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"that the Church has a right to the education of the people "at large, including that portion of the people, millions in "number, who do not belong to the Church ?" My answer was as follows:-"The Church has no right to claim the enforcement of any system of education on the people, or any part of the people, least of all on that part which does not belong to the Church. But, my Lords, the Church has a right to demand of the State-and if the State, as well as the Church, is prepared to do it's duty, that demand will be answered-the Church, I say, has a right to demand of the State the means of offering education to all, whether they are members of the Church, or not. God forbid that the Church should have either the power, or the will, to compel any persons, or class of persons, to accept its system of education! But we have a right, my Lords, to demand, that the State, acknowledging the Church to be the true Church, acknowledging it to profess and to teach the true Religion, and thereby implying the duty of the Church to inculcate-aye, and not only to inculcate, but to spread, that blessed truth which it professes; we have a right to demand that the State shall supply the necessary means to enable the Church to discharge its high functions. I ask, then, the Noble Marquis to call on that Government, in which he bears so high a place, to propose to Parliament such a grant, as will enable the Church to educate all within its pale, who need public aid; and to offer to educate all without its pale, who will accept the offer, in that holy religion which the Noble Marquis and his colleagues, and which the State itself, acknowledge to be true; and if true, of course to be alone true. Will the Noble Marquis do this his duty?"

I am not aware that I could have used words more directly contrary to the sentiment ascribed to me in the Committee's pamphlet, even if I had anticipated, and laboured to prevent, the possibility of such a mis-statement.

At pp. 10, 11, of the enclosed, your Lordship will find the

interlocutory remarks between the Lord President and myself, which are more immediately referred to in the pamphlet; and on reading them you will observe, that they relate not to the point stated in the pamphlet, but to one of a very different kind, viz.-whether the State may assist in teaching religious doctrines, which it believes to be false.

Your Lordship will also perceive that I did not assent to the Lord President's principle; but the Lord President assented to mine, and joined me in disclaiming the pernicious principle, that the State may lawfully assist in teaching such doctrines. It is true that he qualified this disclaimer by limiting its operation to England; but this very limitation marks the more strongly the principle of which we were speaking, and which, as your Lordship perceives, is very different from that which is put into our mouths by the Committee's pamphlet.

I regret the absence of the Lord President; for he, I am confident, if he were in England, would confirm the accuracy of my statement; but I venture to refer your Lordship to any Noble Lord who attended to the debate.

Should your Lordship do me the honour of reading the whole of the reported speech, which I now enclose, you will not find a single sentence, which affords any shadow of justification of the passage of which I complain,-but very much which, if I mistake not, your Lordship will think directly contrary to it.

I have the honour to be,
My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient Servant,

The Right Honourable

The Lord John Russell, &c. &c.

H. EXETER.

MY LORD,

Buckhurst, Oct. 15th, 1839.

I have had the honour of receiving your Lordship's letter of the 10th inst. It certainly appears to me that the writer of the pamphlet has mistaken your Lordship's meaning. He was probably misled by some incorrect report in the newspapers of what took place in the House of Lords. I will take care to suspend for the present any distribution of the pamphlet by the Committee of Privy Council.

I am much obliged to your Lordship for the copy of your Lordship's Speech delivered in the House of Lords upon the 5th of July of the present year-a speech marked by the ability which distinguishes all that proceeds from your Lordship. But I cannot but observe that there are some misconceptions of the design of the Members of the Committee quite as extraordinary as that which your Lordship has pointed out in the pamphlet. But I will not occupy your Lordship's time upon this subject, engaged as you now are in the labours of your diocese. I will therefore content myself with saying, that it has been the main object of the Committee to extend and encourage the religious instruction of the people, but that while they have endeavoured to insist on the instruction of the children of Churchmen in the doctrines of the Church of England, they have not conceived themselves justified in withholding all public aid for the instruction of those children of the poor whose parents conscientiously object to allow their children to be taught the Church Catechism, or to be compelled, as the price of their instruction, to attend divine service in any other than their own places of worship.

I have the honour, &c.

The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Exeter.

J. RUSSELL.

MY LORD,

Exeter, 16th October, 1839.

I request your Lordship to accept my thanks for the letter of the 15th, which I have this day had the honour of receiving. The conclusion of that letter gives me peculiar gratification, as it shews that no practical difficulties need any longer to exist in combining due regard for the duties of the State to the Church, with full security to the rights of conscience in those who dissent from her doctrines, and do not join in her worship. For myself, I have no hesitation in avowing that, in my judgment, it would be wrong to "withhold all public aid for the instruction of those children of the poor, whose parents conscientiously object to allow their children to be taught the Church Catechism, or to be compelled, as the price of their instruction, to attend divine service in other than their own places of worship." I should rejoice to see instituted a conference between the "Committee of the Privy Council on Education" and the Bishops, for the purpose of devising measures to carry into effect your Lordship's very just and moderate principle, and at the same time to give to the Church that public recognition of her being the fit guardian and administratrix of National Education, with which your Lordship's principle can so well be reconciled.

The charge which I have delivered to my Clergy, and which has been announced for publication, has noticed the pamphlet sent forth by the Committee, entitled, "Recent Measures for the Promotion of Public Education in England," and has dealt with its contents as authorized by the Committee. Not only the passages read by me to my Clergy, but also a longer one prepared by me, in which I comment on that pamphlet, will make part of the Charge when published. In truth, your Lordship will perceive that the mere suspension of the circulation of a document which

has already been dispersed so widely and so authoritatively will not remove the necessity of such comments, as I otherwise have thought it my duty to make.

It will give me, however, great pleasure to publish the correspondence which I have had the honour to hold with your Lordship, in my Appendix. It will, I am confident, be read, (especially that part of your Lordship's letter of the 15th, to which I have already referred) with the highest satisfaction by others, whose suffrages are more valuable than mine.

I have the honour to be,
My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient Servant,

The Right Hon.

The Lord John Russell,

&c. &c. &c.

H. EXETER.

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