No party would have dared to turn the Bible out of the ...

No party would have dared to turn the Bible out of the schools, and no two parties could agree as to the terms upon which it should be admitted. Had the ground been unoccupied, or had it been completely occupied by the Church schools, the solution was obvious.

In the one case, voluntary arrangements by all denominations: but in the other, a conscience clause for all dissenters, would have satisfied most reasonable men.

But sectarians are not reasonable men: and it was plain that the vast deficiencies in elementary education could now only be made good by public effort; by schools tax-aided and rate-provided; and that the effort was bound either to enlarge or diminish the influence of the Church: enlarge it enormously if the parson was admitted into the new schools; diminish it, more slowly but as certainly, if he were excluded, and his own schools gradually sapped by the superior resources of the School Boards, and the superior efficiency of the Board Schools.