LORD JOHN RUSSELL ON THE EDUCATIONAL MINUTE.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 705, 15 January 1853, Page 3

LORD JOHN RUSSELL ON THE EDUCATIONAL MINUTE.

[From the “ Wa'c’iman. '1 Wc print in another column the Minute of Lord Derby’s newly-appointed Committee of Privy Council on Education, The margin shows how small is the alteration in the wording; but we apprehend that cannot be a trifling concession which has satisfied Mr. Archdeacon Denison. It gives to the clerical power a final authority in u morals,” as well as in religion. I hat is all. But what are morals? Rather ask,—The supreme control, both over the religious and She moral direction of a school being given to the clergyman, what is left to the teacher, or the layman on the school committee? And what, under the new regulations, will be the condition of the schoolmaster? Lord John Russell says that, already. Hie schoolmasters of Church of England schools perceive that their position is changed, and that any opinion of the clergyman, to the disadvantage ol the master, would deprive the latter of his situation. This is what wc had anticipated. tor the Minute practically hands over the teacher from his committee to his Minister, and makes him in all things the instrument and vassal of the parish parson. With how much hope could a dismissed schoolmaster appeal to the Bishop, lor what Bishop would restore him against the will of the clergyman? It must be observed, that one of the new clauses gives the Minister or Curate a power over the teacher of peremptory, and immediate suspension, pending any reference to the Bishop. It is true that the Minute is only permissive, and that clergymen, who are the principal parlies to gelling up schools, may, if they please, establish them upon the former basis. But if

they are not so liberally inclined, and can pre- j vail on a little junta of friends in the parish to lake the High Church ground at the outset, the deed of settlement cannot be altered, and (rust j becomes a permanent one, and the subscribers lo the school will, at no period thenceforward, have any power lo alter it. 'there can he no change or lay interference afterwards. ; Our most serious alarm arises less from what the Minnie actually does, than from what may , he expected lo fellow it. “I cannot,” said Lord John Uussell, “hut express my apprehension at this begining of changes." A series of Minutes may follow at intervals, with the effect of totally subverting the system of popular education as it now exists. Lord Derby has indeed promised that no part of (he present year's grant shall he applied lo schools founded upon the permissive clauses of the Minute ; hut we may expect that, on the faith of those alterations, Traclarian Schools will spring up by scores and hundreds, and will afterwards demand that patronage from the Stale which the Committee of Privy Council has proclaimed to he equitable. !! is a fatal concession, which we do not see how the present Government can possibly retract. We arc thankful, however, for one consequence of this important event. It makes our duly only the more plain. In rural districts, and in smaller places especially, the lime for Wesleyan Methodists lo establish schools for that portion of the young entrusted by Providence lo their care, is now or never.