ABSTRACT
The Church of England through the National Society fought to maintain its control over religious education both against the State on the one hand and the Free Churches on the other. The hostility of Free Churchmen is illustrated by a speech of H. P. Winterbottom in a debate in the House of Commons. The controversies of 1902 gradually died down but the religious issue got in the way of educational advance as when it caused the failure of Birrell’s Bill in 1906—a Bill which might have given England at that time a united and efficient school system. The revision of the Agreed Syllabuses which is in progresss in a number of areas will, it is hoped, remedy this weakness but the creation of a desire for Christian unity can only be a long-term and perhaps marginal result of religious instruction and school worship.
