PUBLIC EDUCATION

AS AFFECTED BY

THE MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE OF PRIVY COUNCIL

FROM

1846 TO 1852;

WITH

SUGGESTIONS AS TO FUTURE POLICY.

BY

SIR JAMES KAY SHUTTLEWORTH, BART.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.

PREFACE.

THIS volume is intended to exemplify the mode in which the School, transferred by the Reformation from the Priesthood to the Congregation, can continue under religious government, consistently with the privileges of the laity, the rights of conscience, and the duty of the Civil Power to fit its subjects for the discharge of their functions as citizens.

A scheme of purely secular education is truly separated from one of religious character by a gulf; but how deep soever that chasm may be, it will be crossed by one stride, if the principle of religious government be abandoned.

Parliament has repealed religious tests, and repudiated the idea on which they depend, that the law has any authority over conscience. The legislature can, therefore, only support the religious character of the