ols were
exclusively episcopalian. The altered policy of the crown, in reference
to religion, suggested a change in the organisation of the schools. A
letter, written by Sir Wm. Herschell, was transmitted by Lord John
Russell, detailing the system at the Cape of Good Hope, and recommending
the British and Foreign system for colonial adoption. On this plan
schools were established in 1838, subject to a board nominated by the
crown. It was intended to comprehend all denominations. The clergy of
the Anglican church were from the first hostile to comprehension.
Archdeacon Hutchins demanded that if an exclusive system were no longer
attainable, a fixed sum should be divided among the different
denominations, to be expended in separate schools, in proportion to the
money issued under the church act. The laity in general, however, did
not object to the union of all sects on the plan proposed; and to the
last the British system was supported by a considerable majority,
including clergymen of every sect, both protestant and catholic.

In New South Wales an attempt was made to establish the Irish system,
the school books of which were sanctioned by the chief prelates of the
protestant and catholic churches in Ireland. The protestant bodies were,
however, averse to the exclusion of the "entire scriptures," as a
discreditable compromise, and met the project with decided resistance. A
committee, of which one half were episcopalians, organised under the
sanction of Bishop Broughton, called on the laity to exert themselves in
the "holy cause"[227] of opposition to the project of Sir Richard
Bourke; and they succeeded in its defeat: but when, after their victory,
they met to collate their plans for further action, the meeting was
abruptly terminated by Dr. Broughton, who declared that he could
co-operate in no scheme not framed on the recognition of the episcopal
catechism and clerical superintendence. Denominational schools were,
therefore, established, and those abuses arose inseparable from a plan
which makes men the assessors of their own pecuniary claims.

A committee of the legislative council recommended the establishment of
a general system, on the plan of Lord Stanley (1844). They alleged that
by the denominational system more than half were left uneducated, and
that the thinness of population, the diversity of opinion, the inferior
character of the schoolmasters, and the great expense compared with the
benefit secured, enfor