Note 7 — THOUGHTS ON THE EDUCATIONAL QUESTION.

‘The sixth resolution [of the Educational Manifesto], in which the opinion of Dr. Chalmers is quoted, that Government [should] abstain from introducing the element of religion at all into their part of the scheme, must, as here introduced, be presumed to mean, that in the Act of the Legislature which shall carry the views of the resolutionists into practical effect, nothing shall be said about religious instruction; but that power shall be given to the heads of families to manage the schools, and prescribe the subjects to be taught, according to their own convictions of what is sound in religious and useful in secular instruction. But this would leave the religious rights of the minority completely unprotected. Government must do something more than omit the religious element: it must limit the power of the majority to introduce this element into their schools to the injury of the minority.’––Letter of Mr. George Combe on the Educational Movement.