[TO TRH EDITOR OF THEI SPEOTATOR1 SIR,—I congratulate the Endowed
Schools' Commissioners on having found a gentleman courageous enough to defend their pro- ceedings, He seems to me "born out of due time," and comes rather to embalm the dead than to succour the living. I beg your permission to say a few words in answer to your correspondent "Alpha," and though I shall not follow his course in discussing the questions at issue, I will not shrink from any point which he has raised.
Lst me say a word in reference to the letter of my friend Mr. Dale. If your correspondent will read that letter again, he will see that he has mistaken the object of the writer. Mr. Dale no- where cites the Bridgwater scheme "as a crucial instance of unfairness," nor does he state that that "scheme is unjust to Dis- senters" at all. Hie reference to the scheme is purely incidental, and intended to illustrate one single point : "how profusely, when freed from any restrictions, the Commissioners indulge their pre- dilections for clerical governors." And surely even " Alpha " will admit that four clerical ex-officio governors is somewhat profuse even for a Church school, But perhaps laymen in the Establish- ment are as ill educated and incompetent as we unhappy Dis- senters outside are supposed to be
I am happy to agree with my censor at starting. I shall begin where lie ends, and shall apply the principles on which we agree to test the points on which we differ. I heartily assent to his sentiment that "there is something unspeakably petty and unstatesnsaulike in an attempt to measure all such questions by considerations of mere sectarian gain and loss." We, too, hoped that "the Endowed Schools' Commissioners would rise to a higher and broader conception of their duty than this." We accept these sentiments in their utmost fullness, and the only question is how far the Commissioners have acted upon them. We have never objected to any man, nor sought to "set aside" any man because he is "committed to certain theological opinions which are unaccept- able to Dissenters." I readily admit that the Commissioners have had a duty of unusual delicacy and responsibility to discharge. They had to carry out the spirit of an Act the letter of which was loose enough. They have had -to encounter local opposition and cor- ruption, but they had the nation to sustain them. They were entrusted to embody in action the principles of religious equality And justice which Parliament had only attempted to indicate. Never had a body of men a nobler trust committed to them. They sat in a court of Honour rather than in a court of Law. They might have raised the endowed schools above sects in reli- gion and above parties in politics. They might have infused into these ancient but abused foundations a new life which would have made itself felt throughout England. That life would have penetrated to the elementary schools in one direction and to the Universities in another. They might have made them a noble link between the lowest and the highest, inspiring the humblest with hope, and infusing an element of healthful life into the highest. I shall not venture to determine how far these schemes embody this " higher and brander conception of their duty."
Your correspondent is indignant because he thinks that I have undervalued the representative element in these schemes. I have said that it is "ignored, made indirect, or reduced to a minimum." " Alpha " seems to think that it is a marvellous virtue in the Commissioners to introduce it at al!. It is not "expressly re- quired by the terms of the Act." It seems to be a sort of compli- ment to the spirit of the age. It could not well be excluded, but they have dealt with it in the daintiest possible manner, What are the facts ? In some eases the co-optative members constitute an absolute majority of the Board ; in others they are one-half ; in nearly all cases the ex-officio and co-optative entirely overwhelm the representative element ; and in some cases the electors are corporations foreign to the endow- ment. This is what your correspondent pleasantly calls a "substantial force in the government of the local trusts." I venture to think that this kind of representation does not embody the spirit or the recommendations of the Schools' Inquiry Commis- sioners. I ask " Alpha's " attention to a passage or two. "No skill in organization, no careful adaptation of the means in hand
to the best ends, can do as much for education as the earnest co- operation of the people." They cite America, Scotland, Switzer- land, as proofs. " In Zurich the • schools are absolutely in the hands of the people, and the complete success of the system must be largely ascribed to this cause." Will such representation as these schemes embody awaken this interest or produce these fruits? I do not believe it. The Report declares that co-opta- tion should exist '6 to only a limited extent." These co-optative governors are the lineal descendants of those self-elected bodies who have made grammar-schools a byeword and a scorn in the land. They have been tried and found miserably wanting. We have outlived alike ex-officio and self-elective bodies. "Con- tinuity of tradition" may be good, but a breath of life is a great deal better.
Your correspondent is still more indignant because I have said that the Commissioners have made their office "the means of Tori- fying and Churchifying the entire middle-class education of the country." I take the facts as they appear in the schemes. I have forty before me, and in thirty-six of these there is one or more ex. officio clerical governor. Is not that Churchifying the education? These clericals appear again among the electing bodies and among the co-optative governors. Is not that Churchifying the education ? In some of the schemes the co-optative governors arc named by the Commissioners. We have learned something about them. Of seventy-four of these gentlemen, sixty-five are Churchmen, and nine are Nonconformists! Of course " Alpha " will say this arises from the "plain facts of our social life." It is hard, when we have been robbed of our birthright for centuries, that we should be thus taunted with the result. I frankly confess that we bear, in our want of a higher education, as in many other forma, the marks of the injustice which a State Church has inflicted upon us ; and we complain that the spirit of these schemes tends to perpetuate that injustice. I venture to think that there are qualities which are not wanting among Nonconformists—common-sense, power of organization, and public spirit—which are hardly less valuable in the governors of a public school than education itself. I do not expect, nor even wish, a " majority of Dissenters " in the governing bodies ; but is the proportion which these schemes pre- sent, all that an honest attempt to do us justice would find ? IF a Nonconformist had been on the Commission, it is not unreason- able to suppose that his knowledge, and even his instinct, would have led him to a different conclusion. But "the eye only sees what it brings the power of seeing"; and when the Commission is com- posed of Churchmen, it is not wonderful that they can find so few educated Nonconformists And I have never known the Tories to suffer at the hands of the Church. Of these co-optative governors we find that fifty are Conservatives and only twelve are Liberals! But perhaps the Commissioners have had as much difficulty in finding educated Liberals as educated Noncon- formists. My assertion, so far from being a " rhetorical flight," seems the baldest statement of facts. With these clerical and Conservative governors, what other result can any man expect than " Churchifying and Torifying " the education of the middle- classes for a generation to come ?
Your correspondent seeks to justify these ex-officio clerical appointments, and is quite incapable of understanding how we can look upon them as a "new insult and a new wrong." With an effort after accuracy which we highly appreciate, he states that "in many instances, though not in all," i.e., in thirty-six out of forty, these appointments have been made. He cites the number of privileges with which the clergyman of the parish" is already invested, and seems to have no conception that anyone is wronged by- this favouritism ; and because he has all this, he must also have something more! It is because we object to all this, that we object to more. I beg " Alpha " to observe that we do not object to a clergyman being a governor, but we do object to his being a governor simply because he is the life-tenant of a national
freehold. These reasons are passing away, and will soon cease to exist altogether. We protest against another link being forged between the Church and the State, I am not surprised that " Alpha " cannot understand this. I have known many ia exactly the same difficulty. The "clergyman of the parish" who was wont to take our goods for the maintenance of the services of his Church could not understand the "temper of mind" which objected to the proceeding. This is the saddest result of wrong-doing. It blinds the moral perceptions of men. The most honourable men seem incapable of perceiving what is due to their neighbours. But I need not argue this matter. Concerning the dead we have nothing but good to say. " Alpha " is pronouncing a funereal oration, and the most sceptical ought to be silent.
I have trespassed too far on your space, but there are some things in these schemes which even " Alpha " will probably be "4 surprised to hear." The scheme for Felsted has a charm peculiarly its own. it has 14 governors: 4 are to be ex-officio, and one of these is the vicar ; 4 are to be elected by the county M.P.'s ; 6 are co-optative, and of these 3 are clerical That scheme must delight your correspondent. In the case of Walsall, a church has been built at the expense of £3,000 out of the endowment of the school; the present governors, who are all Churchmen, propose to sell it, and refund the money thus misapplied ; but the Commis- sioners propose to hand it over to the Bishop of Lichfield! By what Saxon word would " Alpha " designate that pro- posal ? It seems bad enough that school endowments should have been thus misapplied in past time, but that Her Majesty's Commissioners should condone the deed and become parties
to it, is simply incredible We are not likely to forget the Harrow-School scheme, which the House of C3M.MOUS had the honesty to reject, and we remember also that one of the Commis- sioners has a seat at both Boards. Let the Commissioners look the matter boldly in the face. These schemes are as hopelessly wrecked, as the Megtera, whose ribs are strewing the rocks of Paul.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Birmingham, November 14, 1871. JOHN JENICYN BROWN.
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