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APPENDIX, No. III.

REMEDIES TO THE MISCHIEFS OF THE EXCLUSIONARY SYSTEM AS APPLIED TO INSTRUCTION.

A WHOLE Volume of condemnation—and what (says somebody) is the practical inference?-What is it you would wish to see done?-By what you have been saying, if there be any truth in it, mischief, to an enormous amount, has been brought to view.-Have you then any thing, and what, to propose in the character of a remedy?

Yes, verily or of all that has been written for the exposure of the supposed mischief, not a syllable would by this hand have ever been penned. Of whatever wounds it may have happened to it to inflict, not one has ever been inflicted to any other end, than that which in the wounds he makes the Surgeon has in view.

In the course of the above pages, in the character of sources of the mischiefs brought to view, two systems have been pointed out: 1. The exclusionary system, as applied to the business of general instruction; and 2. That system of Church discipline, which at present has place in the Established Church of England.

In the prosecution of this remedial design, the first mentioned, least extensive, and more easily remediable of the two masses of mischief, will come under consideration in

the present paper: the other, in the next No. of this Appendix.

1. As to what concerns the exclusionary system:-according to the hands, by which if applied they will be applied, two very different remedies present themselves.

Supposition the first.-As far as can be done without passing condemnation on any part of the doctrine or discipline of the established Church, the present rulers of the Society, self-styled the National Society—or, (what would be incomparably better), Parliament itself—(for thus allcomprehensive is the prospect that has already begun to open upon the subject) are ready and willing to throw open the seats and sources of instruction, to all whose parents, &c. shall be willing to send them in.

Supposition the second.-Persevering in the support given to the exclusionary system, the powers in question refuse to give their hands to any measures, the effect of which may be to diminish in any degree the efficiency of it.

On the first supposition,-of the course to be taken, the steps are already in some measure marked out by the National Society itself.-Among its lesson books, some there are, to which, for any thing that appears, no person, professing any of the known modifications of the religion of Jesus, could consistently object. These are those which, in the list printed in Report II. p. 193, and, without alteration, reprinted in Report III. p. 172, are in the following order, respectively designated by the four appellations following; viz.

1. Sermon on the Mount.

2. Parables of our Blessed Saviour.

3. Miracles of Ditto.

4. Discourses of Ditto.

The Lesson-Books which, on this same plan of conciliation, would (it is supposed) be to be omitted, are those which, in those same places, are in the order in which they are here copied, designated by the four other appellations following: viz.

1. Broken Catechism.

2. Ostervald's Abridgment.

3. Chief Truths.

4. Mrs. Trimmer's Teacher's Assistant.

In addition to the above four last-mentioned, three other articles (being the only remaining ones) might perhaps to judge of them by their titles in the above list-be found to require revision, for the purpose of expunging out of them all passages to which any denomination of Christians would by their known tenets stand engaged to object :

1. National Society Central School-Book, No. 1. 2. National Society Central School-Book, No. 2. 3. National Society Central School-Book, No. 3.

This done, every discourse, which is not either among the Discourses ascribed to Jesus by one or more of his four biographers, or among the accounts respectively delivered by them on the subject of his Miracles, would be discarded: and thus the exclusionary system would be done away in so far as regards the children of all parents, &c. professing the religion of Jesus: always understood, that to the lesson-books discarded, no such others as would stand exposed to the like objections, shall be substituted.

To give completeness to this remedy, what would further be requisite would be-the abrogation or alteration of the instrument which has for its objects the shutting the doors of all these seats of instruction against all persons who, not being Members of the Church of England, would be desirous of serving in them in the character of School

masters. This is that which, in the Society's Report 11., p. 197, is printed under the title of Form of Certificate for Masters, (No. IX.) and again, in Report III., p. 176., under that same title, (No. VII.)

Abrogation or rather alteration:-for, for the purpose here in question, after the slight alteration necessary to the exclusion of the exclusion, what remains would not remain open to objection.*

The misfortune is-that, supposing the door of the system of instruction to have been opened thus wide, still there remains in this country a native class of religionistsnor that in number an inconsiderable one-for the admission of which the opening is not yet wide enough,—and this is that of the Jews.

In regard to these, on this particular occasion, small is the number of words that will be necessary to bring to mind two observations which elsewhere have been enlarged upon, in speaking of the exclusionary system, considered in respect of all the applications that can be made of it. One is that these are human creatures. The other is-that, by any mischief, which, having been committed by a Jew, had its origin in a deficiency of intellec

• In Report III. p. 126. Omit 1.—" is a Member of the United Church of "England and Ireland, as by law established."

2." and into the regularity of "Church."

attendance on the service of the

To make the other requisite amendment in the description of the class of persons, whose attestation to the good character of the proposed Schoolmaster is required, to the words, "Rector, Vicar, or Curate," add or "Minister of the Place of worship, at (here describe its local situation.) and by "the society of Christians, calling themselves .... whereupon could follow the name of such Society: with an additional form of words, adapted to the purpose of giving admission to the people called Quakers, by whom, in their intercourse with the Holy Ghost, no official or professional person, under any such name as Minister, is employed.

tual instruction on the part of such Jew, the suffering produced in the breast of a Christian, will not be less than it would have been had the trangressor been of Christian, or any other non-Jewish, race.

Thus far as to the principle.-As to the mode-that for the giving admission to this, or any other class of men,—the use of these records of the religion of Jesus, should, in a course of instruction, applied to those who otherwise would have none, under a government professing the religion of Jesus, be, in the framing of a set of lessonbooks, omitted, can scarcely be a proposable expedient. But-what, in case of a system of really national education established by the Legislature, may without scruple be proposed, is-a declaration, having for its object the affording to religionists of that profession a full assurance, that, by sending their children to any one of these seats and sources of intellectual instruction, it will depend altogether upon themselves to continue or not continue them in the profession of the religion of their ancestors: for example, a clause inhibiting schoolmasters, and all other persons, from holding, in any such National School, any discourse tending to engage any scholar brought up in the Jewish persuasion, to relinquish the profession of the Jewish religion. Remain still the professors of other religions, and non-religionists at large. But, for the extending to their case the application of this security, a very few words—such as the words, or any other persuasion on the subject of religion-might assuredly be made to suffice.

In the security thus proposed to be afforded, a precaution to the following effect is, however, necessarily comprehended. In the whole scheme of instruction, written as well as oral, whatsoever discourses in any way relative to the subject of religion are employed, matters must be

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