of the Church of England; that every school day the master should give religious instruction, during one hour, to all the scholars, such religious instruction to be confined to the reading and explanation of the Scriptures; that on every Lord’s day he should give instruction in the liturgy, catechism, and articles of the Church of England, and that the scholars should attend church every Lord’s day, unless they were children of persons not in communion with the Church of England.  In giving the sanction of the court to this arrangement, the Vice-Chancellor said, that he wished to have it distinctly understood that the ground on which he had proceeded was not a preference of one form of religion to another, but the necessity, if the matter was left to him judicially, to adopt the course of requiring the teachers to be members of the Church of England.

This case clearly shows, that, at the present day, a school, founded by a charity, for the instruction of children, cannot be sanctioned by the courts as a charity, unless the scheme of education includes religious instruction.  It shows, too, that this general requisition of the law is independent of a church establishment, and that it is not religion in any particular form, but religion, religious and Christian instruction in some form, which is held to be indispensable.  It cannot be doubted how a charity for the instruction of children would fare in an English court, the scheme of which should carefully and sedulously exclude all religious or Christian instruction, and profess to establish morals on principles no higher than those of enlightened Paganism.

Enough, then, your honors, has been said on this point; and I am willing that inquiry should be prosecuted to any extent of research to controvert this position, that a school of education for the young, which rejects the Christian religion, cannot be sustained as a charity, so as to entitle it to come before the courts of equity for the privileges which they have power to confer on charitable bequests.

Mr. Webster then replied to the remarks of Mr. Binney, in relation to the Liverpool Blue Coat School, and read from the report of Mr. Bache on education in Europe, Mr. Bache having been sent abroad by the city of Philadelphia to investigate this whole matter of education.

If Mr. Girard had established such a school as that, it would have been free from all those objections that have been raised against it.  This Liverpool Blue Coat School, though too much of a religious party character, is strictly a church establishment.  It is a school established on a peculiar foundation, that of the Madras system of Dr. Bell.  It is a monitorial school; those who are advanced in learning are to teach the others in religion, as well as secular knowledge.  It is strictly a religious school, and the only objection is, that in its instruction it is too much confined to a particular sect.