I know, Sir, this is liable to excite strong feeling. There are religions which are professedly proselytising. There are religions which leave the matter of religion to every person’s own conscience, and do not indulge in proselytising. Whatever that be, without quarrelling with the freedom of preaching one’s religion, I hold that it is the most moderate form of request to the professors or preachers of those religions, which want to proselytise, that they should at least observe this much self-restraint, viz., that any institutions maintained by any form of public assistance or receiving any form of public encouragement should not be utilised by them for propaganda or proselytisation, so that the minds not quite free from other influences, minds suffering from some kind of handicap, shall not be unduly influenced.
