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Show AN ENGLISH MODEL. Very interesting to Catholics and sincerely religious people of . every sect in this country is, or ought to be, the new education bill, introduced in the British house of commons by -Mr. Balfour Bal-four on behalf of the government. Under Un-der the provisions of that measure all parochial and denominational schools, upon complying with certain specifications specifica-tions regarding the purely secular instruction in-struction imparted, are entitled to support sup-port out of the public taxes. The principle prin-ciple upon which the bill is framed is the only one that affords an equitable adjustment of the question of popular : education in a country w hose population popula-tion is religiously divided. There is no reason except invincible prejudice on the part of certain large classes of our own citizens, why a similar arrange- '"r"- iiul auo()icu nere. The interest of the state in the business busi-ness of education is solely that of insuring in-suring morally sound and intelligent citizenship. It is not vitally important how this end is reached, so that it is effected. And it doesn't make a.ny j difference to the state, or it shouldn't. I what agencies are employed, so that the end in view is accomplished. In a . religiously mixed population like that of England and the United States there Is necessarily a diversity of opinion with regard to the desirability of re-l'gious re-l'gious teaching in state conducted schools. Catholics and some of the Christian sects maintain that any system sys-tem which excludes knowledge of God I the fundamental doctrines of faith and the moral training rooted in these, is incomplete, that it fails to provide for the most important matter of human trpintnsr. namelv. the formation of , titcLer on rignt principles. These people hold that they should not be I obliged to support a system which they l cannot in conse'ence use. There are others who believe that all the religious instruction necessary can be obtained outside of the schools, and that the work of the latter should be exclusively-confined exclusively-confined to the development of the intellectual in-tellectual faculties. Still others take the position that religion Itself is something some-thing that can be dispensed with altogether, alto-gether, everywhere; that natural virtue vir-tue is sufficient for all social needs. Not a few would prefer to see aesthetic hostility to all definite dogmatic creeds incorporated in the curricula of public educational institutions, rather than the inculcation of religious precepts in any form. The majority of the people of the United States being outwardly indifferent to. religion,- are probably indifferent in-different to the question of its relation to education under state control. . It is evident, therefore, that there can oe no reconciliation of these diverse di-verse views on the subject, except on the basis? of such a. plan. as the present English education bill contemplates. Under the arrangement outlined in that measure, the rights and prejudices of all classes are equally respected. , Those who pay taxes have freedom of i choice in the kind . of. oducation they deein best for their own neei's. Christians Chris-tians of every denomination are permitted per-mitted to build their own schools and to make such provision as they choose for religious instruction acceptable to them, and to derive the running expenses ex-penses of their respective" institutions from the public funds, subject only to government supervision and control in the matter of efficiency in secular in- i struction. That, after all, is the crux of secular ! concern in education, the schooling of the intellect according to certain standards stand-ards of proficiency. What else is imparted im-parted in addition is a matter of no consequence from the point of vjew of me paramount necessity of mental culture. cul-ture. Therefore, there can be no reasonable reason-able objection to such an arrangement as the one in question, on the part of uncompromising secularists. Disapproval Disap-proval on any ground except 'its impracticability, im-practicability, implies a desire to interfere in-terfere with that absolute freedom of , conscience .In others which the enemies I or "sectarianism" demand for themselves. them-selves. This objection is rendered untenable, un-tenable, however, by the fact that the present bill is merely a broadening of the scope of a system already in successful suc-cessful operation in England and else- I where.-Monitor. |