creed, he was not obliged to by law and was
disinclined to by his reason. He would rather allow the inner seeds of
natural light--the glorious all-pervading efflorescence of the Deity
in all men's hearts, to grow within the young spirit. The Dean was
assuredly vague and far less earnest than his brother cleric.

The "Rev." Mr. Bumpus, Unitarian, met the suggestions of the
Archdeacon with the scorn they merited. It was impossible to apply to
a representative child of an enlightened age theories so long exploded.
The Dean had certainly come nearer the truth with that broad sympathy
for which he was noted. He himself proposed that the child should be
made a model nursling of the liberalism of a new era. Old things were
passing away;--all things had become new. Creeds were the discarded
banners of a mediaeval past, fit only to be hung up in the churches, and
looked at as historic monuments; never more to be flaunted in the front
of battle! The education of the day was that which taught a man the
introspection whereby he recognized the Divine within himself--under
any aspect, under any tuition, whether of Brahma, Confucius, or Christ.
Truth was kaleidoscopic, and varied with the media through which it
was viewed. As for the child, every aspect of truth and error should be
allowed to play upon his mind. Let him acquire ordinary school learning
for fifteen years, and then send him to the London University.

Here the Chairman, and half-a-dozen members of the committee, protested
that the said University was a school of the devil, and several
interchanges of discourtesy took place.

Mr. Shortt, M. P., begged to suggest, as a matter of business, that for
the present the child was not capable of receiving any ideas whatever,
and might die, or prove to be dumb, or an idiot, and so require no
education. Ought they not to postpone this discussion until the subject
was old enough to be worth consideration?

It was Mr. Shortt's habit to show his practical vein by business-like
obstructions of this kind. He had been able a score of times to
demonstrate to the House of Commons how silly it was to consider
probabilities. In fact, he was opposed heart and soul to prophetic
legislation; he would live, legislatively, from hand to mouth.

But the committee would not allow Mr. Shortt to run away with the bone
of contention.

The Rev. Dr. M'Gregor Lucas, of the National Caledonian Believers, had
been silent too long to contain himself fur