithe, so that they were not saleable wherever they were seen; and it was reported, I do not know with what truth, that even when they were brought over to this country there was a difficulty in effecting a sale. Q. By whom is that brand affixed to the cattle? Ans. By the people themselves. Previous to the sale the word "tithe" is either painted or branded upon the animal. Testimony of Joseph Green Question. Have you been employed in assisting to serve tithe processes? Answer. I have. Q. What has occurred on those occasions? Ans. Almost every time that I have been out there has been an assemblage of people, evidently for the purpose of preventing the service of law processes, or of taking any steps for the recovery of tithes. The people assembled by signals principally, such as horns sounding, shouting, or whistling, and latterly by the ringing of the chapel bells. When assembled they have not fire arms, that I have ever seen, but they have forks and sticks and scythes; the forks evidently sharpened for the purpose of giving opposition. Q. How many of the police and how many soldiers had you engaged to serve the law-processes? |