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NATION versus CHURCH.
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NATION versus CHURCH. Issue has now been joined on the subject of the Education Bill and a heavy campaign, with a decisive battle at the end is now a sure prospect. It is the Armageddon of Church and State. The leaders of the Anglican Church have desired and chosen it, but they will not, perhaps, be satisfied with the result when the fight is over. The Pope of Rome, a year or two since, forced a quarrel on the French Republic, which has eventuated in a separation of Church and State in that country, carrying with it the loss of France as the "eldest daughter of the Roman faith. In the same manner, the Anglican leaders, either solicited or accepted the dangerous gifts of rate aid for Church schools from the late Government of Mr. Balfour. Archbishop Temple had wisely said that public support meant public control, and expressed the opinion that as the Church would not concede the control, the State would never grant complete public support. But an infatuated Government made the offer, and a short-sighted episcopate accepted it. As a consequence, they are in the position in which we find them to day-mad with rage in the loss of schools which they had themselves abandoned to public maintenance. The Anglican Church has been steadily losing her statesmanship during recent years. It- has, for some time, been said, that owing to the rigid creeds and articles of the Church, young men of intellectual distinction were refusing to enter its ministry. This lamentable tendency is beginning to tell on the quality of its rulers and, to-day, we have Davidson where some of us have seen Tait, and Winnington-Ingram in the place of Temple. The ablest prelate in the Church—Dr. Percival, Bishop of Hereford, the last of her statesmen—is a voice crying in an episcopal wilderness. He warned the Church in vain against the dangerous legislation of 1902 and 1903; and, to-day, equally unheeded, he warns his fellow Churchmen against insensate opposition to the Bill of Mr. Birrell. This Bill is not all that some of us would have wished, and is contrary to what we advocated at a time when there was a chance of modifying its character in the period of gestation. We had hoped that the Government would rise to the level of its majority in the House of Commons. But it is one of the misfortunes of the political situation that the Ministry was formed before the majority came into existence, and falls below it in character and vigour. We saw the con- sequence in the humiliating error of the Trades Disputes Bill, which, however, is to be retrieved. In the same way, the Education Bill is lacking in a thoroughness accordant with the composition of the majority, and calling forth its power and enthusiasm. The Government might have once for all-and it would not have been too early in the sixth year of the twentieth century- separated the education of the nation's children from the sectarian questions on which citizens are hopelessly divided, and which have in the past gravely hindered the progress and efficiency of education. But they have failed to do this, and lost a splendid opportunity of doing the nation a great service and making themselves famous in history. Nevertheless, the Bill of Mr. Birrell is a noble measure, and constitutes a marked advance towards a thorough system of national education free from religious bickering and obstruction. For this reason, those of us who would have wished it better, must not allow the better to be the enemy of the good, as the proverb warns. We must stand by the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill, excepting, uideed, the four-fifths clause. The threats of the clerics will have the effect of closing the
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P n T fi Swiss Tours, | I | I I | 17 Days, £ J 17$. 6d. k I I I- Norwag Cruise, ■ I I ■ IJ July. 3 Days, £ 9 I9s. 6d. ■ HI ■ I I Particulars — SECRETARY, I El fl I I I I Free Church Touring Guild, I I kJI 9 I 111 Memorial Hall, Farringdon ■ I %#V I Street, E.C.
WELSH INDUSTRIES EXHIBITION.
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WELSH INDUSTRIES EXHIBITION. On Thursday and Friday at Hyde Park House, W., kindly lent by Lady Naylor Leyland, the annual exhibition of the Welsh Industries Association was held, and successful' as previous functions of. the same kind have been, this year's shows more marked improve- ment than has ever been apparent in the past. The same fine suite of rooms as before was placed at the disposal of the Association the weather held fine and there was a large and fashionable attendance. The first day of the 1906 exhibition was therefore signally success- ful. By far the most important contribution to the exhibition was that sent by Glamorgan- shire, the exhibits from which occupied three stalls. These were in charge of a group of ladies, most of whom were present both days, including the Countess of Plymouth, the Dowager Marchioness of Bute, Lady Eva Wyndham-Quin, Lady Aberdare, Lady Dillwyn Llewelyn, Mrs. Mackintosh of Mackintosh, Mrs. Godfrey Clark, Miss Talbot, Mrs. Richard Helme, Mrs. O. H. Jones, of Fonmon; Mrs. Trevor Tyler, Mrs. John Duncan, Mrs. Vachell, Mrs. J. Bush, Mrs. Lynn Thomas, Miss Alexander and Mrs. Marcus Gunn, while Major General Lee, the hon. treasurer of the branch, rendered assistance. One of the Glamorganshire stalls was devoted almost exclusively to pottery from Ewenny. The woodwork shown included old candlesticks of the Chippendale period, and old design chairs and stools with seat covers exquisitely em- broidered. The embroidery, with copies of Swedish, Norwegian, and other lace, came from the Cardiff school, presided over by Miss Hewett. Other specimens were of Carrickma- cross lace and old English embroidery, and there were sets of fireirons and dogs in orna- mental ironwork, made at Baglan, which were beautiful and artistic. Tweeds and other pro- ducts of the loom, with art and fancy work of every kind,' made the Glamorgan exhibit not only interesting but imposing. The Pembrokeshire stall was in charge of the Countess Cawdor, Lady Edith Campbell, Lady Scourfield, Colonel and Mrs. F. Allen, Mrs. Randle Mainwaring, Miss Gillett, and Mrs. Owen Philipps. At this stall the chief features were some wonderfully good samples of silk quilted work and woodwork, with basket work from Tenby. The Monmouthshire stall was in charge of Lady Llangattock, Lady Mather Jackson, and Miss Owen. Here, among other things, was a wonderful piece of Leek embroidery of Ajunta design. This was a copy of a fresco in the Caves of Ajunta, Bombay, painted 2,000 years ago. From Monmouthshire also came fine church embroidery, the work of a lady at Chep- stow paintings of local and other subjects, handsome bedspreads, the work of a Newport lady, and carvings done by the Monmouth Wood Carving Guild. The Carmarthenshire stall was in charge of the Hon. Gladys Rice, Lady Margaret Rice, Mrs. Morgan, Miss Lewis, Mrs Sandwith, and Miss Hancocke. Here were exhibited pottery from Llanelly, flannels, drawn thread work, and a number of other articles both beautiful and useful. The Breconshire stall, presided over by the Duchess of Beaufort, was given over almost exclusively to tweeds manufactured by Messrs. Enoch Roberts and Co., Llanwrtyd Wells. The Anglesey, Denbigh, Merioneth, Flint, and Carnarvonshire branches all had stalls, and some of the exhibits were of remarkable workmanship. The opening ceremony took place at 2.30 at which hour the rooms were crowded. Lord Aberdare, in introducing the Countess, of Grosvenor, said the Westminster family had always helped the Association in the most generous way. When he had asked the late Duke of Westminster to join in the guarantee that helped the Association to be started, his Grace had sent double the amount named. The Duke, who always took the practical view, would not have helped in the way he did had he not thought the Association would do good work. The Countess of Grosvenor then declared the exhibition open. She wished the Association every success. If it did not command success it deserved it. Mr. Ernest Helme, Gower, moved, and Lady Eva Wyndham-Quin, seconded, a hearty vote of thanks to Lady Grosvenor. This was carried by acclamation. Sales were then proceeded with, and good results were attained on the day. An excellent programme of music was rendered. It may be added that the London depot is sending an exhibit to the Milan Exhibition.
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Y GOMER PRESS, 9, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C., am holl Gyhoeddiadau'r Byd a'r Bettws.
NATION versus CHURCH.
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ranks of their opponents into a serried and in- vincible mass. The opposition to Mr. Birrell's Bill, though loud-mouthed and furious, is singularly weak and contradictory. It will be reduced to its proper value under the winnowing process of debate in the House of Commons. Then we shall see the weakness of the foundation for the wild charges of confiscation and tyranny that the bishops have howled about. No school- house is to be taken over by the Education Authority except on financial recoupment to the Anglican Church, not merely equitable in amount but excessive. The charge of Nonconformist tyranny is equally "a fond thing vainly invented." Simple Bible instruction is, it appears, a teaching of Nonconformist religion. What a flattering thing to say of Nonconformity; it could only have been said by our episcopal opponents! Yet it must be obvious that if Nonconformists asked for themselves the sectarian advantages claimed by the Anglican Church in the public elementary schools, the Congrrgationalists would have to teach the children that a State-controlled Church cannot be spiritually free and pure the Baptists would have to teach them that infant baptism is a snare and the Methodists would have to teach them that the Anglican system of appointing religious ministers to a parish for life must result in spiritual stagnation and death. If these things were in Mr. Birrell's Bill, the Bishops might reasonably say that it had a Nonconformist character. But they are all of them absolutely out of the Bill, and no living Nonconformist ever wished them to be in it. The Nonconformist religion" in the Bill is a plain teaching of the text of the Scriptures according to the intelligence of the children, a necessary and valuable preparation one would think for any further doctrinal instruction that might be desired by parent or priest. On such a foundation how easy it would be to erect the sectarian temple, Anglican or other. This is the "new religion". mocked at by the old renegade of Birmingham. It is "Birreligion." This term originated with Mr. Punch and should have remained with him but it has been taken up by the enraged bishops, and is an evidence of the poverty of their cause. The Education Bill must and will pass, but the reception it has had at the hands of the Anglican Church, raises the great question that lies behind it-Disestablishment. The bishops would never have been so wildly arrogant in their opposition to Mr. Birrell's Bill had they not been infatuated by their false position as ministers of a State Church. Their action must have opened the eyes of the more backward members of the Cabinet to the pernicious effects of a State Church on' public questions, and the relations of citizen with citizen. The convulsions provoked on the Education Bill must be utilised to carry Disestablishment. Then we shall have religious peace, and lay the foundation of a real fraternity. One yearns to live long enough to breathe the air of an England and a Wales enjoying this complete religious equality. WELSH NATIONALIST.