Transcribed from the 1857 William Skeffington edition by DavidPrice. Many thanks to the British Library for making theircopy available.
AN EXPOSURE
OF CERTAIN
FALLACIES AND MISSTATEMENTS
CONTAINED
IN THE CENSUS REPORTS
ON
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP AND EDUCATION.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LONDON:
WILLIAM SKEFFINGTON, 163,PICCADILLY.
1857.
PRICE ONESHILLING.
The entire absence of criticism on the decennial tablescontained in the report of Mr. Horace Mann on the Census ofReligious Worship has filled the writer with equal surprise andconcern. For a period of nearly three years, hardly a weekhas passed without some injurious step on the part of theGovernment, some disastrous admission on the part of a friend,some daring rhodomontade on the part of a foe—all of whichhave owed their origin more or less directly to the false andmistaken view of the Church’s position engendered by thestill more erroneous and misleading statistics so widelydisseminated by the Census report. Nor is there anyprospect that the evil will diminish—at least, until thenext Census. On the contrary, the idea that the Church hasproved a failure seems to gain strength, and the policy offriends and foes alike appears to shape itself with specialreference to that assumed fact.
The writer does not wish to obtrude upon the public his owncalculations as if they were absolutely correct; but he issatisfied that the account he has given of the relativegrowth of Church and Dissent during the past half century is, ifanything, an understatement so far as the former isconcerned. Had Mr. Bright’s very remarkable returnfallen sooner in his way he would probably have much modified hisestimate relating to Dissent; but, as the case was alreadysufficiently strong for the main object he had in view, namely,to demonstrate the monstrous fallacy of the official report, hedid not think it worth while to alter his calculations. Hisown conviction, however, is that the gross number of additionalsittings supplied by Dissent is much more accurately representedby the table given in page 24 than by that in page 20.
The Census report on Education offers a tempting subject forremark; but the writer has not thought it necessary to go furtherinto the matter than he has done in the note on page 27. Forthe reasons there stated, it will appear that there are nogrounds whatever for asserting that the parents of this countryneglect to provide their children with the means of instructionany p. 2morethan they neglect to provide them with food or clothing. Inevery class which by any stretch of the term can be called“respectable,” parents do supply their children withwhat they consider a sufficient education; and their idea of whatis sufficient is, after all, not much lower, everythingconsidered, than prevails amongst the middle classes, who, in acountry like this, must always fix the standard. The resultof the Census goes to show that the Legislature has adopted theright course—that the way to obtain as large a numb