Notes and Comments

The Pope in a Bad Plight.

In a recent Papal Pastoral to the Bavarian Bishops, the Pope appeals for help, and says: “Over and above the many anxieties and embarrassments which this long and grievous war has brought to us, is to be added the fact that our Peace Proposals, which were only published from a sincere desire for the public good, not only had a result far removed from that which we expected, but were used by wicked men as an argument to arouse against us public hatred, whilst they were only a manifestation of our love. But we are always ready to bear abuse for the cause of Jesus Christ.”

The Scottish Education Bill.

The Scottish Reformation Society has passed a Resolution in which, while approving of the Bill generally, they object to Clause 20, dealing with the transferrence of Voluntary or Denominational Schools, for the following reasons:—

1. The transfer of property, much of it greatly depreciated and inadequate in equipment, would inevitably entail considerable expense in repairing, rebuilding, and equipment, in order to make all the schools adequate, in terms of the conditions of the Scotch Education Department. This would mean public expenditure on what would remain practically denominational schools (though to a certain extent under public control), some of which are associated with a Church regarded by the majority of the people of Scotland as in error in regard to its religious teaching.
2. The appointment of teachers approved by the former managers of these schools would revive the system of religious tests, long since abolished, and would unnecessarily introduce into Scottish Educational affairs the element of religious controversy, which hitherto has been excluded.
3. The appointment of teachers so approved and exercising the religious functions indicated in Clause 20 (2) (iii.) would mean that a type of teaching alien to the very constitution of the State, and deliberately repudiated thereby, would be subsidized from the public Treasury, and this would be repugnant to many faithful Protestant subjects of a faithful Protestant King.

Scottish Reformation Society’s Suggestion concerning the Voluntary Schools.

The above Resolution further adds:—The Committee would therefore urge

(1) That before the properties of Voluntary Schools are transferred they should be put into such condition as will fully satisfy the requirements of the Scotch Education Department.
(2) That the appointment of teachers should be given exclusively to the Public Education Authority, having regard to the religious faith associated with the school in which a vacancy occurs; and
(3) That it be an expressed obligation that religious instruction or observance should take place in transferred Voluntary Schools only at the beginning or the end, or at the beginning and the end, of a school period; and that in order to preserve the interests of the Church with which such schools were formerly associated, accredited agents of the said Church be admitted to these schools at the prescribed times for the purpose of religious instruction or observance.

The Question of Religious Instruction in the New Bill.

The Committee of the Scottish Reformation Society, part of whose Resolution is quoted above, have the following remarks on the religious education question:—

Further, the Acting Committee would respectfully call attention to the fact that while ample security is provided in the Bill for the continuance in those transferred denominational schools of religious instruction or observance according to the use and wont of the former management, a similar security for the maintenance of religious instruction in our public schools is not provided in the proposed Statute. The only security at present existing for the maintenance of religious instruction in public schools is the permissive clause in the Preamble of the Act, 1872. In the election of an ad hoc body it was possible to secure that a majority of members should be returned, pledged to maintain religious instruction in the schools. There is no guarantee in the proposed Statute that the new public Educational Authority must maintain this religious instruction; and the power of the ratepayers to secure this will be largely, if not altogether, taken away by the establishment of a non ad hoc authority. The Committee, therefore, urge that there should be incorporated in the proposed Statute a definite security for the maintenance in our public schools of that type of religious instruction which conforms to the religious belief of the majority of the ratepayers in Scotland.

Unaware of Opposition to the Envoy to the Pope.

British statesmen have often been charged with being half asleep when in office. Whether this charge is justified in regard to them all would be rather a daring thing to affirm, but there can be very little doubt that some of them would require to be wakened up a little. In reply to a question recently put in the House of Commons, Lord R. Cecil remarked that he was not aware of opposition to the Envoy to the Vatican. It would seem the circle in which Lord Robert moves is not of a very healthy Protestant kind or he would be aware of very strong opposition to this useless and worse than useless functionary to the Vatican. Lord Robert informed his questioner that the Mission is costing £4500 annually. This is a good case for the Select Committee on National Expenditure to look into, and perhaps they might find still a few pungent adjectives in addition to those which they have already used in calling attention to gross and in some cases criminal expenditure. When our Government is calling upon all to exercise economy they might easily save £4500 annually by a righteous command in recalling the Envoy Extraordinary to the Pope.