The Rev. R. W. Dale, in a letter to Friday's
Times, disclaims for himself and his Nonconformist colleagues any wish to protest " against the selection of a leader who is responsible for the Edu- cation policy of the late Ministry." On the contrary, they would be quite willing to let "bygones be bygones," so long as the leader selected should be favourable to their educational pol' for the future. They object to Mr. Forster, not for what he has done, but only so far as what he has done is a legitimate index of what he will do. Looked at from this light, they specially object to his having vigorously promoted the policy of the payment by School Boards of the School fees of such poor men's children as attended denominational schools, even though the Boards them- selves had hesitated whether to pay such fees or not. But the truth is, that this policy was absolutely ancillary to compulsion, and that, as Mr. Forster has repeated again and again, this was the one reason why he supported it. No magistrate could enforce the attend- ance of a poor man's child at school if his father could declare that the Board School went against his conscience, or was too far off, and that he could not afford to pay the fee at the nearest denomi- national school of which he approved. The Nonconformist Leaguers cannot easily forgive a greater zeal in the cause of edu- cation with or without ',religious equality,'than is displayed in the cause of 'religious equality' with or without education. Probably, however, the English people will think differently.
