p. 7 | Note and Comment

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 10, 1903

Note and Comment

In a recent issue of the British Weekly (London), the secretary of the Baptist Union, Rev. J. H. Shakespeare, summarizes the objections which English non-conformists have to the educational bill so much discussed in England and in America, and which has now been passed by Parliament. He says: “It is opposed to the religious convictions of half the nation. It was introduced without a mandate, and has been closured through in compartments; it throws the cost of the schools (apart from the rent of the buildings) upon the public purse without giving public control; it drives Free Church children in single-school districts into a Romanizing atmosphere; it excludes Free Church teachers from state schools in which the full share of all teachers’ salaries is paid by Free Churchmen; it affronts even the conscience of the man of the world. It is a measure which barters away our birth-right of a truly national education.” It is reported that public indignation against the act runs very high in some parts of England, and the opponents of the measure are being persuaded in many places to refuse to pay church rates. One result of its passage is an increased agitation for the disestablishment of the English state church.