Mr. Acland's criticism was more or less held in reserve,
though he spoke of the measure as a great upheaval of the existing system, and expressed very frankly his dislike to what he called the virtual abolition of the Cowper-Temple
compromise. Indeed, his speech did not at all satisfy the ferocious anti-denominationalists, as we observe that the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes has expressed his astonishment that Mr. Acland bad not more vehemently denounced " this infamous Bill," and has stated that its vast demerits had only been adequately apprehended by the Daily Chronicle and the West- minster Gazette. What makes some of the Opposition Members almost furious is the proposal to let a " reasonable number " of parents require their children to be instructed by a religions teacher of their own way of thinking, which is regarded by the extreme party as sanctioning sectarianism, as of course it does. But we had thought that in that sense sectarianism had been sanctioned ever since the repeal of the various test Acts. The nineteenth-century form of intolerance, however, is directed against all who will not consent to sink their religious differences in a vague sort of tincture of all forms of Christianity. The strong adherents of a definite intellectual creed for their children, are regarded as deserving of a minor kind of persecution.
