"SIMPLE BIBLE TEACHING" NOT IN THE EDUCATION BILL OF 1906.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I think it would surprise a good many people of all denominations if they were to read the above Bill and the Act of 1870 (with which it is fundamentally connected), and find, as I have done, that neither the word " Bible " nor "Christian" is mentioned in either. The only kind of " religious " teaching which the Bill does not expressly forbid the local education authority to pay for is that "permitted under Section XIV. of the Elementary Education Act of 1870." Section XIV. runs as follows :—" Every school pro- vided by a School Board shall be conducted under the control and management of such Board in accordance with the follow- ing regulations :-1. The school shall be a public elementary school within the meaning of this Act. 2. [The celebrated ' Cowper-Temple Clause.'] No religious catechism, or religious formulary which is distinctive of any particular denomination, shall be taught in the school." All this is purely negative, as [The object of those who drafted the clause in this form was, we presume, to give the greatest possible amount of elasticity to the school authorities, and also to avoid the difficulty of anything like a statutory definition of Christianity or the Christian religion.—En. Spectator.]
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