^HISTORY OF
THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CONTEST IN ENGLAND.-
in
s
FRANCIS ADAMS,
AUTHOR OF
;THE FREE SCHOOL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES.
LONDON :
CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED,
11, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
1882.
INTBODUCTION.
A preliminary word as to the scope of this book may
save misconception. It does not profess to be a history
of education in any comprehensive sense. With the
philosophy of education it has nothing to do. The most
that has been attempted is to present an outline of the
struggle, as far as it has gone, to obtain a legal recognition
of the duty of the State to give elementary instruction
to its children.
Such a sketch necessarily fails to do justice to
many who have taken part in the labour. From the
nature of the materials to work upon, the Parliamentary
contest occupies the most prominent place in the record.
Yet the fight has not been always the thickest or hardest
in Parliament. The work of creating and leading opinion
in the country has been of even greater importance, but
it has generally been performed by men of comparatively
obscure position, the account of whose efforts is often inacces-
sible, or has perished. There is another class to whom it
may seem scant justice is done — those, who following the
duty lying nearest to them, have spent their energies and
their means in the practical extension of education around
IV.
them. When the complete history of education is written
it may be expected to comprise some account of their
noble efforts, but that is not within the design of these
pages.
The Scotch and Irish systems, and such ancillary
measures as the Factory and Workshop Laws, Eeformatory,
Industrial, and Vagrant Schools, are touched only
incidentally, and as they bear on the main lines of the
story.
It is proper I should also add, that although the
views expressed may be presumed to be in general harmony
with those of the members of the League, no one but
myself is responsible for any statement, whether of fact
or opinion, contained in the book.
FKANCIS ADAMS.
YARDLEY, BIRMINGHAM,
January, 1882.
V.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEE I.
PERIOD. — PREVIOUS TO 1800.
PAGE
Introduction — The Apprentice System ... ... ... 1
Early Factory Bills 4
Endowments for Apprenticeship .., 6
Early Koman Catholic Education 6
First Tax for Education 7
Monastic and Cathedral Schools ... ... 7
Provisions for, and Condition of Education, prior to the
Eeformation ... ... ... ... ... 9
Henry VIII. and Work of the Eeformation 13
Edward VI. and Grammar Schools ... 17
Mary and Elizabeth and Grammar Schools ... ... 18
Impulse given by Translation of the Scriptures ... 19
Church Direction of Education ... ... ... ... 20
Enactments for Education ... .. ... ... 22
Foundation of Eoman Catholic Colleges ... ... 23
Persecution of Catholic Schoolmasters and Teachers ... 24
Eevival of Knowledge in Elizabeth's Eeign 26
Provisions for Education under James I. ... ... 28
Practice of Catechising 29
Hostilities of Charles I. and Laud against Puritans ... 30
Act of Uniformity — Conventicle Acts, &c. ... ... 31
Necessity of Education gaining Eecognition ... ... 36
Parochial and Sunday Schools 1680-90 37
Mandeville's Essay on Charity Schools...
Educational Movement of Eighteenth Century... ... 39
VI.
CHAPTER II.
PAGE
PERIOD. — FKOM THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
TO THE EDUCATION GRANTS OF 1834.
Condition of Church Clergy — Their Neglect of Education 44
Neglect and Opposition of the Government ... ... 46
Scotch, New England, and Continental Schools ... 47
Adam Smith's Doctrine finding acceptance ... ... 48
Lancaster and Bell Systems and Controversies — Advan-
tages and Defects ... ... ... ... ... 48
British and Foreign School Society (Lancasterian)
founded 1814 55
Founders of National Society ... 61
Incorporation by Royal Charter of National Society 63
Its Influence and Power ... ... ... ... ... 63
Sydney Smith on Education of the Poor ... ... 64
Mr. Whithread's Parochial Schools Bill, 1807 65
Lord Brougham takes Parliamentary Guidance of the
Question (1815)— His Efforts 67
Effect of Enquiry into Management of Local Charities 79
Influence on Education of first Era of Cheap Popular
Literature ... ... ... ... ... ... 81
London University Proposed ... ... 82
Central Society of Education and Statistical Societies ... 82
Influence of Cheap Postage System on Education ... 83
King's College Established by the Church 84
Effect of Reform Act of 1832 on Education 85
Decline of Lord Brougham's Influence 86
Parliamentary Efforts by Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Wyse ... 87
First Government Grant ... 89
Further Efforts in Parliament— Their Effect 90
Vll .
CHAPTEE III.
PAGE
PERIOD. — FROM THE APPOINTMENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF
COUNCIL IN 1839 TO THE MINUTES OF 1847.
Intervention of Government ... ... ... ... 92
Statistics and Statistical Returns on Education ... 92
General Condition of Education at this Period ... 97
Relations of Parties ... ... ... ... ... 97
The Comprehensive, Combined, and Denominational
Systems 98
The Position of the Church 99
Illustrations of the Blending System ... ... ... 101
The Position of Dissenters ... 103
Opposition to Pretensions of National Society and Clergy 103
Constitution of the Committee of Council — Its Powers ... 105
Government Educational Operations ... 108
Opposition to the Government Proposals ... ... 110
Abandonment of the Normal School ... ... ... Ill
Action and Object of the Church ... ... ... 112
The "Concordat" of 1839-40 113
Principles of Action of the Department — Their Effect ... 116
Dissatisfaction in the Country and in Parliament ... 116
Sir James Graham's Factory Bill ... ... ... 118
Opposition of Dissenters ... ... ... ... ... 120
The Voluntaryists and their Movement... ... ... 124
Ministerial Proposals in regard to Education in 1847... 131
Opposition in the Country and in Parliament ... ... 132
Government Proposals Carried ... 135
Continued Opposition and Failure of Voluntaryists .. 135
Necessity of State Assistance Admitted ... ... 137
The Management Clauses ... ... ... ... 138
Pretensions of the High Church Party 142
Historical Judgment of the Proceedings of the
Department ... ... ... ... ... 145
Ylll.
CHAPTER IY.
PAGE
PERIOD. — FROM THR FORMATION OF THE LANCASHIRE PUBLIC
SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, 1847, TO THAT OF THE LEAGUE, 1869.
The Lancashire Public School Association Agitation .. 147
Basis of the New Proposals ... ... ... ... 148
Dr. Hook's Efforts 148
Origin of the Lancashire Public School Association ... 151
Mr. W. J. Fox's Bill in the Session of 1850 152
The National Public School Association 155
The Manchester and Salford Committee ... ... 160
Parliamentary Conflicts 162
Government Proposals in 1853 ... ... ... .., 165
The Borough Bill and Capitation Grant ... ... 166
The Manchester and Salford Bill, 1854 169
Mr. Milner Gibson's and Sir John Pakington's Bills,
1855 171
Appointment of Vice-President 173
Lord John Eussell's Resolutions, 1856 173
Duke of Newcastle's Commission, 1858,.. ... ... 175
Mr. Lowe's Accession to Office ... ... ... ... 176
The Report of the Commission ... ... 178
The Revised Code 184
Attacks on Mr. Lowe ... ... ... ... ... 188
New Movement on Death of Lord Palmerston ... 189
CHAPTER V.
PERIOD. — FROM THE FORMATION OF THE LEAGUE, 1869, TO
THE PASSING OF THE EDUCATION ACT, 1870,
Manchester Conference, 1868 192
Manchester Bill Committee 195
Formation of the League. Its objects and Means ... 197
First Meeting of Members ... ... ... ... 199
Early Work of the League ... 204
Constitution of the League ... ... ... ... 206
IX.
The Education Union 207
Parliamentary Prospects ... ... 210
The Government Bill, 1870 211
Amendments Proposed by the League ... ... ... 214
Deputation to Mr. Gladstone ... 216
Mr. Dixon's Motion on Second Reading ... ... 217
Opposition of Non-Conformists ... ... ... ... 223
Government Amendments ... ... ... ... 225
Further Amendments ... 226
Progress through Committee ... .. ... ... 226
Mr. Gladstone and the Non-Conformists ... ... 231
Efforts of Denominationalists ... ... ... ... 233
Mr. Eorster and his Constituents ... ... ... 234
CHAPTER VI.
PERIOD. — FROM THE PASSING OF THE EDUCATION ACT, 1870,
TO THE ADOPTION BY THE LEAGUE OF THE SECULAR
PLATFORM, 1872.
Character of Education Act as Amended 235
Action of the League in relation to the Act... ... 236
Appointment of School Boards ... ... ... ... 287
Resolutions of Executive Committee ... 237
Nonconformist Policy ... ... ... ... ... 238
Second Annual Meeting of the League ... ... 239
Action of the Clergy 241
Opposition to School Boards 242
Position of National Society ... ... ... ... 244
The Cumulative Vote 246
School Boards and the Religious Question 252
The Birmingham School Board and the 25th Clause 254
Adminstration of the Act by the Department ... 259
Relations between the Government and the Liberal Party 260
Movements in Scotland and Ireland ... ... ... 261
Demands of the Roman Catholic Bishops ... ... 263
Parliamentary Action in 1871 ... ... ... ... 265
X.
PAGE
Influence and Operations of the League ... ... 266
The Third Annual Meeting, 1871 267
The Autumn Agitation ... ... ... ... ... 275
CHAPTER VII.
PERIOD. — FROM THE RECOMMENDATIONS OP 1872 TO THE
GENERAL ELECTION, 1874.
Recommendation by the League of the Separation
between Religious and Secular Instruction ... 276
The New Proposals , 277
Nonconformist Conference .., ... ... ... 278
The League General Meeting in 1872 ... ... 279
Advantages of the proposed Scheme ... ... ... 280
The Conscience Clause of the Education ACT 281
Opposition to League Scheme ... ... ... ... 286
Parliamentary Action in 1872 ... ... ... ... 287
The Scotch Bill 288
Dissensions in the Party... ... ... ... ... 289
Preparation for Electoral Action 289
Government Amendment Bill of 1873 , 290
Dissatisfaction of Liberals ... ... ... ... 291
Opposition to Government Candidates ... ... ... 292
The Bath Election 292
Prosecution of the " Bath Policy " in other Con-
stituencies 294
Attempts at Reconciliation 296
Mr. Bright Re-joins the Ministry ... 296
Liberal Disorganization ... ... 297
The Dissolution of 1874 ... 299
CHAPTER VIII.
PERIOD. — EROM THE GENERAL ELECTION, 1874, TO THE PASSING
OF LORD SANDON'S ACT, AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE
LEAGUE.
Effect of the Conservative Success on the Policy of the
League 302
XI.
PAGE
State of Education at this Time 303
Training Schools, Schoolmasters, Pupil Teachers ... 303
Progress of Opinion ... ... ... 307
School Boards and the Public 308
Rumours of Reactionary Legislation ... ... ... 309
Parliamentary Action, 1874 ... ... 310
Mr. Gladstone's Retirement from Leadership of Liberals 310
Mr. Dixon's Bill for Compulsion and School Boards,
1875 311
The New Code, 1875 312
The Education Department and the Denominationalists 312
Growing Feeling in Favour of Compulsion ... ... 314
Parliamentary Action in 1876 ... ... ... ... 315
Lord Sandon's Act .. ... ... ... ... 315
Objections of the League... ... ... ... ... 316
Deputation to Lord Hartington ... ... ... ... 319
Passage of the Bill 320
Summary of its Provisions ... ... ... ... 320
CHAPTER IX.
CONCLUSIOiV.
Reasons for Dissolution of the League 321
Review of its Work and the Results .., 322
Defects of the Education Act 324
Results up to 1876 325
Result of the Controversy between 1870-1876 ... 326
Final Meeting of the League ... ... ... ... 329
Summary of Results ... ... ... ... ... 329
Attendance at School 331
Attendance in the United States 332
Lord Sandon's Act a Complete Failure... ... ... 333
Mr. Mundella's Act, 1880 334
Failure of Boards of Guardians as Attendance Authorities 335
Compulsion and Free Schools ... ... ... ... 338
The 25th Clause as Amended 339
School Boards 340
Xll.
APPENDIX.
PAGE
Comparative Progress between 1870-1880 .. ... 343
Attendance in United States ... ... 344
Board Schools and Voluntary Schools ... ... ... 345
Hates of Grant 348
Cost of Maintenance ... ... ... ... ... 348
School Board Rates, &c. ... ... 349
..,...,
CHAPTEPv I.
PERIOD. — PREVIOUS TO 1800.
BEFORE attempting any description of the struggle for
National Education, which has been confined almost wholly
within the present century, it will be well to state what
previous efforts were made by Society or by the Government
to provide instruction for the children of the poor, or to give
them legislative protection.
In examining the education controversies of the last
eighty years, frequent references will be found to ancient
systems existing in England, but even with the aid of an
extensive knowledge of English History, one may be at a loss
to know what is meant.
When Mr. Fronde writes of the " Old English " educa-
tion, he is careful to explain that he means the apprentice
system, but others have not taken the same pains to make
themselves intelligible. Mrs. Trimmer, who, towards the end
of the last and in the beginning of the present century, wrote
numberless educational pamphlets, essays, and lesson books
for children, was enthusiastic for the ancient system founded
by (C our pious forefathers," and it is only by much diligence
that the reader finds she referred to the Act of Uniformity,
and the Canons of the Church. Sir James Kay Shuttleworth,
who has been regarded as a conclusive authority on the subject,
speaks of " the School " as having been " transferred by the
Reformation from the Priesthood to the Congregation;" (l)
which leads to the supposition that there was at that period
something approaching to a system, and capable of being
transferred. This, however, is true only in a limited sense.
1 Preface to "Public Education."
1
Of the apprentice system, as it existed in the time of
Henry VIII., Mr. Froude speaks with high approval, and he
appears to look with some regret on its decay. (!) The best
that can be said is, that it was better than nothing ; and how
well-soever it may have answered the wants of an earlier
period, it gradually became unsuited to the growing necessi-
ties of the country. It neither was nor pretended to be a
system of education, as we use the expression in these days ;
and even as a system of industrial training, it was, outside
London, where the apprentices very soon became organised
and powerful, cruel in its application, irregular and
barbarous in its method, and strongly partook of the character
of slavery, which was hardly extinct when the early appren-
ticeship laws were made.
Industrial education was of very early date, beginning
in the tenth century in the time of Dunstan, Archbishop of
Canterbury, who directed the priests to instruct youth in
trades. (2) The chief Apprentice Acts however date from the
time of Henry VIII. Acts dealing with the system had been
framed previously, some of which encouraged it, while others
placed it under restrictions.
Very early in history there were guilds of traders,
members of religious orders, having powers which gradually
increased, for the regulation of industry, and after the
conquest these guilds became very powerful. Apprentice-
ship was one of their regulations, and the condition of
admittance to trade. (3)
With great cunning Edward III. had, about 1337,
enticed a large number of Dutch apprentices to England, and
scattered them about the country to teach the people the
manufacture of cloth. (4) This led to the extension and
1 English History, 1, 44-76, and Short Studies, 263.
2 Hook's Lives of Archbishops, 1, 419.
8 Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, 4. 4 Fuller's Church History, 2, 185.
general adoption of the system, and was also the beginning
of the cloth manufacture in England.
It was not, however, until the period of the Eeformation
that laws were passed making apprenticeship necessary.
The injunctions of Henry VIII. to the clergy, commanded
them to exhort the people to bring up all children to some
trade or way of living. (!) The pulpit, however, does not
seem to have been effectual for the purpose, and therefore
at a later period, justices of the peace, constables, and other
authorities, were empowered to take up children between the
ages of five and thirteen, who were found begging or idle,
and appoint them to masters of husbandry or other crafts. (2)
The Act was aimed at the prevailing vices of the times :
idleness and vagabondage, evils which had been very
prevalent before the dissolution of the monasteries, but
which were suddenly and largely increased by that event.
Some idea of the state of the country in this " merry " age
may be gathered from the fact that in Henry VIII.'s reign
72,000 people were executed for robbery and theft. (3) The
policy was continued and extended by Edward VI. Children
" idly wandering about " might be taken by any person before
a justice of the peace and straightway apprenticed, and they
might even be removed from their parents. A child who ran
away from his master might be recaptured and punished in
chains, and " used in all points as a slave," and masters were
empowered to sell and bequeath the services of such
" slave children." (4) In certain cases they became slaves
for life. It was thus that the Ministers of Edward VI.
undertook to give effect to his pious wish, that children when
they came to man's estate might not " loiter " and " neglect,"
but "think their travail sweet and honest." (5) These
1 Burnet's History of the Reformation, 1, part 1, 410. 2 27 Henry VIII., c. 5.
3 Nicholls' History of the Poor Law, 1, 130.
4 1 Edward VI., chapter 3. 5 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 2, 104.
enactments more than justify Mr. Senior's opinion that the
earlier poor laws were " an attempt substantially to restore
the expiring system of slavery." (J)
By two statutes of Elizabeth the system was further
rivetted upon the country. Churchwardens and overseers
had authority, with the assent of justices, to bind all
children,- whose parents were not able to maintain them,
"where they should see convenient."
Persons were compelled by law to receive apprentices,
and various Statutes of Labourers restricted the exercise of
any manual labour to persons who had been apprenticed for
seven years. (2) This latter provision, notwithstanding the
attacks of Adam Smith and other political economists,
continued in force down to 1814 ; and the compulsory
reception of apprentices was not finally abolished until the
reign of the present Queen. Whatsoever individual benefit
may have been derived from the apprentice laws, which,
under favourable conditions, must have been great, there is
every reason to believe that they were generally made the
instruments of rapacity and cruelty. There was no obligation
upon the masters to give any instruction in letters to their
apprentices, and though they formally undertook to teach
them their business, they gave generally only as much
technical training as enabled them to get from them the
fullest amount of labour. The original object and principle of
the system was industrial education, but its chief and
practical effect soon became the restriction of labour.
It was not until the present century that the health and
I education of children were taken in any degree under the
\careof the Government. About 1802, the first Sir Eobert
tPeel, father of the Prime Minister, passed a bill restricting
the hours of labour for apprentices in cotton and woollen
1 Edinburgh Review, No. 149, p. 2..
9 5 Elizabeth, cap. 4. 39 Elizabeth and 43 Elizabeth, cap. 2.
mills, and providing that during the first four years of
service, instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic should
be given at the expense of the master, in some part of each
working clay. (J) The act, however, was easily evaded. The
letter could be fulfilled by nominal performance, while in
practice it was altogether powerless and ineffective. Some
small measure of protection was subsequently given to young
children by an Act passed in 1819, prohibiting their
employment in factories under nine years of age. (2)
In 1833, the exertions of Lord Ashley, the present Earl
of Shaftesbury, secured a further reform, and the daily labour
of children under thirteen was restricted to eight hours,
and that of older children to twelve hours per day. (3) These
concessions were regarded, and in the then existing circum-
stances, actually were of great importance and value. (4)
The debates on the early factory bills of this century will
satisfy any one how urgently a strong legislative and adminis-
trative control was needed. The growth of all branches of
manufacturing industry had created a great demand for cheap
labour, and as children's labour was the cheapest to be had,
it was eagerly sought after. Almost as soon as they could
walk, the little children were swept into cotton manufactories.
Waggon loads of children were taken from the London streets
and apprenticed to manufacturers in Lancashire. In defiance
or in evasion of the law, they often began to work at the age
of five or six, and the ordinary hours of labour were twelve
hours per clay, often protracted to fifteen. Such laws as
existed failed to guard their health, to provide for their
education, to preserve their morals, or to protect their persons
from abominable cruelties. Sir Samuel Eomilly wrote of
them, " the poor children have not a human being in the
world to whom they can look up for redress." Their
1 Duke of Newcastle's Commission, Report, 202. 2 Ibid, 202.
s 3 and 4, Wm. IV. c. 103. 4 Walpole's History of England, 3, 208.
sufferings were often unendurable. For girls, apprenticeship
was the beginning of a life of shame, and for boys, one of
misery and vice. (*) Such is the history in outline of the
apprentice system. Various circumstances combined to break
it down altogether. The Act of Geo. III. repealing the
restrictions on labour (2) hastened its destruction ; and the
introduction of machinery, and the revolution in many
departments of industry, completed the work.
That the system had been deeply rooted in a past
society is proved by the fact, that charities of the value of
£50,000 per annum had been left for providing apprentice
premiums, ranging in amount generally from £5 to £25. (3)
The charities were of themselves an evil, and the cause of
much fraud and malversation. All that was good in the
system of apprenticeship is still capable of preservation under
a judicious scheme of technical education, and this it seems
would be the most legitimate purpose to which the funds,
which are still available, could be applied.
We owe to the Eoman Catholic Church the first planting
of Education in England, as well as in Scotland, (4) and that
intimate connection of the subject with religion, which
^ preserved in dark ages the desire for knowledge. But while
this alliance has sometimes advanced education, it has often
/ proved one of the most effective agencies for preventing its
I spread amongst the masses ; and is wholly responsible for the
acrimonious controversies of modern times. Theodore, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury in 680, laid the foundation, by turning
St. Augustine's monastery into a school of learning. Dean
Hook tells us that Theodore " found the English people eager
to be instructed and appetent of knowledge " and that he
converted all the larger and better monasteries into schools,
1 Walpole's History, 1, 187 ; 3, 200. 2 54, Geo. III., c. 94.
3 Report of Newcastle Commission, p. 531.
4 Lecky's Eighteenth Century, 2, 42.
in which the laity as well as the clergy imbibed a respect,
and sometimes a love for literature. (*) In them ancient
manuscripts were transcribed, and the foundation of libraries
was laid. The oldest grammar school now extant — that of
Carlisle, dates from about the period referred to. The present
foundation was erected by William Eufus towards the close
of the eleventh century, but tradition says that it was built on
the ruins of an earlier school, established by St. Cuthbert
in 686, but destroyed in 800. (2)
The first English tax was a tax for education, and was
raised in the eighth century to support a Saxon school a
Eome. (3)
The vicissitudes of education in those -early days were
great. There was the same tendency in the monasteries, then
as in later years, to relapse into idleness and dissipation.
The monks had also frequently to fight for existence, and all
traces of gentle culture were lost in the necessity for military
training. Two centuries after the time of Theodore, when
Alfred was king, and Plegmund was Archbishop of Canterbury,
the country had fallen into a condition of great ignorance.
There was, however, another revival. Alfred was anxious
that all English youth of position should be put to learning
until they could read English writing, (4) and he even
attempted to found something like a system, by passing a law
that all freeholders who possessed two hides of land should
give their sons a liberal education. (5) These were schools
for the nobility. During the same period we learn of a
famous school at York. (6)
A century later the work was carried on by Dunstan
The monks again were the teachers of the people, in manual
1 Hook's Lives of Archbishops, 1, 1 63.
2 Schools Enquiry Commission, 37 app.
3 Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, table 2.
4 Hook's Lives, 1, 337. 5 Carlisle's Grammar Schools, 1, xiii.
c Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, table 2.
8
arts as well as in learning, and the Canons of Dunstan
ordered all priests diligently to instruct youth, and dispose
them to trades, that they might have a support to the
Church. O
The ecclesiastics were skilful workers in metals. Every
priest was a handicraftsman. Attached to every monastery
were carpenters, smiths, shoe makers, millers, bakers, and
farm servants, and they provided the industrial education of
the period. (2)
From the monasteries sprang the humanising and
civilising influences of the age. In the Anglo-Norman era
they were the popular institutions of the country, as well as
the schools in which ecclesiastics and statesmen were trained.
At this period the school room was open to all who chose to
profit by it, though these were probably few in number. (3)
After the Conquest, Cathedral schools were established
where " fair and beautiful writing " was taught, and many
persons of rank and fortune were educated. (4) Of those
-7 which remain Hereford is the oldest. It was probably
/ founded soon after the Conquest. (5) Many Jewish schools
were also set up, which were open to Christian children.
In the time of Eoger Bacon, and after the granting of
the great Charter, we are told that schools were erected in
every city, town, burgh, and castle. (6) So that historians
have concluded that the ignorance of the laity was owing to
taste rather than to the want of opportunity.
Mr. Herbert Spencer holds the opinion that in the llth
and 12th centuries, besides monastic schools, there were
village elementary schools, and some city schools and
academies for higher culture. In 1179 the Council of
Lateran decreed a school in every cathedral, with head
1 Hook's Lives, 1, 419.
2 Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, table 2. c Hook's Lives, 2, 21.
* Carlisle's Grammar School, 1,19. 5 Schools Enquiry Commission, 37, App.
6 Carlisle's Grammar Schools, xxi.
9
masters having authority over all subordinate teachers in the
house. About the same period lay teachers were first heard L
of. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were founded
about 1200. The only literature of the common people, at
this time, were the unwritten songs. (*) Of the pre-reforma-
tion schools, William of Wykeham's foundation, at Winchester,
is one of the most famous. This was established about the year
1373 or 1387, and from this time, Dean Hook tells us, the
public mind became habituated to the idea of the ultimate
confiscation of monastic property for the purpose of estab-
lishing schools and colleges. (2)
The respect and devotion of the people for the monasteries
began to decline as early as the 12th century. The
opportunities they offered for instruction were little used, and
the 15th century found the people in the grossest possible
ignorance. Parishes were neglected, the Universities were
deserted, and no rewards were held out to learning. (3) This
period, however, contemporaneous with the introduction of
the printing press, the reformation of the Universities, and
the revival of learning throughout Europe, was the dawn of
a new era in education, and within thirty years before the I
Eeformation, more Grammar schools were erected and I
endowed in England than had been established in the three
hundred years preceding. (4)
There is no complete record of the provision for
Education prior to the Eeformation. Much that passes for
history, has no other basis than tradition. There are authori-
ties which go to show that there were schools connected with
every monastery and convent. In his life of Bishop Ken,
Mr. Bowles says that before the Eeformation, there was a
school in every church over the porch. (5) As some estimates
1 Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, table 3.
2 Hook's Lives, N.S., 2, 3. 8 Hook's Lives, 5, 291.
4 Tanner's Notitia Monastics, xx, iv. 5 Bowies' Life of Ken, 2, 98.
2
10
place the number of cliurclies as high as 50,000 (*) this would
account for an ample provision for the whole population.
These estimates may however be dismissed as unreliable and
unsustained by proof. Doubtless many foundations were lost
in the wreck and waste of the Eeforniation. Only thirty-five I
Grammar schools, established prior to the time of Henry VIII. \
have been inherited by this generation. (2) Of existing
endowments for primary schools, only three or four are known
to have been founded before the Eeformation, though there
are about two hundred, of the foundation of which the dates
are unknown, and which are doubtless the relics of a long
past age. There are also several hundreds (3) of small
unattached educational charities of unknown origin, some of
which probably, protected by their insignificance, escaped
from the fingers of Henry and his courtiers, and so have come
down to our own day ; but the conclusion of the Schools
Enquiry Commission, that it was not till after the Eeformatiom
that numerous endowments were left for primary education \
alone, is probably the correct one. (4) The general conclusion
derived from the authorities is, that the schools connected
^vith the monasteries were intended chiefly as seminaries for
the clergy. " They bred their novices to letters, and to this
end every great monastery had a peculiar) college in each of
the universities," and even to the time of their demolition " they
[maintained a great number of children at school, for the service
\of the Church." (5) Their primary purpose was to recruit the
ranks of the clergy. It was the presumption in law and
fact that if a man could read he was an ecclesiastic, and was
entitled to his "benefit of clergy." In the reign of Henry VII.
1 Dodd's Church History, 1, 420.
2 Schools Enquiry Commission Report, 37 App.
8 See Analytical Digest of Charity Commissioners Report, 1842.
4 Schools Enquiry Commission Report, 119.
5 Dodd's Church History, 1, 278.
11
the law regulating benefit of clergy was amended, and
from that time recognised a distinction between offences
rather than persons, and admitted the title of some laymen
to its advantages. But reading as a qualification for its
benefits was not abolished till 1706. (*)
This provision of the law which at one period entitled
a criminal to be tried in an ecclesiastical court, and which
down to the present century secured a mitigated penalty,
had at one time given an impulse to learning. (2) Tn later
times it became a mere fiction and was retained only to
lighten the severity of a terrible criminal code. In its
origin it was intended for the protection of the clergy alone,
and is conclusive as to the main object and use of the
monastic schools. It may, however, be readily granted that
many of the laity were taught in the monasteries, and that
numbers of children received instruction there who would
otherwise have gone without it altogether. In the darkest
period of our history, the monasteries were the nurseries of
education. Many of their highest dignitaries were its chief
promoters and protectors, and were the founders of libraries.
It was in the Abbey at Westminster that Caxton on his
return to England first used his printing press, (3) and he
received his earliest encouragement from priests of the Eoman
Church. This is the view taken by Eoman Catholics, (4) and
it is in the main supported by impartial examination. (5)
When we come to test the results of this net- work of
educational establishments, they are found to be greatly
disappointing, and we wonder how such vast means were
employed to so little good purpose. At the period of the
Reformation, the rank and file of the country clergy who
had received their education at the monasteries could do
1 Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, Table 6, p. 9. 2 Hook's Lives, 3, 39.
8 Tanner's Notitia Monasti'ea, xxvi. * Dodd's Church History, 1, 276.
5 Strype's Memorials, 1, 532.
a
12
little more than read. (*) Herein lay one of the difficulties
of the Eeformation. The ignorance of many of the clergy
was so great that they could not read the new offices. In
the performance of their duties they reverted to memory,
and preferred to say the old prayers which they knew by
heart. (2) The poorer classes, except those destined for minor
clerical offices, had never caught the infection of knowledge,
or even got within the outer circle of its influence. In a
disputation at Westminster during Elizabeth's reign, " whether
it was against the Word of God to use a tongue unknown
to the people," the Dean of St. Paul's, who argued on behalf
of a section of the Bishops, said, " The people of England do
not understand their own tongue better than Eunuchus did
the Hebrew." (3) The people knew nothing of religion
beyond its outward forms and pageantry. (4) Even the
richer classes were almost wholly without elementary
instruction. Henry VII. was illiterate. At the time of
Henry VIII.'s accession, if Princes could read and write,
more was not expected of them. (5) Latimer's sermons are
sufficient to satisfy us how little the teaching of the
monasteries had touched the higher classes, who were
unfitted for any offices of state ; (6) while the poor had been
lost sight of altogether. In the latter days of the monasteries
they had almost given up the pretence of teaching. Burnet
affirms that while they had in their hands the chief encourage-
ments of learning, they did nothing for it, but decried and
disparaged it, saying it would bring in heresy and a great
deal of mischief. (7) Mr. Froude agrees that the people
were taught only what they could teach themselves. (8)
Nothing is more manifest, than that the desire for knowledge
and the impetus given to learning for which the sixteenth
1 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 1, 375. 2 Hook's Lives, N.S. 4, 125.
3 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 2, 471. 4 Ibid. 2, part 1.
5 Ibid. 1, part 1, 17. ° The Floughers, 28.
7 Burnet's Reformation, 1, part 1, 39. s History of England, 1, 58.
13 -
century was remarkable, proceeded not from the teaching of
the monasteries, but from the group of English scholars who
derived their inspiration from the Greek teachers who had
found in Florence a refuge from the persecutions of Constan-
tinople. Amongst them the most remarkable were Colet,
Dean of St. Paul's and founder of St. Paul's School, Lilly,
the author of the grammar, Warham, Archbishop of
Canterbury, Latimer, Sir Thomas More, Grocyn, the first
English teacher of Greek, and Erasmus. (*)
Before Henry's rule had become a settled law of tyranny
and spoliation, the beginning of the Eeformation was full of
promise for the spread of knowledge. Sir Thomas More had
dreamed of an ideal state in which all in their childhood were
instructed in learniDg. (2) Erasmus yearned for the time when
all should be able to read the Scriptures for themselves. " I
long for the day," he said, " when the husbandman shall sing
portions of them to himself as he follows the plough, when
the weaver shall hum them to the tune of his shuttle, when
the traveller shall while away with their stories the weariness
of his journey." (3) Henry VIII. was himself a fair scholar,
and took the new learning under his own especial patronage.
Cranmer had projected liberal designs for ecclesiastical and
civil education. (*) Latimer was never weary of preaching
the duty of teaching the young. " They that do somewhat
for the furtherance of learning, for maintaining of schools and
scholars, they sanctify God's holy name." (5)
1 Green's Short History, 297, and Hook's Lives, 1, N.S. 267.
2 Utopia, Arber's reprint, 2, 86, and Green, 312.
3 Green's History, p. 308.
4 Dean Hook discredits the intentions assigned to Cranmer (Lives of
Archbishops, N.S., 2, 30), but Strype, Burnet, and older writers are
unanimous on the other side, and his speeches prove that he was in favour of
educating the children of the poor. That he shared in the spoils of the
monasteries is true. That was the gross temptation and spirit of his time.
6 Latimer's Sermons, Parker Society, 1, 349.
14
The means were at hand for the establishment of a vast
and comprehensive system in its various grades. A compara-
tively small portion of the wealth of the dispossessed
monasteries would have sufficed for the purpose, and the
mind of the nation had been prepared for such an application
of the funds. The clergy were docile and obedient and
anxious to save what they could, while such a disposition
would have preserved for their support, no inconsiderable
share of the spoils. Even as it was, no obstinate opposition
was offered to the changes introduced by Henry. In little
more than twenty years, says Burnet, there were four great
changes made in religion, and in all these the mainbody of
the nation turned with the stream." (*)
The people, except when driven by want, and goaded by
oppression, were law abiding and peaceable. Nor was there
such a jealousy between the clergy and laity as to prevent
co-operation in the work of education. Colet committed his
great foundation at St. Paul's to the management of a lay
corporation, having found " many laymen as conscientious as
clergymen in discharging their trust in this kind." (2)
Cranmer, in discussing with Henry the re-establishment of
ChrTst Church at Canterbury, had advocated the separation of
the lectureships upon divinity and humanity. (3) Sir James
Kay Shuttleworth goes the length of affirming that the schools
at the Reformation "were not confided to the clergy, or
subjected to the visitation of the bishop." (*) This, however,
as will be seen is a mistake. There was no such transference
of the control of education from the priesthood to the
congregation as he contends for, either in theory or in practice ;
1 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 1, preface xx.
2 Fuller's Church History, 3, 19. 3 Burnet's Reformation, 3, part 3, 209.
4 Public Education, 13, 242. It is a mere refinement to say that the
power of visitation was not given by Statute or by common law. The
accuracy of this statement may be doubted, but, at any rate, the schools were
by the de facto law, placed under the control of the clergy.
15
but considering the spirit of the time, a great opportunity was
lost of laying a broad foundation for schools, in which clergy
and laity might have worked together to promote instruction,
and carry out the principles of the Eeformation.
There is little doubt that it was comprehended within
the first design of the Eeformation, to make substantial
provision for education. It was one of the serious charges
against the monasteries that their duties in this respect had
been neglected, and the instructions for the first visitation,
provided that enquiries should be made under this head. (!)
The same reasons for their suppression was given after-
wards when experience had proved it to be a mere
pretence. The preamble to the bill for the dissolution
of the greater monasteries alleged as its object, " that /
these houses might be converted to better uses ; God's \
word set forth, children brought up in learning " (2) and
so forth. The King assured the people that there should
be no detriment to piety or learning. (3) Out of this second
conversion of church property, it was proposed to found
eighteen bishoprics, and with them Cranmer designed to/
connect ecclesiastical and civil colleges, and grammar*
schools. (4)
He had hoped further to found Grammar schools in every
shire in England " where children might have been brought
up to learning freely, without great cost to their friends and
kinsfolk." (5) But the scheme had to run the gauntlet of
many perils, and it ended in the creation of six bishoprics,
in which the educational features held a very subordinate place.
Burnet says the popish party turned the King's foundation
another way, (6) The more reasonable explanation is that
1 Burnet's Reformation, 1, part 2, 212.
2 Burnet's Reformation, 1, part 1, 475. 3Dodd's Church History, 1, 287.
4 Shuttleworth's Public Education, 32.
5 Cranmer's Works, Parker Society, 2, 16.
0 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 1, 546.
16
the designs, if they were ever serious on the King's part,
were frustrated by the greed, and rapacious spirit of the time.
All was scramble, wreck, and confusion. The cry of those in
possession was sauve gui pent — the aim of others, to get all
they could. The Commissioners enriched themselves, and the
ancestors of more than one of the rich families of later times,
laid the foundation of their fortunes in this reign. They gave
promises to the clergy, and bribes to Cromwell and the
country gentry to conceal their depredations. (*) The
liberality of the King's nature, especially in dealing with the
goods of others, was not consistent with any well-ordered
scheme of re-construction, civil or ecclesiastical. " Small
merits of courtiers met with a prodigious recompense for their
services ; not only the cooks, but the meanest turn-broach
in the King's kitchen did lick his fingers," (2) and such gifts
ias were made for education, often shrank in their passage
/through the hands of a covetous steward. (3) The Universities
were robbed of exhibitions and pensions, (4) and every
ecclesiastical foundation was impoverished. The seizure of
first the lesser, then the greater monasteries, and lastly the
collegiate churches, hospitals, and chauntries, has been
described as the three great mouth fuls made by Henry. He
did not however live to swallow them all. He reduced into
possession only the lesser and greater monasteries. Out of
the spoils of these, this munificent patron of letters and
learning, as he loved to be considered, founded six cathedrals
and ten grammar schools, (5) during a reign which extended
over thirty-five years ; which began with an immense treasure
bequeathed by his father, and which was undisturbed by
foreign wars or domestic broils. There were also during his
1 Burnet's Reformation, 1, part 1, 39.
2 Fuller's Church History, 3, 438. s Ibid 3, 444.
4 Carlisle's Grammar Schools, xxv.
5 Schools Enquiry Commission, 39 App.
reign some fifty other grammar schools endowed by private 1
individuals. Of the foundations for primary education, the
dates of which are fixed, not more than six are known to I
be the fruit of this period, though it is fair to assume
that some of those of which the origin is lost in obscurity,
may have had their beginning in this reign.
The short and quiet reign of Edward VI. was more
honorably distinguished. In six years fifty grammar schools
were established, of which the King founded twenty-seven.
Eoman Catholic historians comment, with bitter irony on the
fact, that they were all that survived the spoliation of so many
chauntries and collegiate churches. Between two and three
thousand of these institutions fell to the hands of Edward's
Ministers. The bill, which authorised their seizure and
settlement on the Crown, declared that they should be
employed for good and godly uses, the maintenance of
grammar schools, the augmentation of the universities, the
provision of additional curates, and the assistance of the
poor and needy. (*) Only a small portion of this great wealth
escaped through the hands of the Commissioners, and while
many schools were destroyed and shut up, as Fuller says,
" only for a smack of Popery," (2) very few were erected in
their places. The bulk of the Church property was
squandered amongst the parasites of the Court. (3) Even
Burnet who is usually very tender of the reputation of the
Reformers, cannot forbear to complain of the gross and
insatiable scrambling after the goods of the Church, (4)
which was the marked feature of the age, and was
encouraged by the King's youth and weakness. Occasionally
a bold preacher such as Lever, the master of St. John's,
Cambridge, spoke openly to the King of the robbery of
the schools " to the most miserable drowning of youth
1 1 Edward VI., c. 14. 2 Fuller's History, 3, 475.
3 Dodd's Church History, 2, 14. 4 Burnet's Reformation, 3, 215.
3
18
in ignorance, and sore decay of the universities" (!) or
a wise adviser like Martin Bucer urged on him the duty
of making education the care of the State. (2) To such men
we probably owe even the small provision that was made.
In Mary's troubled reign of five years, she established of
her own bounty, a grammar school for each year, and some
fifteen schools were also established by private citizens. (3)
Elizabeth reigned forty-five years and founded twenty-
five grammar schools. But the importance of knowledge was
now beginning to make itself felt through society, and we owe
a large number of foundations to the private benefactions
of the time. Altogether there were founded in Elizabeth's
reign 137 grammar schools, so that out of about 700
foundations for secondary education, 250 owe their origin
distinctly to the period of the Eeformation, (*) that is, to the
almost complete century which elapsed between the death
of Henry VII. and the accession of James I. Between
forty and fifty non-classical schools, and about twenty
unattached endowments for educational purposes had their
rise in the same time, and probably some others, the
origin of which has not been traced. But of the 4,300 charities
for primary education reported on by the Commissioners
between 1818 and 1842, by far the greater number were
established long after the Eeformation, and most of them
after the Eevolution and Eestoration. It would not be just,
however, to measure the educational work of the Eeformation
era by the narrow standard of the mere provisions of means.
Amongst the leaders of the Eeformation were men who held
much more comprehensive views on the subject of popular
education, than any who preceded or followed them in high
office, until the present century was well advanced. Cranmer
eloquently advocated the rights of the poor to a place on the
1 Dodd's Church History, 2, 14. 2 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 1, 289.
8 Schools Enquiry Commission Report, App. 49. 4 Ibid, Report, 39, 57. App.
19
foundations of the time, (*) an$i it is only by a technical
definition of terms, and a narrow interpretation of founders'
intentions, that the grammar schools have been confined to
middle class education; and partly also because these
schools, as schools for the poor, were in advance of the times,
and of the desires of the people. Latimer made the
instruction of the poor one of the chief burthens of his
discourses, and bitterly complained of those who " withdraw
the goods wherewith schools should be maintained and take it
to themselves." (2) Eidley encouraged Edward VI. in his
educational designs, (3) and even Bonner was induced by
some paramount influence to issue injunctions to his clergy
to teach the children of his parishioners to read English. (4)
The long interval of three centuries had elapsed before
we again find men of influence in the Councils of the State —
such men as Brougham, Eussell, and Melbourne, urging the
duty and policy of universal education. Though Henry VIII.
did not give much himself towards education he was urgent
upon others, and especially on the clergy, to provide for it;,
and he was the instrument by which a desire for instruction
was awakened in the popular mind. Before the translation of
the Scriptures into the vulgar tongue, popular education,
connected as it was with a religious institution, and dependent
on religious enthusiasm for its support, had but narrow
ground to stand upon. Henry's warrant allowing all his
subjects to read the Bible in their own language, and imposing
penalties on those who hindered them, (5) was the charter
of popular education. It is of comparatively small importance
what his motives were, or whether he was actuated by spite
against the clergy or otherwise. An impulse was given to
1 Cranmer's Works, Parker Society, 2, 398. 2 Latimer's Works, Parker
Society, 1, 349. 3 Ridley's Works, Parker Society, xiii, note.
4 Bin-net's Reformation, 2, part 1, 571, and 1 part 2, 382.
5 Burnet's Reformation, 1 part 1,
20
the desire for knowledge which it had never received before,
and which has never since been wholly spent. Many persons
put their children to school that they might take them to
St. Paul's to hear them read the Scriptures. (*) Even aged
persons, eager to avail themselves of a new privilege, took
lessons in the art of reading. (2) Henry, Edward, and
Elizabeth, taxed the clergy to make provision for instruction,
and compelled them to provide exhibitions at the Universities
and Grammar Schools. Whoever among the clergy had an
income of £100 a year was compelled to maintain a poor
scholar at Oxford or Cambridge, (3) and Carlisle says that
in Elizabeth's reign there was a tax of one-thirtieth on
ecclesiastical benefices for maintaining schools. (4)
As Church property was considered to be the proper
/provision for education, so the education of the age was
/ committed entirely to the direction of the clergy. Education
was not a civil but an ecclesiastical matter, and its aim was
religious, not political. The teachers were commanded to
make the catechism the beginning and foundation of instruc-
tion in their schools, (5) and all having cure of souls, and
also chantry priests, were ordered to teach children to read
English, " taking moderately of their parents that be able
to pay, which shall so put them to learning." (6)
So early as the seventh year of his reign Henry
commanded the Bishops to make yearly visitation of all
schools in their Dioceses. (7) At the beginning of Edward
VI.'s reign, education was still further confined to a Church
mould by the Act of Uniformity (8) — the first of those
exclusive acts, and the earliest statutory manifestation of the
exclusive spirit which have done so much to hinder progress.
1 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 1, 549. 2 Hook's Lives, N.S., 2, part 141.
8 Hook's Lives, N.S., 2, 239. 4 Carlisle's Grammar Schools, xxxix.
B Burnet's Reformation, 3, part 2, 269. ° Ibid, 3, part 2, 193.
7 Ibid, p. 269, 8 2, and 3. Edward VI., c. 1.
21
By this act it was ordained that the Book of Common Prayer,
and none other, should be used ; and all curates were ordered
to call on their parishioners every six weeks to teach their
children the Catechism. (1) But there was a step in advance
in this reign, as the priests were now ordered to teach
writing as well as reading. (2) When Mary came to the
throne similar injunctions were given to the clergy to take
charge of education, (3) and the Bishops were required to
examine the schoolmasters to see that they exercised their
offices without corrupt teaching, and, if necessary, to remove
them. (4) And strict orders were given them to examine
whether the common schools were well kept, and the school-
masters diligent in teaching. (5)
The prospects of education at the commencement of
Elizabeth's reign appeared somewhat brighter. It was
expected that great care would be taken of the Universities
and public schools, " that the next generation might be
betimes seasoned with the love of knowledge and religion." (6)
Such expectations, however, were disappointed. Beyond
the grammar schools which she founded, Elizabeth did little
to promote the spread of knowledge, and the impetus it had
gained at an earlier time slackened rather than increased.
More care was given to Ireland than to England. An Act
was passed for erecting free schools in every diocese in
Ireland. (7) In England the Queen's chief care was to
preserve teaching on the right ground, as soon as she could
determine in her mind what that ground was. When she
had declared for the Protestant side, and was firmly seated
on the throne, she took vigorous measures for rooting out
heresy from Church and School. The Act of Uniformity,
1 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 2, 288. 2 Dodd's Church History, 2, xlvi.
3 Hook's Lives, N.S., 3, 429.
4 Cardwell's Annals of Church, 1, 112, 114. 5 Ibid, 174.
0 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 1, 679. 7 Hallam's History, 3, 371.
22
which had been repealed by Mary, was again restored, and
all schoolmasters were required to have a license from the
/ ordinary. (*) This license was strict in its conditions, was
j held during the pleasure of the Bishop, was available only in
\ the particular diocese for which it was granted, and was
dependent on good .behaviour. (2)
In a letter from the Council to Archbishop Grindal,
directions were given that all schoolmasters should be
examined by the Bishop, and that if any were found to
be corrupt or unworthy they should be displaced. • This
matter was declared to be " of no small moment, arid
chiefly to be looked into by every Bishop of his diocese." (3)
A return was required of the names of all schoolmasters,
whether they taught publicly or privately, and whether any
were suspected.
Churchwardens were directed to report whether any
schoolmasters taught without a license, and the Act of
Uniformity was ordered to be strictly enforced in regard to
them. (4) The use of one grammar, as well as one prayer-
book, was enforced. Lilly's celebrated grammar was the
one authorised. A Bishop finding some scholars ignorant of
its rules exclaimed, " what ! are there Puritans also in
grammar?" (5) The memorable Convocation of 1562, from
which the Church derived the thirty-nine articles, and the
second book of Homilies, supplied also Dean NowelFs
catechism, the use of which was now vigorously enforced.
Parents and masters having children, servants, or apprentices,
upwards of eight years old, who could not say the catechism,
were fined ten shillings in respect of each child. (6)
1 Cardwell's Annals, 1, 195.
2 For form of License see Strype's Life of Whitgift, 1, 468.
3 Cardwell's Annals, 1, 394.
4 Cardwell's Annals, 1, 402. 5 Fuller's Church History, 3, 21.
0 Cardwell's Synodalia, 2, 510.
23
These enactments were aimed, in the first place,
principally against those who clung to the ancient faith, but
they were equally convenient as a weapon against the Puritans
when they came to be troublesome. The Eonian Catholics
were the first to feel their weight. At first the Queen
had no great reason to dread a Koman Catholic opposition.
Out of 9,400 beneficed men only 189 left their benefices on
account of the change in religion at this time. (*) But it by no
means followed, because the clergy ostensibly accepted the
changes imposed by Elizabeth, that they were disposed to give
them implicit assent, or even obedience. Many of them looked
forward to the time when a Eoman Catholic Sovereign might
succeed Elizabeth, as Mary had succeeded Edward VI.
Also large numbers of the gentry remained Catholic at heart.
The destruction of the monasteries deprived them of all means
of education for their children, as they were not allowed to
have private tutors. These circumstances gave rise to a new
order of instructors for Eoman Catholic children — the
Seminary Priests. Colleges were founded at Douay, Lisbon,
Eouen, Bruges, St. Omer, Brussels, and other places. The
teachers these colleges sent forth were amongst the most
celebrated the world has ever known. Many of them
belonged to the Order of Jesuits, whose success in the
education of youth is thus described by Macaulay : — " The
liberal education of youth passed almost entirely into their
hands, and was conducted by them with conspicuous ability.
They appear to have discovered the precise point to which
intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual
emancipation. Enmity itself was compelled to own that in
the art of managing and forming the tender mind they had
no equals." (2) These were the teachers into whose arms
the policy of Elizabeth drove large numbers of the youth of
England. Catholic colleges and seminaries were filled with
1 Burnet's Keformation, 2, part 1, 720. 2 Macaulay's History, 1, 344.
24
English children belonging to the higher classes, and soon
Catholic priests were found pursuing their calling under
eveiy form of disguise. The aims of these teachers were not
in the first instance civil or political, nor was it their chief
object to supply English Koman Catholics with the means
for the cultivation of letters. It was their business to educate
for the Eoman Catholic priesthood, and, incidentally, to keep
all secular education under their direction. It is said of them
that while great attention was given to pupils destined for the
Church, the abilities of such as were to be employed in
secular affairs were neglected. (x) They had secondary
political designs upon the throne of England, and, as it is
alleged, upon the life of the Queen. (2)
Whether Elizabeth was ever in personal danger, or
whether such allegations were only a cover for the savage
measures she took, will always be in dispute. She was
equal to the emergency, whether a reality or a pretence.
A severe law was passed against all who did not
observe the regulations of the Church of England in their
most minute detail, (3) and a proclamation was issued
\ commanding all persons whose children, wards or relations
!; were receiving their education abroad to recall them within
four months. (4) It was forbidden to worship God in the
Eoman Catholic manner in public and private. Seminary
priests who came to England were hunted down. The
prisons were filled with delinquents, and large sums of
money were extorted from them. Eoman Catholics were not
> allowed to have their children educated at the Universities
unless they would conform. To send them abroad was held
/to be criminal. (5)
1 Buckle's History of Civilisation, 2, 336. 2 Hook's Lives, N.S., 4, 456.
8 Hook's Lives, N.S., 5, 144. * Dodd's Church History, 3, 15.
5 Ibid, 69.
25
Five or six acts were passed in this reign against
Catholic schoolmasters and teachers. Seminary Priests taken
in England were executed. Two hundred of them perished
in this way, and a larger number died of diseases contracted
in the horrible prisons to which they were consigned. (l)
Preaching and reading in private houses was forbidden. The
Queen's power of wardship was used to compel the education
of catholic youth in protestant tenets. (2) The Court of
Star Chamber exercised a rigorous censorship over the
press. (3) In the latter years of Elizabeth a savage act
was passed against the Puritans. .All who refused to
conform were required to abjure the kingdom under pain
of death, and for some degrees of non-conformity they
were adjudged to die. (4) The Court of High Commission
assumed control over every expression of thought, and
every religious office. Two hundred of the best ministers
were driven from their parsonages. The conventicles were
closed, and the congregations were compelled to seek
refuge in Amsterdam. At a later time they became the
colonists of New England. These persecutions tested the
vitality and strengthened the conscience and determination
of English non-conformity, and became powerful stimulants
to the growth of the civil and religious freedom they were
designed to crush.
There are very scanty materials upon which to form any
precise judgment of the actual progress of education amongst
the poorer classes during the hundred years of the Eeformation
struggle. The histories of that period are not histories of
the poor, except as it is found in Poor Law Acts and in
the wars of the times ; but of Kings and Queens, and courts
— of the struggles between the crown and the nobles—
between ecclesiastics and laymen, for power — of the slow and
1 Green's History, 402. 2 Ibid, 607. 3 Ibid, 460.
4 Burnet's Owii Times, 2, 495, and Statute 35 Elizabeth, chap. 1.
4
26
painful development of institutions which have been made
native by adoption ; and in a measure of the middle class,
which with the growth of trade and commerce was then
pushing itself into a commanding position — all of which
forms a part of the education of the nation, but is withal an
incomplete record of the efforts of the commonalty for
existence and improvement. In the higher classes the first
effect of the Eeformation was to discourage learning.
When Edward VI. came to the throne the Grammar Schools
had become disused, " parents choosing any other calling for
their children rather than bring them up to letters." (*)
With the destruction of the monasteries, the opportunities
for study and leisure, and the rewards which they offered
had disappeared, and those who had formerly followed literary
callings now betook themselves to mechanical pursuits, or
other illiberal employments. In a letter, dated 1550, Eoger
Ascham lamented the ruin of the Grammar Schools;
throughout the country ; and that the Universities and
the public schools were neglected alike by professors and
pupils. (2) Burnet says no care was taken for the education
of youth except those who were bred for learning, and the
commons saw the gentry were likely to reduce them to a
very low condition. (3) The clergy were the only instructors
of the lower classes. They were, especially in the country,
grossly ignorant. (4) They were reluctant teachers, and
often so poor that they had to follow some manual occupation
for their living. (5) If they had at any time carried out
'the injunctions of Henry and Edward to teach the children,
the habit soon fell into entire disuse, and even the catechising
\ was neglected.
During the long reign of Elizabeth there was a partial
1 Strype's Cranmer, 234.
2 Spencer's Descriptive Soceology, 25. 8 Burnet's Reformation, 2 part 1, 211.
4 Pepys' Diary, 4, 263. 5 Burnet's Reformation, 2, part 1, 375.
27
revival of knowledge amongst the upper and middle classes.
The grammar schools and Universities took up the work
of the monasteries, and a new knowledge and mental energy
were diffused amongst the middle classses and country
gentry. (*) The burst of noble literature for which Elizabeth's
reign is famous was an educating influence of the most lofty
kind. Authorship, under court protection, began to be a
regular profession. The clericy or learned body, as such,
was disappearing, and literature was addressed to a wider
circle of readers. " The abundance, indeed, of printers and
printed books at the close of the Queen's reign, shows that
the world of readers and writers had widened far beyond the
small circle of scholars and courtiers with which it began." (2)
The Eeformation moreover had given to the people a book
which had the most intense charm and interest for them —
the Bible — and had supplied them with what before was
wanting — a literature which they could comprehend. It was
out of the study of this book that Puritanism rose and grew
into a force, giving a new moral and religious impulse
to society, and the conception of social equality which in
time was to be productive of such great results. But towards
the end of Elizabeth's reign all freedom of thought, spiritual
and intellectual, had fallen under the despotism of the
Ecclesiastical Commission, which even had powers to amend
the statutes of colleges and schools. (3) A beginning however
had been made, and the desire for knowledge was so far
enkindled that neither the neglect nor tyranny of Govern-
ments or of dynasties could extinguish it.
The two hundred years following the death of Elizabeth
are bare of records of Government attempts to extend
instruction amongst the people. The Eestoration and
Eevolution, and accession of the Brunswicks, occasioned
no effort to raise the structure of political power on the
1 Green's History, 399. 2 Ibid, 393. 3 Ibid, 457.
28
education of the people. (T) Yet it was during this period
that the great struggle for intellectual, political, and religious
freedom was proceeding, the triumph of which could alone
render a state system of education tolerable or desirable.
In order to understand the claims to the control of education
put forward in our own day it is necessary to review briefly
these events so far as they bear on the subject. It is
not the object of this work to consider them in their wider
relations to the great subject of civil and religious freedom.
One of the marked features in the reign of James I., is,
that the foundation of grammar schools, (which was almost
suspended as an object of the crown and court) proceeded at
an increased ratio, at the cost of private individuals. The
King in his reign founded four schools, whilst the private
foundations were over eighty. During all the subsequent
troubles, the foundation of grammar schools by private
individuals went on steadily. Between the beginning of the
reign of James I., and the flight of James II., 288 schools
were established, but of these only seven owe their foundation
to the rulers of the nation. (2)
It was also during the same era that private foundations
for distinctly primary education had their beginning. Before
the year 1600 benefactions for this purpose, the origin of
which have been traced, were exceedingly rare ; but during the
century following there were nearly seven hundred endow-
ments left for this purpose, of which about two thirds
followed the Eestoration, (3) the period from which Mr. Green
dates the forces of modern England. (4) Their distribu-
tion however extends over the whole century, and
marks the impulse which had been given by the
Eeformation to the extension of knowledge. In the
1 Shuttleworth's Public Education, 33.
2 Schools Enquiry Commission Report, App.
3 Analytical Digest of Charity Commissioners Report, 1842.
4 Green's History, 603.
29
time of James I., the " licensed " schoolmasters had grown
into a class of sufficient number and wealth, to be included
in the exaction of benevolences. (l) But all education was I
confined in the one inflexible church groove. The Eoman
Catholics were disappointed in their hopes of toleration. One
of the first acts of James was to renew the proclamation,
ordering all Jesuits and seminary priests to depart the realm,
and a Canon of the Church ordered ministers to present
recusants and schismatics. (2) A stricter conformity to the
rubric was required, and three hundred Puritan clergy were
driven from their parsonages. (3) The doctrine of the divine
right of Bishops was added to that of the divine right of
Kings. The Canons of 1604 renewed the requirements that
the schoolmaster should be licensed by the ordinary, and
should embrace the articles of religion. They added also a
special proviso that curates should be licensed before others.(4)
The catechising of children on Sundays and holy days, and
their instruction in the commandments, the Lord's prayer
and the articles of religion, was made compulsory on the
clergy, and attendance at church was required on pain of
excommunication. Students of the universities were ordered
to attend, to be thoroughly instructed in points of religion.
The duties of schoolmasters were declared.
It is noteworthy that the earlier injunctions of Edward \
and Elizabeth to teach the poor to read and write were now
forgotten, and schoolmasters were enjoined only to teach the /
catechism, to train their scholars with sentences of Holy
Scripture, and to bring them to church. (5)
In later contests between the Education department and
the National society, the question has been raised as to how
far these Canons, not having the sanction of Parliament, were
1 Oardw ell's Annals of Church, 2, 144.
2 Dodd's Church History, 4, 57, and Canon 110.
3 Green's History, 470. 4 CardwelTs Syiiodalia, 291.
5 Canons, 77, 78, 79.
30
binding on the laity. The effect of the decisions of the courts
is, that they are binding only so far as they declare the
ancient law, and custom of the Church and realm. (J) But
the point is of small significance since the subjection of the
Ischoolmaster to the clergy was expressly declared by statutes
'23 Elizabeth, cap. 1, and 1 James I., cap. 4, (2) which regulated
the granting of licenses by the ordinary.
The practice of catechising never seems to have been
general, not so much on account of any resistance by the
people, as from disinclination of the clergy. Within thirty
years after the passing of the law, the Bishop of Norwich
reported to Laud that he had " brought" his diocese into
perfect order by requiring the practice of catechising. (3)
At the same period Dean Hook says that the Puritan
preachers regarded the order of catechising as beneath
the dignity of their preachers, (4) and this was at a
time when the mass of the clergy were steady Puritans.
There can be no doubt that the practice of catechising
was found difficult to enforce, since after the Eestoration
the Attorney-General was desired to prepare a bill requiring
the clergy to carry out the injunctions. (5)
Charles I. had found in Laud a willing instrument
to give effect to his hostility against the Puritans. The
doctrine of passive obedience was added to the principles
they were required to instil. They were compelled to
take an oath of their approval of the doctrine, discipline,
and government of the Church. Hundreds of clergymen
were suspended or deprived. The lectureships which
had been established in towns were suppressed. Church-
wardens were ordered to present on oath the names
of all schoolmasters, and to prosecute at the assizes
1 Hook's Lives, N.S., 5, 219, and Lathbury's History of Convocation.
2 Cardwell's Annals, 2, 274. 3 Ibid, 206. * Hook's Lives, N.S., 6, 190.
5 Cardwell's Annals, 2, 287.
31
those who had not submitted. (l) Thousands of the
best classes of the nation were driven to America. (2)
Neither did the Common-wealth bring any recognition of
the principles of intellectual or of religious freedom. The
Government asserted and enforced the right to provide forms
of worship and of faith, and to compel all to come
within its creed. The recognised religion was changed.
The assembly at Westminster provided a new confession
of faith, and directory of public worship. Conformity to
Presbyterianism was required on all sides. Episcopalian
clergy were driven out in their turn, and forbidden to act
as ministers or as schoolmasters. The Barebones Parliament
was charged with indifference to progress, and with enmity
to knowledge. To deny the doctrine of the Trinity, the
divinity of Christ, or that the Bible was the word of God
was made punishable by death. A Court of Triers and
a rigorous censorship of the press, provided an efficient
means, by which an outward conformity to the opinions
and regulations of the Government was secured. (3)
Great hopes of some relaxation in the harshness and
tyranny of the laws were entertained on the Eestoration.
Charles II. in the famous declaration of Breda had
declared " on the word of a King," a " liberty to tender
consciences." These hopes were soon extinguished by the
Corporation Act, the Act of Uniformity, and other measures
which followed each other in rapid succession, the object
of which was to root out the last semblance of religious
freedom. If Charles was not the chief promoter of this
policy, he was one of the most active conspirators. In
1681 both Houses of Parliament had passed a bill
repealing the cruel Act of Elizabeth against Non-conform-
ists and the King refused to give it his assent. (*) The
1 Cardwell's Synodalia, 1, 403. 2 Green's History, 495, 510.
3 Green's History, 520, 570. 4 Burnet's Own Times, 2, 495.
32
object of this persecution and of the Corporation Act and
other Acts by which it was enforced, was to drive the Puri-
tants out of the towns, which were their strongholds, and to
disperse them and annihilate their influence.
The Act of Uniformity, framed in 1662, on the strength
of which the clergy of this century have based their right to
the control of education, had a similar aim. It recites
the Act of Uniformity of Elizabeth's reign, and that
numbers " following their own sensuality, and living
without knowledge and due fear of God, did wilfully
and schismatically abstain and refuse to come to their parish
churches," and required the use of the Book of Common
Prayer, the observance of the rights and ceremonies of the
established church, and unfeigned assent and consent to its
doctrines and ordinances. For the first time school masters
were required in express terms to subscribe a declaration of
conformity to the Liturgy of the Church ; and teaching
without the license of the ordinary subjected them to
imprisonment. (*) The House of Lords remonstrated against
the clause, and vainly endeavoured to secure more lenient
provisions on behalf of school masters. The Bishops were re-
quired particularly to certify the names of all school masters,
and whether they were licensed and attended church. (2)
The Act of Uniformity was followed by the Conventicle
Act in 1664— the Five Mile Act in 1665, and another
Conventicle Act in 1670. The object of all these measures
was the suppressing of unconforming ministers and school |
masters. The Test Act passed in 1673, requiring from all in!
the civil and military employment of the State, the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy, a declaration against transubstan-
tiation and the reception of the sacrament according to the
rites of the Church, was a blow at the Eoman Catholics,
1 13 and 14 Charles II., c. 4. 2 Cardwell's Annals, 2, 273-4.
33
i
when the King was secretly negociating with them ; and it
was acquiesced in and supported by the Dissenters.
The first effect of the Act of Uniformity, and other
persecuting Acts was cruel in the extreme upon a large section
of the clergy. Two thousand Church ministers — the best and
most learned of their order — the leaders of the London clergy
and the heads of the 'Universities — were driven from
their homes. (J) Their sufferings were extreme. They were
hunted from the towns, prosecuted and imprisoned, and
driven to seek shelter under humiliating disguises. The
Acts were enforced with such unrelenting severity that upon
the declaration of indulgence, twelve years later, 12,000
Quakers were released from gaol. (2)
The political and social bearings of these Acts in modern
times have been unlimited for good. In the expulsion of
one-fifth of the English clergy, and that the section most
distinguished for high character and learning, a foundation
for freedom of opinion was laid, which made religious
toleration a question only of time. In the Church itself the
immediate effect was to deaden all desire for change, and to
stifle all effort for reform, or for social improvement. (3)
As the severities against the Eoman Catholics under
Elizabeth led to the establishment of Eoman Catholic
seminaries, so the persecution of the Puritans under Charles
gave rise to another class of Nonconformist schools, some
of which attained to considerable celebrity. These were the
academies for the education of Dissenting ministers. In
their original design they were purely theological seminaries,
but in practice they became something more than this ; and
many sons of the gentry, and some of the nobility, were
educated in them for civil employments. (4) They afforded
the early generations of Dissenters of the middle class, better
1 Green, 610. 2 Ibid, 613. 3 Green, 610.
4 Bogue and Bennett's Dissenters, 2, 75.
5
34
means for education than they enjoyed until in recent years
the Universities were thrown open to them; and this,
notwithstanding that the masters came under the penalty
of the law, and were hunted by spies and informers, dragged
before justices, and harassed in spiritual courts.
For nearly thirty years this persecution continued, and
while it lasted it was safer to be a malefactor than a Dissenter.
The Toleration Act has been described as the Magna
Charter of Dissenters ; but as Unitarians and Eoman
Catholics were exempted from its provisions, it was far
from conceding the right of complete freedom of opinion
and worship. Neither did it repeal by express terms the
provisions against schoolmasters. Dr. Calamy says that
the clause inserted in the draft act in favour of
Dissenting schools was clandestinely blotted out on two
occasions. (*) It is certain that the Act did not prevent
proceedings against Dissenting teachers, as Dr. Doddridge
was persecuted for keeping a school in 1700, (2) and
these prosecutions were not discontinued until King
William intimated that he was not pleased with them. (3)
The middle-class Dissenting schools then sprang into
prominence. In the Tory reaction in the first year of
Queen Anne's reign, the Lower House of Convocation
passed a resolution in strong condemnation of them, as
pusuring the place of the Universities, and praying for
measures for their suppression. (4) Samuel Wesley, father
of the revivalist, violently attacked the academies. (5) The
Archbishop of York said in the House of Lords that he
apprehended great danger from their increase, (6) and
they were freely described by the High Church party as
nurseries of sedition.
1 Calamy's Life, 2, 13. 2 Bogue and Bennett, 3, 313. 3 Ibid, 2, 45.
4 Cardwell's Synodalia, 2, 713-18. 5 Bogue and Bennett, 2, 90.
0 Buckle's History, 1, 420.
35
In 1711, when the Tory reaction was at its height,
the Act against occasional conformity was passed, which
prevented Dissenters from qualifying for municipal office. (*)
This was followed in 1714 by the Schism Act, which
was intended to crush their seminaries, and did indeed
compel them to suspend operations. (2) The Act provided
that no one might act as tutor or usher without the sanction
of the Bishop, and without conforming to the Anglican
liturgy. It was, however, aimed at higher rather than
lower education, and permitted Dissenters to employ mistresses.
It did not extend to the teaching of reading, writing, and
arithmetic. (3) If the Tory ascendency had been prolonged
there was danger that the Toleration Act would have been
repealed. The Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act
were of short duration, being repealed in 1718. (4) From
this date the period of real toleration begins, though the
battle for religious liberty was far from being won.
During the administration of Walpole, the enforcement
of the Test and Corporation Acts was gradually relaxed,
and they became at last the mere shadow of law. For
a hundred years, between 1727 and 1828 they remained
upon the Statute Book unenforced, and it was the practice
to pass annually a bill of indemnity in favour of those
who had violated their provisions. (5) Many efforts were
made in 1718, 36 and 39 for the alteration of these laws.
In 1789 Lord Stanhope made an ineffectual attempt to
repeal the Acts imposing penalties on those who absented
themselves from church. In 1792, Fox tried in vain
to repeal the Penal Statute against Unitarians. (6) The
Five Mile Act and the Conventicle Act were continued
1 Lecky's History of Eighteenth Century, 1, 95.
2 Lecky's History of Eighteenth Century, 1, 95, and Bogue and Bennett, 2,24.
8 Lecky's History of Eighteenth Century, 1, 96. * Lecky's History of
Eighteenth Century, 1, 258.
5 Lecky's Eighteenth Century, 1, 260. G Bogue and Bennett, 4, 187-8.
36
until 1812, (*) and it was left to Lord John Eussell
to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts in 1828.
Catholic emancipation followed in 1829.
The exclusion of the Unitarians from the benefits of the
Toleration Acts was occasioned by the alarm which sprang
from the rapid spread and increase of Socinianism in 1698 —
led by Thomas Firmin, who had made himself famous by his
efforts to found hospitals, schools, and charities of all des-
criptions. (2) The provisions against the Unitarians were not
repealed till 1813. (3) During the whole of the eighteenth
century the Catholics also remained under severe restrictive
and penal laws ; and up to 1847 were even denied a share in
the education grants of the Government. During the reign
of James II. they had enjoyed a short sunshine of prosperity,
during which the Jesuits openly set up their schools in
London, in defiance of laws which remained unrepealed. (4)
But this was only a glimpse of freedom. They were refused
a share in the toleration of William III., and laws still more
severe were enacted against them. By an Act passed in
1699 perpetual imprisonment was decreed against Catholics
engaged in education (5) and this was followed by other
Statutes of William III., and George L, the whole tendency
and object of which were to prevent any open teaching of
Catholic opinions.
But notwithstanding the neglect of the clergy, and
the stagnation within the Church, and the penal laws which
kept other sects in subjection, and made self-preservation the
paramount law of their existence, the necessity of education
for the poor was gaining a gradual though certain recognition.
Between the Eestoration and the death of Anne, nearly five
hundred foundations were established, exclusively for the
1 Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, 24, English Division.
2 Burnet's Own Times, 4, 377. 3 Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, 759.
4 Green's History, 652. 5 Lecky's 18th century, 1, 275.
37
education of the poor. Early in the Eighteenth Century they
increased rapidly in number and in the value of their endow-
ments; and in 1750 the charities for primary education /-
reached two thousand in number. (*) They were often small
in amount, and they have been in the main very pernicious
in their influence on the progress and success of a system of
education.
They nevertheless were the most effectual protest of the
time against the vice and ignorance which took a delight in
flaunting itself before the public eye. It is noteworthy that
the greatest activity in the foundation of charity schools
prevailed at a time when painted boards invited the poor ta
get drunk for a penny and dead drunk for twopence, with al
promise of clean straw for nothing. (2) The bequests were
frequently left in connection with the Church, or some
religious establishment, and in many instances were coupled
with the condition of exclusive religious teaching ; but of
4,000 endowments for primary education fully one-fourthl
were left for the purposes of secular instruction, wholly |
unconnected with any religious body and unfettered by
conditions. The Schools Enquiry Commission reported that
the majority of endowed schools were not for exclusive
education, and were under all descriptions of management. (3)
In the early part of the Eighteenth Century many schools
were founded by subscription, which proves the existence of
a collective opinion and the partial recognition of a duty
on the part of society.
Mr. Bowles claims for Bishop Ken, as early as 1680-90,
that he was the first and most earnest promoter of parochial
schools, which he set up in all the parishes of his diocese,
1 Analytical Digest of Charity Commissions, 1842.
2 Bogue and Bennett's History of Dissenters, 4, 38.
3 Schools Enquiry Commission Report, 111.
38
and that he was the originater, or the most active instrument
in the establishment of village and Sunday schools. (*)
In Atterbury's Charge to the Clergy of Kochester, in
1716, he refers with approval to the late encouragement
of charity schools. (2) It was during the same period that
Shenstone wrote his familiar description of village schools : —
" In every village, marked with little spire,
Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame,
There dwells in lowly shed and mean attire,
A matron old, whom we schoolmistress name."
It is clear from one of the following couplets that the
dame of that early period, like the one of our own day,
usually combined other occupation with her teaching : —
\ " Where sits the dame, disguised in look profound,
And eyes her fairy throng, and turns her wheel around."
The marked increase in the number of these schools
provoked Mandeville's Essay on Charity Schools, which,
with the Fable of the Bees was presented at the Middlesex
Sessions. He refers to the distraction the nation had
laboured under for some time, and the " enthusiastic passion
for charity schools." (3) The movement was most marked in
the metropolis at this time, and, impressed by what was
nearest to him, Dr. Mandeville over-estimated its energy
and extent. It drew from him a vigorous protest, supported
by much ingenious argument, which was thought worthy
of a serious answer by Bishop Berkeley, and which was
presented by the grand jury of Middlesex as mischievous
and immoral.
There is no doubt that the true reason for the
presentation was, not that it was an attack on education,
but on the doctrine of the Trinity. In regard to the
former he defended amply and forcibly and with a wealth
of reasoning which might have been devoted to a better
1 Life of Ken, by Bowles, 2, 98. 2 Atterbury's Correspondence, 2, 259.
8 Mandeville's Charity Schools,
39
purpose, the terrible doctrine of the governing classes
of the time, affirming the necessary subjection and
ignorance of the lower classes. s'
It has been customary to ascribe the origin of the ^
educational movement of the Eighteenth Century to the
religious revival led by Wesley and Whitfield ; while
some authorities have represented that agitation as
altogether hostile to the spread of knowledge. Neither of
these views is correct in a broad sense. Mere reference
to the dates of the charitable foundations will show,
that the greatest energy in the foundation of charity
schools preceded rather than followed the Methodist revival.
Wesley did not return from Georgia until 1737, (*) and
years passed away before his labours wrought any
perceptible influence on the currents of opinion. The
educational movement in its religious and philanthropic
aspect began much earlier. The Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge was established in 1699. (2) As its
name implies, it was a religious rather than an educational
association. Its object was to promote Christian knowledge,
and to erect catechetical schools and to diffuse the
Scriptures and the Liturgy. Its progress was slow, and
after sixty years of labour it had only enrolled six
hundred members. It was a strictly orthodox society.
Its rules were approved by the .Archbishops and Bishops.
Its standing orders provided that devotions should be held
before proceeding to work, and that an anniversary
meeting should be held to enable the committees to dine
together. Its officers were required to be members of the
Church of England, and its work was prosecuted on Church
and State principles. We hear, also, in 1750, of the
establishment of another Society for the Promotion of
Christian Knowledge amongst the Poor. This had its
1 "Wesley's Journal, 1, 13. 2 Spencer's Descriptive Sociology.
\
40
origin in the serious alarm caused by two shocks of
earthquake. (*) Its object was the distribution of the
Scriptures and books of piety amongst the poor. Its
founders were evangelical Dissenters, Presbyterians, and
Independents, but it soon recommended itself to Christians
of all denominations. (2)
The catechising of children by the dissenting preachers,
which had fallen altogether into disuse amongst the clergy, (3)
now became a regular practice. (4) In the labours of this
society, the religious work of the Methodists came in as a
powerful aid. Whatever foundation there may be for the
charge that Methodism has been hostile to research and to
the higher forms of knowledge, there is ample proof that
Wesley himself was deeply touched by the popular ignorance,
and that he devoted a great portion of his life to remove it.
One of the objects of the Society which he founded at
Oxford, was to have the poor taught to read, (5) and amongst
his many books there are educational works designed to
encourage and facilitate the spread of knowledge.
One direct and immediate result of the religious move-
ment was the foundation of numerous schools in Wales. (6)
The establishment of Sunday schools became a powerful lever
in the same direction. The first Sunday school appears to
have been established by the Eev. T. Lindsey, at Catterick,
in 1763. (7) Another is heard of at Little Lever, near Bolton,
in 1775, under the charge of James Hays ; but the movement
gathered no force until 1781, when it was taken in hand by
Mr. Eaikes, and the Rev. Thomas Stock of Gloucester.
From this time it exercised a most potent influence on
the spread of elementary knowledge, though its means
were necessarily limited, and its methods imperfect.
1 Bogue and Bennett's History, 3, 403. 2 Ibid, 40.
a Baxter's Church History, 671. 4 Bogue and Bennett, 3, 327.
5 Wesley's Journal, 1, 10,
6 Lecky's Eighteenth Century, 2, 604. 7 Buckle's Civilisation, 1, 430.
41
The Church clergy, as a body, with some notable
exceptions, stood aloof from this movement at its origin.
In the discussions of the last decade the Dean of Carlisle
lays the irreligion of many to the injudicious character
of the religious instruction given in the Sunday schools.
Bishop Eraser, as a school Inspector, failed to find any
which did not leave on his mind an impression of weariness
and deadness, Sunday being made often the heaviest day
of the seven to the children. (J) Making, however, all
deductions, the Sunday schools have done a great work for
education. Previous to the struggles for reform in 1832, they
had produced many -working men of sufficient talent and
knowledge to become readers, writers, and speakers in the
village meetings, (2) and had supplied to numbers the
beginning of a process of self-education admirable in its
results. During the same period we first hear of the
establishment of county and foreign school societies, of
orphan asylums, of literary and scientific societies, and of
boarding schools for higher education, all attesting the
gradual advance of opinion throughout society. (3)
The movement in its entirety and comprehensive
character was neither wholly religious nor philanthropic. It
was social, industrial, and political, and was in fact the
forecoming of the great wave of advancement which later
times have witnessed. It was stimulated by many and
various influences and forces, which had been slowly, but for
a long time, gathering strength, and which acted and re-acted
on each other. One of the most influential of these was the
growing power of the press. Upon the Eestoration a statute
had been passed for the regulation of newspapers. This
expired in 1679, and with it the hopes of the ruling powers
of suppressing free discussion in England. (4) In 1695 the
1 Newcastle Commission, 53. 2 Bamford's Passages in Life of a Kadical, 29.
3 Spencer's Descriptive Sociology. 4 Green's History, 647.
6
42
Commons refused to pass a bill for the re-establishment of
the censorship of the press. This refusal was followed by
the issue of a crowd of public prints, (J) which now began to
appeal to a widening circle of readers. Learning and
literature were addressed no longer to a group of scholars,
but to the public, and letters were recognised as an
honourable and independent profession. Also there arose an
increasing boldness in religious discussion, a higher love for
independent research, a disregard of mere dictative authority,
and in the discussion of principles of government and matters
of spiritual belief, the subjection of them to the test of
reason. (2)
In 1709 the first daily paper was established. Pamphlets
increased in number, and periodicals and magazines became
common. Circulating libraries were established. Printing
was extended to country towns. Debating and reading clubs
were founded for the trading and working classes. The
people also obtained a fresh means of influencing and
controlling Parliament, for in 1768-70 we first hear of public
meetings being held (3) for instruction in political rights,
and at the end of the century the right of publishing
Parliamentary debates was confirmed.
Some severe laws were passed prohibiting the holding of
public meetings and the lending of books, but they were
powerless to check the current. The period was also
distinguished for great mechanical inventions, which neces-
sarily exercised a stimulating and educating influence on the
popular mind.
The foundation of all that has been achieved since — the
social progress, the material comforts, the diffusion of wealth,
the advancement of science and mechanics, the development
1 Green's History, 683.
2 Ibid, 603, and Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, Table 5.
Spencer's Descriptive Sociology.
43
of industry, the improvement in morals, and the strj.de in
religious and political freedom was strengthened and firmly
established in this early period ; and in the struggle between
the democratic and aristocratic principle, the former took
definite form and asserted itself with all the consciousness and
confidence of ultimate triumph.
The declaration of Hobbes that the origin of power is in
the people, and the end of the power is the good of the
people, was about to be supplemented by Bentham's
better-known formula, that the true end of government is
" the greatest happiness of the greatest number." The history
of education is a part of this wider history of the progress of
society, and in its completeness is only to be found in
connection with the general advance which has taken place
during the last two centuries.
44
CHAPTER II.
PERIOD. — FKOM THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTUKY TO THE EDUCATION GEANTS OF 1834-8.
IT will be seen from the preceding chapter that the modern
movement for popular education sprang from the people,
and that in this, as in other great reforms, " society was the
instigator." The work of the Statesmen of the Reformation
era was not carried out by their successors. The clergy
neglected to follow up even the partial efforts which had
been made by the friars. At a later period they took credit
for resisting the attempts of philosophical and political
theorists, (1) and they have never as a class adopted
education as a political and social force, apart from the
religious aspect. They were often illiterate themselves, and,
according to Macaulay, their own children followed the
plough, or went out to service. At the beginning of the
eighteenth century they had recovered their social position,
and on occasion could command a great deal of political
enthusiasm, but as a class they were still greatly impoverished,
and were ignorant and coarse. (2) Indeed in all the changes
of the last eighty years there is none greater than that
which has been -effected in the character and conduct of the
parochial clergy. Even so late as fifty or sixty years ago,
a decent and regular performance of divine service on
Sunday was all that the most exacting person expected
from a clergyman. He might be non-resident, ignorant of
books, careless of his parish and people, and be thought
none the worse of. He was generally the keenest sportsman
1 Life of Blomfield, 191. 2 Lecky's Eighteenth Century, 76—79.
45
in his neighbourhood, the hardest rider, the best shot, and
the most expert fisherman. Crabbe's picture of the country
clergyman is well known : —
" A sportsman keen, he shoots throughout the day,
And skilled at whist, devotes the night to play."
He was often devoted to worse practices, and it is related
that when Bishop Blomfield rebuked one of his clergy for
drunkenness, he naively pleaded that he had never been
drunk on duty. (J) The duty of a parish priest to the poor
was fulfilled when he preached to them, baptised them, and
buried them. (2) " Nothing interfered with his sport except
an occasional funeral ; and he left the field or the covert, and
read the funeral service with his white surplice barely
concealing his shooting or hunting dress." (3) From this
neglect and lethargy the clergy were sharply aroused by the
religious revival, the establishment of Sunday schools, and
an increasing popular power amongst the Dissenters. The
peasantry of the kingdom, wrote Clero Mastix, had been
so neglected by the regular clergy, who had the control
over all the charities, " as to render the interposition of lay
preachers absolutely necessary to snatch the souls of men
from ignorance and vice." (4)
It was a necessary but a rude awakening. They resisted
at first, and held back from the new movement. The
Bishops denounced Methodists, Dissenters, Sunday-school
teachers, and village preachers, as Jacobins in disguise
and wolves in sheep's clothing, going about under the
specious pretence of instructing youth. (5) It was not
long, however, before the clergy saw both their duty and
their advantage in obtaining the lead and control of the
agitation ; and they have been so far successful as to delude
some historians, including Mr. Froude, into the belief, that
1 Bishop Blomfield's Life, 78. 2 Knight's Biography, 1, 200.
3 Walpole's History of England, 176. 4 Bogue and Bennett's Dissent, 4, 216.
5 Bogue and Bennett, 4, 217.
46
when the cry for the schoolmaster arose, as the only cure
for the evils of the time, they were the first to look for
the remedy. (J)
The Government recognised no duty to educate the
poor, although it was the accepted opinion that Ministers
ought to encourage the development of literary talent by
the appointment to places, and the bestowal of pensions.
In this way intellectual eminence was often made the
instrument of degrading party purposes, as the history of
the men of letters of Queen Anne's reign proves. But
in regard to the poor, other maxims were in the ascendant,
and their government was based on two fundamental
principles. These were the application of force and the
perpetuation of ignorance. (2) Every positive and negative
means was taken to secure these ends, from coercion laws
to taxes on knowledge — and even such a detail as the
refusal of the Lord Chamberlain's licence to plays which too
much favoured the doctrine of popular liberty. (3) Public
opinion was always an antagonist, never an ally.
The words of Mandeville will sound brutal to modern
ears, but they truly express the axioms of Government which
f Statesmen were not ashamed to avow a century after they
were written. " In a free nation, where slaves are not
I allowed of, the surest wealth consists in a multitude of
I laborious poor ; for, besides that they are the never-failing
1 nursery of fleets and armies, without them there could be no
I enjoyment, and no product of any country could be valuable.
iTo make the society happy and people easy under the
lineanest circumstances, it is requisite that great numbers of
[them should be ignorant as well as poor. Knowledge both
(enlarges and multiplies our desires, and the fewer things
k man wishes for, the more easily his necessities may be
1 Fronde's Short Studies, 264.
2 Buckle, 1, 500. 8 Bell's Life of Canning, 76.
47
supplied." (J) A century later it did not enter into the
conception of Government policy, that the people had
anything to do with the making of laws. In 1795 Bishop
Horsley said in the House of Lords, that " he did not know
what the mass of the people in any country had to do with
the laws but to obey them." During the reform struggles in
1832, Lady Harrowby asked Mr. Greville, "What did it
signify what the people thought, or what they expressed,
if the army was to be depended on ? " (2) Laws for the
prevention of crime were outside the object of Government
as it was then understood. Dr. Bell, who occupied a famous
place in the early educational controversy, wrote : — " Our
code of laws is solely directed to the punishment of the
offender ; and it has not come within their contemplation to
prevent the offence." (3) The punishment of crime was
indiscriminate and brutal. Hanging was awarded for murder,
cutting and maiming, shooting at, rape, forgery, uttering
bank notes, coining, arson, burglary, larceny in houses,
horse and sheep stealing, and highway robbery. In 1805
sixty- eight persons were executed for such offences. In
the same year the State had actual charge of 200,000
children of paupers, for whose education no provision was
made, and who were subject to influences which were a
training for crime and indolence, and which made it a moral
certainty that they would become a perpetual charge to
the nation in gaols or workhouses.
As examples were not wanting of popular educational
systems, it must be assumed that this pernicious neglect
was the deliberate choice of English statesmen. In 1696,
the Estates of Scotland had passed an Act ordaining \
that every parish should provide a schoolhouse, and pay '
a schoolmaster. The Pilgrim Fathers had organised in
1 Mandeville, 1, 215. 2 Greville's Memoirs, 1, 37.
3 Bell's Analysis of Experiment, 88.
7
7
48
New England common schools which were bearing fruit,
and in more than one Continental State, systems of
compulsory and universal education had been planted.
All these experiments appealed in vain to idle under-
standings amongst English rulers. Probably the French
J Kevolution, whether regarded as a warning or an example,
jdid more than any other incident to arouse the desire
for popular instruction. Thenceforward the diffusion of
knowledge became a distinct and avowed article of
political faith amongst large classes in this country. (J)
The doctrine laid down by Adam Smith that the
State should facilitate, should encourage, and even impose
upon the body of the people the duty of acquiring the
essentials of instruction, began to find acceptance at the
beginning of the century. This great political economist
was prepared for a small measure of compulsion, and
would have made municipal privileges and trade rights
dependent on examination. Later, his views were
sustained by Bentham and Malthus. Even Blackstone,
whose tendencies were more conservative, lamented the
defects of the law, which left education wholly
unprovided for.
Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell were the founders
of our modern voluntary system of education. They
were very unlike in character and disposition and of
widely different fortunes. Pursuing at first a common
aim, they became bitter personal rivals and enemies, and
the f leaders, nominally at least of two schools of
educationists.
It is not the purpose of this history to enter into
the long forgotten controversy which divided and excited
their followers seventy years ago ; but as they were
the originators respectively of the British and Foreign
1 Bogue and Bennett, 4, 191.
49
School Society, and the National Society, and as such,
were placed in the forefront of the agitation, no history
of education would be complete without some sketch
of their work, which however, only became effectual
when it fell under stronger direction. Indeed without
detracting from the merits of either of them, it may well
be questioned whether the methods they introduced have
not impeded the advance of education as well as dimi-
nished its efficiency. The existence of voluntary schools
has often prevented united efforts for the introduction
of a general system, in the same manner that educational
charities, wretchedly insufficient in amount, and inefficient
in their administration, have obstructed a more complete
provision. Lancaster and Bell both over-estimated the
capabilities of the voluntary societies. The former
believed that he could make provision for educating all
the children of the nation, while the followers of the
latter expressed their intention to alter the character of
society, to christianise India, and to prevent revolutions
in France. The only country Bell despaired of as
irreclaimably depraved, and alike incapable and unworthy
of improvement, was the United States of America.
Both of them had extravagant ideas of the worth of
their machinery, and they succeeded in infecting wiser
heads with a confidence in its universal applicability, and
its simplicity, economy, and efficiency. It was on the
question as to which was the author of the machinery,
variously called the Monitorial System, the Madras System,
and the Lancastrian System, that their personal rivalries
and disputes turned, in the heat of which the direct
object was frequently lost sight of. The principle under-
lying the system was tuition by the scholars themselves.
Nearly the same method was followed in the schools of
both. In the lack of proper teachers, it was, perhaps,
7
50
the only available means, but it introduced that vice of
spurious economy, which has always attended efforts to
improve and extend education. A few millions more or
less spent on a foreign war, or in reducing a rebellious
colony, or on chastising some wretched horde of savages,
I are never taken gravely into account in our method of
I government, but every penny required for raising the
\condition of the people has always been voted with
ireluctance.
The Monitorial system was condemned before the
dispute as to its authorship had died away. It only
concealed the defects of our school provision... It was
rejected by Brougham's Select Committee in 1816. (l)
Sir James ' Kay Shuttleworth said it had " not only
utterly failed, but for the time ruined the confidence of
the poor in elementary schools, exhausted the charity of
the middle classes, and dragged into the mire of its own
dishonour, the public estimate of what was practicable
and desirable in the education of the poor." (2)
" The religious formularies, and the Bible itself, suffered
a painful desecration, as the horn-book of ignorant scholars,
in charge of almost as ignorant teachers, who were, for the
onost part, under twelve or thirteen years of age." (3) This
was vigorous censure, but it has been justified whenever
the system has been tested by results.
The Eev. F. D. Maurice wrote " We have been
worshipping our own nets, and burning incense to our own
drag." (4) The Duke of Newcastle's Commission, which
included men of wide experience and of all shades of
opinion, reported that the first result of inspection had
proved the inadequacy of the Monitorial system, the
1 See Report, 388. 2 Shuttleworth's Public Education, 57. 8 Ibid, 68.
* British and Foreign Review, January, 1840, 50.
51
inefficiency of the teachers, and the deplorable condition of
the schools. (J)
It is self-evident that the system is based on the
false assumption that the refined work of training the
young intellect can be performed without preparation or
methodical knowledge on the part of the teacher. Hence/
arose the deplorable result that any one was thought/
good enough for a schoolmaster, and was encouraged to/
undertake the pursuit, when all else had failed Not
the least mischievous effect of the dispute as to the
authorship of the plan was, that it became invested
with a sacredness which made all attempts at improve-
ment appear in the light of sacrilege, and thus added!
another to the many forms of obstruction which werel
already arrayed against the spread of education.
The true honour which attaches to Lancaster's name is not ,
the doubtful one of inventing the Monitorial system, but that I
he conceived and tried to realise the idea that all children
should be taught the elements of knowledge. The British and
Foreign School Society was formed to continue his work, and
indirectly he called the National Society into existence, as a
rival institution. He has also the high title to permanent
respect, that he pursued education as a civil policy, and
without bigoted aim, although he unwittingly provoked the
sectarian jealousy which has so constantly retarded progress.
He was himself an enthusiastic and original teacher. He
belonged to a Quaker family living in London, and first
began teaching in a shed on his father's premises in 1796
or 1798. Many children were instructed free of expense, and
subscriptions were raised for others. His success encouraged
him, in 1800, to publish an account of his work, called
" Improvements in Education." He upheld that education
1 Report of Newcastle Commission, 99.
52
ought to be a national concern, and that this had so long
been the public opinion that it would have become so " had
not a mere Pharisaical sect-making spirit intervened to
prevent it, and that in every party." The state of the
existing schools was pitiable. They were mostly taught by
dames, and were so bad that only those children who were
fit for nothing else were sent to them. Sometimes schools
were under the charge of masters, who were generally the
refuse of superior schools, and often of society. Their
drunkenness was proverbial. This was the condition of
affairs against which Lancaster began war, " as a citizen of
the world and a friend of mankind, actuated by no sectarian
motives." He proposed to found a society for supplying
schools, providing teachers, and raising their condition and
prospects. He objected to a compulsive law, which however,
he admits that intelligent men were even then advocating.
The object of the projected society was to be " the promotion
of good morals, and the instruction of youth in useful
learning." In regard to religion he wrote, " the grand basis
of Christianity is broad enough for the whole of mankind to
stand upon." He was not without misgivings as to success.
The dread of sectarianism and intolerance already kept many
persons aloof from educational work. One passage of his
pamphlet was a history and a forecast of the struggle : —
" It has been generally conceived that if any particular
sect obtained the principal care in any national system of
education, that party would be likely to possess the greatest
power and influence in the State. Fear that the clergy
should aggrandise themselves too much has produced
opposition from the Dissenters to any proposal of the kind.
On the other hand the clergy have opposed anything of this
kind which might originate with Dissenters, locally or
generally, fearing an increasing interest in the dissenting
interest might prove likely to prejudice the interests of the
Establishment." (I) But whatever apprehensions Lancaster
had he went manfully to work to test what could be done,
and his energy in applying his system and in seeking for
support was inexhaustible. In looking for help he discovered
Dr. Bell, who had returned from Madras and had published
an account of his work there, from which Lancaster had
derived some useful hints, f2) At first there seemed a
probability that the two might work together in the common
cause. Lancaster frankly acknowledged his obligation to
Bell, and the latter in his early correspondence admitted
Lancaster's "admirable temper, ingenuity, and ability." (3)
They were, however, soon separated by the bitterness of
the sectarian quarrel, and all the efforts of Whitbread and
others to reconcile them failed.
Lancaster's schools prospered exceedingly. He soon
had a thousand children under his care. George III.
sent for and patronized him, as he had previously sent
for Mr. Eaikes. (*) His Majesty was a friend of education,
and was tolerant of Dissenters so long as they were
not Eoman Catholics. He subscribed £100 towards the
schools, and made the Queen and the Eoyal Princes
contribute. New schools were built by the Duke of
Bedford and Lord Somerville, and they were visited by
Princes, Ambassadors, Peers, and Bishops. (5) He was
encouraged by the leading Liberals of the day, including
Brougham, Eomilly, Whitbread, and for a time, Wilber-
force. Subscriptions poured in upon him rapidly. His
fame extended to America, and teachers were sent for
to put his plan into operation.
The Eoyal patronage of Lancaster, and the prospect
of the establishment of a popular school system uncon-
nected with the Church, raised an alarm amongst the
1 Improvements in Education. 2 Ibid, 63. 3 Sonthey's Life of Bel], 2, 148.
4 Life of George III., by Jesse, 10. 5 Life of William Allen, 54.
54
Tories and the clergy. They saw in his operations
nothing but an attack on their supremacy, and while he
was flattered on the one hand, he was met on the
other by unmeasured denunciation as an atheist, an
impostor, and the fraudulent appropriator of another
man's design. He was, however, his own worst enemy.
He had been unaccustomed to the use of money, and
was the very opposite of a man of business. He was
enthusiastic, imaginative, benevolent, and extravagant.
He lavished his whole means upon his schools. Everything
he could earn or beg went for their support, and he
often provided food as well as instruction for the scholars,
running into debt when he had no money. As early
as 1804, the school doors were thrown open to all
children, free of payment. (*) Utterly incapable of adminis-
tration, he was soon involved in ruinous difficulties.
Friends came to his rescue time and again, but nothing
could save him from eventual bankruptcy. There was
a little group of men who were working for the
abolition of slavery, for prison reform, and other Liberal
measures, and who were nicknamed " The Saints." On
one occasion Lancaster went to one of these, Joseph
Fox, the surgeon. He owed £4,000. Fox instantly
raised £2,000 to relieve the school from immediate
embarassment, and he and William Carston became
responsible for £4,000 more. A committee was formed
in 1808, consisting of Thomas Sturge, William Carston,
Joseph Fox, William Allen, John Jackson, and Joseph
Forster, to whom were afterwards added, Romilly,
Brougham, Whitbread, and others. This was known as
the Committee of the Eoyal British or Lancastrian
System of Education, and an attempt was made to put
the schools on a business footing. Lancaster was
1 Porter's Progress of the Nation, 690.
55
grateful for assistance, although apprehensive of undue
interference from the committee. (*) But his imprudence
and thoughtlessness arising from his impulsive and
visionary temperament, excited by the notice he had
attracted, soon involved the committee in many
troubles. It became necessary, therefore, to draw a
strict line between his private enterprises and the public
work. He was greatly exasperated with his friends and
established a separate school at Tooting. Here again
he was soon overwhelmed with difficulties and had to
make another appeal for relief. The Dukes of Kent,
Sussex, and Bedford, with Whitbread and Joseph Hume,
came to his assistance ; but it was decided to separate
the association wholly from his interference and manage-
ment. In 1814 the committee assumed the title of the
British and Foreign School Society, which it has ever
since borne. From this time there was a complete
severance between Lancaster and his former supporters,
and he complained bitterly of their neglect and severity.
He went to Scotland and afterwards to America. His
life was a series of vicissitudes until in 1838 he was
killed by a frightened horse, in New York. Before his
death he had admitted the unbounded kindness and
important services he had received from Fox, Allen,
Carston, and others. Notwithstanding his errors and
misfortunes, he will always be held in honour as the
first of modern philanthropists, who made a practical
effort to secure universal education for the poor. Whatever
has been gained since, is owing to the strong public
opinion which he created by his energy and devotion.
The British and Foreign School Society soon became
a powerful instrument in the field of voluntary education.
It continued to receive the Koyal patronage, and the
1 Life of William Allen, 57.
56
Dukes of Kent and Sussex took an active share in its
proceedings. The former, especially, was a zealous advocate
of unrestricted education. Many famous men have been
connected with it, and it has formed the rallying-ground of
a large section of politicians, including those who have had
the most influence on the development of national education.
It has not escaped the charge of narrowness and sectarianism,
but that, unfortunately, is a distinction to which no party
can lay claim.
Dr. Andrew Bell, the other central figure of the
movement, in personal characteristics stands out in
strong contrast to Lancaster. He was a Scotchman, born at
St. Andrews, where his father was a barber. In early life
he went to America, where he was engaged as a tutor, and
occupied his leisure in speculating in tobacco. He returned
to Scotland towards the close of the eighteenth century,
and took degrees in divinity and medicine. He then went
to India, where he obtained several chaplaincies ; and also
became the director of a Government undertaking establish-
ment. Throughout his life he was a most fortunate pluralist
and sinecurist. He had a talent for making safe and profitable
investments, for the wise administration of pecuniary affairs,
and for pushing his own interests ; which however, he
always made identical with the spread of education. He died
about 1839, at an advanced age, was buried in Westminster
Abbey, of which he was Prebendary, and received the
posthumous honour of a biography at the hands of Mr.
Southey. In India he had honorary charge of the Asylum
for Children, at Madras, a position in which he made the
important discovery that children can teach each other. In
one of his letters home he speaks of the " pleasing sight of
a youth of eleven years of age, with his little assistants under
him, teaching upwards of fifty boys." (J) In this school
1 Southey's Life of Bell.
57
arrangement, nearly every boy was a master. " He teaches
one boy, while another boy teaches him."
On his return to England Dr. Bell published an
account of his experiences. On his own showing, his
aims, as an educationist, were not extensive. "It is
not proposed" he wrote " that the children of the poor
should be educated in an expensive manner, or even
taught to write and cipher." " It may suffice to teach
the generality on an economical plan, to read their
Bible and understand the doctrines of our holy religion."
To this curriculum he added manual labour and the
useful arts. The schools he proposed to found were to
be schools of industry. ' He had been appointed on
coming home to the rectory of Swanage, where he
opened schools on his own model, and it was here that
he was visited by Lancaster. His pamphlet on educa-
tion attracted little attention until it was made known
by Lancaster's more widely circulated writings. Mrs.
Trimmer, the editor of the School Guardian, also took
pains to bring Dr. Bell prominently before the public.
This was a lady of great and orthodox piety, who, as
a Churchwoman, was very much alarmed at the growing
influence and pretensions of Lancaster. She had com-
piled many books "dear to mothers and aunts" for the
Christian Knowledge Society, and had earned from the \
Edinburgh- Review the title of the " voluminous female."
Sydney Smith had described her as "a lady of
respectable opinions, and very moderate talents, defending
what is right without judgment, and believing what is
holy without charity." (*) In her eyes Lancaster was
the " Goliath of Schismatics," and she was anxious that
he should have a check. She had already published a
reply to his pamphlet, in which she declaimed against
1 Edinburgh Review, 1806.
8
58
societies of " nominal Christians" and " Sectarists," and
referred those who asked for a national system, to the
Act of Uniformity. " The standard of Christian educa-
tion was erected by our pious forefathers at the
Keformation, and we have every one of us been
enrolled as members of the National Church, and are
solemnly engaged to support it ourselves, and to bring
up our children according to its holy ordinances." Mrs.
Trimmer found a useful ally in Dr. Bell, and it was
chiefly by her persuasion that he was induced to come
from his retirement and take an active part in the
struggle. In 1805 he suggested " a scheme of Education
patronised by Church and State, originating in the
Government, and superintended by a member of the
Establishment." (*) In 1806 he addressed a circular to
the ministry offering his gratuitous services for establishing
schools on his own model, under Government auspices.
In the same year he opened schools in Whitechapel,
and later, Diocesan Societies were formed for the same
purpose. From this time Bell devoted his life to
spreading the system, until, in Southey's words, it
became " a perpetual torment to him." (2) Nevertheless
he had his consolation under the patronage of the Church
Clergy. His success in founding schools was rapid, and
he was gratified by the attention bestowed on him. He
became the friend and correspondent of eminent men,
and his battles against Lancaster were fought by Cole-
ridge and Southey with a surprising fervour. Coleridge,
wrote De Quincey, found "celestial marvels both in the
scheme and in the man," (3) and in his letters he told
him that he was a great man. His discovery was
raised to a level with that of printing. (4) Southey
1 Life of Bell, 1, 150. 2 Life of Southey, by his son, 6, 179.
3 De Quincey 's Works, 11, £2. * Bell's Life, 2, 479.
59
called him the greatest benefactor since Luther. Miss
Edgeworth introduced him as a character in one of her
novels, and mothers amongst the higher classes sought
him, in order that they might learn how to get rid of
the trouble of their children, and the expense of their
education.
The Lancaster and Bell controversy at this remote
distance, is not edifying. Notwithstanding that there
were quick wits on both sides, it is dull reading. On the
one hand Dr. Bell is described " as a foolish old
gentleman, seized on eagerly by the Church of England
to defraud Lancaster of his discovery." (*) On the other
Lancaster was called liar, quack, and charlatan. (2)
Much ingenuity was exercised to explain away Bell's
limitation of his proposed system to industrial arts and
the teaching of religion. Dr. Marsh, afterwards Bishop of
Peterborough, wrote, " It is indeed lamentable that Dr. Bell
was ever induced to insert the paragraph." (3) It became
known as "the unfortunate paragraph." Its author set to
work to provide " interpretations." There can be no doubt,
however, that he meant what he had written. The schools
established at Whitechapel were schools of industry for
teaching shoemaking and printing. In discussing the matter
with Whitbread he proposed to found schools of industry,
and, referring to members of the House of Commons, he
wrote, " I conceived that there were three for industry to
one for education." (*)
It is clear, however, that the question of real interest,1
underlying the surface of this controversy, was not who
originated a particular form of mechanical teaching, but
which party should have the control of education. The
exaltation of Bell against Lancaster, was a mere device
1 Sydney Smith's Works, 2, 99. 2 Bell's Life, 2, 283. 3 Ibid, 329.
* Ibid, 203.
60
to divert a current of opinion from one channel into another,
and to show that the Church had plans of her own, and need
not stoop to borrow methods from Dissent. Thenceforward
Churchmen were exhorted to support their own schools. The
artifice was successful, and many who had taken an interest
in Lancastrian schools, including Wilberforce, deserted to
the other camp. Southey explains what was in the minds
of Churchmen. " They," meaning the children, " must be
instructed according to the established religion — fed with
the milk of sound doctrine — for States are secure in pro-
portion as the great body of the people are attached to the
institutions of their country." " Give us the great boon of
parochial education, so connected with the Church as to
form a part of the Establishment, and we shall find it a
bulwark to the State as well as the Church." (*) Mr. John
Bowles, one of the founders of the National Society, wrote
that Lancaster's system " was incompatible with the safety
of the Established Church, and subversive of Christianity
itself." (2) "The strength and consequently the safety of
every establishment must depend upon the numbers that
are, upon principle, attached to it." (3) "If the youth of
the country be not brought up in the Church, it cannot be
expected that they will ever find their way into it." (4) The
same writer lamented the evils of the Toleration Act, which
compelled magistrates to license teachers and preachers —
the effect being the creation of itinerants and rhapsodists,
whose " fanatical rant " drew numbers from the Church.
In these controversies the Church party took credit for
much amiability and forbearance in admitting into their schools
the children of Dissenters to be taught the doctrines of the
Church. The Church of England, wrote Mr. Bowles " breathes
a most mild and pure spirit of universal toleration," and in
1 Southey's Life, 4, 385. 2 Letter to Mr. Whitbread, 1.
3 Ibid, 6. 4 Ibid 25.
61
proof they threw open their schools to Dissenters, on condition
that they were brought up as members of the Church. Mrs.
Trimmer wrote " neither would I wish to have poor children,
whatever might be the religious persuasion of their parents,
excluded from our Church schools. They should be received
in them with proper recommendation, on one condition,
namely, that they must be taught with the rest.'^1)
The familiar cries of "the Church in danger" and
" religion in danger " were raised, and aroused all the dormant
energies of bigotry. It was admitted that Lancaster allowed
in his schools the use of the Apostles Creed, the Lord's
Prayer, and the Commandments ; yet it was declared that
his system favoured LTnitarianism, which was stigmatised as
outside the law. The Church had not been alive to a suspicion
that religion was in danger, when children were absolutely
without instruction, either moral, religious or intellectual ;
but on a Dissenter coming forward with a plan from which he
did not exclude the admitted basis of nearly all sects, it was
stigmatised as an attack on the authority of the Church ; and
its author was denounced in sermons and charges as a deist
and infidel.
Dr. Bell has been generally regarded as one of the
founders of the National Society, but that honour has been
claimed exclusively for Archdeacon Churton, Mr. John
Bowles, the Eev. A. H. Norris, and Mr. Joshua Watson. (2)
Several years before the society was established, Bell had
been organising schools, and assisting in the formation of
Diocesan committees ; and there can be no doubt that his
work led up to its formation. It was at first intended to
connect his name with the society, (3) but this design was
abandoned. The original prospectus in which his name
was mentioned, was altered so as to take " a more distinctly
1 Comparative Yiew by Mrs. Trimmer, 150.
2 Churton's Life of Joshua Watson, 56. 3 Bell's Life, 2, 344.
62
national ground, and to make Dr. Bell's system appear in
its true place, as only the best means of working out the
objects of the society." (*) For some reason, perhaps
because of what Southey calls his restless vanity and self-
importance, Bell was not recognised as an acceptable
colleague by the originators of the .Society. In the first
instance he was not on the Committee. This exclusion
elicited some severe remonstrances from his more intimate
friends, and after some protracted and delicate negotiations
he was asked to act as superintendent of the society's
schools, but his " proper position " was not recognised. (2)
In 1813 he was elected an honorary member of the
Committee, a position which he held during the remainder
of his life. At his death he left £120,000 for founding
" Madras " Schools at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen,
St. Andrew's, and other places. (3)
The National Society takes a conspicuous place in the
history of elementary education. It started under the most
favourable conditions, having the support of the Archbishops,
Bishops, the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker and the members
of the Government. The Eoyal Patronage given -to
Lancaster had always been a grave trouble to the clergy, and
the Eadicals and Edinburgh reviewers had known how to
make the best use of it. So greatly was the Church party
dismayed and irritated by it, that some back stairs influence
was employed to convey a caution to the King, and to
prevent the establishment of Lancastrian schools at
Windsor. (4) They saw, however, the advantage of starting
their own Society under such auspices, and there was much
delicate manceuvering to get the support of the "first
gentleman of Europe," who was acting as Eegent. His
approval was finally signified, and the prospectus of the
1 Life of Watson, 59. 2 Bell's Life, 2, 396. 8 Life of Southey, 6.
4 Bell's Life, by Southey, 2, 159.
63
Society was issued. Its success, from the first, was assured.
Four years after its establishment the Committee were
able to report that " their resources were inexhaustible." (*)
The Society was incorporated by Koyal Charter in
1817. Six years later a Eoyal letter was issued sanctioning
parochial collections on its behalf. This custom became
triennial, and was equivalent to a guarantee of subscriptions
amounting to £10,000 per annum. The title adopted by
the society was that of "The National Society for Pro-
moting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the
Established Church." By the original terms of union, all
children attending the Society's schools were required to
learn the Liturgy and catechism, and to attend Church on
Sunday." (2) From its earliest days the society has
exercised great ascendancy over all topics relating to
elementary schools. Not only has it consolidated that
system of parish schools which was considered by its
supporters to be the best outwork of the Church, but by
means of its diocesan and parochial organisation, it has had
the power of controlling and swaying public opinion to an
extraordinary extent. So great has been the assurance of
its members of the influence they could exercise, that
frequently in the course of the debates and disputes to be
described, they have assumed the authority to dictate the
terms upon which the nation should be permitted to
possess an elementary school system.
For many years the two great voluntary societies
mentioned occupied alone the field of education, and were
the centres towards which all the educational forces of society
turned. There was hardly a man, eminent as a statesman,
politician, or writer, who did not take a side in the con-
troversy between them. The contest has not always been
1 Bell's Life, by Southey, 3, 28.
2 Ibid, 2, 408.
64
dignified, and too frequently the object towards which the
nation was moving, has been lost sight of in the jealousies,
rivalries, and contentions of the opposite schools of dogmatic
belief. It is also too probable that the struggle for supremacy
diverted the public mind from the main object, and postponed
for many years the establishment of an adequate system.
At the same time it would be unjust to undervalue the vast
amount of educational work which has been done by both
societies. The superior resources of the National Society
have enabled it to take and to maintain the lead in the
provision of schools ; but in the development and application
of a state system of education, it has sustained a series of
damaging defeats. Its pretentions to control and determine
the character of education have been repeatedly negatived
by Parliament, and it has only maintained its influence and
position by recognising the advance of public opinion, and by
accepting that instruction in circumstances which is one of
the conditions of continued social and political existence.
This explains why the National Society still administers a
vast network of parochial schools, while at the same time
the state regulations have been gradually approaching the
standard set up by the British and Foreign School Society.
Happily for education, a force more powerful than
that wielded by the voluntary societies was coming into
existence, and had begun to make itself felt even before
their formation. It has been seen that there were writers,
and statesmen, who not only disbelieved in the adequacy
of voluntary means, but who maintained the political
doctrine, that it was the duty of the State to provide
elementary education for the poor. The case was one of
urgency. Sydney Smith said that " there was no
Protestant country in the world, where the education of
the poor had been so grossly and infamously neglected as
in England." Malthus declared that it was " a great
65
national disgrace that the education of the lower classes
of the people should be left merely to a few Sunday
schools."
In the session of 1807, Mr. Whitbread, the member
for Bedford, introduced into the House of Commons a
Parochial Schools Bill, which was intended as part of a
larger scheme of poor law reform. The Duke of Portland's
Government had succeeded the Ministry of " all the talents."
Mr. Perceval was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and leader
of the Lower House. Mr. Canning was Foreign Secretary,
and Lord Eldon held the Great Seal. Mr. Whitbread was
a member of the Whig Opposition and was conspicuous
for his ability and influence in his party. The object of
his bill was to enable overseers, with the consent of the
vestry, to raise a sum for the support of education.
For the first time the question was raised in Parlia-
ment "whether it was proper that education should be
diffused amongst the lower classes," (*) a proposition by
no means of general acceptance, and which, in the ensuing
debate, was opposed by Mr. Windham, the most cultivated
man of his day. The machinery of the bill was simple,
and merely gave to magistrates the power to provide schools
and schoolmasters where they were required. Mr. Whit-
bread anticipated the usual objections made against
education, that it would teach the poor to despise their
lot, enable them to read seditious books, and make them
insolent and refractory. He showed conclusively that there
must be education of some sort, either of the schools, or
of the street and gutter. Sir Samuel Eomilly spoke a
few words in favour of the bill, but with .no hope that it
would pass — He notes in his diary " the bill will be lost.
Many persons think the subject requires more consideration ;
bat a much greater portion of the House think it expedient
1 Hansard, F.S., 9, 802.
9
66
that the people should be kept in a state of ignorance." (J)
Mr. Perceval, on the part of the Government, assented to
the bill going into Committee for fairness of consideration,
though he feared it might destroy voluntary efforts, and
he was in favour of a previous enquiry into charitable
endowments. His speech is an illustration of the harm
those charities were doing. For years afterwards attempts
to introduce State aid were met by the answer, that there
were abundant endowments for the purpose if only they
were properly administered. Mr. Windham opposed the
bill, because the mutineers at the Nore had read the
newspapers. One orator exclaimed "What produced the
French Kevolution ? Books." (2) There was a general
alarm, noted by Komilly, founded on the supposition, that
if discussion were left free, error would be likely to prevail
over truth. The bill however passed the House of
Commons with some modifications, but preserving the main
principle, that vestries should be able to establish schools
under proper teaching and direction. Still the hopes of
its supporters were not high. It had to run the gauntlet
of Lord Eldon's stern antagonism. He had returned to
the woolsack, to oppose all the weight of his years, his
official position, his abilities and character against what he
considered " the rash delusions of his time," (3) and
this was one of them. It was enough that the bill
departed " from the great principle of instruction in this
country, by taking it out of the superintendence and
control of the clergy." (4) He avowed that he never
would consent that such a matter should be left to the
majority of the inhabitants. The Archbishop of Canterbury
also appealed to the House "to guard against innovations
1 Romilly's Diary, 2, 207. 2 Bell's Life of Canning, 218.
3 Life of Eldon. Twiss. * Hansard, F.S., 9, 1176.
P '
67
which might shake the foundations of their religion." (x)
The bill was of course rejected. Eomilly wrote that it
had been suffered to pass the Commons because it was
known that it would be thrown out by the Lords. (2)
Something, however, had been gained. The representative
House had affirmed the principle, that the State ought
to be responsible for the education of the people, under
local administration. The subject did not come before
Parliament again for nine years, but these essential
requisites of an education system became fixed in the
public mind. The throwing out of bills does not alter or
stay the march of opinion, but acts rather as a powerful
incentive to the progress of ideas.
Upon the death of Mr. Whitbread, in 1815, the
parliamentary guardianship of the question fell into the
stronger hands of Brougham. The history of the subject
between 1816, when he moved for the first Select Committee,
up to 1839, when the Committee of Council was appointed,
is mainly a record of efforts, in which he took a prominent
and distinguished part. During this period he did more
than any other man to keep the flame alive, and to prepare
the basis upon which a system might be built. One of the
class, for the elevation of which he was struggling, who
wrote with discrimination and judgment, and who suffered
for his opinions, said " Our educators are, after all, the
best reformers, and are doing the best for their country,
whether they intend so or not. In this respect Lord
Brougham is the greatest man we have." (3) The light shed
by his efforts for popular intelligence " will illumine his tomb
when his errors and imperfections are forgotten."
In his last days Brougham himself found pleasure in
tl linking that what he had done in this department would
1 Hansard, F.S. 9, 1177. 2 Romilly's Diary, 2, 217.
3 Bamford's passages in the Life of a Radical, 12, 29.
68
be his "most appropriate monument." (!) Yet he was
unsuccessful in trying to find a safe and practical basis for
state elementary schools, and was obliged to confess sadly,
in Bacon's phrase, that "propositions have wings, but
operation and execution have leaden feet."
The advantages, resulting from the enquiries he caused
to be made, were obvious and great, but it is probable that
his extra-parliamentary work was his best. It is impossible to
over estimate the stimulus which his energy, his industry,
his enthusiasm, and his splendid talents gave to the public
agitation of the question. In Parliament he was often alone.
In the Lords no man was more solitary ; but in the
country he was sure of an enthusiastic and appreciative
following. Often during his career, when defeated by the
forces of obstruction and prejudice, he appealed from the
decisions of the Legislature directly to the people, and found
his reward in their generous confidence and approval. As
an instance his celebrated letter to Sir Samuel Eomilly
" on the Abuse of Charities " may be mentioned, when his
Bill for the appointment of a Commission had been
mutilated by the Ministry, and its execution entrusted
to his enemies. This pamphlet ran through ten large
editions, and produced an immense impression in the
country. (2) This popularity had its disadvantages, and
re-acted prejudicially on his parliamentary career. The
people formed extravagant expectations of his capabilities
to serve them — the higher classes regarded him as a
Greek, whose gifts they feared to accept. While his friends
were hoping for too much, his enemies were 'dreading some
drastic remedy from him ; and when he brought forward the
expected bill, it too often satisfied nobody, whatsoever
subject it might relate to.
1 Autobiography, 3, 3. 2 Harwood's Memoir, 130.
69
In regard to education he was particularly unfortunate
in Parliament ; and he has been accused, not without some
warrant, of a trick which has been resorted to in more
modern times ; that of pressing forward his bills by making
concessions of principle to his opponents. But it is not
necessary to adopt this explanation, to account for his
somewhat erratic course in regard to education. Above all
things he was an " Educationist," and he was willing to make
concessions and sacrifices to existing and opposing
circumstances, and even to prejudice and intolerance, in
order to obtain education. It was this pre-dominant feeling
which animated his letter to the Duke of Bedford. " Let
the people be taught say I. I care little in comparison
who is to teach them. Let the grand machine of national
education be framed and set to work ; and I should even
view without alarm the tendency of its first movements
towards giving help to the power of the clergy." It was this
desire which led him to propose the Bill of 1820, which gave
such great and just offence to Dissenters. It may also be
admitted, with all due respect to his memory, that amongst
the causes of his failure was a want of judgment
and prudence, which his closest friends and warmest
admirers were obliged to acknowledge. Meanwhile they
maintained that it was impossible to over-rate his services
to the extension of knowledge. (x)
In the session of 1816 Brougham moved for a Select
Committee to enquire into the education of the lower orders
in the metropolis. The enquiry was intended to provide
a measure for government education in London, which, if
successful, might be extended to other towns. He promised
that his scheme should admit nothing offensive to any
religious opinion, while the " just prejudices " of the
Establishment would be respected. He also suggested the
1 Life of Eomilly, 3, 237.
70
propriety of establishing a school for the training of
schoolmasters. (])
The report of the Committee was brought up in June,
when he gave notice that he should bring the matter before
the House in the following session. The abuses which had
been discovered in the administration of endowments,
together with their great value, had led him to the conclusion,
that if they were properly applied, no grants for education
would be required from Parliament. Grants should be made
in the first instance only for building schools, care being
taken to steer clear of religious differences which he said
were " daily subsiding." The Government gave its approval
to the object, and Canning said that he should contribute his
utmost towards it, " being satisfied that the foundation of
good order in society was good morals, and that the founda-
tion of good morals was education." (2) This concurrence of
opinion, and these happy anticipations were only the prelude
to a storm of angry contention which agitated society for
many years. In the following session Brougham briefly
hinted at the enormous abuses attending the management
and application of charitable funds. The Committee did not
propose legislation, but advised a further enquiry. The
powers of the Committee were renewed; the "vested interests"
not yet having taken alarm, and Parliament being conciliated
by the confident assertions of Brougham that " a very
small part of the expense would ultimately rest with the
public." (3) Sir S. Eomilly, Sir J. Mackintosh, Mr. Wilber-
force, and Sir F. Burdett were amongst others on the
Committee which reported. It was now recommended that
a Parliamentary Commission should be appointed to enquire
into the application of charitable funds for education in
England and Wales, with the object of reforming their
administration and extending their advantages to the whole
1 Hansard, F. S., 34, 631. 2 Ibid, 1235. 3 Ibid, 37, 817.
71
country. The difficulties did not appear to be insurmountable
to the members of the Committee. The financial objection
was partly removed by the amount of the charities which
were available. In the large towns the voluntary societies
were making rapid progress. They wished to avoid the
danger of drying up the sources of private charity, and
they advised that Parliamentary assistance should be confined
to building grants. They did not anticipate opposition on
account of religious differences from the large towns where
there could be separate schools for Church and Dissent. In
the country it was different, and " the progress of education
had been materially checked by an unbending adherence to
the system of the National Society." (*) In country districts
Brougham supported the application of the parish school
system which had worked successfully in Scotland. On May
20, 1818, the Bill passed the House of Commons, Brougham
promising that as soon as the report of the Commission was
received he would found a bill upon it. At this period he
was so deeply interested in the question that he offered
to resign his seat in the House if necessary, in order that he
might act as a Commissioner. (2) In the House of Lords a
strenuous opposition was made to the Bill by the Lord
Chancellor, and the contest was the most exciting of the
session. " The Chancellor," writes Mr. Twiss, " who regarded
it as being, in the shape it then bore, a vexatious measure,
likely to deter men of honour and character from taking the
responsibility of charitable trusts, took much pains to mitigate
and amend it." (3)
It is quite conceivable that Lord Eldon took a
personal satisfaction in "amending" a bill of Mr. Brougham's,
whose attacks on the Court of Chancery had begun to
engage public attention. Brougham declared that the bill
was defaced and mutilated, and would deprive the Com-
1 Hansard, F. S, 38, 589. 2 Ibid, 835. 3 Twiss' Life of Eldon, 2, 315.
72
mission of all vigour and efficiency. Its scope was limited ;
many charities were exempted from its operation, and the
Commissioners were deprived of the power of enforcing
attendance, and of demanding the production of documents.
In short, they could take only voluntary evidence. The
Commissioners were nominated by the Ministry, and the
execution of the design was committed to the opponents
of the bill. In the Commons the Lords Amendments
were agreed to and it became law. A vehement discussion
now arose respecting the enquiries of the Select Committee,
and the constitution of the Commission. Brougham
published his letter to Sir Samuel Eomilly, in which he
denounced the mangling of the bill, which completely
suppressed the object of its authors. He was replied to in
the " Quarterly" for July, 1818, in an article in which he
was subjected to that " fieri e hell" -of criticism, which had
been tried on Keats in the previous number with signal
effect. Canning was suspected of having a hand in this
article, (*) and the Tories hoped that Brougham would not be
able "to lift up his head again." They had at last been
thoroughly awakened and alarmed by the proceedings of
the Select Committee, and Brougham was looked upon as
the author and embodiment of all that was vicious and
irregular in its proceedings. It was charged against the
Committee, that whereas one enquiry was entrusted to
them, they had raised five distinct issues. Their original
instruction it was said, was to enquire into the condition
of the lower orders of the Metropolis. To this they, or
rather the Chairman, added motu proprio, the consideration
of plans for promoting education amongst them and
bettering their morals ; the propriety of connecting national
education with national religion, the nature and state of
all charitable endowments and trusts, and the circumstances
1 Greville's Journal, 1, 16,
73
and administration of the public schools and Universities.
Under cover to enquire into the condition of the "lower
orders," he had pushed his investigations into the circum-
stances of Westminster, Charter House, and St. Paul's
schools. It was sufficient offence and sacrilege that some
of the closest, most exclusive, and most powerful corpora-
tions in England should be thus invaded under any
circumstances ; but it was an inconceivable insult and
exasperation, that they should be included in an enquiry
with the "lower orders." The Quarterly Review made it
the subject of a grave complaint and rebuke, that the
Head Master of Winchester was examined on the same
day that the evidence of a benevolent surgeon was taken
concerning the amount of ignorance in St. Giles's. But
Brougham's offence was greater than this. He had
ventured to receive and print evidence which conveyed
charges of malversation and abuse against exalted person-
ages. His " personalities " had excited disgust, and he had
not treated venerable individuals with the deference they
had been accustomed to receive. He had catechised
the Dons of Oxford and the Masters from Eton about
their antiquated processes. (*) His chief offence seems to
have been the wearing of his hat as Chairman, and they
said that the Committee resembled the Court
" Where England's monarch, once uncovered sat,
"While Bradshaw bullied in a broad-brimmed hat."
Brougham was held convicted of disguising mis-represen-
tation and prejudice under the mask of patriotism, of an
inclination to every kind of innovation, and of an insuffer-
able habit of disparaging the most revered institutions of
the country.
Even without the knowledge which has since been
gained by an exhaustive enquiry into the administration
1 Campbell's Life of Brougham, 338.
10
74
of all endowments, a strong suspicion of the existence of
secret abuses would have been raised by the temper and
excitement caused by this enquiry. Mere rudeness would
hardly have provoked the mingled hatred and fear with
which Brougham came to be regarded amongst the
privileged classes. Some of the diaries of that day which
have since been given to the world, contained incontestable
proofs of the intense personal dislike which he had aroused.
"Base," "cowardly," "unprincipled," of "execrable judg-
ment" and "perverted morality," are some of the epithets
which he earned by his public course at this time. (*)
Such a man the Tories declared they would not admit
into their garden, even to weed it.
The Tory answer to the popular agitation for education
then, was much the same that has been given to all
demands for improvement. When reform was asked for
the people were accused of desiring revolution. In like
manner they were charged with pursuing not education
but infidelity. The French Eevolution furnished a ready
argument. If any proposition could be brought within the
general category of "French principles" it was enough to
enlist a vast mass in society against it, and " the
practical lessons of Europe for the last thirty years" were
sure to be adduced as unanswerable and conclusive against
all changes. The only important deduction the Tories
could make from the reports of the Education Committee
were, that grants for building Churches should be enlarged.
Accordingly, when Brougham was compelled to bespeak
favour for an education scheme on the ground that it
might be had without any burthen to the State, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed a grant of a million
for providing additional places of worship in connection
with the Established Church. (2)
1 Greville's Journal, 2, 18. 2 Pamphleteer, 1818.
75
The attack in the Quarterly was followed up in the
House of Commons by Sir Eobert Peel in the next session.
This, however, was a tactical mistake which exposed the
Government to an immediate and telling reply from
Brougham. (x)
The practical benefits resulting from the Commission
of which Brougham was the author, have been great, although
not always admitted. Lord Campbell sneeringly said that
his efforts had cost the nation several hundred thousand
pounds distributed amongst Commissioners, but that no
real benefit had been derived from their labours. (2)
There can be no doiibt, however, that large sums were
rescued from neglect and misapplication, and applied to
charitable and educational purposes. The Endowed Schools
Commissioners reported that they found little evidence of
malversation in 1865 ; and they attributed the discontinuance
of abuses to the enquiries of the Commissioners who reported
to Parliament between 1819 and 1837, to the subsequent
legal proceedings which have been taken by the Attorney
General, and to the establishment of a permanent Charity
Commission. (3) The credit of the initiation of these
measures belongs to Brougham. It was a rich mine for
investigation. There were four Commissions appointed
between 181 5 and 1837, and their reports fill thirty-eight folio
volumes. The annuual income of the charities upon which
they reported amounted to £1,209,395. They possessed
442,915 acres of land of the estimated value of forty-four
millions, while their total wealth amounted to seventy-five
millions. (*) The evil effect of these charities in their
unreformed state in parishes were they were numerous, can
hardly be exaggerated. Of one such parish it was reported :
1 Brougham's Speeches, 2, 301. 2 Life of Brougham, 338.
3 Report of the Endowed Schools Commission, 245.
4 Shuttleworth's Public Education, 161.
76
"Bastardy and felony have increased, beer houses have
multiplied, and the population become so corrupt that the
neighbouring clergy and respectable laity have declared the
parish to be a public nuisance." (*) The proper and pure
administration of these endowments, and their application in
part to educational purposes has been of immense public
service ; but Brougham and others have been disappointed in
the expectation that they would afford a sufficient revenue
for the support of elementary schools, or to supply even the
amount of assistance which it was thought could be prudently
afforded by the State.
Brougham's next Parliamentary effort on behalf of
education was in 1820. It was destined to disappoint his
friends, and to stop progress for a long time. Miss Martineau
refers to the Bill he introduced as the first comprehensive
and definite plan for the education of the people. (2) This,
however, is an injustice to Whitbread's proposal, which the
bill followed in its main principle, relating to the local
provision for schools. The management clauses were original,
but to a great part of the nation, wholly unacceptable. The
only explanation of such a bill, as coming from him was,
that if he could get education he was comparatively indifferent
. as to the means. On another subject he once said, " as a
man of common sense I must wish to achieve some practical
good in my time," and this is the probable key to his action
at this time. He had guaged the strength of the Church,
at any rate, for opposition. He was aware of the close,
universal, and effective organisation which the clergy
possessed ; and he knew that they were resolved to hold
the control of the State system. His experience in intro-
ducing the Bill for a Commission had taught him what
to expect from the Tories. He knew also that the Whigs
in the House did not care for education, and that they
1 Shuttleworth's Public Education, 188. 2 History of the Peace, 1, 264.
77
accepted innovations slowly and reluctantly, only as they
were forced on them by the 'growth of opinion. They
were ready to disturb the official comfort of their
opponents when practicable, but that was the measure
of their support. In Parliament he stood almost alone.
Whitbread and Eomilly were dead, and although he had
the qualified support of Mackintosh, he was the solitary
conspicuous representative of the popular feeling which
gave life to the movement. In these circumstances he
concluded that he could only secure the main object of
the measure by large concessions to the clergy.
The bill was introduced on the 28th day of June,
1820. It was explained to the House under four heads —
the foundation of schools, the appointment of masters,
the admission and teaching of children, and the improve-
ment of educational endowments. (J) The authority for
taking proceedings was vested in Quarter Sessions, who
were enabled to act on their own finding, or on the
representation of two justices of the peace, the clergyman
of the parish, or five resident householders. The magistrates
were thus constituted a tribunal for adjudicating and
proceeding in the matter. The cost of building schools
was to be provided in the first place by the Treasurer
of the County, but ultimately by the Receiver General
of the land tax. All other expenses were to be levied
by the parish officers half-yearly. The appointment of
the master was placed in the Vestry. He was required
to be a member of the Established Church, and a
communicant, and to have a certificate of character from
a clergyman. His appointment was also to be subject
to the approval of the parish clergyman, who might reject
him on examination, or remove him at any time. It is
curious to reflect, and it proves the demoralising influence
1 Hansard, S. S., 2, 67.
78
of the monitorial system, that Brougham, who was an
advanced educationist in his day, had no higher idea of the
character of a schoolmaster than his bill reveals. His view
was that the parish clerk would best fill the office, and that
it would secure a better class of men for parish clerks.
The clergy were to have the power of visitation and
examination, and were to fix the course of teaching, and
the scale of school pence. There is one remarkable clause in
the bill. Brougham was always afraid of compulsory attend-
ance at the day schools as being of the nature of a sumptuary
law, and not justifiable either on the principle of utility or
expediency. (*) But in this bill he provided for the compul-
sory attendance of children at Church or Chapel on Sundays,
according to the choice of their parents. A school meeting
was also required on Sunday evenings for teaching the
catechism and liturgy.
In submitting these provisions to the House he said he
knew he should have the " sectaries " against him, but his
" object was to graft the new system on an old stock." The
clergy were naturally the teachers of the poor. " The parson
was a clerical schoolmaster, and the schoolmaster was a lay
parson." He deprecated the anger of the Dissenters, but
would not, to overcome the scruples of a few, turn his back
on the clergy, " whom Providence had raised up to give
strength and stability to the plan"(2) — a strange solecism in
the mouth of Henry Brougham. There was one saving
clause in the Bill ; it provided that in day schools the Bible
alone should be taught, and no form of worship allowed
except the Lord's prayer.
The Bill was supported by Sir James Mackintosh, and
assented to by Lord Castlereagh ; but before the second
reading came on a great storm of indignation had arisen
amongst Dissenters and Eoman Catholics, and Brougham's
1 Quarterly Journal of Education, 1835, 239. 2 Hansard, S. S., 2, 75.
79
old friends, " the Saints." They declared that it was a Bill
for rooting out " the last remains of religious liberty in the
country." William Allen wrote " such an innovation upon
the principles of religious liberty, had, perhaps, never been
attempted, except in the case of Lord Sidmouth's Bill, since
the days of Queen Anne. (*)
In truth the measure satisfied no party. The clergy
who wished for a compulsory catechism, liturgy and creed,
received it coldly. The Dissenters were outraged and alarmed
at the overwhelming ascendancy it gave to the Church. It
was contended that public opinion and popular influence
would be extinguished if the machinery for education were
thus placed entirely under the control of the Church. A
" Committee for the protection of Keligious Liberty " was
formed to watch its progress. To these strong manifestations
of disapproval, Mr. Brougham reluctantly bowed, and did not
proceed with the bill. The incident was unfortunate, both
for himself and the cause of education. He weakened his
own influence, alienated many of his supporters, and even
caused distrust of his motives. His friends admitted sadly
that he was more successful in detecting error than in
devising remedies. His enemies were delighted at his failure
and humiliation, and rejoiced to find, that with all his
stupendous talents, he had so little efficiency and influence
in practical legislation.
There now followed a long interval before the question
of English education was again raised in Parliament, except
on occasional petitions for the amendment of particular
abuses. The notice which had been called to the endow-
ments, had stimulated enquiry into the management of local
charities. They were almost without exception in the hands
1 Life of Allen, 294. The Bill referred to was probably that introduced
by Viscount Sidmouth in 1811, for restricting the licensing of Nonconformist
ministers. '&^&-&.^
80
of Churchmen, and the masters were generally in Holy
Orders. The regulations usually required attendance at
Church, and instruction in the Church formularies. Where
these were not expressly imposed, the effect of decisions and
interpretations generally made them compulsory. Even down
to the Endowed Schools Act of 1869, (J) where the terms
of the trust did not require that the Boards should be
composed of Churchmen only, the power of self-election
frequently supplied the deficiency. (2)
In 1830 the Dissenters of Birmingham petitioned
Parliament to be allowed to have a share in the government
of the Grammar School, (3) and similar requests proceeded
from other towns ; but it was only in a fitful and incidental
way that the Legislature was approached on the subject.
Brougham's failure had made independent members cautious.
The divisions between parties had been widened. The leaders
on both sides hesitated to commit themselves to auy definite
views, upon a question made of such explosive compounds,
and possibly so destructive of the repose of parties. Yet
it was during this period that Mr. Stanley matured and
carried his scheme of Irish Education, on the basis of
which Irish Elementary Schools have since remained. (4)
But if Parliament was halting and timid the people were
not idle. Out of doors the Education question was struggling
forward in company with many other objects of reform,
which engaged popular attention. This was the first great
era of improvement directed and stimulated by public intel-
ligence. Parliamentary and municipal reform, the thorough
re-organisation of factory labour, the abolition of the slave
trade, the repeal of the taxes on knowledge, the re-modelling
of the Irish Church — all these questions were exciting thought,
and rapidly acquiring force. The demand for the repeal of
1 Schools Enquiry Commission Report, 129.
2 Ibid, 250. 3 Hansard, S. S., 24 4 Hansard, T. S., 6, 1249.
81
the Corn Laws was also beginning to be heard, though it
was not until some years later that it took great prominence
in public discussion.
It was between 1820 and 1835 that the first era of
cheap, popular literature ran its course. It was a period
of wonderful progress, and contributed in a greater measure
than any other single event in national life to stimulate
the desire for knowledge and to lead to the ultimate
establishment of a State School System. Many great men
took part in the movement, and looked to it to produce
a revolution in morals and intelligence. The most con-
spicuous and active of these was Brougham, and he was
known as the leader and president of the "Education-mad
set." A complete list of those who were associated with
him would contain some of the most brilliant and illustrous
names which have adorned modern English history.
Amongst them were Dr. Birkbeck, the father of mechanics'
institutes, Dr. Whately, Earl Russell, Sir Rowland Hill,
M. D. Hill, Mr. Wyse, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Hallam, Mr.
James Mill, Lord Auckland, Lord Althorp, Mr. Denman,
Charles Knight, Sir Henry Parnell, Sir George C. Lewis,
Thomas Campbell, Dr. Lushington, Dr. Thirlwall, and Dr.
Arnold. It was the birth-time of labourers' and mechanics'
institutes, reading rooms, penny magazines, cheap encyclo-
paedias, education societies, and lectures on natural
philosophy. Political science also was becoming a subject
of popular exposition.
In 1823-24 Birkbeck and Brougham were engaged in
establishing mechanics' institutes and reading rooms through-
out the country. In 1827, the Society for the Diffusion
of Useful Knowledge was founded, and this led to the
publication of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, the
Quarterly Journal of Education, the Penny Cyclopaedia,
and many other useful works. There was at one time
11
82
such a demand for books of this description, that when
Constable began to issue his cheap volumes, about 1828,
he looked for a million of buyers. (*)
In 1826 the scheme for a London University was put
before the public. A Society, which did a great work in
distributing information, was the " Central Society of
Education," of which Mr. Wyse, M.P., was President. This
Society was credited with the authorship of the Government
scheme in 1839, and especially that part of it which applied
to Normal schools. The great towns were also now- taking
up the question. Between 1833 and 1837 the Manchester
Statistical Society was formed. The good resulting from the
enquiries instituted by this Society was invaluable.
Manchester has ever since occupied a most conspicuous and
honourable place in the fight for education. On the
Manchester model, similar societies were afterwards formed
in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, and other places. Local
Committees of the Society for the diffusion of useful
knowledge were also established in large towns. The Trades
Unions of London were combining to resist the taxes on
newspapers. A constant kindred agitation in Scotland was
led by George Combe, Professor Pillan, Dr. Drummond, and
James Simpson, which acted powerfully on English opinion.
In 1836 the Home and Colonial Society began training
children, and founding infant schools. In 1837 many ragged
schools were established, and, about the same time, a Society
was founded in Manchester for promoting National Education,
on the plan adopted by the British and Foreign School'
Society. The press too was now taking up the question, and
urging its necessity and importance. The Edinburgh Review
had been reinforced by the Examiner and the Westminster.
In the management of the latter the guiding mind was Mr.
James Mill. The history of his opinions on this subject has
1 Knight's Autobiography, 1, 252.
83
been written by his distinguished son. " So complete was my
father's reliance on the influence of reason over the mind of
mankind, whenever it is allowed to reach them, that he felt
as if all would be gained if the whole population were taught
to read, if all sorts of opinions were allowed to be addressed
to them by word and in writing, and, if by the means of the
suffrage, they could nominate a legislature to give effect to
the opinions they adopted." (*)
These views were not, of course shared by all who took
part in the struggle. Many were drawn into it by the danger
which they thought threatened the social system by
the immense extension of popular influence without
commensurate knowledge ; but all recognised that education
must come sooner or later. Dr. Whately wrote, " I wonder
not much, considering what human nature is, that some
should think the education of the poor an evil. I do
wonder at their not perceiving it is inevitable. We can
indeed a little retard or advance it ; but the main question
is how they shall be educated, and by whom."
Notwithstanding many hopeful signs of the times, the
Educators had a hard up hill battle to fight. We, who are
surrounded by so many instructive influences, the result
of half a century of uninterrupted progress, can hardly
appreciate the difficulties under which our predecessors
laboured. The penny postage system, which has acted as
a most powerful incident to education, was not introduced
until 1840, and up to 1836 newspapers and periodicals
were under a tax, which seriously limited their circulation
amongst the middle classes, and kept them from the
labouring classes altogether. The majority of the journals
and periodicals which existed, were bitterly hostile to the
new movement; the leaders of which were obliged to
contend for the right of education, for its social and
1 J. S. Mill's Auto-biography, 106.
84
economical advantages, and to appease the jealousy and
alarm which its extension caused amongst a large section
of the upper classes. Knowledge was associated with
irreligion and disloyalty ; with contempt of religious
institutions, and hatred of Government. One of the maga-
zines described the establishment of mechanics' institutes
as a plan for forming the labouring casses into a disaffected
and ungovernable faction. (J) As late as 1839 the same
periodical opposed the education of the people on the ground
that it would make them uneasy and restless, that ignorance
is the parent of contentment, and that the only education
which could be fitly and safely given to them was a religious
education which " renders them patient, humble, and moral,
and relieves the hardship of their present lot by the prospect
of a bright eternity." (2) The establishment of the University
of London was denounced as the " creation of a God-excluding
seminary," and it was predicted that " the worst sentiments
in politics and religion would pervade it." (3) Mr. Sou they
wrote, " I am no friend to the London University, or to
mechanics' institutes. There is a purpose in all these things
of excluding religion, and preparing the way for the over-
throw of the Church. But God will confound their
devices." (*)
The Church which had never before thought that a
University was required in London, now established King's
College, avowedly to protect the religious interests which
the University was supposed to endanger. In the end
these contests and divisions produced another disastrous
effect. It was supposed that in time the conflict between
party and sectarian interests would lead to the collection
of all the children into schools under the control of different
sects. This gave rise to the political maxim of the Volun-
1 Blackwood, 1825, 534. 2 Combe, Education by Jolly, 532.
3 Blackwood, 17, 545. * Southey's Life, 5, 297.
85
taryists, that " education, like industry, would be better off
if left to shift for itself." It has, however, been long
since acknowledged, that these sectarian strifes did much
to impede its progress, and to prevent combined action in
Parliament.
After the passing- of the Eeform Act in 1832, great
expectations were formed of Parliamentary assistance. It
is noteworthy that on the two occasions when Parliament
has taken serious action in regard to education, the
movement has followed a reform in the system of repre-
sentation. The grants which began in 1834, and the
establishment of the Education Department, were the outcome
of the Keform Bill of 1832, as the Education Act of 1870
was one result of the Eeform of 1868. In each case two
causes had been at work. The increased power of the
democracy, and the determination to use it for their
advantage was the most important; and this was seconded
by the alarm of the upper classes at being in the hands
of an uneducated people, and the recognition of the
necessity expressed by Mr. Lowe, of " educating their
masters." But the great hopes raised by the formation
of Earl Grey's Ministry, in 1832, were doomed to
disappointment. It was natural that extravagant expecta-
tions should be formed. Brougham was a member of the new
Ministry. Two other Cabinet Ministers, Lord Althorp arid
Lord John Eussell were on the Committee of the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. " After the Eeform era,"
says Charles Knight, "I have sat at the monthly dinner
with five Cabinet Ministers, to whom it appeared that their
duty was to carry forward that advancing intelligence of
the people which had carried them to power." (*) When
several Sessions had passed away, and the Ministry had
been partly reconstituted, the dissatisfaction became intense.
1 Knight's Biography, 2, 131.
86
The Eadicals who were represented by Koebuck, Grote,
Buller, Molesworth, and Komilly, came in for a share of
disapprobation. The Westminster Review referred bitterly
to an Education Bill which had been postponed " on account
of the influenza or some equally cogent reason." (*) The
feeling as regards Brougham has been expressed by Miss
Martineau in her " History of the Peace." (2) He was even
suspected by his friends of having deserted the cause.
The Parliament was described as a "do nothing Parliament,
halting half-way between helplessness and mischief," which
had expended its whole force on Keform, and had no policy,
and no course of action. (3) Justice has since been done
to Earl Grey's Ministry. " No previous administration
had ever accomplished so many reforms as the Grey Cabinet
had effected in a year." (*) " They accomplished in four
years what would have done honour to any administration
in fourteen, yet they did not move fast enough for their
impatient supporters." (5) Mr. J. S. Mill has also now
acknowledged that too much had been expected from the
small band of Eadical members who had set up on their
own account, and that their lot was cast in a period of
inevitable reaction. (6)
Brougham's position was understood more clearly by his
enemies than his friends. They saw that by his elevation to
the woolsack as a member of Lord Grey's Ministry in 1830,
he had gone to his " political death-bed." He had lost
power rather than obtained it. His power was that of a
popular leader — not that of a parliamentary adviser. In the
House of Commons he had been the nominal leader of the
Whig opposition, but the Whigs had never trusted him. He
was not of their set. They were jealous of his superiority,
1 Westminster Review, 1837, 27. 2 Martineau's History, 2, 76.
3 Westminster Review, 33, 387. 4 Walpole's History, 3, 209.
5 English Premiers, by Earle, 2. c Mill's Autobiography, 195.
87
distrusted his energy, and were alarmed at his influence in
the country. They adopted him for their own purposes, as
they had adopted Eomilly and Homer, and were glad to be
relieved of his presence from the House in which he spoke
with authority. He saw too late that he had made the
greatest error of his life. As the promoter of education,
the leader of the anti-slavery movement, the chief Parlia-
mentary representative of the Dissenting bodies, and the head
of the reform party, his power and influence were immense.
They were destroyed at a blow by his acceptance of the Great
Seal, and he "ceased to be for ever the great popular chief." (*)
From this time phrases which had been current amongst his
enemies were passed about by his former friends. They began
to accuse his vanity, and even to suspect his genuineness.
He was " ungenerously deserted by his friends, while
cruelly assaulted by his foes, he was maligned by those
to whom he had been a benefactor, and all mankind
seemed to be in a conspiracy against him." (2)
In the House of Commons Brougham's place, as leader
of the Education party was somewhat poorly filled by Mr.
Eoebuck, and at times by Mr. Wyse. It is to the honour of
the former that in the first year he came into Parliament he
made an effort to re-open the question ; and that with so
much success that the Government was induced to grant
a small and wholly inadequate sum for education purposes.
In 1833 he moved that in the next session the House would
proceed to devise means for the universal education of the
people. (3) He advocated compulsion to the extent of making
it an offence to keep a child away from school between six
and twelve years of age. Lord Althorp objected to bind the
Government by the resolution, which was not pressed to
a division ; but he intimated that the Government were not
1 Roebuck's History of the Whig Administration, 1, 470.
2 Campbell's Life of Brougham, 414. s Hansard, T. S., 20, 139.
88
passive in the matter, and subsequently moved for a grant
of £20,000 to be expended at the suggestion of the National
Society and British and Foreign School Society, in aid of
private subscriptions for the erection of schools. He correctly
described this as the commencement of a new system, the
extent of which they could not foresee. (!) The grant was
opposed by Mr. Hume on economical grounds, and by Mr.
Cobbett for the reason that schoolmasters were " a new race
of idlers," but it was carried in a House of seventy-six
members. Modest as this beginning was, it was not viewed
without alarm, it being foreseen that Government would now
be pressed to make yearly grants. There Was abundant
evidence of the willingness of the Government to spend money
for objects which it approved. In the same session twenty
millions were voted for the abolition of slavery; and one
million was applied to pay arrears of tithes in Ireland. (2)
It is perhaps also noteworthy that in the same year the
education vote in Prussia amounted to £600,000.
In 1834 Mr. Eoebuck re-opened the question, and
moved for a Select Committee, condemning in a vigorous
speech the " slavish bigotry and intolerance " that prevailed
in National Schools. Again the Government showed a
disposition to make concessions, and the motion was with-
drawn in favour of one moved by Lord Althorp on behalf
of the Government, for a Committee "to enquire into the
state of education in England and Wales, and into the
application and effect of the grant for the erection of
schools, and to consider the expediency of further grants
in aid of education." (3) The Committee was appointed
and renewed, on the motion of Mr. Eoebuck, in the next
session. Lord Melbourne's first Administration was dissolved
1 Hansard, T. S., 20, 730. 2 Westminster Review, 19, 387.
8 Hansard, T. S., 23, 127.
89
in November, and after the general election Sir Eobert Peel
became Premier. Early in 1835 Lord John Kussell brought
forward a motion in regard to the Irish Church, in which
he declared that the Anglican Establishment in Ireland was
excessive, and that its surplus revenues should be applied
to education. (1) Sir Eobert Peel would make no com-
promise, and the Government was defeated by a majority
of twenty-seven, and resigned. In a few days Lord Mel-
bourne's second Administration came in. This year Lord
Brougham, whose short term of office had expired, never to
be renewed, submitted a series of resolutions to the House
of Lords, affirming the insufficiency of the means for national
education, and the necessity of supplementing them; of
establishing training schools for teachers, and of appoint-
ing a permanent Board of Commissioners for guarding and
applying funds left for educational purposes. In a sub-
sequent session he brought in another bill having the same
object. No progress was made with it, and he complained
that his bill was unfortunate at all times, since when their
Lordships had nothing to do they could not proceed with
it. A practical suggestion he afterwards made found accept-
ance. This was the appointment of a Department of Public
Instruction — the idea of which he derived from France. (2)
About the same time the Bishop of London attacked the
Central Society of Education, which was doing the work of
propagandism in the country. He said that he viewed with
great alarm the attempt to establish a compulsory system
of education, secular in character ; and he cautioned the
Christian public against it.
The grant of £20,000 yearly was continued after 1834,
but its division was already causing great dissatisfaction.
The first grant had been equally divided between the
National, and the British and Foreign School Societies.
1 Life of Melbourne, 2, 101. 2 Hansard, T. S.f 38, 16.18.
12
90
The principle of the Government was to make grants
where one half of the sum required was raised by local
efforts. The British and Foreign School Society had
exhausted their local funds in the first year, and were
unable to make a proportionate advance. The result was
that gradually two-thirds, three-fifths, or three-fourths of
the grant went to the National Society, which had superior
local resources. (*) It also became evident that the system
was defective in a most essential feature, as no provision
was made in poor localities where it was most required,
and where education was at the lowest ebb. These defects
and inequalities were gradually turning the public mind
to a rate supported system, which, however, was yet far
in the distance.
The sessions of 1837 and 1838 passed without further
substantial progress. Mr. Slaney moved for a Select
Committee, but Lord John Eussell deprecated haste for
fear of exciting resentment and opposition on account of
religious differences (2) which continued to be the great
stumbling block. Mr. Wyse followed up the attack in
1838, by asking /or the appointment of a Commission to
provide for the efficient application of the grant, and for
the establishment of schools. (3) The Government opposed
the motion ; Lord John Eussell, who was the Liberal leader
in the Lower House, saying that he "was not prepared to
state any manner in which Parliament could aid the work
beyond what it had done." He expressed his own prefer-
ence for the British and Foreign Society's System, but
adhered to the principle of distribution adopted by the
Treasury, that the largest share of the grant should be
given to those who subscribed most towards it. The
motion was defeated by seventy-four votes to seventy.
The lessons of this division were not lost upon the
1 Hansard, T. S., 37, 448. 2 Ibid, 39, 388. 8 Ibid, T. S>, 43, 710.
91
Ministry. They began to see that public opinion would
support them in more decisive action, and therefore
prepared for an important step in the next session.
92
CHAPTER III.
PERIOD. — FROM THE APPOINTMENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF
COUNCIL IN 1839 TO THE MINUTES OF 1847.
THE direct intervention of the Government for the
promotion and regulation of elementary education dates
from 1839. In the assistance which the State had given
previously to that period, it had merely stood in the position
of a subscriber to the two great voluntary societies which
occupied the ground ; having no connection with schools or
their teachers, and exercising no authority over their
regulations or management. The important changes which
now took place, and the subsequent history of the question
will be better understood, after a brief review of the condition
of education and the relations of parties at this time.
The new science of statistics has played an important
part in the education controversy. From 1818, up to the
present time, many sets of educational statistics have been
published. They have been derived from all sources, and
sent forth under all manner of auspices — from the Government,
from rival education societies, from the purely statistical
societies, and from individuals for whom the peculiar investi-
gation has had an attraction. They have been useful at times
in fixing attention upon the subject, while on other occasions,
they have tended to confuse the issue. For the ordinary
reader, at any rate, they have not raised the question out of
the depths of dulness to which it has often been condemned.
They have been employed for all purposes — to prove the value
of instruction and the reverse, the want of education and its
abundance, the necessity on the one hand for legislative
93
action, and on the other the sufficiency of voluntary effort.
The same tables have been quoted to support precisely
opposite views. In the early discussions of the question
they were sometimes used to make education responsible for
crime. Blackwood wrote, " It is now established by decisive
evidence that public instruction has not only no effect what-
ever in diminishing the tendency to crime, but that it greatly
increases it." (J) No useful purpose can now be served in
disinterring from the reports and pamphlets in which they
are buried, the voluminous figures which have been
published on the question. The accuracy of the most
authentic of them has been impeached, and even where this
has been vindicated, they have been subject to deductions
and qualifications which cannot be represented by figures.
Until recent times there has never been a standard by which
educational statistics could be tried, for the reason that there
was no agreement as to what education meant. They failed to
convey an adequate idea, alike of the depths and intensity of
the exertions which have been made for the sake of education,
and of the mass of ignorance which was left untouched'
The several Government enquiries into the state of
education have produced four sets of statistics, to which
occasional reference may be necessary for the purposes of
comparison. The first were those of 1818 — the result
of Brougham's Select Committee. The next are known as
Lord Kerry's returns, and refer to 1833. An exhaustive
enquiry in 1851 produced the elaborate figures contained in the
census returns of the Eegistrar-General. A few years later the
Duke of Newcastle's Commission of 1858, became responsible
for the tables contained in their report. Since the formation
of the Committee of Council the reports of the Government
Inspectors have been illustrated by valuable and reliable
statistics ; and the various statistical societies of London,
1 Blackwood, 38, 393.
94
Manchester, Birmingham, and other towns, have contributed
to swell the proportions of this branch of the enquiry, and have
often quickened and stimulated public opinion on the question.
According to the returns of Brougham's Committee in
1818, the number of scholars in day schools was 674,883, or
one in 17'25 of the population. In 1833, as vouched by
Lord Kerry's tables, they had increased to 1,276,947, or one
in 11 '2 7 of the population. (*) It has been estimated
that at the former period, for every child receiving education
three were left entirely destitute. (2) Lord Kerry's returns
contained no calculation of the numbers absent from school,
but they were taken as proof that the voluntary societies,
with the assistance they received from Government, were
doing satisfactory work and making promising headway.
Immediately, however, that these conclusions came to be
tested by independent enquiry as to the locality and the
character of the education provided, they were found to
convey a most fallacious idea of the progress actually made.
The earliest statistical society was formed at Manchester, and
its principal object was to verify the returns of Lord Kerry,
which were thought to do injustice to the work of the
voluntary schools in Lancashire. (3) Some of the early
papers were directed to correct this supposed unfairness ; but
the officers of the society and those who conducted .its
investigations, became at once convinced that it was utterly
hopeless to rely upon the sufficiency of voluntary means.
The enquiries made in Manchester, Liverpool, Salford, and
Birmingham, dissipated the idea that satisfactory progress was
being made. In Manchester a third, and in Liverpool half of
the children of school age were receiving no instruction at
all ; not even that of the Sunday-school. In most of the
large towns it was found that only one in seventeen' of the
1 Census Returns, 1851. 2 Walpole's History, 1, 212.
8 Porter's Progress of the Nation, 695.
95
population was being educated, and in some districts only
one in thirty-five. In parts of Lancashire, towns of 25,000
inhabitants were without a single school. The proportion of
children who received no instruction of any kind in day or
Sunday-schools was found to be in Manchester thirty per
cent, Liverpool fifty per cent., York thirty-four per cent.,
Westminster sixty-five per cent., and Birmingham fifty-one
per cent. (*) In 1837 the London Statistical Society
reported, that the country did not afford the means of
education for more than one half of those in a condition to
receive it. (2) In other places one child in thirty-five was
receiving " nominal " education. The reports from Liverpool
stated that improvement was hopeless until assistance and
direction came from a body vastly superior in means and
intelligence to any in existence. (3) The quality of the
education supplied was even more startling in its deficiency
than the quantity. The best schools were doubtless those of
the rich voluntary societies, but their results were wholly
untested except by independent observation. In the evidence
which Professor Pillans gave before the Select Committee of
1834, he stated his belief that in a few years the children in
the National Society's schools would have lost the power of
reading. (4) They were trained to obtain an accurate know-
ledge of every hard name in the Book of Kings, but no love
of knowledge or of books was inculcated. The sole object of
the society was to manufacture members of the Church, and
not to impart information which would be useful in the
pursuits of life. (5) " Nothing, or next to nothing, is learned,
and the parents merely pay for having their children kept
out of harm's way." (6) But the bulk of the children included
1 Journal of Statistical Society, 3, 28. 2 Ibid, 1, 48.
3 British and Foreign Review, 1836, 601. 4 Ibid, 564.
5 Quarterly Journal of Education, 1834, 253.
0 Memoirs of Sara Coleridge, 1, 194.
96
in these imposing Government returns were taught in private
adventure schools kept by dames and others. They were
hived in dirty, unwholesome rooms, used for sleeping or
working ; in garrets, and often in cellars. The qualification
of their teachers was that they were unfit for anything else,
though they generally united education with some other
employment ; such as the keeping of small shops, or taking
in washing or sewing. (J) In the mining districts most
of those who went to school at all, were taught by miners
or labourers who had lost health or met with accidents in the
works. (2) In other places persons were keeping school on
account of " old age " — " to get a bit of bread/' — because they
could not weave, or had lost their arms, or lamed their feet,
or were short of work, or " to keep off the town." It was the
usual resource of widows left without means. (3) The
Factory Act of 1833 required the Inspectors to enforce the
attendance at school of children employed in factories, and to
order vouchers of attendance to be kept. (4) The Act
required education to be given, but made no provision for
schools. To meet the requirements of the Act, all manner of
school-houses were improvised, " from the coal-hole to the
engine-house." "The engine-man, the slubber, the burler, the
bookkeeper, the wife of any one of these, the small shop-
keeper, or the next-door neighbour, with six or seven small
children on the floor and in her lap, are by turns found
teaching in and about their several places of occupation, for
the two hours required by the law." (5) The certificates
required were usually signed with the mark of the school-/-
keeper. The Commissioners appointed to enquire into the
working of the Poor Laws reported on the frightful forms in
1 British and Foreign Review, 1836, 589.
2 Report of Committee of Council, 1839-40, 178.
8 Proceedings of Statistical Society, 2, 35.
4 3 and 4, William IV., c. 103.
5 Journal of Statistical Society, 2, 179.
97
which ignorance revealed itself. There were 60,000 children
in poor-houses under influences little less injurious than those
of prisons. (J) "I know of nothing more pathetic than a
workhouse school/' wrote Mr. Cumin, in one -of his reports.
Dean Alford wrote, at the end of 1839 : — " Prussia is before
us ; Switzerland is before us ; France is before us ; there is
no record of any people on earth so highly civilised, so
abounding in arts and comforts, and so grossly, generally
ignorant as the English." (2)
The particulars and extracts which have been given
represent the general condition of education at this period —
a condition which formed the humiliating topic of every
assembly of Englishmen, and of every newspaper and publi-
cation of ordinary intelligence. Under these circumstances
it was a source of the greatest discouragement and perplexity
to thousands of reflecting and benevolent men, that the wide
divergences of opinion prevented any united and comprehen-
sive action. The difficulty did not spring from the people
themselves. It happened then, as it has always happened
since, that the classes which stood most in need of education
were those who presented the smallest obstacle to the
acceptance of a general plan. In the evidence taken before
the Select Committee of 1834 it was well established, that
the parents of the scholars were, in the majority of cases,
perfectly indifferent about the tone, colour, or management of
the schools, so long as they could get good secular
instruction. (3) "Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children of
nonconformists were taught religion, by considering them
what they were not, i.e., baptised according to the rites and
ceremonies of the Church of England." (4) The Secretary
of the National Society testified of their schools, that nine-
tenths of the parents would remove their children if they could
1 Quarterly Journal of Education, 9, 49. 2 Life of Alford, 121.
a Quarterly Journal of Education, 8, 251. 4 Shuttleworth, Public
Education, 246.
13
98
get better instruction, without thinking at all about the relig-
ious knowledge. The children of Jews, Unitarians, and Eoman
Catholics, were often found in British and National Schools.
It was not that the parents were always wholly ignorant or
indifferent upon religious questions. The compulsory attend-
ance at church and the imposition of the catechism were often
keenly felt as a grievance and a violation of the liberty of
conscience. But where no other schools were available,
earnest Dissenters would send their children to Church schools
with the feeling that home influence would counteract the
teaching of the school and Church, and with the firm
intention to keep them in the practice of Dissent. It was a
strong proof of the value attached to education when such
conditions were acceded to. Amongst the very poorest
classes, and those outside all denominational influences, there
has been since the beginning of the century, an increasing
current of feeling in favour of school instruction, often testi-
fied by exertion and self-sacrifice even in extreme poverty.
The interdict against a united and national system came
from the moral teachers of the people, and was pronounced
necessary in the interests of religion. As new plans were
developed and discussed, several phrases have been used to
describe them. There were the exclusively denominational
schools, in which the creeds and doctrines of a particular
Church were imposed on all the children. The " comprehen-
sive" system, and the " combined" system, are phrases which
have been used to describe other plans. Most of the schemes
which have been proposed and embodied in resolutions or
bills during the last half-century, would come under one or
the other of these three descriptions. The meaning and
object of the denominational system requires no explanation.
Under the " comprehensive" system, a school would generally
be in connection with some religious body, and definite
religious instruction would be given in the school ; but the
99
parents of the children would be allowed to decide whether
they should attend or be withdrawn from it. The
" combined" system is that which was established in Ireland,
the scholars receiving secular instruction from the school-
master, and separate religious teaching from the ministers of
the denominations. But no common ground was found upon
which the sects could meet and agree and let education
proceed — although, at the outset of the struggle, there was
no party which objected to State assistance. The Voluntary-
ists who afterwards grew into an influential party, had
not yet formulated their objections to State aid and control.
When the Committee of Council was appointed, the great
body of the Protestant Dissenters of all sects, sustained the
Ministry and approved of public grants. Mr. Edward Baines,
the founder of the Leeds Mercury, and father of the gentleman
who afterwards became the leader of the Voluntaryists,
supported and voted for the Government scheme of 1839. (*)
It was not until the administration of the Committee of
Council threatened to give undue advantages to the Church,
that Dissenters discovered civil and political reasons against
State education, and joined in a policy of opposition to its
extension.
From the beginning of the struggle to its close, the
Church, while doing its utmost to extend education of its
own kind, by its own methods, and for its own purposes, has
been the grand and chief obstructive to any national system.
The National Society prescribed tests and methods, laid down
terms of union, and from the Sanctuary at Westminster
claimed the right to dictate the terms upon which the educa-
tion of the people should be permitted to proceed. The
charter of the National Society declared that it was founded
to educate the children of the poor, "without any exception,"
in the doctrines of the Established Church. (2) The position
1 Hansard, T. S., 42, 727. 2 Notes of my Life, Denkon, 137.
100 .
which the Church took up at that time is accurately stated by
Archdeacon Denison, who has been supposed to represent an
extreme and violent section of Churchmen, but who has
merely stood up manfully for the integrity of early Church
principles. " The Church can never, if it would be found
faithful, have the ' comprehensive school/ in that sense of the
word ' comprehensive/ in which the State employs the term.
It may, indeed, ' comprehend' others than Church children in
its schools, as it sees occasion, for missionary purposes ; but
this exclusively upon its own terms only." (J) This was the
exact position that was taken up by the National Society in
the first instance, and which embodied its principle and
practice down to the introduction of the conscience clause.
In his evidence given before the Select Committee of 1834,
Mr. Wigram, the Secretary of the National Society, said the
doctrines of the Church were the appointed means of
producing practical religion, and they were not at liberty to
substitute anything else. The clerical superintendent of the
Society, said he should not be justified according to the
principles of the Society, in allowing their school-children to
attend Dissenting places of worship. (2) The same view was
taken by Churchmen who were remarkable for liberality
towards Nonconformists. Bishop Blomfield has been instanced
as a man of this character. (3) He had been an Edinburgh
Eeviewer, though afterwards his services were transferred to
the Quarterly. As a proof of his liberality, it is stated that
his schools were attended even by the children of Jews. His
biographer omits to mention that they were compelled to learn
the catechism, but Bishop Blomfield himself had no hesitation
in making the admission. He told Lord Althorp's Committee
that any attempt to give common education to children whose
parents were of different persuasions would fail, unless the
1 Notes of my Life, Denison, 105.
2 Quarterly Journal of Education, vols. 8 and 9. 3 Life of Blomfield, 53.
lot
parents were content to let their children receive religions
instruction according to the doctrine of the Church of
England, and that the Church could not come to any compro-
mise that the catechism should not be taught on weekdays^1)
He afterwards always "strenuously upheld the claims of
the Established Church to be the educator of the people/' (2)
and he was one of the skilful negotiators who framed the
subsequent concordat between the National Society and the
Education Department. The Eev. F. D. Maurice, was one
of the last Churchmen whom his generation would accuse of
bigotry or illiberality, yet he took the same view of the
education question. " We have an education which assumes
us to be members of one family, of one nation. If any
persons like to be educated on that ground, we will educate
them ; if they do not like it, they must educate themselves
upon what other principle they may, for we know of no other
and will admit no other." (3) The same author contended
that the clergy were an order sent into the world for the
express purpose of cultivating humanity.
A curious illustration of the determination of the Church
clergy to make their schools religious institutions, is afforded by
what was called the " blending " system. This has now gone
altogether, and would probably be illegal under the time
table conscience clause, but for some years it was hotly
contended for. The object was to interweave doctrinal and
historical religious teaching with the ordinary school lessons
throughout the day. The copy books were composed of
scriptural texts ; the geography was scriptural ; the arithmetic
was illustrated by scriptural facts, and all were taught by
teachers trained in theological seminaries, in which all know-
ledge was made secondary and subordinate to dogmatic
learning. Mr. Milner Gibson quoted in the House of
1 Quarterly Journal of Education, 9, 214. 2 Life of Blomfleld, 191.
3 Maurice on Education, 172.
Commons from the Eev. Francis Close, who said, " what they
sought, was to interweave Church of England evangelical
principles with all their instruction, and to diffuse them
through the school room all day long." (') The Eev. J. C.
Wig-ram, Secretary of the National Society, prepared a
scriptural arithmetic for the purpose. Some of the examples
are curious relics of a disused method. " The children of
Israel were sadly given to idolatry, notwithstanding all they
knew of God. Moses was obliged to have three thousand
men put to death for this grievous sin. What digits would
you use to express this number ? "
" Of Jacob's four wives, Leah had six sons : Eachel had
two ; Hillah had two ; and Zillah had also two. How many
sons had Jacob ? "
In this way it was thought to instil morals, and to give a
high religious tone to the schools, — purposes which would have
been answered as well by teaching the children Bible conun-
drums. Baden Powell exposed the frivolity of this "blending"
system. " It seems difficult to imagine any plan better
adapted for making religion an object of contempt and
aversion, than thus perpetually associating it in the young
mind with the drudgery of school tasks. Scripture spelling
surely cannot lead the learner to think scripture any better
than a spelling book, nor Bible arithmetic teach him otherwise
than to place Christianity and ciphering on the same level.
The most solemn truths mixed up with the puerile illustra-
tion of the alphabet ; the words of divine instruction made
vehicles for teaching orthography ; scripture language used
for conveying instruction in grammar ; the sacred events
of divine revelation employed to furnish examples for
arithmetic, are methods of teaching which may indeed
secure a familiarity with religion, but it is the kind of famili-
arity which breeds disrespect."( ) Dr. Hook's proposal to have
1 Hansard, T. S., vol. 116, 1242. 2 Pamphlet by Eev, Baden Powell.
103
schools in which separate religious instruction was given, was a
blow to the supporters of this system. They began to enquire
whether history could be taught without enforcing the tone
and principles of Socinianism or Trinitarianism. Whether " a
man might teach reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic
without letting it appear whether he was a Mahomedan or a
Christian." But granting it might be so, they returned to their
conviction that '*we who embrace with all our hearts the
divinity of Christ should not allow a disbeliever even to teach
our children to cipher." (*)
There was, however, an eminent minority in the Church
which dissented from the extreme pretensions of the National
Society and the general body of the clergy. Distinguished
amongst these was Dr. Whately, whose labours on the Irish
Board of Education helped to give stability to the combined
system in Ireland. Dean Hook advocated a similar plan for
England, and Dr. Arnold declined to join in the proceedings
of the National Society on account of the too great influence
which the clergy would have o\>er the education machine. (2)
Bishop Stanley, the father of Dean Stanley, in the discussions
of 1839, vindicated the Government plan of combined educa-
tion. In more recent years the list of liberal-minded clergymen
has been supplemented by the names, amongst others, of
Bishops Eraser and Temple, Archdeacon Sandford, Canon
Kingsley, Dean Hamilton, Canon Gover, Dean Alford, Dr.
Caldicott, Mr. J.C.Cox, Mr.E.F.M.MacCarthy and Mr. Zincke.
In opposing the demands of the Church to the exclusive
control of education, Protestant Dissenters took a reasonable
and moderate position. They asked only for a proportionate
share in school management, and that their children should
not, as the condition of instruction, be compelled to learn
hostile creeds. To have done less than this would have been
a violation of their principles, and a step backward in the
1 Memoirs of Sara Coleridge, 2, 31. 2 Memoirs of Sara Coleridge, 1, 213.
104
political and religious freedom for which they had striven,
and in a great measure obtained. They had a noble history,
which gave them a title to be heard as a part of the people,
on questions affecting popular welfare, which it would have
been ignominious to surrender. They had by immense
sacrifice, exertion, and courage, defeated the design of the
ecclesiastical leaders of the Eeformation, that our Church
government should be made to embrace the whole body of
the people. From a despised and persecuted minority they
had grown into a power. They had been especially the
missionaries of religious and political instruction to the poor,
and had defended the rights of minorities. They had
obtained a paramount influence over the middle classes,
and had shaken to its foundations the traditional authority
which the Church claimed over the lower orders. In the
Civil Courts and in the Legislature they had upheld the
title of the people to equal participations and rights before
the law. Their history had been one of continued progress
towards religious emancipation, from the days of the Eevolu-
tion to the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. The
Church had neglected the religious instruction of the nation.
That was not denied. " There has been a heavy sin some-
where— granted ; let us not attempt to hide it. The clergy
have had the heaviest share in that evil. Let this be
confessed, too, both secretly and publicly." (J) " There was
then, so to speak, no parish school — the nursery of the
parish church — seventy or eighty years ago." (2) In this
gross abnegation and neglect of duty the Dissenters had taken
up the work, and they became naturally the instructors of
the poor. Their constitution was democratic, and they had
strengthened and consolidated their influence by the habits
of self government which they had taught, and the political
knowledge they had spread. Their life and discipline had
1 Maurice's Lectures on Education, 238. 2 Notes of my Life, Denison, 115.
105
become identified with the growth of liberal principles and
the progress of all liberal measures. They felt, therefore,
that the demand of the clergy for the exclusive control of
education was opposed to the general spirit of the laws and
the. current of feeling through society. If in later struggles
they committed errors of judgment which for a time retarded
education, they were made honestly, in defence of principles
which were sacred, no less by reason of the travail which had
secured their recognition, than on account of the benefits
which had resulted from them to national life. The Church
had failed to recognise the growth and effect of historical
changes ; and her endeavour again to set up in education the
rules of ecclesiastical instead of civil law, was justly felt to be
an anachronism, and an attack on the hardly-won rights of
Nonconformity.
Such were the condition of education and the relations
of parties, when, in the Session of 1839, Lord John Eussell
stated the views of Lord Melbourne's Ministry upon the
question. The historical reasons for the formation of the
Committee of Council vary as they are considered from
different aspects. It had undoubtedly been led up to by the
exertions of the Central Society of Education, which, by its
agitation, had increased the pressure out of doors, and
compelled the Government to take action. It was the
motion of Mr. Wyse, the Chairman of the Society, in the former
Session, which had forced the hand of the Ministry. It had
been intimated to the Society that their zeal embarrassed the
Government. (*) There were many Liberal Members of
Parliament who supported it, including the Marquis of
Lansdowne, Lord Melbourne, and Lord John Eussell, all
members of the Government. It had incurred the dislike and
dread of the Church party, as likely to disturb their claim to
a monopoly in the control of education ; and when the
1 Westminster Review, 51, 182.
14
106
Government plans were found to correspond in a measure
with its suggestions, the suspicion that the Ministry was
acting under its influence ripened into conviction. Bishop
Blomfield declared that Ministers were acting under the
advice of an association whose object was the destruction of
the Church, " knowing perfectly well that through the
medium of the Church, the Monarchy might be most
successfully assailed." (*) To Archdeacon Denison the
formation of the Education Department was a Whig
plot for revolutionising or destroying the parish school,
concocted to please the Nonconformists. (2) Later, it became
in the eyes of a section of Nonconformists, a monstrous
machine for establishing a tyranny over literature, journals,
the pulpit, and for destroying the vitality and independence
of national life. From its origin, however, the Committee of
Council had one able and adroit defender and apologist — the
first Secretary, Sir James Kay Shuttleworth. On all occasions
when it was attacked, he was ready to take a brief on its
behalf, and honestly could see nothing in the Department but
the perfection of statesmanship and human wisdom. To him
it was a grand inductive experiment. The Government
recognised two principles — that of separate (Church) educa-
tion, and combined (British and Foreign) education, and then
left them to work themselves out and see which would
predominate. (3) He had qualities for his position which
were invaluable for the extension of the influence of the
Committee. His history was sometimes at fault, and capable
of an easy adaptation to the necessities of his argument, but
he never failed in his estimation of the wisdom and suffi-
ciency of his Department. That which was acknowledged on
all hands to be a mere expedient, a tentative scheme adopted
in utter perplexity and confusion of counsel, he magnified
1 Blomaeld's Life, 198. 2 Notes of my Life, 117.
3 The School in its- Relations to State, Church, and Congregation.
107
into a deliberate State policy, having a settled purpose and
confident of its capacity to meet all emergencies.
With such a permanent officer at its helm, it was almost
inevitable that the power of the Committee should steadily
grow : but the truth about its formation has been told by those
who were the authors of its existence. It was neither plot nor
policy. The arrangement was never intended to be ultimate or
permanent. It was a compromise between the necessity of
education, and the difficulty of devising a general system accept-
able to the country. (*) Lord Althorp's Committee of 1834-35
had been so fairly constituted of members of utterly opposite
opinions that they came to a dead lock, and, after taking evi-
dence for two years they shrank from pronouncing any opinion.
The formation of the Committee of Council was an expedient
to evade the difficulty of constituting a Board of Education.
Lord John Russell explained that no confidence would
have been felt in a Board of different persuasions, and they
had therefore resolved on appointing a Board from the official
servants of the Crown, who would be responsible to Parliament.
It was practically a Board of one persuasion, notwithstanding
which it never received the confidence of any party. The
definite proposition was, that the President of the Council,
and other Privy Councillors not exceeding five, should form
a Board to consider in what manner grants should be distri-
buted. (2) The constitution of the Board has remained much
the same since its formation, with the addition in recent
years of a Vice-President, who has sat in the House of
Commons, and occupied the post of a financial Education
Minister, The members of the Committee have consisted of
the principal Ministers of the Crown and have changed with
the Ministry. (3) Lord Lansdowne was the first President of
the Council, and undertook to carry out the measures of the
1 Newcastle Commission Report, 90.
2 Hansard, T. S., 45, 273. 3 Newcastle Commission Report, 26.
108
Government. They proposed that the grant for education
should be increased to £30,000, and that as a first measure, a
State Normal School for the training of teachers, on the com-
bined .system, should be established.
This was the beginning of the tinkering system in
education. The difficulties of the Government were no doubt
great. They found the ground partially occupied, and felt it
was impossible to supersede the agencies in existence. Vested
interests had been created by the previous grants to the
voluntary societies, and when they came to be taken away
and administered directly by the Department, the cry of
invasion and aggression was raised, and no common basis of
opinion between Church and dissent could be discovered
upon which a general plan could be established. The earlier
grants to the voluntary societies had produced an unfortunate
effect. Instead of standing on the principle that national
education should not be converted into a machinery for per-
petuating sectarian distinctions, the grants had been so distri-
buted as to widen the differences and strengthen the distinc-
tions between denominations, and for a long series of years
this was the practical effect of every attempt by Government to
extend education. The Government also had difficulties pecu-
liarly its own. It was a time. of party crises, and the Ministry
felt that they were vulnerable on every side, and could not
afford to lay themselves open to sectarian assaults — a difficulty
which they did not escape, as events will show. Their
natural enemies in the Opposition were always on the alert
to seize an advantage, whilst the feeling amongst the Liberals
was one of painful and petulant disappointment. It resulted
that their practice on important questions had become,
' ' To promise, pause, prepare, postpone,
And end by letting things alone."
The Government were hardly open to attack on the
ground of the extent of their educational operations. Thirty
109
thousand pounds for the education of fifteen millions was not
a large subsidy. It was, as Carlyle said, " a small fraction of
the revenue of one day/' and Brougham did not forget to note
that in the same year £70,000 was voted for building Eoyal
stables. (*) The model school experiment was to be provided
for, out of a fund for £10,000, apparently voted in 1835,
but never applied.
But small as the measure was in a financial sense, it
undoubtedly involved important principles. The creation of
a State Department of instruction meant the assertion of
civil as opposed to ecclesiastical education, and that the State
grants would be administered by the Department instead of
being paid as heretofore to voluntary associations. In this
sense it was a significant advance, and an assault upon
the ecclesiastical position. Indeed there was but one safe
course for the maintenance of the exclusive and high ground
taken by the Church, and that was the refusal of all State aid.
The acceptance of assistance from the Government, however
carefully fenced by conditions, involved eventually Government
supervision, as surely as the application of local rates involves
local control. This point however did not strike the Church
party, and they turned their opposition against the less
significant scheme for a Normal school, in which secular
teaching was to be given on the combined principle, while
religious instruction was to be supplied to the students by
ministers of their particular denomination. Against this
proposal the whole force which the English Hierarchy could
command was directed.
The Dissenters received the plan with acquiescence if not
with satisfaction. Macaulay credits Brougham with attempt-
ing to get up an opposition amongst the Quakers, (2) but if
he were in earnest it came to nothing, and he resisted the
1 Walpole's History, 3, 487. 2 Macaulay 's Life, 2, 51.
110
attacks of the Bishops in the House of Lords. (*) The repre-
sentatives of the non-exclusive educationists in the House,
Mr. Wyse and Mr. Ewart, gave their support to the proposal
as' a forward step, not adequate and complete, but the pledge
and guarantee of a national system in time. There was
amongst the Church party some little division of opinion at
the outset. Sir Eobert Inglis, the representative of Oxford
University expressed his gratitude that the Government
proposed to do so little mischief. But the suspicions of Sir
Eobert Peel had been aroused by the ready assent given to
the plan by Liberal members. He demanded distinct infor-
mation of the principles by which the Board would be guided,
challenged the foundation of the Normal school, and claimed
the right of the Church to establish Schools and to insist that
the children should be brought up in the doctrines of the
Church. (2)
In the Lords Bishop Blomfield attacked the plan as
leading to latitudinarianism and irreligion and as the heaviest
blow yet struck at the religion of the country. He
repudiated the claim for religious equality, and said that if
every sect was to have the same advantages as the
Established Church, it might as well abdicate its functions.
The State had delegated its functions in the matter of
educating the poor to the Church, (3) and the duty of the
Bishops, as rulers of the Church, was to protest against any
system not connected with it, or which by implication might
throw discredit on it, or raise Dissenting sects to a level
with it. (4)
A most perverse anxiety was shown to exclude the
public from forming a correct idea of the Government plan
in regard to the Normal School. Viscount Morpeth said the
petitions against it were offensive and mendacious. (5)
1 Hansard, T. S., 47, 756. 2 Ibid, 45, 305.
3 Life of Blomfield, 200. 4 Hansard, T. S., 47, 756. 5 Ibid, 1383.
Ill
Placards against popery and infidelity were paraded together,
and it was stated that the Government was intent on
converting Church children into Socinians and Papists.
The misrepresentations have survived to our own day.
Lord John Kussell explained, in the House of Commons,
that the Government proposed the appointment of a chap-
lain of the Established Church, but that the children of
Dissenters should be instructed in the religious opinions
of their parents. This proposal, as sketched in Bishop
Blomfield's Life, was " the establishment of a model or
Normal School, on a non-exclusive plan, with teachers of
various persuasions, different versions of the Bible, and a
' rector ' of no particular religion." (*) When after the lapse
of a quarter of a century, such a distorted version
could have passed current, the heat and passion of the
time may be imagined. At any rate, they were so great
that the Government determined to lighten their ship, and
the proposal for the establishment of a Normal School was
thrown overboard ; the money intended for its establishment
being subsequently divided between the National Society and
the British and Foreign School Society.
This concession, however, did not satisfy the Opposition.
Lord Stanley, who had himself introduced the Irish system,
attacked the principle of civil education, and quoted some
forgotten Statute of Henry IV., to prove that education was
" chose spirituelle." To give control over such a matter to a
lay body would sap the foundation of all faith, and lead to
general scepticism and national infidelity. (2) He also
attacked the Board as unconstitutional and irresponsible.
The debate was several times adjourned. It may be
interesting to note that both Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli
opposed the Government. The latter in an ingenious speech
said that he feared we were returning to the system of a
1 Life of Blomfield, 194. 2 Hansard, T. S. 48, 259.
112
barbarous age — that of paternal Government. "It was
always the State and never society ; it was always machinery
and never sympathy." He expected to see under the new
system the wildness of fanaticism rather than the rise of
infidelity, and predicted that the Koman Catholic Church
would rise predominant and supreme under the scheme of
the Central Board. English character would become
revolutionized and we could no longer expect English
achievement. (*)
The proposal of the Government was carried in the
Lower House by the narrow majority of two, and the Ministry
barely escaped destruction. The fight was renewed in the
House of Lords, on the motion of Archbishop Howley, for an
address to the Queen, praying that no steps might be taken
to give effect to the plan until the Upper House had had an
opportunity of considering it. The address was carried by
a majority of one-hundred-and-eleven votes, and was taken
by the Peers in procession to Buckingham Palace. (2) The
Government, however, remained firm.
The reply to the address stated that the Queen had
appointed the Committee under a deep sense of duty, and
that all proceedings would be laid before Parliament. The
Queen had often urged Lord Melbourne to introduce some
measure for primary education in England — a work on which
Her Majesty had set her heart on having her reign
remembered. (3)
The Church thus " took the responsibility of resisting
by the utmost exercise of its authority and influence in the
country, in both Houses of Parliament, and at the foot of the
Throne, the first great plan ever proposed, by any Government,
for the education of the humblest classes in Great Britain." (4)
1 Hansard, T. S. 48, 580. 2 Memoir of Blomfield, 200.
3 Life of Melbourne, 2, 309.
4 Shuttleworth, Public Education, 4.
113
At this distance of time, and in view of what has been
done since, this language seems to exaggerate the importance
of the occasion. It would be more correct to say that the
Church opposed the smallest extension of education not under
its own control. Deep offence was felt in the Church, and
for a time the separation between the clergy and the Depart-
ment was complete. It went to such a length that some of
the clergy refused the grants for building. (*) But the
estrangement was of short duration. The Church is never
beaten out of the field, and its action in regard to education
is an example of its tact in turning defeats into victories.
The Normal school disposed of, and the Committee of Council
fairly established, it next turned its attention to the right of
inspection. The clergy were apprehensive that the Inspectors
would be partial to secular teaching and would make religious
knowledge secondary and subordinate. Their object, there-
fore, was to obtain the control of inspection. In this they
were so far successful, that in the next session of Parliament
the Archbishop of Canterbury was able to express his satisfac-
tion at the adjustment of the differences between the friends
of Church education and the Committee of Council. (2) This
arrangement was afterwards known as the Concordat of
1839-40, and while the Church derived substantial advantage
from it, the Dissenters and the public began henceforth to
regard the Department with great suspicion, and all subse-
quent attempts proceeding from it were looked upon as the
result of a preceding agreement with the Church or the
National Society. It became a current belief that the
1 In the condensed account of these transactions contained in Miss
Martineau's History of the Peace there are two important errors. She
assumes that the £10,000 voted for a model school in 1835 was applied for
that purpose. She also states that as the result of the appointment of the
Committee of Council, the clergy afterwards, with few exceptions, refused to
participate in the Government grants. She has evidently been misled by the
statement in the Annual Register for the year.
2 Hansard, T. S., 55, 753.
15
114
Department was " managed " by Bishop Blomfield and Sir
R Inglis. O
The clergy had no intention of being permanently
excluded from the benefits of the grant. Bishop Blomfield
said " If the Government would grant us money, and be
content, as they ought to be, with an inspection authorised
by the Church, we should act very preposterously, I think,
if we were to refuse their proffered assistance." (2) They had
good reason to be satisfied with the terms which were made
for them. In the next ten years (1839-50) £500,000 was
spent on education. Of this £405,000 went to the Church
schools, (3) from which all children were excluded whose
parents objected to the catechism. The Committee of
Council also undertook, before appointing Inspectors, to
consult the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, who were
to be at liberty to suggest persons for the office. This was
valuable State patronage, and has, in more than one instance,
proved a step towards a Bishopric. The regulations
respecting religious teaching were framed by the Archbishops,
and the general regulations were submitted for their approval.
The Inspectors held office during the concurrence of the
Archbishops, and were required to report to them. They were
directed to enquire, with special care, how far the doctrines
and principles of the Church were instilled into the minds of
children, whether Church accommodation was sufficient, and
in a proper situation, and whether the attendance was regular,
and how far the children profited by the public ordinances of
religion; whether private prayers were taught for use at
home, and on the daily practices of the schools with reference
to divine worship, prayer, and psalmody, and instruction in» the
Bible, catechism, and liturgy. The Inspectors became, in fact,
itinerant curates, paid by the State, and were used to
1 Westminster Review, 1849, 182.
2 Blomfield's Life, 202. 3 Census Returns, 1851, xviii.
115
consolidate and strengthen the already powerful diocesan
and parochial organisation of the Church. Under their
direction the thirty-nine articles were taught in some schools,
while in others the children were required to write down on
Monday what they remembered of Sunday's sermon.
As if this were not enough the Department passed a
Minute that, " Their Lordships were of opinion that no plan
of education ought to be encouraged in which intellectual
instruction was not subordinate to the regulation of the thoughts
and habits of children by the doctrines and precepts of revealed
religion," (*) the result being that in a few years they had to
report that the teachers were in the habit of resting satisfied
with a lower standard of proficiency in reading, writing, and
arithmetic, even with their best scholars, than would be
tolerated in any handicraft or occupation by which children
were to earn their living. (2)
The inspection became also a fruitful source of jealousy
and controversy. The obvious leaning of the Department to
the Church, led the Committee of the British and Foreign
School Society to complain, that the arrangements for inspec-
tion were unequal and partial — that the terms were violated,
and that British schools were visited by gentlemen connected
with the Church, who enquired into religious instruction and
reported to the disadvantage of the Society. (3) The Govern-
ment refused, however, to give to the British and Foreign
School Society any similar control over the appointment of
Inspectors to that enjoyed by the Church.
The general result of the action of 1839 was, that the
Church, " instructed by circumstances, succeeded in absorbing
the greater portion of the grant, and in increasing its own
influence ; and the Dissenters complained that a scheme
which had been in the first instance introduced in their
1 Minutes of Council, 1839-40, 24. - Report, 1857, 58, 25.
3 Ibid, 1843, 4, 516.
116
interests, and which had been resisted by Churchmen, was
unduly favouring the cause of the Established Church." (*)
The two fundamental principles of action laid down by
the Department were, that aid should be limited (1) to cases
of great deficiency and where vigorous efforts had been made
to provide funds — and (2) where the daily reading of the
Scripture formed part of the instruction. Preference was given
to schools in connection with the National and British and
Foreign School Societies, and afterwards to those which did
not enforce a rule by which children were compelled to learn
a catechism or attend a place of worship, to which parents
objected on religious grounds.
The effect of the first requirement was to exclude the
poorest districts where education was most required ; that of
the second was to shut out many first-class schools — such as
the Birkbeck schools — the Williams school at Edinburgh, and
other schools of a similar character in Glasgow, Manchester,
London, and other towns, and these remained under this
exclusion up to the Act of 1870.
It was not to be expected that the friends of national
education would rest satisfied with these partial and insufti-
cint means — but for many years it was almost impossible to
make progress. The Central Society of education was
dissolved. Mr. Wyse the chairman was taken into the Treasury,
and Mr. Duppa, the Secretary died. In the patronage of
methods of education, the Committee of Council were careful
to exclude all which originated with men of liberal opinions
or who had been distinguished as educational reformers. (2)
It was not until the Lancashire public school Association was
formed in 1847, that men of this character were able to
make their voice heard, or that an active educational
propaganda was again undertaken in the country.
1 Walpole's History, 3, 490. 2 Westminster Review, 1851, 402.
117
In Parliament there was a small group of men, who were
intensely dissatisfied with the state of education and the
tardy pace at which the Government was proceeding, and
who protested against its grants as paltry and discreditable.
Amongst them were Mr. Ewart, Mr. Milner Gibson, Dr.
Bowring, Mr. Childers, Mr. Slaney, and Mr. Eoebuck. In
1841 Mr. Ewart moved for the appointment of a minister of
public instruction. (l) This motion was frequently renewed
in subsequent sessions, and it led finally to the appointment
of the Vice-President of the Council, and the annual statement
on the education vote. In the same year Mr. Slaney intro-
duced a bill to enable rural parishes to levy a school rate and
make their own arrangements as to schools, with powers to
the magistrates to relieve those who dissented on the ground
of religious scruples. (2) But it did not get beyond the first
reading.
The Whigs were now in opposition. Lord Melbourne
had been succeeded by Sir Kobert Peel, who had constructed
the Ministry whose great achievement, a few years later,
was the repeal of the Corn Laws. Sir James Graham, who,
up to 1837, had been returned as a Liberal and professed
follower of Lord Althorp, had gone over to the Conserva-
tives, and was the Home Secretary in the new Ministry.
Mr. Gladstone was also a member of the Government. The
Ministry adhered to the Minutes of 1839, and carried out
the policy in education of their predecessors, which had been
avowedly based on a compromise dictated by the Tories and
the Church. In the administration of the Department, the
alliance between it and the Church was cemented by the
change of Government. Sir R Peel was a statesman after
the heart of the Church party. On all matters affecting their
interests he consulted the heads of the Church, and with
Bishop Blomfield, who has been called an " Ecclesiastical
1 Hansard, T. S., 57, 936. 2 Ibid, 58, 799.
118
Peel," he maintained the most intimate and confidential
relations. (*) The Dissenters were disposed to look with
suspicion on all measures proceeding from such a Govern-
ment. Sir James Graham had earned their special distrust
by his apostacy from Liberal principles. The way was thus
prepared for the vehement opposition to the educational
clauses of his Factory Bill, which was the prominent
feature of the session of 1843.
At the beginning of the session, a profound impression
was created in the House by a motion of Lord Ashley in
regard to educational deficiences. He relied on the reports
of the Factory and School Inspectors, on that of the Children's
Employment Commission, and those of the Statistical Societies
of Manchester and Birmingham, to prove the failure of the
Factory Acts, the vast educational destitution, and the
frightful results of ignorance.
Sir James Graham took the occasion to explain the views
of the Government. He expressed their desire " to lay aside
all party feelings, all religious differences, to endeavour to
find some neutral ground on which they could build something
approaching to a scheme of national education with a due
regard to the just wishes of the Established Church on the
one hand, and studious attention to the honest scruples of
Dissenters on the other." (2) This was the preface to the
famous factory education scheme, which aroused the utmost
consternation and indignation amongst Dissenters, and which
first taught them the extent of their power in opposing
legislation hostile to their principles.
The Government bill was not in any sense a large educa-
tional measure. It provided for the compulsory education of
children in workhouses, and those employed in woollen, flax,
silk, and cotton manufactories. It reduced the hours of labour
for children between eight and thirteen years of age, to
1 Blomfield's Life, 218. 2 Hansard, T. S., 67, 47.
119
six and a half hours per day, and required that they should
attend school for at least three hours. For these purposes the
Government offered to make loans for the erection of schools,
which were to be maintained out of the poor rate. The trust
clauses became the special point of attack. They confided
the management to a body of seven trustees, composed of the
clergyman and churchwardens ex-officio, and four others, of
whom two, having a property qualification, were to be
appointed by the magistrates, and two were to be mill
owners. The appointment of the master, who was required
to be a member of the Established Church, was placed
in the hands of the trustees, subject to the approval
of the Bishop. The right of inspection was reserved to the
clerical trustees and to the Committee of Council. The
constitution of the trust was humourously offered by the
Government as a guarantee that no undue religious influence
would be used, and there was a conscience clause for the
children of parents who objected to the teaching of the
catechism and attendance at Church.
The plan, says Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, was
" received with a simple and calm acquiesence by the
Established Church." (l) But Sir Eobert Inglis said that it did
not give enough to Churchmen, and would prevent them from
teaching what they believed to be the truth. On the part
of the Opposition, Lord John Bussell gave a qualified approval
to the Bill on its introduction. Mr. Hawes, on behalf of the
Dissenters, and Mr. Smith O'Brien, as representing the Eoman
Catholics, opposed it. The Bill, however, passed the second
reading without a division, Sir James Graham explaining that
the constitution of the Boards was a matter of detail. But
the true nature and effect of the measure were quickly
perceived. " It must gradually subvert and supersede the
independent schools, which had been established by the
1 The School, &c., 67.
120
spontaneous charity of individuals and congregations, and
especially those which owed their origin and success to the
working of the British and Foreign School Society. Sooner
or later a uniform system of Anglican teaching would
obviously be introduced, instead of that which prevailed,
and which naturally reflected every diversity of creed.
All sects of Nonconformists concurred in opposing the
Bill." O Mr. Hume, Mr. Hawes, Mr. C. Wood (Lord
Halifax), Mr. Stansfeld, Mr. M. Phillips, Lord John Eussell,
Mr. Ewart, Sir George Grey, Mr. Milner Gibson, and
Mr. Cobden united in opposing its progress, on the
grounds that it rated all classes and gave the management
to one — that it imposed a rate for teaching Church
doctrines, and that under the guise of education it was an
attempt to recruit for the Church. Mr. Cobden ridiculed it
as a proposal for national education. It would provide only
for some 60,000 children, and imposed Church doctrines
upon a population, the majority of which were Dissenters. (2)
Great meetings were held in the large towns to oppose
it, and resolutions pledging resistance to it were passed by
all bodies of Dissenters. A mass of petitions, such as were
never known in Parliament before, were presented against
it. (3) The discussion was revived in the House of Commons
on a series of resolutions proposed by Lord John Eussell,
demanding the adequate representation of the ratepayers, the
teaching of the Scriptures, the separate teaching of other
religious books, the liberty to attend any Church or Sunday
School, the support of training schools, grants for teaching and
in aid of voluntary efforts, and opposing the disqualification
of masters on religious grounds. As the result of the debates
so raised the Home Secretary undertook to bring forward
amendments.
1 Life of Graham, by Torrens, 2, 234. 2 Hansard, T. S., 67, 1469.
3 Annual Register, 1843, 196.
121
The modifications proposed by the Government on going
into Committee were considerable. They recognised the
liberty of parents to send their children to any Sunday
School, and they provided that instruction in the catechism
and Church doctrines should be given at a separate hour
and in a separate room, and that religious instruction might
also be given separately by Dissenting ministers where it was
desired. (*) The new plan, in this respect, closely resembled
the Irish system. The only compulsory religious observances,
were the reading of the Scriptures and the Lord's Prayer, and
Catholics were at liberty to withdraw from this. New trust
clauses were introduced. The clergyman was to be a trustee,
ex-officio, and to have the power of nominating one other, the
remaining five being elective — one to be chosen by the sub-
scribers, and four by ratepayers assessed at ten pounds. But
one of those cunning "minority" clauses, which are in
restriction of the franchise, was introduced, and prohibited
ratepayers from voting for more than two trustees ; the effect
being, as Lord John Eussell pointed out, to keep the majority
of the Board always on the side of the Church. When the
Dissenters were in a minority, they would be able to elect two
trustees, who would stand alone ; when Churchmen were in a
minority, they would send two members to co-operate with the
ex-officio trustees. The head master was still to be subject
to the veto of the Bishop, but in all matters of management
any one trustee was to have liberty to appeal to the Committee
of Council.
1 Mr. Skeats, in his History of Free Churches, gives a somewhat
confused and incorrect account of these proposals. He says that Sir
James Graham proposed "to attach to each school a chapel, with a clergy-
man." This is hardly borne out by the facts. As amended, the proposition
was to establish a system of combined secular and separate religious teaching,
similar to plans which Dissenters have supported before and since. The
account also does grave injustice to Lord John Russell's views and motives.
16
122
" I am aware," said Sir James Graham, "that the waters
of strife have overflowed, and now cover the land — this is my
olive branch." (*)
But the concession came too late, — the hour for compro-
mise had gone by. The Dissenters had no confidence in the
Government or the Church, and they were greatly excited
and elated by their successful agitation against the bill. It
had revealed resources of numbers, powers of combination,
and ability for organized opposition which they had not
known they possessed. Mr. Roebuck now took up the
question and moved a resolution condemning all attempts on
the part of the State to inculcate particular religious opinions,
and advocating the entire separation of religious and secular
teaching. The proposition was defeated by 156 votes to
sixty. But the fate of the bill was sealed. Petitions were as
numerous as ever. In the city of London 55,000 persons
petitioned against it, and it has been represented that 25,000
petitions containing four millions of signatures were presented
against the bill. The Government confessed that they were
beaten by Exeter Hall and withdrew the measure. Sir James
Graham had now fairly established that ground for suspicion
and distrust which afterwards secured for him the reputation
of being one of the most unpopular ministers England ever
produced.
The Dissenters have been greatly blamed for their action
on this occasion, which exposed them to the charge that they
also cared less for education than for the good of particular
sects. (2) Miss Martineau writes that their position was
lowered more by their policy than by anything they had done
or suffered for a century before. It was a " call for magna-
nimity all round." The Church was in a " genial and
liberal mood," but the Dissenters were not equal to the
1 Hansard, T. S., 68, 1,114. 2 Westminster Review, 1853, 121.
123
occasion, and they erred widely and fatally. (*) It will be
seen that their policy was unfortunate in its consequences
on account of the graver defections and differences to which
it led ; but it is impossible to concur in this indiscriminate
censure as just, or to see where the Nonconformists failed in
generosity in comparison with their opponents. The bill was
a small educational measure. It was another petty adapta-
tion of the tinkering system. Mr. Milner Gibson correctly
described it as a pitiful proposal, and Mr. Cobden said it was
not worth the controversy it would raise. But the principles
were momentous for Dissenters. It was an attack on them
on their own ground, and an attempt to arrest the growth of
their influence over the manufacturing classes. Nor can it be
assumed that it was an educational loss. If the bill had been
passed it would have put off for an indefinite period any
further efforts by the Government. The Ministers and Bishops
with whom they were in alliance were the real obstructives.
In this as in nearly every Government scheme proposed, the
control of education was given to the hereditary foes of
progress and of liberal ideas. There is reason to believe that
•all parties in the State might now have agreed upon a plan
of National Education ; but for the opposition of the Bishops.
Political economists, and men of great weight in Parliament
and amongst all sections of the community were turning their
attention to the " combined" system as it existed in Ireland.
But the heads of the Church were resolved not to give their
sanction to a scheme which did not leave the appointment of
the schoolmasters in the hands of the clergy. (2) This was
their ultimatum. In the debates on this bill Sir James
Graham declared that it was a point on which he could make
no concession. From this time the difficulties of compromise
increased. New causes of difference sprang into existence. The
Education Department was in constant opposition to sections
1 Martineau's History of the Peace, 2 Westminster Review, 1840, 228.
124
which were themselves bitterly opposed to each other, and
the educationists and men of liberal opinions, saw the day of
a national system postponed, and even the principle of State
Education seriously imperilled.
The errors of the Nonconformists began from this time.
They had proved their power for opposition, and they too
readily assumed that they were equally potential in construc-
tion. The voluntary movement now began, and large bodies
of Dissenters of various denominations combined to resist the
intervention of Government in education. Henceforward for
many years a large section of the Nonconfomist body was
fighting for the integral principle of the English and Eoman
Churches, that education must be kept under ecclesiastical,
or congregational direction. They never avowed this in terms,
and each party would have repudiated the alliance, but as a
matter of fact Cardinal Manning and Archdeacon Denison on
the one hand, and Mr. Baines, Mr. Miall, and Dr. Hamilton
on the other were contending for the self same principle — the
freedom of education from all State control. Of the two
parties the latter were the pure Voluntaryists and the most
consistent — since they repudiated State aid as well as State
direction. The clergy with some notable exceptions who
found a leader and representative in Archdeacon Denison, were
willing to accept State grants, so long as their right to absolute
control was not questioned. This movement, especially as
proceeding from the Dissenters, became one of the most
formidable obstructions to national education, although both
amongst the Church and Nonconformists there was a powerful
and distinguished minority which rejected the extreme
pretensions of those who assumed to speak with authority
for their respective sides.
The discovery by the Nonconformists that State education
was hostile to sound political and civil doctrine, and to the
development of national life in its highest and purest forms,
125
was made rather late, and forces the conclusion that the
position was assumed rather in defence of sectional interests
than on account of any fundamental objections in principle.
The Dissenters were driven to this new ground by the partiality
which the State system showed to the Church, and by the
supreme influence which the clergy were suffered to exercise
over the Department. In 1839 the Friends, Baptists, and
Congregationalists were unanimous in asking for the agency
of the State, and they usually joined in supporting the schools
of the British and Foreign Society. The Wesley ans also often
supported British schools, and it was not until the Education
Committee was appointed in 1836, that they began to estab-
lish separate schools where practicable. They never had
refused the Government grant, and although they became
very suspicious of the Committee of Council, they did not, as
a body, embrace the new doctrines of educational free trade
and the immorality of Government teaching. Up to the
introduction of Sir James Graham's factory bill, the leaders of
the Congregationalists, who supplied the energy for the new
movement, were not opposed to State aid. In the debates of
1847, Sir George Grey quoted the Leeds Mercury of March,
1842, which advocated two schools in each district — one for the
Church and one for Dissent, each to be equally supported
by the Government. The objections to Government teaching
were first formulated at the meeting of the Congregational
Union held at Leeds in 1843, when the excitement of the
struggle against the " partial and arbitrary measure " of the
Government had not subsided. At this meeting it was
decided to support separate schools, and that their future
efforts should be voluntary, and wholly independent of State
aid. No decided final opinion was at first pronounced on
the propriety of Government interference, but doubts were
expressed whether it could be allowed " without establishing
principles and precedents dangerous to civil and religious
126
liberty, inconsistent with the rights of industry, and super-
seding the duties of parents and of churches." From the
differences acknowledged to exist between religious bodies,
the meeting concluded, " without despondency or regret," that
both general and religious education must be chiefly provided
and conducted by various denominations of Christians.
At a meeting held in London in December, 1843, it was
declared that the education given by the Congregational
churches must be religious, and it was recommended that
no Government aid be received for schools established in
their own connection, and that all funds subscribed should
be granted to schools sustained entirely by voluntary
contributions. (*)
The Baptists, while they shared to a large extent the
distrust of the Education Department, never went the length
of the Independents in their opposition to State aid. They
recommended co-operation with the friends of scriptural
education at large — that is, the British and Foreign School
Society's plan, in preference to the establishment of denom-
inational schools. They repudiated the idea which Sir James
Kay Shuttleworth had put forward, that public education was
the work of religious communions — " an idea which, if
practically carried out, would require the impossible result
that every religious communion, however small, should have
an establishment of schools spread over the whole country,
at least co-extensive with the diffusion of its members." (2) A
few years later, many Baptists and Congregationalists threw
their weight into the secular movement, which appeared to
provide the only safe, final, and permanent basis upon which
the question could rest.
The axioms laid down by the Voluntaryists, on which
their propaganda was based, were : — 1. It was not within the
legitimate province of the State to educate the people. 2. State
1 Education Tables. Census, 1851, Iviii. 2 Ibid.
127
education would lead to unfortunate results, of a religious,
social, and political character. 3. The people were quite able
to provide instruction for themselves, and were doing so as
fast as could be reasonably desired.
This position was founded on reasons partly historical
and religious, and partly social and political. The religious
ground was old and strong, but it was not applicable to the
circumstances of the case. They were opposed, as they
always had been, to the acceptance of State aid for religious
teaching, and rejected state interference with spiritual
matters as a violation of religious liberty. The right of
private judgment on religious questions — the immorality of
State endowments for supporting spiritual beliefs — the entire
separation of the civil from the spiritual powers, were
fundamental principles of their Church policy.
But in applying them to elementary education — the
teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic — they made a
great mistake. There was a consistent ground which they
might have taken — the separation of religious and secular
teaching. They had found no difficulty in supporting the
Government plan for a Normal School in 1839, where the
general instruction was to be given together, and special
religious instruction separately. (J) [In maintaining this plan
they would have found ample opportunity for the logical
enforcement of their principles. No doubt education, as it
was administered under the direction of the Department, was
a constant violation of their most sacred opinions. While it
was a constant attack on their religious efforts, and especially
upon their Sunday schools, it threatened, as they thought, to
prepare the way for universal endowment, and the pensioning
of all denominations. It was a system too in which the
bribes were mostly on one side — that of the Church. The
Church day school was becoming the most conspicuous
1 Life of Baines, 256.
128
feature in modern institutions, and it was the rule of the
Church day school that its scholars should attend the Church
Sunday school. These ohvious facts made splendid material
for an attack upon the unjust and partial minutes by which
these arrangements were carried out, and it does not speak well
for the sagacity of the leaders of the voluntary movement, that
instead of combining on this line of assault they should have
asked the Government to do nothing at all, a request which
every day made it more impossible for any English Ministry
to comply with.
The political and economical principles advanced in
support of the voluntary movement had an air of plausibility,
but when examined they failed to stand the tests of
experience, or of any political philosophy which had been
through the fire of proof. It was an attempt to set
up a new political economy, combined with a sectarian
agitation. In fact again, it rested on the false assumption,
that the teaching of the rudiments of letters cannot be
separated from religious instruction. State education was
denounced as an invasion of civil rights — an attempt to
deprive parents of their responsibilities and duties — a recog-
nition of Communism. It was predicted that it would
establish a despotism over thought, benumb the intellect, and
undermine the manly independence and self-reliance of the
English character. The stagnation of Government depart-
ments was contrasted with the vigour and enthusiasm of
private enterprises. The arguments of Mr. Disraeli in 1839
in opposition to machinery and routine as compared with
independent agencies were disinterred. It was also concluded
that State instruction was an attack on voluntary charity, and
on the principles of local self-government. The enormous
amount of State patronage which the system placed at the
disposal of the Government was regarded as a social danger.
Lastly it was said, that voluntary agencies were sufficient to
129
supply the utmost need of education, and that the natural
laws of supply and demand if left to work unfettered and
unrestricted were capable of covering the land with schools,
and were actually doing it as fast as was desirable. Free
trade in food was beginning to be the one engrossing cry of
the people, and it was a natural and an easy assumption
that free trade in all matters would be a national blessing.
This controversy has been long since decided. It is now
acknowledged that the extinction of indiscriminate individual
charity would be a blessing rather than an evil. It is admitted,
too, that the Voluntaryists were fighting not for the rights and
duties of parents, but for the control of education by religious
denominations — not for self-government by the people, but
for the government of churches, ministers, congregations,
and benevolent societies. The law of supply and demand
had been at liberty to work for hundreds of years, and had
accomplished nothing. It was an inoperative law, and
had conspicuously failed. " Education in its simplest form,
which is one of the first and highest of all human interests,
is a matter in which Government initiation and direction are
imperatively required, for uninstructed people will never
demand it, and to appreciate education is itself a consequence
of education." (*) It was evident the Voluntaryists did not
rely upon the law of supply and demand, but on sectarian
and party rivalry *and zeal, which is quite a different thing.
One unfortunate result of the ardour with which the
Voluntaryists championed their opinions was, that they were
led seriously to overrate the efficiency of existing voluntary
means. While they depreciated the amount of education
needed, they were too much disposed to overlook its quality
altogether, and they magnified every paltry effort at progress
made by the Government into a great and elaborate scheme.
As an instance of the inevitable tendency to put the require-
1 Lecky's History of 18th Century, I., 458.
* 17
130
ment as low as possible, Mr. Baines, in 1846, estimated that
one in nine was the proper proportion of scholars to popula-
tion. In 1854 Sir James K. Shuttleworth had raised the
estimate to one in eight, (*) and at a later period one in six
was the recognised proportion.
The leaders of the voluntary movement advocated their
views with an energy and ability worthy of a stronger cause.
They published elaborate statistics to prove that there was no
serious deficiency in educational means, and that the
emulation of religious bodies, and the competition of private
schools afforded the best guarantee for the required extension.
They sent out lecturers, held meetings, and organised
voluntary education societies and committees in many parts
of the country. They pointed to the vast achievements of
individual benevolence, the increase in churches and
charitable institutions, and to the rich and half-developed
energies of the people, as reasons why it was " not wise to
depart from the old English system of free and independent
education." (2) The argument was not a strong one. There
was no " old English " system of education, and of the results
which had been effected by such means as existed, a
large proportion had been accomplished by Government
assistance. The Church supplied the largest share of
voluntary education, but it had been the policy of the
Government, within a few years previous to this controversy, to
make large and direct grants for building churches and for the
augmentation of livings. But the Nonconformists were not to
be daunted or denied. Galileo was not more convinced than
they were, (3) and Mr. Baines exultingly nourished the Leeds
Mercury before his audience, to prove the rapid advance in
popular knowledge and intelligence.
1 Census Returns, 1851, xxi. 2 Life of Baines, 330.
3 Crosby Hall Lectures, 92. These Ie3tures contain the authoritative
exposition of the views of the leaders of the movement. The lecturers were
Mr. Baines, the Rev. A. Wells, Dr. Hamilton, the Rev. A. Reed, Mr. Miall,
Mr. Henry Richards, and the Rev. R. Ainslie. A newspaper, called the
Banner, was also devoted to the agitation.
131
It is a pleasure to acknowledge that the Voluntaryists did
not seek to spread their opinions by words alone. They were
ready to tax themselves heavily in support of their
consciences. The Congregational Board of Education under-
took to raise £200,000 for the purpose of building schools, and
up to 1859 had collected about £180,000. (J) The Voluntary
Board of Education was established for the same purpose.
Homerton Training College was also the result of their
generosity and energy, and up to 1851 they had erected 364
elementary schools, which were wholly supported by
subscriptions and school pence. With all their efforts they
were no match for the Church and the Government together.
The inevitable consequence was that the clergy were
acquiring a wider and a stronger grasp over the system of
State schools.
The year 1847 marks the third period of Ministerial
proposals in regard to education. Lord John Eussell had
succeeded Sir Eobert Peel as Prime Minister. The engrossing
question of the Corn Laws had been settled, and it was
understood that the new Government would give special
attention to education, and would bring forward a compre-
hensive national scheme. The proposals were introduced by
Lord John Eussell with an earnestness and mass of detail
which indicated that the Whig Cabinet attached great
importance to the question. (2) But the measures hardly
corresponded in grasp and comprehensiveness with the speech
which introduced them. The Minutes were laid before the
House in April, 1847. They authorised the President of the
Council to frame regulations respecting the apprenticeship of
the pupil teachers. They provided for exhibitions to Normal
schools, to be held by " Queen's scholars ;" for payment to
masters for training pupil teachers ; for increased grants to
Normal schools ; for grants and pensions to masters trained in
1 Newcastle Commission, 6, 273. 2 Life of Peel, by Guizot.
132
Normal schools ; and for grants to schools of industry. The
pupil teachers in Church schools were placed under the
instruction of the clergy in religious matters, and were
required to have a certificate of moral character from a
clergyman.
The discussions upon this plan show how completely
education had come to be looked at as a matter of sectional
interest, rather than as a national concern. The Voluntaryists,
who comprised the largest section of Protestant Dissenters,
magnified it into a great and elaborate scheme, calculated to
strengthen the hands of the Church, to which State Education
was being rapidly abandoned by the Dissenters. It was
received with grief and dread, and united the bulk of the
Nonconformists in a firm opposition. The Unitarians were an
exception. They supported this as they have done all
measures, great or small, for the advancement of education.
Meetings were held in London and in many provincial towns
against the scheme. In Birmingham the Mayor called a
town's meeting, at which the Eev. John Angell James pro-
posed a resolution condemning the minutes, which was carried
notwithstanding the opposition of a vigorous minority led by
the Eev. G. S. Bull, and the recorder Mr. M. D. Hill. (l)
In London between three and four hundred delegates from
congregations met at Exeter Hall and tried to overcome
the Ministry by threatening to withdraw their support at the
elections. This menace drew a strong protest from Lord John
Eussell in the House of Commons.
The Church party in Parliament, and the Conservatives
gave their approval to the scheme. The High Church party
had not taken alarm as yet. The management clauses about
which such stormy differences arose had not been brought
under the notice of Parliament. Bishop Blomfield expressed
his approval in the Lords, and thought it was exceedingly
1 Langford's Modern Birmingham, 1, 127.
133
wise and prudent not to interfere with the existing
system. (*) Lord Brougham denounced it as no plan, but the
imperfect substitute of a measure promised and expected, but
withheld, and warmly complained of the Church and the sects
that they loved controversy more than education. Sir Eobert
Peel supported the Government in the Commons, and put
forcibly before the House the condition of the Irish popula-
tion of Manchester, on whose behalf he made an unanswerable
appeal.
Before the vote was moved there were some pertinent
questions put to Ministers respecting the positions of the
Wesleyans and Eoman Catholics. It was elicited that the
Government were manoeuvering to secure the support of both
parties. The existing Minutes provided that aid should only
be given to schools in which the authorised version was used.
The Wesleyans had been told, on authority which they regarded
as sufficient, that the Catholics would not be allowed to share
in the grant, and they had also been conciliated by being
allowed to use their own catechisim and to nominate their
own Inspectors. (2) But in the House of Commons, Lord
John Eussell, without pledging the Government to a promise,
said enough to satisfy the Eoman Catholics that a new Minute
would be introduced which would admit them to a share of
the grant. This was actually done at an early date.
Lord John Eussell, in moving the vote of £100,000,
anticipated some of the objections which would be urged
against the Minutes, and admitted that it would have been
better if at the beginning of the century a united system had
been devised. But every step taken had made it more
difficult to go back. He condemned the intolerance of the
National Society in insisting that all children who attended
its schools should learn the catechism and go to Church. It
was weakly urged, on the part of the Government, that the
1 Hansard, T. S., 89, 858. 2 Ibid, 91, 818.
134
Minutes did not empower the conductors of schools to
compel attendance at Church and Sunday schools — they
did it on their own responsibility. The Government did
not think that the making the grant entitled them to impose
terms on the National schools which they would not
be willing to adopt, and the Minister expressed the fear,
which all experience proves to have been unwarranted — that
the imposition of conditions protecting the children of
Dissenters would prevent the National Society from accept-
ing aid, and lead to the closing of its schools.
The grant was strongly opposed on behalf of the Noncon-
formists, and led to an animated discussion. The debate was
remarkable, chiefly for the speeches of Mr. Macaulay and Mr.
Bright. Mr. Macaulay, who was a member of the Committee
of Council, supported the proposition of his colleagues in the
Ministry. His speech, while not a strong defence of the
particular Minutes, was a most able exposition of the reasons
in favour of State education, and as such it gave great offence
to the voluntaryists. Mr. Bright's speech was an attack on a
system of education, conducted solely on Church and State
principles. He showed that every step taken between 1839
and 1847 had for its tendency the aggrandizement of the
Church, and that the object and result of the Minutes proposed,
would be to give enormous and increased powers to the Estab-
lishment. But Mr. Bright it is clear did not share the extreme
views of the voluntary party. His objections were based on
the wider view of religious freedom and equality. He said, —
" Free us from the trammels of your Church — set religion
apart from the interference of the State. If you will make
full provision for education, let it not depend upon the
doctrines of a particular creed, and then you will find the
various sects in this country will be as harmonious on the
question of education as are the people of the United States
of America."
135
" Nothing tends more to impede the progress of liberty,
nothing is more fatal to independence of spirit in the public,
than to add to the powers of the priesthood in the matter of
education. If you give them such increased power by
legislative enactments, you do more than you could effect
by any other means to enslave and degrade a people subject
to their influence." (J)
The Government proposals were carried by an enormous
majority, and subsequent motions by Sir William Molesworth
to admit Eoman Catholics (2) to the benefit of the grant, and
by Mr. Ewart for a conscience clause to protect the children
of the Dissenters, were lost. A small incident in the House
of Lords increased the estrangement between the Noncon-
formists and the Department. A Minute was laid on the
table to relieve the managers of dissenting schools from
certifying as to the religious knowledge of pupil teachers.
In the explanations respecting it, the Bishop of London said
that the Church was not prepared to acquiesce in modifica-
tions and additions from time to time to suit the prejudices
of Dissenters. " There was nothing in the compact between
the Church and the Government on this subject which would
allow the latter to infringe on the Minutes of the Privy
Council, which were prepared with care, and which it was
understood were to be fully and fairly carried out." (3) The
suspicions of the Dissenters were confirmed, that all steps
taken by the Government were made after consultation with,
and with the approval of, the dominant sect.
The Voluntaryists were now determined to put their
strength to a crucial test. It was, however, abundantly clear
that they did not command the numbers or the united
enthusiasm which in 1843 had enabled the Dissenting body
1 Bright's Speeches, 2, 509, 7.
2 Roman Catholic schools were admitted to grants in 1848, and Jewish
schools in 1852.
3 Hansard, T. S., 94, 666.
136
to defy the Ministry of Sir Eobert Peel. The petitions against
Sir James Graham's bill had contained millions of signatures.
Against the Minutes of 1847, there were 4,203 petitions
presented, having only 559,977 signatures. Notwithstanding
this indication of division and defection, the Voluntaryists
were as good as their word in the threatened opposition to
Ministers. At the general election, which took place in the
summer of 1847, they opposed many Liberals who had voted
for the Government Minutes. Mr. Hawes lost his seat for
Lambeth on this account. At Leeds, the head quarters of the
movement, Mr. Joseph Sturge, of Birmingham, stood as
the representative of the Dissenters on this special ground.
He was, however, badly beaten. They were reconciled, how-
ever, by the defeat of Mr. Macaulay at Edinburgh, for which
they took credit. (*) There were, however, many contributing
causes to his defeat. The drinkers of cheap whiskey, and the
opponents of the Maynooth grant, which he had supported,
were offended with him. With these, and others, the
Dissenters allied themselves, to humiliate a man whose
whole life was a plea for enlightenment and freedom, and a
protest against ignorance and its attendant superstition and
narrowness.
The opposition of the Voluntaryists continued for several
years, and for some time they continued to increase, and were
conspicuous for their energy and earnestness. But within ten
years the movement had spent itself. Some of the most
eminent members of the Congregational and Baptist commu-
nions, including Dr Yaughan and the Eev. Thomas Binney,
while opposing the ecclesiastical tendency of the Government
minutes, and the partiality shown to the Church, had refused
to subscribe to the political doctrine that the State is not
entitled to interfere for the education of the people. Such an
abstract doctrine of the province of Government was never
1 Life of Baines, 336.
137
accepted by the wisest and strongest heads of the dissenting
bodies. Their objections were limited to the State becoming
a teacher of religion by means of the apparatus of the religious
sects. (*) As new phases of the question were developed,
there were many desertions from the voluntary ranks. Many
Congregationalists were members of the National Public School
Association, and others supported the Manchester and Salford
Bill. The Newcastle Commission, of 1858, on which the
voluntary party was represented, was able to report that the
number of persons having conscientious objections to the
acceptance of State aid was greatly diminished, and that all
denominations were then in receipt of grants.
Some modifications of the minutes were introduced
relieving schools from reporting on religious instruction, and
this paved the way for a reconciliation. But the failure of
the voluntary movement was owing to the conviction, that the
ignorance of the country could never be overtaken without
assistance from the State. Lord John Eussell quoted from Dr.
Vaughan's articles in the British Quarterly Review, to prove
that in every ten years a million and a quarter of children
were thrown on society without any education. Mr. Dunn, the
Secretary of the British and Foreign School Society, confessed
that an examination of British schools demonstrated the utter
inadequacy of voluntary means to educate the country. Sir
James Kay Shuttle worth estimated in 1855 that nearly
£3,000,000 was required for building schools. " There are no
facts to support the hope, that unless the amount of aid from
the public resources was greatly increased, and distributed
upon principles applying the greatest stimulus to voluntary
efforts, the existing agencies could provide for the education
of the poorer classes." (2) In 1850 the Archbishop of
Canterbury said the Church could never from its own funds
provide accommodation for the increasing numbers of children.
1 British Quarterly Review, 1847, 504. 2 Public Education, 260.
IS
138
In the same year Mr. Fox stated in the House of Commons,
that the Congregationalists had suspended grants to poor
schools. The balance sheet of the Congregational Board of
Education, presented 10th of May, 1850, showed the receipts
for 1849 to be £1,734 14s. 10d., or a little more than a pound
a head for the members in union. The third report of the
Voluntary School Association, in 1851, stated that there were
six pupils in the Normal school, and that £84 was granted
during the year to necessitous schools. (*) At the same time
three school Inspectors reported officially that numerous
national schools must be shut up from the falling off of sub-
scriptions. The "illimitable" resources of the National Society
were also failing. In 1839, the Committee reported that their
machinery was working well, and promised before long to
embrace in its operations the whole body of the peasantry. (2)
Ten years later the report stated that its finances were
embarrassed, that it was compelled to suspend operations for
building schools, and that it apprehended the necessity of
diminishing the supply of teachers. (3)
The voluntary movement was beaten by the irresistible
logic of facts, which no easy improvisation of first principles,
no versatility in the arrangement of statistics, and indeed no
generosity of purse and service could successfully encounter.
While it was in its first vigour it effectually obstructed
progress, and even after its early force was spent, it was a
disturbing influence of sufficient magnitude to prevent the
union of parties on a common basis.
The years 1845-7 were memorable also for the beginning
of a dispute between the Education Department and the
High Church party which occasioned intense feeling, led to
serious divisions in the Church and the National Society, and
prepared the way for new arrangements and alliances of
1 Westminster Review, 1851, 467. 2 British and Foreign Review, 1840-50.
3 Dean Hamilton on the Privy Council and National Society, 52.
139
parties in the country and Parliament. These differences are
chiefly now interesting because of the extraordinary preten-
sions put forward on behalf of the Church, and because many
of the men engaged in them have been conspicuous and
familiar forms in the public life of the time. The first reasons
for the complete severance of Mr. Gladstone from the Con-
servative party probably arose out of this dispute, since the
opposition to him at Oxford, in 1852, was the direct conse-
quence of the discussions. The story of this .controversy has
been told by Archdeacon Denison from the Church point of
view in his " Notes of my Life," in a manner which must win
for him respect and regard, even by those who are irre-
concilably hostile to the principles he contended for. The
view which was taken at the Education Department has
been described by Sir James Kay Shuttleworth in " Public
Education." The briefest sketch of the movement and its
consequences will suffice for the purpose of this history.
The dispute ostensibly began over the management
clauses, which were submitted to Church schools for insertion
in their trust deeds by the Committee of Council, in cases where
grants were made for erection out of the public funds. This was
merely the formal laying of a venue where the dispute could
be tried. The real issue involved the rights of the State and
the Church respectively to the control of public education,
and the object on the part of the Church was to check the
growing power and influence of the State Department at
Whitehall — or, as Archdeacon Denison would put it, to
defeat the Whig plot for crushing Church schools.
The management clauses were not however the creation
of a Whig Government. The correspondence respecting them
began in 1845, when Sir Robert Peel was in power, and they
were submitted to the National Society during his adminis-
tration. Their object was to secure the preservation of
140
schools for the purposes for which they were erected, and to
define the authority by which they should be governed.
There had been much looseness in regard to the trust deeds.
Many school deeds were not enrolled in Chancery, and were
found to be invalid. In others, conveyances were made to
individual trustees, which involved great trouble and expense.
In some deeds there were no management clauses — while in
others the provisions for management comprised every form
of negligent or discordant arrangement. " Often there was no
management clause ; in which case the government of the
school devolved on the individual trustees and their heirs,
who might be non-resident, minors, lunatics, or otherwise
incapable." (*) The Committee of Council therefore resolved
to make the adoption of the management clauses a condition
precedent to the receipt of aid from the grant. There were
several clauses adapted to the circumstances of towns and
parishes. In substance, they placed the control of the school
premises, and the superintendence of the moral and religious
instruction, exclusively in the hands of the clergy. The
government of the school, and the appointment and dismissal
of teachers, were vested in a committee, consisting of the
officiating minister and his curates, and a certain number of
persons who were residents or contributors to the school.
The latter were to be elected by subscribers, having votes in
proportion to their contributions, and being members of the
Church of England. The schoolmaster was to be, by the
terms of the trust, a member of the Established Church, and
the minister was ex-officio chairman of the committee. The
Committee of Council also consented that a rigorous test of
church membership should be imposed on the lay members
of the committee, who were required to sign a declaration
that they were members and communicants of the Church.
A further demand made by the National Society for an appeal
1 Newcastle Commission Report, 57.
141
to the Bishop on matters not relating to moral or'religious
instruction, was refused by the Department.
It will be seen that these clauses did not encroach on the
terms of union with the National Society. These terms were,
that the children should be instructed in the liturgy and
catechism of the Church of England, that the schools should
be subject to the superintendence of the parochial clergyman,
that the children should be regularly assembled for the
purpose of attending divine service in the parish church,
unless satisfactory reasons for non-attendance were given ;
that the masters and mistresses should be members of the
Church of England, and that reports should be made to
the diocesan board by inspectors appointed by the Bishop
or National Society. (*)
These conditions were allowed to be observed in the
schools of the powerful National Society at a time when
Wesleyans and Jews were compelled to adopt a conscience
clause for the protection of children whose parents objected
to religious teaching.
The Committee of the National Society was not satisfied,
and at a meeting, presided over by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, a resolution was passed that " no terms of
co-operation with the State could be satisfactory which should
not allow to the clergy and laity full freedom to constitute
schools upon such principles and models as were sanctioned
by order and practice of the Church, and that, in particular,
they should desire to put the management of their schools
solely in the hands of the clergy and Bishop of the
diocese." (2)
A determined effort was made by the National Society
to constitute the Bishop the appellate tribunal in secular as
well as religious matters. As a compromise the Committee of
Council proposed that the Lord President should nominate
1 Minutes of Council, 1847-8, Ixxiv. 2 Hansard, T. S., 105, 1079.
142
one arbitrator and the Bishop another. The Committee of
the National Society was not satisfied and refused to join in
the recommendation of the management clauses. The
consequence was a temporary suspension of grants for
erecting Church schools. Petitions were presented to
Parliament complaining of the decision of the Department^1)
The pretensions of the High Church party at this time,
in defiance of history, and of the forces of opinion which
were set against them, are best illustrated by a few extracts
from their speeches and writings. (2)
" The case was this : a very simple one. So long as the
civil power would help the spiritual power to do God's work
in the world, on those terms of which alone the spiritual
power could be the fitting judge, so long the help would be as
it ought to be thankfully received." " They
were fighting for great and sacred principles, for the
upholding of the office of the ministry in God's Church, as
charged by God with the responsibility of educating the
people." "The parish school of the English
parish is the nursery of catholic truth and apostolic
discipline." — Archdeacon Denison.
" The true and perfect idea of Christendom is the consti-
tution of all social order upon the basis of faith and within
the unity of the Church." " Let it be plainly
and finally made clear that the co-partnership between the
Church and the State in the work of education, is in the fruits
and not in the direction." " But that gives
the State no claim, as joint founder, to intervene in the
management of the schools." — Archdeacon Manning.
" We shall be obliged to go to Government and to
Parliament, not to ask for a participation in the grants of
money distributed on the present principles, but to tell them,
backed by the voice of three-fourths of the empire, of all
1 Hansard, T. S., 109, 259. 2 See Public Education, 8-10.
143
denominations, that the State shall not, without a creed and
without a sacrament, and without any ministerial authority
from God, undertake to educate the people of the country." —
Rev. W. Sewell.
11 What he contended for was nothing less than this —
the birthright of the children of God to be trained up in an
atmosphere of truth, not an atmosphere of conflicting creeds
and varities of opinion." . . . . " Under no circumstances
whatever could I consent to admit a single child to a school
of which I have the control and management, without insisting
most positively and strictly on the learning of the catechism
and attendance at Church on Sundays." — Hon. J. C. Talbot.
There was much more of the same description. The
right of the Church to unconditional assistance was insisted
on. The civil power was charged with forgetting God and
dishonouring Christ, by proclaiming openly, that the ministers
of Christ were no longer fit to be trusted solely and exclusively
with the education of the people. The Divine commission
of the Church to teach was reasserted. An outline of Church
education was prepared by Archdeacon Denison, in which he
set forth the respective provinces of Church and State. The
supporters of schools were to make application through the
Diocesan Board of Education to the Bishop, and the Bishop
was to represent to the Government that certain schools were
proposed — that others were in want of annual assistance —
that certain amounts were required for training colleges and
for maintaining Diocesan Inspectors. The business of the
Education Department should be simply to meet the represen-
tations of the Bishop, by annual grants of money. A return
of the grants to Parliament with the certificates of the Diocesan
Inspectors as to efficiency, would be the guarantees for the
due application of the public money.
There was a large party in the National Society and in the
Church hostile to these contentions, and the annual meetings
144
of the Society for several years were pitched battles between
the High Church party on the one hand and the forces of
Low Church and moderates or Liberals on the other. (*) The
liberal clergy and laity were strongly opposed to the views of
the mediaeval party, and presented a memorial to the Society
asking to be allowed to nominate members of the com-
mittee. (2) A deputation waited upon the Archbishop of
Canterbury, at Lambeth, and stated that if the constitution
of the National Society was not altered they would feel
compelled to establish a new Society for promoting education
according to the principles of the Church. The Low Church
party accused the High Churchmen of preferring to keep
children in ignorance rather than let them receive light not
tinted by themselves. (3) The heat occasioned by this con-
troversy lasted about five years. The " Church army," as
Archdeacon Denison called his supporters, finally broke up
in 1853, after the unsuccessful assault on the seat of Mr.
Gladstone, at Oxford.
Conflicting views have been held as to the part and
position which the Committee of Council played in these
various struggles. Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, for whose
affection for his Department due allowance will be made,
claims that it was recognised as the protector of minorities,
the champion of civil and religious liberty, and the opponent
of exalted spiritual authority ; and that there was a gradual
reconciliation towards it on the part of the Dissenters, as
tending to place authority in the hands of the congregation
rather than the priesthood. (4) Archdeacon Denison writes : —
" I do not know anything anywhere so clever and so triumphant
as the policy of the Committee of Council on Education since
1840, except it be a Russian diplomacy, which is undoubtedly
1 Blomfield's Life, 204. 2 Shuttleworth's Public Education, 21.
3 Memoirs of Sara Coleridge, 2, 360.
4 Shuttleworth, pub. edn., 23.
145
the first thing of its kind anywhere upon record." (x) He
gives an amusing account of the weapons in the Downing
Street armoury. It is strange that, with all his acuteness,
and his steadfast courage to look facts in the face, Archdeacon
Denison does not yet see that he was beaten, not by a com-
mittee, or a secretary, or a department, or a policy — but by
the change in the spirit of the times, by the development of
national life, and the growth of new forces, principles, and
aspirations.
There is yet another view of the operations of the
Department. " In placing funds, institutions, teachers,
and pupils in the hands of irresponsible Corporations — some
of them governed by the bitterest opponents of secular
instruction — the Committee of Council have piled up obstruc-
tion upon obstruction to the cause of progress," (2) and this
was the view taken by men who were most anxious to see the
establishment of a system on some definite basis adequate to
the momentous interests concerned.
A correct historical judgment of the earlier proceedings
of the Department must embrace many circumstances in its
consideration, and chief of all the inherent difficulties
which arose out of its construction. It changed with every
Administration, and drifted with every current of opinion. It
had no definite principle or policy. It was an expedient
adopted to evade a difficulty in the closing years of the
Melbourne administration, which were marked by shifts and
expedients. It was, of necessity, always on the look out for
support and popularity, and inclined, therefore, to the
strongest side. Its compact with the Church in 1840 was an
instance of its subjection to political emergencies. It obtained
the support of the Wesleyans by concessions in regard to
inspection and the catechism. In the same way it bought off
the opposition of Catholics by admitting their schools to
1 Notes of my Life, 120. 2 Westminster Review, 1854, 409.
19
146
grants. It could not be an originating department on
account of its relations to different parties. The minutes
adopted under one Government were subject to reversal under
the next, and in more than one instance this actually
occurred. Its power was immense, but it was only the power
of a huge paymaster. It was popular with no party, unless
it was the Low Church clergy, who were satisfied with the
preponderating influence it placed in the hands of the
Church. It was opposed by all who claimed the spiritual
control of education — by the Voluntaryists, who objected
to any State intervention, by the Dissenters who were jealous
of the Church and suspicious of its designs, and by earnest
educationists who disbelieved in its methods and efficiency,
and saw in it only a clog and hindrance to the cause they
had at heart. But this very unpopularity kept the question
alive, and gave an impetus to popular movements for the
establishment of a system on definite lines, subject neither
to the servilities nor partialities of office, nor to the
fluctuations of party politics.
147
CHAPTER IV.
PERIOD. — FROM THE FORMATION OF THE LANCASHIRE
PUBLIC SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, 1847, TO THAT OF
THE LEAGUE, 1869.
A NEW direction was given to the popular agitation for
education by the formation of the Lancashire Public
School Association, and by the advocacy which eminent
Churchmen and Nonconformists were giving to a "combined"
system. The apathy of the Government, the divisions amongst
religious denominations, the distrust and suspicion caused
by the policy of the Education Department, and above all
the exclusiveness and narrowness of the voluntary societies,
were leading educational reformers to look to independent
sources for the solution of difficulties which had hitherto
seemed to increase with every fresh effort to overcome them.
The National Society clung with tenacity to its exclusive
conditions, and the British and Foreign School Society was
falling under the suspicion of being on its own lines, equally
bigoted and sectarian. Eoman Catholics, Jews and Unitarians
were excluded from its Normal school, and it was complained
that its day schools had a creed of their own as much as
those of the National Society. Confidence in a system so
administered, and governed at every point by party and
sectarian interests was incompatible with any comprehensive
consideration of the subject.
Local government and a larger measure of local support
were the two fundamental principles of the new agitation.
With these it was attempted to reconcile religious differences,
by looking for a common ground of opinion and action. The
148
new effort was, in the last respect, as fruitless for the time
as any which had preceded it, but it was, nevertheless, an
important step in a liberal direction. It was clear to the
ablest men amongst all parties that a State system was
inevitable — the always harrassing and perplexing question
was, what relations it should have to the religious opinions
of the country. There were trusted leaders amongst the
Church party who did not despair of finding a solution which
would give to the Church every opportunity it required,
without doing injustice to Dissenters, and many of the most
distinguished of the Nonconformists were prepared to unite
with the Church in support of such a scheme.
The Irish system was taken as the basis. Dr. Hook, the
vicar of Leeds, who was supposed to have the confidence of the
High Church party, issued a pamphlet in 1846, in the form of
a letter to the Bishop of St. David's, in which he put forward
the plan of separating religious and secular teaching ;
excluding the former from the School, and throwing the cost
of secular instruction upon the rates, and placing it under
local management. Provision was to be made for religious
teaching by clergymen and ministers at separate hours.
This plan was advanced by Dr. Hook, not in any way as a
concession of the claims of the Church — but rather as the
only way in which they could be upheld, without doing
injustice to other denominations, and at the same time
securing education. His opinions were far in advance of
those of his contemporaries in the Church — he was pre-
eminently a man of just and comprehensive views — but
he was an unbending and uncompromisiDg Churchman, and
he had not the smallest idea of sacrificing religious education;
or even Church education, so far as the last could be promoted
on principles of justice. Sir James Kay Shuttleworth has
described him as desiring to relinquish on the part of the
Church any desire for predominance, as seeking to place
149
it on the same level with Dissenting bodies, and as foregoing
his preference for religious education. (*) Such however were
not his own pleas. It was his ardent desire to preserve
Church education intact in principle, which led him to
the adoption of the Irish system. He foresaw that if
education were given by the State, it must stand in one of
two relations to religion ; either the education given must be
purely secular, or the religious tone would become entirely
colourless ; or as he expressed it " semi-religious." The key
to all his action in the matter is found in the three principles
which are expressed in his speeches and writings — viz.,
Education must be had. The religious education given by the
Church must be on strictly Church principles. The religious
education given must be consistent with justice to Dissenters.
From the earliest agitation of the question Dr. Hook
took the greatest interest in it. Before the formation of the
Committee of Council he had proposed an Education Board
for Leeds, more liberal in its constitution than any subsequent
proposal of either Whig or Conservative Governments. (2)
His contention always was, secular education by the State —
religious education by the denominations, on fair terms for
all. In a letter to Sir William Page Wood (the late Lord
Hatherley) written in 1838, he said, " anything like a semi-
religious education I deprecate, but I have no objection to let
the State train children to receive the religious education we
are prepared to give." (3) In a speech at Leeds about the
same time he said " It must be obvious that when a State
undertakes the education of the people, it cannot make
religion its basis. It may pretend to do so at first, but the
State religion will be found on investigation to be no
religion." (4) During the acrid controversies aroused by Sir
James Graham's factory bill Dr. Hook wrote to Mr. Gladstone,
1 The School, &c., 69.
2 Life of Dean Hook, 262. 3 Ibid, 263. 4 Ibid, 264.
150
" I do really think that the Church might keep the whole of
the education of the people, or nearly so, in her own hands."
But this was to be done on just principles. " All that is
wanted is money ; we require funds. If the thing is desirable
why may not the Bishops with the Clergy of England tax
themselves fifty per cent., aye if need should be, a hundred
per cent, and become beggars, rather than permit the education
of the people to pass out of their hands ? " "But there is not
sufficient piety in the Church at present to act thus, or to
make such a sacrifice as this : or rather there is the monstrous
notion that our Bishops and clergy are to demand all the
money they require, whether for education or Church
extension, of the State. The State is to supply the funds, and
the Bishops and clergy to expend those funds as they think
fit. I call this a monstrous notion in a free State where there
is full toleration, and where the taxes are paid by Dissenters
as well as by Churchmen. (If the Church supplies the funds,
let the education be an exclusively Church education ; if the
State supplies the funds, the State is in duty bound to regard
the just claims of Dissentersj (*)
These expressions were the preliminary to his letter to
the Bishop of St. David's, " How to render more efficient the
education of the people." The scheme has been described as
bold and original. (2) Bold it was and generous in principle
as proceeding from a Church clergyman, but it had no title
to originality. It was merely an adaptation of the Irish
system. Secular instruction only was to be given by the
State .Children were to be required to produce certificates of
attendance at a Sunday school. Class rooms were to be
attached to the schools, in which the clergy and the dissenting
ministers were to be allowed to give religious instruction at
separate hours. " I do not ask," he wrote, " whether such an
arrangement would be preferred to any other by either party,
1 Life of Dean Hook, 347. 2 Ibid, 262.
151
for each party would prefer having everything its own way ; but
I do ask whether there would be any violation of principle
on either side ? I ask whether, for the sake of a great
national object, there ought not to be a sacrifice, not of
principle, but of prejudice, on either side." (*)
The pamphlet caused a sensation for a time. The High
Church party regarded it with amazement as a surrender and
betrayal. The National Society took offence at the strictures
upon its work. The clergy were angry at the contemptuous
criticism of the religious instruction given in Church schools,
and the Voluntaryists, whose agitation was then at its height,
were of course hostile to the scheme. It was a great honour
to Dr. Hook's just and liberal suggestions that all the prevail-
ing and established, blind and narrow incompetencies should
oppose them.
A new combination in support of secular education had
its rise about the same time in Manchester. Mr. Cobden had
finished the task of the Anti-Corn Law League, and was
already turning his thoughts in other directions. In August,
1846, he wrote to Mr. Combe, that he was in hopes he should
be able to co-operate efficiently with the best and most active
spirits of the day in the work of moral and intellectual
education. (2) In July, 1847, a Committee was formed in
Manchester for the establishment of a national system.
The first intention was to show how it might be worked out
in Lancashire. An address was issued to the county called
" A plan for the establishment of a general system of secular
education in the county of Lancaster." The movement
originated with Mr. Samuel Lucas, Mr. Jacob Bright, Professor
Hodgson, Mr. Alexander Ireland, Mr. Geo. Wilson, and the
Kev. W. McKerrow. The programme put forward by the Com-
mittee led to the formation of the Lancashire Public School
Association, which a year or two later was converted into
1 Life of Dean Hook, 405. 2 Life of Combe, 219.
152
" The National Public School Association." Its object was to
" promote the establishment by law in England and Wales of
a system of free schools ; which, supported by local rates
and managed by local committees, specially elected for that
purpose by the ratepayers, shall impart secular instruction
only, leaving to parents, guardians, and religious teachers
the inculcation of religion ; to afford opportunities for which
it is proposed that the schools shall be closed at stated hours
in each week." (*) This was the first comprehensive and
elaborate scheme put forward for securing national education;
based on the principle that the cost should be thrown
on property, that the management should be confided
to local representatives, and that the people should be taught
to regard education, not as a bone of contention between
churches and sects, but as the right of free citizens.
This movement won the support of the best known
Liberal politicians in the country. Mr. Cobden devoted a
large part of his valuable life to secure its success. It had
the benefit of the experience and machinery of the Anti-
Corn Law League. The Liberal press advocated it almost
unanimously. Many eminent Dissenters gave it their
adhesion, including Dr. Vaughan, the editor of the British
Quarterly Review. In Parliament it had the support of
Mr. Milner Gibson, Mr. Cobden, Mr. W. J. Fox, Sir Thomas
Bazley, Sir John Potter, and Mr. Alexander Henry. Man-
chester now became the centre from which, under various
conditions, an agitation was maintained unceasingly until
the passing of the Education Act of 1870.
In the session of 1850, Mr. W. J. Fox, member for
Oldham, who had formerly been a popular Unitarian preacher
at the Eldon Street Chapel, Finsbury, and who in that
capacity had provoked the energetic opposition of Bishop
Blomfield and his clergy, moved for leave to bring in a bill
1 Westminster Review, 54, 411.
153
for the secular education of the people in England and
Wales. (J) This bill was much upon the lines of the
Lancashire Association scheme, but left religious instruction
an open question for the ratepayers. In a speech displaying a
perfect knowledge of the subject in all its bearings, Mr. Fox
demonstrated the failure of the voluntary societies, combined
with such aid as Government had afforded, and the absolute
necessity for a more comprehensive measure. He denied that
the movement for secular education aimed at abating or
checking religious instruction — its object was to ensure such
secular knowledge as would make religious efforts more efficient
and successful. The scheme he proposed was founded on
the principles of local exertion and local superintendence.
The deficiency in the parishes was to be ascertained by
Inspectors, and the locality invited to supply it by
means of a rate administered by their representatives. In
order to conciliate the managers of existing schools, it was
proposed that grants should be made to teachers according to
the number of pupils efficiently instructed. No restraints
were to be put on religious bodies, which would be able to
erect and endow denominational schools, to be rewarded by
the State for secular results. The new schools were to be free
to the inhabitants of the district, without charge, without
distinction in the treatment and training of their children, and
without obligation to accept religious instruction; but with the
right reserved and inalienable, to have at convenient times,
fixed by the master, their children instructed in religion,
where and by whom they pleased.
Lord John Eussell, on the part of the Government,
supported the introduction of the bill, but declined to
pronounce any opinion on its merits. It was opposed by the
Church party, and the familiar cry of " religion in danger" was
heard again. Sir K. Inglis accused Mr. Fox of neglecting the
1 Hansard, T. S., 109, 27.
20
154
eternal destiny of children, and Lord Arundel passionately
exclaimed " The two armies were drawing up their forces,
and the battle was now between religion and irreligion, the
Church and Infidelity, God and the Devil, and the reward for
which they must contend was Heaven or Hell."
Bishop Ullathorne expressed the views of the Roman
Catholics to the same effect, but in more temperate language.
" It involves a principle against which the Church of Christ
is contending throughout Europe, and that for the most
awful reasons. Awake and train out the dawning intellects
of your children in this dry material way, and you will
unchristianise the country. Leave the religious faculties to
slumber, while the secular ones are being trained, and you
leave no foundation for submission even to temporal
Government." From the high priest point of view there was
no good in the scheme — but only visions of Democracy !
Socinianism ! Communism ! and Infidelity ! and all these because
it was proposed to teach the alphabet !
Lord Ashley attacked the proposal as despotic in
character, and likely to be prodigious in results. Its
probable cost was exaggerated, and visions of immense rates
were conjured up in opposition to it. The Premier (Lord
John Eussell) opposed the bill on account of its secular
character, and the gratuity of the instruction offered. On
the other hand Mr. Roebuck, with all the energy which
distinguished him at that portion of his career, denounced
the intervention of " meddling priests," and the principle of
charitable donations for education. "You make laws, you
erect prisons, you have the gibbet, you circulate throughout
the country an army of judges and barristers to enforce the
law, but your religious bigotry precludes the chance or the
hope of your being able to teach the people, so as to prevent
the crime which you send round this army to punish."
Mr. Fox received valuable assistance from Mr. Milner
155
Gibson, Mr. Muntz, Mr. Anstey, and other members. The
influence of the Church party, however, was supreme, and
this, combined with the opposition of the Government,
sufficed, after several nights' discussion, to reject the bill, on
the second reading, by a large majority.
The defeat demonstrated the necessity of combined
action out of Parliament to secure that pressure of public
opinion which is the only guarantee for useful legislation.
It was determined to extend the Lancashire agitation, and
to give it the force of a national movement. With this
object a meeting was held in Manchester in the autumn of
1850, when the Lancashire organisation changed its title to
that of the " National Public School Association." Delegates
attended from all parts of the country. The meeting was
presided over by Mr. Hickson, who had been a prominent
member of the Central Society of Education, and a resolution
was proposed by Dr. Davidson, Professor of Theology in the
Lancashire Independent College, in favour of free and secular
instruction. It was seconded by the Eev. W. F. Walker, a
Church clergyman from Oldham, and was supported by
Mr. Cobdeii. Munificent donations, in aid of the object of the
Society, were announced, including £500 from Mr. Edward
Lumbe, £100 from Mr. Henry, M.P., £100 from Mr. Mark
Phillips, £50 from Mr. Gardner, of Malvern, and £50 from
Mr. W. Brown, M.P.
Meetings were held in all parts of the country, which
were organized by Dr. John Watts, of Manchester, who has
been known for thirty years as one of the most untiring
educationists of Lancashire. Mr. Cobden threw himself into
the movement with all his energy and ability. It is interest-
ing now to remember that Mr. W. E. Forster was one of the
supporters of the association. (*) Branches were formed in
all the large towns. In Birmingham Mr. William Harris,
1 Combe, Education by Jolly, 239.
156
subsequently one of the founders and officers of the League,
Mr. H. B. S. Thompson, and others who have taken part in the
recent agitation, had charge of a local branch. Statistics
and pamphlets were published and circulated by the Society
and a powerful influence was exerted in support of parliament-
ary action. The agitation was taken up in Scotland by
Mr. George Combe, Mr. James Simpson, and Mr. M. Williams.
It was a part of the object of the Society to demonstrate the
practicability of free secular instruction, and as the result of the
movement, the famous free secular school of Manchester, con-
ducted by Mr. Benjamin Templar, and afterwards by Mr. G. E.
Mellor, was founded. The "Williams school at Edinburgh, Mr.
Bastard's school at Blandford, and many other schools and insti-
tutes on a broad platform were the outgrowth of this agitation.
It was not to be expected that the scheme of the
association would be suffered to pass without challenge. The
first note of opposition came from Sir James Kay Shuttleworth,
who, in response to an invitation to attend the conference,
wrote — "I cannot conscientiously concur with them (the
founders of the association) in seeking to establish a
system of daily schools separate from the superintendence of
the great religious bodies of the country." (l)
This opposition was consistently maintained during his
life, by the former Secretary to the Committee of Council.
He constantly resisted the tendency to a separation between
sectarianism and national education, and contended against the
influence of those who were pursuing that policy. The
system established by the Education Act of 1870 was in his
eyes the dream of impracticable enthusiasts. He could not
conceive that men of parliamentary experience could make
the serious proposition that local municipal boards should
be invested with power to establish rate supported schools in
parishes, with whatever constitution, to compete with those
1 Westminster Review, 54, 411.
157
of the religious communities ; much less that the constitu-
tion of the new schools should exclude all distinctive religious
instruction. (!)
The attack on the plan of the National School Association
was nominally directed against its alleged irreligious character.
The fear of a representative system which should make
education national, rather than sectarian, was in fact the root
of the hostility. The fight at this time was not so much
respecting details, as upon the principle of management. On
the one side the Church, the Wesleyans, the Voluntaryists,
and the Koman Catholics were contending for the management
by the church or congregation — on the other hand, those who
looked to education for political and social advantages were
striving to secure local representation. The great service
rendered by the National Public School Association was in
popularising and extending the doctrine of Government by
the people in matters of education. It was in no sense an
Association hostile to religion. Almost without exception its
members were connected with religious congregations. Nothing
is wider from the truth, than that elementary education has
ever been made the instrument of an attack on the religious
institutions of the country. The men who have cared least
about religion are those who have offered the fewest impedi-
ments to the acceptance of any plan, denominational or
otherwise, which promised to embrace the whole community —
and they have never been guilty of the selfishness of
attempting to propagate even a negative creed at the expense
of the community. The efforts for the separation of schools
from the control of the religious communions, were partly
owing no doubt to the growth of the municipal sentiment ;
but they had their origin in the differences which arose
amongst the sects, and which wholly prevented any advance.
The resistance on the part of the Church, the Koman Catholics"
1 Public Education, 36.
158
and exclusive educationists to a rate supported and repre-
sentative system, arose from their repugnance to allow the
direction of education to pass out of their own hands. But
they made religion their shibboleth and attacked the National
Association as being animated by a spirit of direct antagonism
to the spread of religious opinions. So far was this hostility
carried that where their influence prevailed, books and
magazines which advocated the scheme were excluded from
public libraries.
Several bills were introduced or supported under the
auspices of the Association. They were not in all particulars
alike, but in each of them a provision was made for moral
teaching, and for affording the ministers of denominations
opportunities of giving religious instruction to children of
their own persuasion. The clauses required that there should
be " sedulously inculcated — a strict regard to truth, justice,
kindness, and forbearance in our intercourse with our fellow-
creatures; temperance, industry, frugality, and all other
virtues conducive to the right ordering of practical conduct
in the affairs of life." " Nothing shall be taught in any of the
schools which favours the peculiar tenets of any sect of
Christians. No minister of religion shall be capable of
holding any salaried office in connection with the schools."
" The school committee shall set apart hours in every week,
during which the schools shall be closed, for the purpose of
affording an opportunity to the scholars, to attend the
instruction of the teachers of religion in the various churches
or chapels or other suitable places. No compulsion shall be
used to enforce attendance, nor shall any penalty or disability
whatever be imposed for non-attendance on such religious
instruction." (J) Provisions were also contained for converting
existing schools into free schools, and admitting them
to the benefit of the rates, without disturbing their man-
1 Shuttleworth. Public Education, 39.
X
159
agement, but on the condition of the acceptance of a time-
table conscience clause. The terms of the clause were as
follows : — " And be it enacted, that the inculcation of doc-
trinal religion, or sectarian opinions shall not take place in any
such schools, at any time on any week day, between the hours
of ... and ... in the morning, and . . . and ... in the afternoon ;
and that no manager, trustee, or other person shall be deemed
to have committed a breach of trust, or be in any way liable
to any suit or proceeding, by reason of the omission to
inculcate on the scholars, during the hours appointed, doctri-
nal religion or sectarian opinions ; and no scholar who
receives secular instruction at any such school, shall be com-
pelled to attend the school at other times than those
mentioned, or whilst doctrinal religion or sectarian opinions
shall be inculcated ; and no part of the payment to be made
to the managers of any such school shall be in any way applied,
for the purpose of inculcating doctrinal religion or sectarian
opinions." As a matter of fact therefore the National
Association offered to the denominations the terms imposed
by the Act of 1870 — but so influential was the opposition
to its plans that Sir James Kay Shuttleworth predicted
that its advocates were destined to be absorbed in other parties
or cease to exist. "No hope could be entertained of the
acquiescence of the religious communions in the school rate,
unless the constitution of the school, as respects its
management, continue unchanged, and, whatever securities
were given to the rights of conscience, unless the peculiarities
of its religious discipline and instruction were left without
interference." (*)
In the results, and regarding these efforts and agitations
from our present educational status, these predictions have
been wholly falsified ; and the disingenuous and mischief-
making war-cry " religion in danger " has wholly failed in
1 Public Education, 43.
160
its scare. National progress has left comparatively but a
modicum of bigotry and superstition to work upon, and
in natural and insvitable sequence, the prophet has been
ignored, and the priest (of every sect) is being by degrees
relegated to his proper position.
The Manchester and Salford Committee on Education
was formed to oppose the National Association, and was
started under the auspices of Sir James Kay Shuttleworth,
who set himself resolutely against education as a political
object, resting on other than religious grounds. All the
influence which he could exert over the Administrations
under which he served was used to cement the union between
education and the denominations. He wrote to the Secretary
of the National Association " No evidence has transpired that,
as a political object, the education, in daily schools, of the great
masses of our fellow-countymen supported by manual labour,
had received any important impulse from the efforts of any
political class in this country ; whereas, the various religious
bodies have made large sacrifices for the support of daily
schools; the Church alone claiming to have provided the
rudiments of instruction for about a million of children."
It was useless to argue with the Secretary of the
Committee of Council on this subject. He could not be
made to see that it was the working out of the democratic
principle which gave the impulse to education, and he could
not, or would not acknowledge that the objects of the
Church, in keeping its control of the question, were as much
political as religious, aiming at the preservation of dignities
and revenues depending on a political alliance. All that
came before him were the Government returns. By these,
his views, not constitutionally large, could hardly be
developed. His Department insisted that religion should be
the basis of the assistance it administered, and a certain
number of schools was provided by each of the sects which
161
was permitted to compete. Beyond this he did not see.
He described the new scheme of the Manchester and
Salford Committee as " one on a religious basis, under
the guidance of ministers and communicants ; the elders,
class leaders, and deacons of the Church and congrega-
tions." The new association proposed to raise funds by
means of local rates — not to be applied exclusively for
secular instruction. The management of the schools and
the appointment and dismissal of teachers were confided to
the Church or congregation, by which the school was
erected. The foundation of the scheme in theory was, that all
denominations should be treated impartially, though an
attempt was made to impose the Protestant version of the
Bible on the Eoman Catholics. It was a scheme of
concurrent endowment, and was supposed, on good reason,
to express the sentiments of the Government of the day.
Though dealing with local rates, it was not founded on any
representative principle. The ratepayers were offered no
control over school management. The Town Council was to
collect a rate and pay it to the managers of the denominational
schools. Where a deficiency of accommodation existed, the
religious bodies were to have the option of supplying it in
the first place, and only upon their neglect was the municipality
empowered to build schools. No provisions were made to
secure responsibility for the administration of public funds.
On the Committee there were members of all the religious
denominations, including the Eoman Catholics. The harmony
of this heterogeneous body was of short duration — the Eoman
Catholic members, who represented 100,000 of the population
of the city, withdrawing on a dispute as to the use of the
authorised version of the Bible.
There was yet another society in the field, the " York-
shire Society for Promoting National Education," the secretary
of which addressed a letter to Mr. Cobden on the rise and
21
162
progress of National Education. Its head quarters were
at Leeds, and it took the secular ground, but its efforts were
overshadowed by the superior energy of the Voluntaryists,
who also made Yorkshire the centre of their operations.
There was thus at this time a triangular contest in
which the Secular or separatist party really supplied the
momentum to progress. They were equally opposed by the
Voluntaryists and the Denominationalists ; the former of
whom would do nothing, and the latter nothing except
on their own lines. The problem of the hour was how to
bring national education under civil and popular control.
If it took a long time to solve, and if indeed its solution is
not yet complete, it is owing to the magnitude of the forces
which were arrayed against it, and their traditional and
historical authority, which was increased rather than dimin-
ished by the early policy of the Government in dealing with
the subject.
The two schools of Manchester educationists came
into conflict in Parliament in the Session of 1851. Mr. Fox,
as representing the National Public School Association, moved
a resolution in support of " the Establishment of Free Schools,
for secular instruction, to be supported by local rates, and
managed by committees elected specially for that purpose by
the ratepayers." (x) Sir Geo. Grey, on the part of the Govern-
ment, opposed the motion, the Ministry evidently leaning to
the rival scheme, in the preparation of which the officials
of the Committee of Council had taken an active share.
The Home Secretary said he had been informed by the
chairman of the Manchester and Salford Bill Committee
that they were maturing a plan applicable to Manchester
and Salford, which was in the nature of a private bill and
would be introduced in the following Session ; that a
1 Hansard, T. S., 116, 1255.
163
similar attempt was being made in Leeds ; and that these
plans held out some hope of a settlement.
Mr. Milner Gibson supported the bill of Mr. Fox. Mr.
Adderley (Lord Norton) ridiculed the idea that the separation
of religious and secular instruction implied hostility to
religion — and Mr. Cobden showed that the local Manchester
and Salford scheme had already got into difficulties. The
whole body of the Eoman Catholics had seceded, because the
Committee made it a fundamental principle that in all schools
erected at the public expense, the authorised version of the
Bible should be read. Mr. Fox's bill was lost upon the first
reading.
In March, 1852, Lord Derby became Prime Minister and
announced that if the question of parliamentary reform was
disposed of during the session, the next great measure under-
taken would be the establishment of a system of public
education. The statement of the Government intention was
not favourable to the prospects of the Manchester and Salford
Education Bill — the second reading of which was moved by
Mr. Brotherton, who avowed his preference for a secular
system, but which he was disposed to sink, rather than permit
the continuance of street instruction. The bill was presented
to the House as a private measure, and a postponement was
asked for, to enable the Corporation to oppose it if they
thought fit. It proposed a rate in aid of existing schools, the
management of which was to be undisturbed — but subject
to a conscience clause for the protection of children whose
parents objected to religious instruction. In new schools the
authorised version of the Bible was required to be read. The
bill was supported by the Bishops, the clergy, the Wesleyans,
and many dissenting ministers. It was opposed by Jews,
Roman Catholics, the Society of Friends, and the teachers and
superintendents of the Sunday School Union. On the second
reading it appeared that the Manchester Town Council had
164
passed a resolution adverse to it, and that the Corporation of
Salford had approved it. It was resisted in the House by
Mr. Milner Gibson and Mr. Eoebuck on the ground that it was
a public bill, and should be proceeded with as such ; and by
Mr. Walpole, the Home Secretary, on the general principles
it raised. It was eventually referred, together with the bill of
the National Public School Association, to a Select Committee,
on which with others, sat Mr. T. M. Gibson, Mr. Bright, Mr.
Cobden, Mr. Fox, Lord John Eussell, and Mr. Gladstone. The
Committee sat for two sessions. A large mass of evidence was
taken, but there was no report on the merits of the plans, and
the bills disappeared^1) In the same session the Congrega-
tionalists and the Baptist Union opposed both of the
Manchester bills.
The session of 1852 was also signalised by a dispute re-
specting the management clauses of the Church schools, the
stringency of which had been relaxed by Lord Derby's Govern-
ment ; giving increased powers over the schoolmaster to the
Bishops and clergy, both in relation to religious and moral
government. A strong opposition to this change proceeded
from within the National Society itself, and a section of the
members threatened an attempt to alter the charter, and to
suspend the issue of the Queen's letter. A large secession from
the Society seemed imminent, and was only averted by the
Cancelling of the Minute by Lord Aberdeen's Government in
the next session.
The year 1853 witnessed some important alterations
by which the cost of education, as administered by the
Department, was suddenly and largely increased. The
capitation grant was a conspicuous feature in the new plans
of the Government, and the way in which it was adopted is a
curious illustration of the manner in which the power of the
Education Department was capable of extension, almost
1 Parliamentary Report, 1852, No. 499, 400.
165
without the exercise of parliamentary authority and super-
vision. Lord Aberdeen's Government, which was formed
after the general election of 1852, had put the necessity of
extensive changes in our education system in the van of their
professions. Lord John Eussell was President of the Council
in the new Ministry, and his devotion, for many years, to the
details of the administration of the Education Department,
and his well known interest in the question had raised great
expectations. Mr. Gladstone, also, was a member of the
Cabinet, and it was understood that he, with others, was
pledged to bring forward a liberal measure on the " compre-
hensive" system. Archdeacon Denison wrote, " It is their
darling project ; the only idea of the method and manner of
education, of which their minds appear to be capable." (*)
It was on the ground of Mr. Gladstone's association
with the Whig Cabinet, and especially on the suspicion of
his heresy on this question, that his re-election at Oxford was
opposed in the beginning of 1853. The resolution to oppose
him was taken at a meeting of the National Society. Arch-
deacon Denison wrote from Mr. Dudley Perceval's committee
room, " it should, I think, have been sufficient to ascertain
and fix a Churchman's vote, to see Mr. Gladstone in the same
Committee of Council with Lord John Eussell and Lord
Lansdowne ; who, as they sit in the Cabinet, nominally
without office, but in effect as joint Ministers of public
instruction, will have ample leisure, and be the better
enabled to devise and mature a scheme for employing the
power and influence of the Coalition Government to under-
mine, and finally to destroy by law the parochial system of
the Church of England." (2)
Under the new scheme of the Government the school
population was divided into two classes, urban and rural. To
provide for the former the Borough Bill was introduced. The
1 Notes of My Life, 101. 2 Ibid, 101.
166
parishes were dealt with by a Minute of the Committee of
Council.
In explaining the Borough Bill Lord John Eussell went
over the well-worn history of the question, the long list
of attempts and failures, and the controversies which had
prevented union and effective action. The Government had
concluded that they ought to strengthen and improve the
voluntary system rather than set up anything in its place.
Some returns of the National Society, collected in 1847,
showed that the school pence in the Church schools amounted
to £413,004 per annum. These figures were hardly consistent
with those of the Eegistrar General in 1851, which gave the
payments of scholars in connection with all the schools of the
religious bodies as £259,134. But Lord John Eussell took the
higher estimate, and expressed his gratification that the poor
contributed half-a-million towards education. This was
evidently a sum of money which, for financial reasons, the
Coalition Ministry could not afford to dispense with, and it
decided them against any attempt to introduce a large
measure for free schools. A liberal plan was again made subor-
dinate to the straits of office. The principle of free education
was supported, at this time, by the most enlightened
politicians of the day, and was becoming increasingly popular.
It was a prominent feature of the bill of the Manchester and
Salford Committee, which was prepared at the Education
Department. But the Government dared not face the
sacrifice of even a quarter of a million per year. Therefore,
instead of the great measure which Lord Derby had promised
in 1852, the Whigs and Peelites offered the country another
instalment of the patchwork system. The definite proposal
was that in incorporated towns the Town Council might, with
the assent of two-thirds of their body, levy a rate, not to
establish independent schools, but in aid of those in existence,
and of further voluntary efforts. The rate was to be applied
167
to pay twopence a week for each scholar, in respect of whom
fourpence or fivepence was contributed from other sources.
There was no provision for the erection of new schools. The
Council was to have authority to appoint a Committee, partly
of its own members, and partly of residents, to distribute
sums raised by rate.
The bill was coldly received in Parliament. It was not
actively opposed, but it was regarded by the friends of
education as a half measure. No enthusiasm for it was shown
in the country, and the Government made no effort to pass
it into law. So little encouragement did the Ministry
receive, that another measure for the regulation of education
endowments which was promised in the House of Lords was
also abandoned.
But while the Borough Bill collapsed, and the towns
were left without provision, the rural districts were much
surprised by an unexpected subsidy. This was effected by
a Minute of the Committee of Council. Its operation was
limited in the first instance to agricultural parishes and
unincorporated towns, containing not more than 5,000
inhabitants. It provided, that on certain conditions as to
attendance and teaching, and contributions from other sources,
a capitation grant of six shillings per scholar in boys schools,
and five shillings in girls schools should be paid to the
managers. The intention was to create a premium on
regularity of attendance^1) and to a certain extent this was
probably accomplished. A much more striking consequence
was the encouragement of dishonest practices in the enumera-
tion of attendances — which later became a scandal to public
administration. The education vote rose at a bound from
£160,000 to £260,000, and on the extension of the Minute
in January, 1856, to the whole country, another £200,000
was required. This was a great boon to the clergy, and did
1 Shuttleworth's Public Education, 356.
168
more than anything to reconcile them to the administration
of the Department. It relieved them from writing begging
letters, and getting up bazaars and engaging in other
amateur speculations. Where districts were well supported,
the managers had more money than they knew what to do
with. The unbending principle of Archdeacon Denison,
always true to his ideal of the Establishment and his
Order, could make no headway against these State bribes.
" As I go about now," he writes sadly, "and hear Churchmen
talking about their schools as connected with the Council, I
hear commonly, of little else, than the number of pounds
they get by way of grant : this seems to be the test of a
good school." f1)
In poor districts, where contributions could not be raised,
and where of necessity there was the most need for education,
nothing was effected. The perverse obstinacy with which
successive Governments adhered to the vicious principle that
assistance should be given not for education, but as an
encouragement to sectarian zeal and rivalry, is an amazing
example of the injury which may be effected by a bad
precedent.
But the manner in which the Minutes of 1853 became
law is worthy of notice, as showing the almost irresponsible
power, and the absolute independence of authority which
the Committee of Council possessed. In introducing the
Borough Bill Lord John Eussell briefly referred to a new
Minute applicable to the country. He said, " this Minute,
when its provisions shall have been fully matured, will be
laid upon the table ; and the House before coming to any
vote upon it will have ample opportunity for duly considering
it." As a matter of history it was never considered in
Parliament. The Municipal Bill was not really discussed.
. The grant for education was hurried through among a crowd
1 Notes of My Life, 109.
169
of miscellaneous estimates, when it was not expected to come
on, and the capitation grant was not discussed at all. That
it was generally acceptable however in Parliament may be
assumed from its subsequent extension in 1856.
During the administration of Lord Aberdeen, Jewish
schools were first admitted to grants — but schools of a purely
secular character were still refused participation.
The Manchester and Salford Bill re-appeared in a some-
what altered shape in 1854, under the charge of Mr. Adderley.
The main principle of the bill was, to make the Corporation
bankers for managers and school committees. Mr. Milner
Gibson moved " that education to be supported by public
rates is a subject which ought not to be dealt with by a private
bill." (*) The Town Council of Manchester by a unanimous
vote had requested the Members for the Borough to oppose
the bill. The municipality naturally refused to accept the
charge of a system when they had no control over its
regulations, and the feeling of the people of Manchester at
this time was strongly in favour of the disassociation of
religious and secular teaching. The Committee to which it
had been formerly referred had made no report because they
could not agree on the evidence. The Corporation petitioned
the House to defer legislation until some general measure
was proposed by the Government. The opposition to the
principle of this bill now took shape, and it was complained
that it would cause the same bitterness as the church-rate
controversy — since it proposed to put schools of all denomina-
tions upon public rates. It is clear that the bill involved
the same principle as that which caused such a general
feeling of hostility to the 25th section of the Act of 1870.
Mr. Bright strongly opposed the measure and said it would
necessarily import strife and retard education for many years.
It was again and finally rejected.
1 Hansard, 130, 1054.
22
170
The discussion on supply was notable for a persuasive
and powerful appeal made by Mr. Cobden. Lord John
Kussell, on moving the education vote, had said it was useless
to bring forward a general plan until there was a greater
concurrence of opinion, and that Government must confine
its efforts to improving the quality of instruction. Mr.
Cobden warmly complained that the President of the Council
was letting down the question, and going backward in
regard to it. He maintained that they must make up their
minds to local rates. They could not otherwise have a system
worthy of the name. After sixteen years of trifling, they
wanted something decisive. The country could not afford to
have a " little national education." If they were to do any-
thing adequate, they must raise at least three-and-a-half
millions a year, and England was rich enough to do that.
He suggested a permissive bill, giving power to different
localities — beginning with corporate towns. He said that
many meetings were held amongst the advocates of secular
and denominational education, and there was a tendency to
toleration and compromise. There was no occasion to be
afraid that people wanted to do anything irreligious. There
could not be got together a hundred men into whose heads it
would enter to do anything inimical to religion ; yet no sooner
was secular education mentioned, than it was declared a plot
was laid to undermine religion. So anxious was he for educa-
tion, on secular principles or without them, that he was
willing to join in efforts for denominational education, or for
secular education, or separate education ; the only condition
being that it should include the whole community. He
condemned the languid tone and feeble hand with which
Lord John Eussell had approached the question of late, and
contended that an immature plan would result in a further
postponement. (*)
1 Hansard, 134, 962.
171
The Crimean war necessarily diverted public attention
from domestic questions ; but, nevertheless, there were in 1855
four measures before Parliament proposing different means
of dealing with education. One of these, Denison's Act,
permitting Guardians to pay the fees for the education of
children of out-door paupers, actually became law. The
statute was practically inoperative, as shown by the evidence
given before the Newcastle Commission. In nine counties
only eleven children received the benefit of its provisions
— and only some- six or seven thousand throughout the
country. (J) It remained ineffectual until its repeal in
1876. Its author was an advanced educationist, and one
of the early advocates of compulsion.
The other bills of the session were, a Government
measure, under the charge of Lord John Eussell ; another,
introduced by Sir John Pakington ; and a secular bill,
promoted by the National Public School Association, and under
the care of Mr. Milner Gibson. The Government bill was never
put fairly before Parliament, which was distracted by discus-
sions upon the conduct of the war. Lord Palmerston suc-
ceeded Lord Aberdeen as Prime Minister in February, 1855,
and continued to hold the office until the beginning of 1868.
Earl Granville was President of the Council during the whole
of this time. During the early part of 1855, Lord John
Eussell held the post of Colonial Secretary in Lord
Palmerston's Ministry, and he was entrusted with the educa-
tion measures of the Government. His absence at Vienna,
on a mission connected with the war, prevented progress,
and on his return to England he resigned his office. One
result, however, of his visit to Vienna seems to have been to
enlarge his views on education, and in the following session
he was roundly charged by the Voluntaryists with bringing
home "a new-fangled scheme of despotism."
1 Newcastle Commission, 380.
172
Sir John Pakington pressed forward his measure with
much resolution and energy. The state of education as
fostered by the voluntary societies was a scandal. An
analysis of the imposing returns of the National Society
showed that not more than 30 per cent, of their schools were
legally secured for educational purposes ; 47 per cent, of the
whole were neither legally nor virtually so secured, and of the
47 per cent. 50 per cent, were kept in dame's cottages,
corners of churches, belfries, kitchens, or other rooms of
parsonage houses. Sir John's bill was permissive in character.
It proposed to place education in the hands of Boards elected
by the ratepayers. Magistrates were to be ex-officio members,
and other members were to have a ratal qualification of £30.
Powers were vested in the Boards for providing schools,
superintending the education of the district, levying rates and
expending them under the control of the Education Depart-
ment. The rates were to be supplemented by Parliamentary
grants, and the schools were to be free. Existing schools
were to be assisted out of the rates. A conscience clause was
to be imposed on all schools. In new schools the religious
teaching was to be in accordance with the opinions of a
majority.
Mr. Milner Gibson's bill was for secular education. It
was not put forward in antagonism to that of Sir John
Pakington. They were both agreed that schools should be
free, and be supported by rates. Mr. Gibson aimed at entire
local management and liberty of conscience. In the state of
parties and the distractions of opinion there was no hope of
progress. All the measures were opposed by the Voluntaryists,
and by the advocates of the existing schools which were now
satisfied with the money they received. The Wesleyan
Committee passed resolutions affirming that their community
would never consent that the teaching of religion in their
173
schools should be subject to restriction. (*) Before the close
of the session all the bills were withdrawn,
In 1856, Lord Granville, the new President of the
Council, brought in a bill in the House of Lords for
the appointment of a Vice-President of the Council, who
would be responsible to the House of Commons for the
distribution of the grant, now enormously increased by
the capitation grant, which had been extended by Minute
to boroughs. The bill passed, with slight opposition, and
Mr. Cowper, afterwards known as Mr. Cowper-Temple, and the
author of the clause bearing his name in the act of 1870, (2)
was the first Vice-President. The President of the Council
also submitted a bill enabling towns and parishes to rate
themselves for purposes of education, but no effort was made
to pass it.
The House of Commons was meanwhile the scene of
some stirring debates. Lord John Eussell, no longer fettered
by the responsibilities of office, moved a series of twelve
resolutions, covering the whole field of the education con-
troversy. They affirmed the necessity of the revision and
consolidation of the Minutes of Council ; of an increase in the
number of Inspectors ; the formation of school districts ; an
enquiry into the available means of instruction ; the proper
application of charitable trusts ; the power of rating ; the
election of school committees, with powers of management ;
the reading of the Scriptures ; and a scheme of indirect
compulsion, to be carried out by employers. In regard to
direct compulsion, Lord John said : — " I do not think it
would be possible, I should be glad if it were, to compel the
parents of these children to send them to school. I do not
think you could, by any enactment, reach the parents in such
places as Birmingham, Sheffield, and others, in which, however,
1 Newcastle Report, 312.
2 Section 14, prohibiting the teaching of religious formularies.
174
we have to lament the greatest evils arising from neglect of
attendance at school.'^1) But at last something like an adequate
view of the necessities of the case was being taken, since the
estimated cost of the plan was placed at £3,240,000.
A curious combination of parties made common cause
against the resolutions. In the discussion and divisions
which took place upon them, Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli,
Sir James Graham and Mr. Baines, Mr. Henley and Mr.
Milner Gibson, Lord Robert Cecil and Mr. Cardwell were
found acting together. (2) On the other side Lord John Eussell
was cordially supported by Sir John Pakington. At the
outset of the discussion it was evident that a majority of the
House had determined to subject the author of the motion
to a humiliating defeat. The Government gave their late
colleague only a half-hearted support, and would not assume
the responsibility of founding a measure on his proposals.
Mr. Henley moved on the discussion of the first resolution
that the Chairman leave the chair. The debate was several
times adjourned, and Lord John, in the hope of avoiding
defeat, abandoned the greater part of the resolutions. The
manoeuvre, however, did not avert the catastrophe. Sir James
Graham, who had been converted to Mr. Baines's views,
strongly opposed Lord John Eussell's plan. Mr. Gladstone
spoke in favour of a system on the established basis. The
Nonconformist leaders went to Mr. Henley and told him that
they were going to vote for him on the ground that State
education involved a danger to definite religious teaching.
At this special time the Voluntaryists were making despairing
efforts to sustain their failing cause, and Mr. Baines, Mr.
1 Hansard, T. S., 140, 1955.
2 Mrs. M. A. Baines, whose name is familiar in the educational discussions
of this time, and who was one of the first advocates of compulsion, has sent the
author a cartoon by "H. B.," which refers to the resolutions in question, and
which reproduces the figures of the most prominent parliamentary advocates
of education at this time.
175
Hadfield, and Mr. Miall were indefatigable in urging their
opinions on Parliament. Mr. Henley's motion was carried
by the unexpected majority of 102. As a curious illustration
of the prejudice which still existed against education in
some quarters it may be noticed that in the course of these
debates Mr. Drummond, a member of the House, instanced
two celebrated criminals of the day, Palmer and Sadleir, as
the results of education, and exclaimed, " It really seems as
if God had withdrawn common-sense from this House."
In the following year Sir John Pakington renewed his
attempt to pass a bill for cities and boroughs, and was sup-
ported by Mr. Cobden ; but the sudden dissolution of Parlia-
ment on the question of the China war interrupted its
progress, and the election which followed decimated its
supporters. Out of doors public opinion was supplying
constant pressure, and amongst the incidents of the year was
the conference at Willis's rooms, at which the Prince Consort
presided. About this time Mr. Keith Johnston, the geographer,
published a diagram, giving a comparative view of the per-
centage of the population of various countries in Europe
receiving instruction. From this it appeared that England
stood tenth on the list.
Sir John Pakington was a member of Lord Derby's
Ministry which went into office in February, 1858. It was
on his motion that the Duke of Newcastle's Commission was
appointed. Sir Charles Adderley was Vice-President of the
Council, but his accession to office had materially moderated
his views on the question. He said, " Any attempt to keep
the children of the labouring classes under intellectual
culture after the very earliest age at which they could earn
their living, would be as arbitrary and improper as it would
be to keep the boys at Eton and Harrow at spade labour."
The expression did not point to progress, but happily that
was not dependent on the favour of officialism.
176
The appointment of Mr. Lowe as Vice-President of the
Council in 1859, as a member of the Ministry over which
Lord Palmerston presided until his death, and the acceptance
of an inspectorship by Mr. Eraser, the present Bishop of
Manchester, were guarantees, at any rate, for an intelligent
investigation of the existing system. Their accession to
office marks, not so much a new era in national education, as
a revolution in the Government methods of management. In
the many fierce conflicts which have raged around this
question, there have been none more bitter than those which
are associated with the name of Mr. Lowe. Of all our
Ministers of education he has left the deepest impress of
individuality upon the system, in its official character, and
provoked a hostility more unmeasured than any other
politician. For four years he was the object of the most
implacable and envenomed attacks from all persons who
had the smallest interest in the details of the Government
administration ; including those who were anxious to extend
and reform the powers of the Department, and those who
wished to abolish it altogether.
The reforms initiated by Mr. Lowe were wholly
confined to amending the Privy Council system as it existed —
and in no degree to extending it, or substituting for it a more
general and comprehensive plan. Judging from the vigour
and fearlessness with which he executed his task it may
perhaps be regretted that he did not undertake the larger
achievement of laying down the lines of a complete system.
But the Government of which he was a member was not
disposed for any grand or heroic measures. Lord Derby had
gone out on the question of reform, and on the accession of
Lord Palmerston, there set in the easy, do nothing, " rest and
be thankful " period, which lasted for five years. It extended
to all branches of government, and was a constant wet
blanket upon the agitation for domestic improvement.
177
Mr. Lowe's course at the Education Department was
determined by another active consideration — and that was,
Mr. Gladstone's resolve to cut down the cost of government.
The education estimate of 1859, Mr. Lowe's first year at the
Department, was £836,920. The vote had increased to that
amount from £160,000 in the preceding six years. There
was a strong and just presumption that the efficiency and
the utility of the system were not advancing in proportion
with the cost.
Mr. Lowe, in moving the estimate, announced that the
Ministry did not propose to take any new step until the Duke
of Newcastle's Commission had made their report. He
sketched the good and bad points of the system, though
he hardly seems to have gauged the actual amount of friction
and dissatisfaction which existed. The advantages, to his
mind were, that it relied on an existing machinery, which
was a stimulus to liberality, and had given proof of strength
in tangible results. It was defective in that it did not reach
districts most in need of assistance, but that could only be
remedied by fundamental alterations. There was also a
constant tendency to devour the Department. Another fault
was, that public money was spent on schools founded on
exclusive principles. The public was justified in asking that
before grants were made to denominational schools, they
should require in the trust deeds a conscience clause, pro-
tecting the children of parents who objected to religious
formularies. This was done in many instances. (*) The
exclusive system was wasteful, and increased the labour and
cost of inspectorship by at least a third. At the then rate
of progress, Mr. Lowe estimated that the grants would
eventually be two-and-a-half millions per annum.
1 About 1850, it became the practice of the Department to require the
insertion of a conscience clause where aid was given to new schools, but
the custom was not general.
23
178
Mr. Adderley, being relieved from the restraints of
office, introduced in 1859 a bill for indirect compulsion,
providing that children should not be employed in labour
except it was certified that they had received a certain
amount of instruction. The discussion was chiefly remarkable
for an opinion expressed by Mr. Gladstone, who urged that
the public mind was absolutely unprepared to deal with the
question, which might with more advantage be the theme of
speakers at statistical or social science associations.
The estimate for 1860 was the first intimation of the
alterations contemplated by the Department. For the first
time since 1834 the vote for education was reduced. The
Vice-President complained that the system had a tendency to
grow more wasteful rather than more economical. Compre-
hensive schools were the truest economy, so that one school
sufficed instead of two — but he said the country had been
retrograding, and foundation deeds were more exclusive than
thirty years before. The British and Foreign Schools which were
open to all classes except Eoman Catholics, were replaced by
denominational schools, chiefly Wesleyan, and the antagonism
between the sects became sharper and more defined. The Com-
mittee recognised the necessity for a strict appropriation of
the grant. They reduced the building grant, and determined
to withdraw further grants for the erection of Training Colleges.
They had suspended the capitation grant in Scotland, and had
resolved on a reduction of pupil teachers. The voluntary
party alone, amongst the various sections of educationists,
received these changes with great satisfaction. The re-action
in favour of their principles, which they had so long predicted,
had now, they thought fairly set in.
The Duke of Newcastle's Commission, which was
gazetted in 1858, presented their report in March, 1861.
The result of their three years' enquiry is comprised in
six bulky volumes, containing reports and evidence on all
179
branches of the subject, and furnishing a most complete history
of State education. The most important part of the enquiry
was that which related to the education of the " independent
poor." Other matters dealt with, were the education of
paupers, vagrants and criminals, military and naval schools,
and the application of endowments. The investigations
extended also into the character and ability of teachers — the
instruction in Training Colleges, the quality of teaching, and
the attendance. The enquiry was principally devoted to the
labours and results of the Committee of Council ; but was also
illustrated by valuable reports by the Eev. Mark Pattison,
and Mr. Matthew Arnold on education in Europe; and by Dr.
Eyerson on Canadian education. Taken with the reports of
the Schools Enquiry Commission relating to higher education,
and Mr. Eraser's report on the common schools of the United
States, they form probably the most comprehensive account of
education in all its branches, both at home and. abroad, which
has yet been put before the public. The accuracy of the statis-
tical details of the report oi the Newcastle Commission has
often been disputed, and it has been made abundantly clear, that
from some cause they greatly underrated the deficiency of
education in the country. The report, perhaps on account of
the endeavour to reconcile the conflicting views of the
Commissioners, was characterised by considerable looseness
of statement, and by wide differences of opinion between the
Commissioners and the witnesses and school inspectors.
The general conclusions of the Commissioners can only
be indicated very briefly. The leading object of the schools
was found to be, as a rule, the care of religious instruction
on the part of the managers — while they were sought by
the parents principally for secular instruction. The evidence
of the Assistant Commissioners was conclusive as to this.
Jews and Eoman Catholics were commonly found in Church
schools, and Church children in Unitarian schools. In
180
Church schools the catechism was taught to all the scholars,
and they were often compelled to attend Sunday School or
Church. "There can be no doubt that this sort of inter-
ference engenders the bitterest feeling of hostility to the
Established Church." (*) The difficulty of introducing a
comprehensive system lay with the founders of the schools,
and not the people. In Sunday Schools, reading and writing
were incidentally taught, but their primary object was religious
instruction, and by this machinery religious denominations
increased the number of their adherents. The gross amount
of education was subject to large qualifications and deductions,
on account of irregularity of attendance, and the quality of
instruction. It was assumed that half the children between
three and fifteen ought to have been on the books of some school
— in actual numbers, 2,655,767. The real numbers on the books
were 2,535,462 — leaving a deficiency of 120,305 who received
no education. The children of the poorer classes receiving in-
struction were estimated at 2,213,694. (2) Of this number
917,255 were under inspection, the remainder being in private
adventure schools, dame schools, and charity schools. With
the exception of the children of out-door paupers or vicious
parents, nearly all the children in the country capable of
going to school received some instruction. The general con-
clusion arrived at was, " There is no large district entirely
destitute of schools, and requiring to be supplied with them
on a large scale." (3) " The means of education were diffused
pretty generally and equally over the whole face of the
country, and the great mass of the population recognised its
importance sufficiently to take advantage to some extent of
the opportunities afforded to their children." (4) The
attendance was distributed over about four years, as to
most children, between six and twelve. About one-third
attended less than 100 days, 43 per cent, attended 150 days,
1 Report, 36. 2 Ibid, 79. 3 Ibid, 86. 4 Ibid, 86.
181
and 41 per cent, attended 176 days, entitling them to the
capitation grant. (*) Only 10 per cent, attended the same
school between three and four years. " This state of things
leaves great room for improvement, but we do not think
that it warrants very gloomy views, or calls for extreme
measures." (2) Compulsion was not recommended. The
demands of labour could not, in the opinion of the Com-
missioners, be resisted. There was an increasing tendency
to the employment of children, and they were of opinion
that independence was of more importance than educa-
tion. (3)
The inspected schools were found to be much superior to
others, but there were great complaints of the mechanical
character of the teaching. The inspection was not valuable
as a criterion of results. The schools were judged by the
first class. Three out of four left school with such a
smattering as they picked up in the lower classes. " They
leave school, they go to work, and, in the course of a year,
they know nothing at all." " We are successfully educating
one in eight of the class of children for which the schools were
intended." " The mass of children get little more than a trick
of mechanically pronouncing the letters, and the words which
they read convey hardly any ideas to their minds." (4)
The suggestions of the Commission amounted, in
substance, to an effort to supplement the system which had
grown up under the Privy Council, without having recourse
to such a measure of local rating as would disturb the
management, or give the general body of ratepayers any
control over the schools. They advised that assistance should
be given by means of two grants ; one out of general taxation,
dependent on attendance, and one from the county rates,
based on examination. For the rural districts it was advised
that County Boards should be appointed. Quarter Sessions
1 Report, 173. 2 Ibid, 173. 3 Ibid, 188. * Ibid, 250.
182
were to elect six members, being in the Commission of the
Peace, or Chairmen or Vice-Chairmen of Boards of Guardians,
and these members were to elect six others. In towns
containing more than 40,000 inhabitants the Town Council
was to be authorised to appoint a Borough Board of
Education. The Committee of Council was to appoint an
Inspector as a member of each Board, and the Boards were to
choose their own examiners.
The Commissioners declined to recommend a compulsory
conscience clause, which they thought would give a dangerous
shock to the existing system.
The suggestions of the Commissioners, being evidently
the result of a compromise between conflicting opinions, gave
very little satisfaction to any party. (*) The conclusions and
recommendations were alike attacked. Lord Shaftesbury
impugned the accuracy of their reports on ragged schools.
Mr .Dillwyn complained of their injustice to Dissenters. The
school Inspectors denied that the conclusions on the general
results of the teaching were trustworthy. Grave doubts were
also raised as to the accuracy of the enumeration of schools
and scholars. For this purpose the Inspectors had chiefly
relied on returns from voluntary societies and religious bodies,
a method of enquiry which the statistical societies had
previously condemned as untrustworthy. In a subsequent
debate on the returns made to the Commissioners by the
National Society, Mr. Lowe demonstrated their inaccuracy,
and said, " It would be paying too great a compliment to
those figures to base any calculation on them." (2) But they
were a great consolation to those who objected to any change,
1 The Commissioners were the Duke of Newcastle, Mr. Justice Coleridge,
the Rev. W. C. Lake, the Rev. William Rogers, Mr. Goldwin Smith,
Mr. Nassau W. Senior, and Mr. Edward Miall. The report was signed by
all the Commissioners. Mr. Senior also presented a separate paper containing
Heads of a Report.
2 Hansard, 170, 1199.
183
and ten years later they were circulated throughout the
country to prove that the system of education, as it existed
in 1860, was perfectly adequate to all needs. They have
since been conclusively falsified by experience in the
working of the Education Act.
It at once became evident that the division of opinion
which the Commissioners hoped to avoid by their report
could not be averted. Sir John Pakington appealed to the
Government to bring forward a measure, for which the
circumstances appeared to be favourable. The Duke of
Newcastle was a member of the Cabinet, as well as Earl
Eussell. But the very moderate suggestions of the Com-
missioners had already given rise to alarm. Mr. Henley said
there was very much in the report which gave sanction to
secular education. "The Committee appointed to watch
proceedings in Parliament with reference to grants for national
education," of which the Duke of Marlborough was Chair-
man, and several Bishops were members, had met and declared
their fears that the radical changes proposed would prepare
the way for bringing schools at no distant period under the
control of the ratepayers, and extinguishing the religious
element altogether. The National Society also saw in many
parts of the report a grave danger to the maintenance of
religious teaching.
The Ministry of Lord Palmerston was not inclined to
face the dangers which threatened any attempt to solve the
question. The Prime Minister with easy nonchalance post-
poned all attempts at reform, and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer did not exempt even the education vote from the
rigorous economy he practised. In moving the estimates for
1861, Mr. Lowe entered upon an exhaustive criticism of the
report of the Commission and explained the views of the
Government. He admitted that the system was expensive,
that the instruction was deficient, and the machinery com-
184
plicated. But he said it was not the intention of the Govern-
ment to infringe on the organic principle of the system ; its
denominational character, its foundation on a broad religious
basis, and the practice of making grants in aid of local
subscriptions. The Government were asked to propose a bill
on the basis of the report, but they would rather some one
else did it. Such reductions as would not impair efficiency
would be effected by a Minute of Council, but it was
promised that no innovations would be made until the end
of the next financial year. The capitation grant was not
given on sufficiently stringent conditions. They ought to be
satisfied that the children had been properly taught. They
did not propose to base payment simply on results. The
capitation grant would still be paid on the number of attend-
ances above a certain number, but the Government went a
step further. They proposed that an Inspector should
examine the children in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
If a child passed in all subjects the full capitation grant
would be paid. Failure in one subject involved a reduction
of the grant by a third, in two subjects by two thirds, and in
case of complete failure the whole of the grant would be
withheld.
This was the foundation of the " Revised Code," and the
system of " payment by results." The Minutes were sub-
mitted to Parliament at the end of the session, and during
the recess were the subject of animated discussion and
agitation. The vested interests, which had been gradually
entrenching themselves for a quarter of a century, took alarm,
and raised the cry of invasion and confiscation. The system
which professed to be doing so much, and to be capable of
such vast expansion, and productive of such admirable
results, shrank with the self-consciousness of inherent weak-
ness and incapacity from any real test of its quality. Mr.
Buxton quoted Spencer,—" They raised a most outrageous,
185
dreadful, yelling cry." Pamphlets appeared, "not in
single files, but in battalions." The arguments against the
proposed changes are summed up in a letter from Sir James
Kay Shuttleworth to Earl Granville. An attempt was made
to show that the character of the education would deteriorate,
but also and beyond, that the State had no moral right to
make the changes without the consent of the other contracting
parties — the managers and the schoolmasters. " The character
of a system of public education thus created ought not to be
abruptly and harshly changed by the fiat of a Minister, with-
out the consent of the great controlling bodies and com-
munions, who have expended twice as much as the State.
Even were Parliament to make such a change, it would be a
national dishonour. It would be an act of repudiation ever
to be remembered with shame." (J)
In the session of 1862, Mr. Lowe brought up the projected
amendments of the revised code — the result of the labour of
six months which he had spent in the perusal of pamphlets
and papers. In fixing the limits of the controversy he
said that the religious element underlay the whole system ;
aid was only given to schools in connection with religious
denominations. The Order in Council of 10th of May, 1840,
which provided that the Inspectors should be approved by the
Archbishops, was in full force, and no attempt was made to
disturb it.
Formerly there were three grants — the capitation grant,
the augmentation grant to teachers, and a grant to pupil
teachers. The Commissioners had advised the abolition of
these grants and the substitution of a capitation grant, part
payable on attendance and part on examination. The
Government had considered their report and stated their
conclusions in the revised code. The existing system was
tentative, provisional, and preliminary, and the grants were
1 Letter to Earl Granyille, 72.
24
186
established at a time when it was believed that the educational
question would end in a system of rating. They had to
consider how such a system could be made final and definite,
on which the country could repose and find peace after so
many stormy epochs. They did not attempt to renovate on its
foundations. It had been introduced as an experiment,
but had passed out of the experimental stage. It had struck
roots into the country and they had no wish to disturb
its fundamental principles. The great defect was its par-
tiality— that it did not permeate through the whole country —
it followed the lead of managers, and was regulated by wealth
and public spirit rather than by the need of education. They
must accept the situation — they had no power of altering it.
He admitted that the inefficiency of the system was
not questioned, and the strong and startling evidence of in-
capacity was not refuted. Inspection, as opposed to examina-
tion, was not a test of a system. It dealt with abstract phases,
general efficiency, average, moral atmosphere, tone, mental
condition, and not the result of the labours of the teacher.
The managers were afraid of this test, and said that the
examination would be ruinous. They must choose between
efficiency and a subsidy, There was a conflict between
the Commissioners and Inspectors. The first said that
one-eighth were properly educated — the second, 90 per
cent. The Government would examine the children, and
see which was right. Then many persons thought they had
acquired a continuity of interest. The Training Colleges
thought that the system in all its integrity must be kept up
for them for ever. There was a danger that the grant should
become, not a grant for education, but to maintain so called
vested interests. The Government could not agree with the
Commissioners as to county rates. They decided that there
should be one grant, and that it should rest on examination —
except in the case of infants, who would be entitled to the
187
capitation grant on attendance. There was a strong case
against the Training Colleges. They were established as
voluntary institutions — but the Government paid 90 per
cent, of the cost. (J) It had been proposed that there
should be a reduction of teachers, but as they were in a
position of great difficulty, the Government were willing to
let them stand as they were, with the alteration of slight
details. There was no reason to suppose that a loss was
impending over schools. They offered a spur to improve-
ment—not a mere subsidy. They could not say that it
would be effectual or economical, but it would be one or
the other. "If it is not cheap, it shall be efficient ; if it
is not efficient, it shall be cheap." The new principle was
a searching one. It exposed the faults of the system, and
had elicited confessions of bad attendance and inefficient
teaching.
In the House of Lords, Lord Derby objected to grouping
by age. The Bishop of Oxford did not wish to see education
committed to Government management entirely, or private or
charitable exertion superseded, for the " direct blessings given
to it from above depended upon the work being the direct work
of charity." He objected that the code provided for mere
inspection in the mechanical part of training; reading, writing,
arithmetic. Every child was to be examined. " The examiner
in a hurry, the pupil in a fuss." It was introduced suddenly,
harshly, and without due appreciation of the system. The
Bishop of London urged that two grants should be given, one
for attendance, and one for examination. If this were con-
ceded, public opinion would change in regard to the code. He
asked for one third to be given for attendance and two thirds
for examination.
1 The Duke of Newcastle's Commission reported that out of £4,378,183
contributed by Governments towards education, £2,544,280 had gone for
training teachers. Report, 25.
188
On the adjourned discussion in the Commons, Mr.
Walpole moved a series of resolutions against making the whole
of the aid depend on examination, against grouping by age, and
the examination of children under seven. He referred to the
length and breadth and strength and depth of feeling which
agitated the country, and declared that religion would go to
the wall. Mr. W. E. Forster opposed the code, which he said
would destroy the system, and blamed the Government for
forsaking the recommendations of the Eoyal Commission.
After a long debate Mr. Lowe replied in a splendidly luminous
argument, but expressed the desire of the Government to
meet the wishes of the House. They were willing that a
substantial part of the grant should depend on the general
report of the Inspectors, and they gave up grouping by age.
Mr. Walpole accepted the alterations proposed and withdrew
his resolutions.
After the acceptance of the revised code there was a
general disposition to wait until its results could be tested.
But for several sessions proof was afforded of the bitter
personal hostility its author had raised against himself, by his
interference with what had come to be regarded as proprietary
rights. He was the object of attack from all quarters — from
school managers to monitors in the country, and from
Inspectors to office boys in his own Department. It had been
the practice of the Education Department, in certain cases, where
extraneous matter was introduced in the reports of Inspectors,
to send them back for revision. A difference arose between
one of the Inspectors and the office in regard to this practice.
Upon this Lord E. Cecil moved a resolution " that the
mutilation of reports and the exclusion of matters adverse to
the views of the Committee of Council, were violations of the
understanding on which the Inspectors were appointed."
The disappointed and angry faction of .Tories and Denomina-
tionalists combined to make a personal attack on Mr, Lowe,
189
in which they were joined by some professed Liberals. The
subordinates of the education office were induced, in violation
of discipline and trust, to communicate some official matters
to the leaders of the Opposition. Mr. Lowe was weakly
defended by his colleagues, and the Tories were allowed to
snatch a division, in which the resolution was carried by a
majority of eight. Mr. Lowe, who had made the question
one of personal confidence, resigned his office. A Select
Committee was afterwards appointed to enquire into the
circumstances, and they entirely exonerated him. On
the motion of Lord Palmerston the previous resolution was
rescinded. The authors of the attack, however, had the
personal gratification of driving from office the most able
Minister who has yet held the post of Vice-President ; who, if
he initiated no large measure for the establishment of educa-
tion on a broad and liberal basis, brought the system which
existed to a practical test of usefulness, and converted a
pretentious, but delusive plan, into an actual educational
experiment.
Mr. Bruce succeeded Mr. Lowe at the Education
Department, and in moving the estimates of 1864, insisted
on the right of the Department to refuse grants for building
where a conscience clause was not accepted. This now
became the regular practice of the Department, and led to
many differences between the office and the National Society.
The first effect of the revised code was to lessen the money
voted for education by Parliament. In 1865 the grant had
fallen to £693,078 ; and in 1868 to £511,324.
With the death of Lord Palmerston in 1865, a new
movement for domestic reform began ; but for several
sessions the question of the franchise occupied the first place.
At the beginning of 1866 the liberal party was strong and
united, Earl Eussell being at the head of the Government ;
190
but before the end of the session its majority of seventy was
scattered and disorganised. Lord Derby succeeded Earl
Eussell. The Duke of Marlborough became Lord President,
and Mr. Corry, Vice-President. The new Government on
their accession brought forward no projects for the extension
of education — but they raised the grant on examination, from
two shillings and eightpence to four shillings. Mr. Bruce
introduced a permissive bill to enable boroughs to levy rates
for education. It proposed to trust a school committee with
the management of the funds. The Committee was to be
chosen in corporate towns from the Town Council, and in
other places from the general body of ratepayers.
In 1867 the controversy was renewed in the House of
Lords. The Queen's speech had said, " The general question
of the education of the people requires your most serious
attention, and I have no doubt you will approach the subject
with a full appreciation both of its vital importance and
its acknowledged difficulties." Parliament had been sum-
moned in November, on account of the Abyssinian war.
Earl Kussell took the occasion to move a series of resolu-
tions on education, but the Lords declined to enter upon
the consideration of the subject in the brief limit for which
they sat. On the reassembling of Parliament, the Duke of
Marlborough introduced a bill to regulate the distribution
of sums granted by Parliament for education. It was pro-
posed that Her Majesty should be empowered to appoint a
Secretary of State, who should have the whole range of
educational matters under his consideration and control ;
should administer the grant, and propose to Parliament such
schemes as he might think fit, to promote education. The
terms of the revised code were to be put into an act of
Parliament. The Government proposed to admit secular
schools to a share of the grant, and to impose a conscience
clause on all schools. Compulsory rating and compulsory
191
attendance were avoided. The bill passed the second reading,
but was afterwards withdrawn.
Mr. Bruce also re-introduced his bill of the previous
session, which was supported by Mr. Dixon. This measure
emanated from the Manchester Bill Committee. Its pro-
visions were extended to meet the case of local authorities
who neglected their duties. It was made applicable to the
whole country, and the important provision was added that
all schools should be free. From the parliamentary discus-
sions of the time, it would appear that Mr. Lowe had put
forward during the recess a scheme for secular education by
means of rates. The session was also memorable for the
recantation of Mr. Baines, who brought up the deliberate
and revised judgment of the Congregationalists, who had
determined to place their schools under Government control
and assistance.
Through the exertions of Mr. Melly and Mr. Dixon in
1869 an enquiry was obtained into the educational condition
of Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, and
resulted in the valuable reports of Mr. Fitch and Mr. Fearon.
The Endowed Schools Act was also passed this year. In the
same session the Marquis of Townshend brought forward a
bill for compulsory attendance, and secular instruction in
day schools. This was the last of the numerous abortive
schemes which during the preceding half century were placed
before Parliament.
192
CHAPTER V.
PERIOD. — FROM THE FORMATION OF THE LEAGUE, 1869, TO
THE PASSING OF THE EDUCATION ACT, 1870.
IN" the new political movement which began upon the death
of Lord Palmerston, it became at once apparent that the
education question would take a foremost place. In the
discussions upon the reform of the representation, Mr. Bright
had predicted that the inevitable consequence of an extension
of the franchise would be, that the people would at once demand
an education system worthy of the country, and adequate to
its needs. The strong current of feeling in favour of a com-
prehensive law was beginning to be manifested on all occasions
throughout society. It was impossible to take up a newspaper
or magazine, or to follow the public life of any large town,
without discovering how deeply the attention of a part of the
community was engaged upon the subject. It was evident
also that public opinion was taking a much more intelligent
and comprehensive grasp of the question. The people were
tired of the tinkering process, and of half measures. Permis-
sive legislation which was so fashionable in Parliament, was
in disrepute in the country, and there was an earnest call for
a measure based on the two principles of compulsory rating
and compulsory attendance.
At the conference held in Manchester on the 15th and
16th of January, 1868, strong expression was given to these
views. This meeting was called by the Manchester Education
Bill Committee, and was attended not only by the group of
Lancashire men who had led the way in all agitations of the
subject for thirty years, but by educationists from many other
193
districts, and by the Parliamentary leaders upon the question.
The Manchester Education Bill Committee had grown out of
the Education Aid Society, in the same city. The Committee
had prepared the Bills introduced by Messrs. Bruce and Forster
in 1867 and 1868, and they naturally exercised a considerable
influence over the Government measure in 1870 ; though the
ministerial proposals fell far short in important particulars of
the resolutions passed at the Manchester conference The
Government bill in short, as will be seen, was a compromise
upon a compromise which had been already proposed. The Bill
Committee had its origin in compromise. The Manchester
Educationists were tired of the long conflict between
rival schemes, barren of satisfactory results. They found
they could do nothing and advance nothing apart. There
was a great work to be done, ready to their hands, in
getting the waifs and strays of Manchester into school. At
a low estimate something like 20,000 children were without
any instruction in this city, which in the matter of education,
had the reputation of being the most advanced and intel-
ligent in the United Kingdom. To accomplish this work
the advocates of religious education, and those of secular
education, came together ; and the result was the formation
of the Manchester Education Aid Society in 1864. This
Society undertook a double duty, — to test the educational
condition of the city, and to get children to school, either by
paying their fees, or using other inducements and persuasion
with their parents to send them. The result was that in two
years only, 10,000 children were taken off the streets and sent
to existing schools. But the investigations of the Society
had elicited the painful fact that these were not half, perhaps
not even a third or fourth part of those who were not receiving
any regular instruction. The labours of the Society demon-
strated conclusively to its members that voluntary means, how-
ever generous and earnest, and however carefully organised, were
25
194
powerless to combat effectually against the mass of ignorance.
The consequence was that the Education Aid Society
developed into the Bill Committee, under whose auspices the
National Bill of Mr. Bruce was brought forward in 1867.
The Bill Committee was a purely local body, and although
it attracted much attention amongst educationists, it did not
seek to extend its organisation or influence by combining
with other kindred centres. The relation which it held to the
League at a short time later, is explained in a letter addressed
by Mr. Dixon to the Editor of the Manchester Examiner. A
proposal had been made for joint action by the two bodies,
and, in a circular issued by the Bill Committee, and signed
by their Chairman, Mr. Erancis Taylor, an opinion had been
expressed that it would be wiser for the League to join in
urging upon the Government the adoption of the bill
proposed by the Committee; rather than to waste valuable
time in discussing a new one. To this Mr. Dixon replied,
" that not only was the bill of the League a more complete
measure than that of the Education Bill Committee, but,
also, that the operations of the League extended far beyond
the enforcement of certain views upon a Minister." He
added, "The work we have set our hands to, is to arouse
the whole country to a sense of the extent and dangers of our
present educational destitution ; to create and guide a strong
public opinion: and thus to make possible a bold and
comprehensive measure. However desirous the five members
of the present Government, alluded to by Mr. Taylor, may
be to pass such a measure, they will be utterly unable to do
so, unless they are backed by the determined attitude of an
active, powerful, and growing party in the country. The
Education Bill Committee is composed of gentlemen to
whom the friends of education owe much, but their numbers
are insignificant, and, as a body, they are scarcely known
beyond their own locality. It was my desire that they
195
should extend their organisation, so as to become national
instead of local, but I was informed that this could not be
done. Had my suggestions been favourably received by the
gentlemen to whom they were made, Birmingham would
not have originated the League, but would have followed
Manchester, which in my opinion, ought to have headed, and
was entitled to lead a national movement."
It has been already explained that the first bill supported
by the Bill Committee was for permissive rating, but such a
measure was behind public opinion. This was made evident at
the Conference of 1868, where a much more decisive course
was advocated, and adopted in the new draft which was
prepared. The Education Bill Committee was appointed at
this Conference and was not dissolved until after the passing
of the Act of 1870. (J)
The movement in Birmingham, which led up to the
formation of the League, began during the mayoralty of
Mr. George Dixon. In the first instance it took the form, as
in Manchester, of an effort to remedy a local evil. Mr. Dixon
had long taken a great interest in the subject, and when on
the death of Mr. Scholefield, Member for the Borough, he
consented to become a candidate for the vacant seat, it was
understood that he was largely influenced by the hope of
being able to make some effectual effort for the establishment
of a general system. During his mayoralty he had called
several private meetings to consider the state of education
in Birmingham. Eventually it was determined to form an
Education Aid Society for the town, on the model of that at
1 Amongst the Manchester men who took part in the movement were Sir
Thomas Bazley, Mr. Jacob Bright, Mr. R. N. Philips, Mr. Cheetham, Pro-
fessor Christie, Rev. Canon Richson, Rev. F. W. Davies, Mr. 0. Heywood,
Mr. Alderman Bennett, Dr. John Watts, Mr. W. R. Callender, Professor
Jack, Mr. Francis Taylor, Dr. Pankhurst, Mr. W. L. Blacklock, Mr. A.
Aspland, Mr. A. Milne, Mr. B. Armitage, Professor Greenwood, Mr. R.
Fowler, Mr. S. Robinson, Mr. E. R. Le Mare, Mr. Herbert Philips, Mr. John
S. May son, and Mr. J. A. Bremner.
169
Manchester. At a public meeting held in the Town Hall, on
the 14th of March, 1867, a series of resolutions were passed
with that object. Mr. Dixon was elected President of the
new society, and Mr. Jesse Collings its Honorary Secretary.
Its constitution was wholly independent of party politics or
sectarian bias. On the Committee were the names of many
who took part on opposite sides in the subsequent agitation. (x)
The Society undertook, as a part of their duty, to
thoroughly investigate the educational condition of the town,
and to prepare statistics on the subject. A house to house
canvass was undertaken for this purpose, and it brought out
some remarkable results ; demonstrating the inability of many
parents to pay school fees, the absence of proper provision,
and the necesity of compulsion to secure attendance.
The figures were compiled with great care and tested in a
variety of ways. Their accuracy was impeached by Lord
Eobert Montagu in the House of Commons, who suggested
that they had been exaggerated by agents whose interests
depended on making out a harrowing case in order to get
subscriptions. When challenged, however, to support his
accusations, he altogether failed to do so. The observation
and experience of the members of the Society convinced the
majority of them that only stringent legislation could put the
education of the town upon a satisfactory basis.
In the general election of 1868 the question was widely
discussed. In Birmingham it was prominently put forward by
Mr. Bright, Mr. Dixon, Mr. Collings, and by the Liberal press.
1 The Hon. and Rev. Grantham Yorke and Mr. R. W. Dale were Vice-
Presidents. The first committee consisted of Mr. J. Thackray Bunce, Rev.
Dr. Burges, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, Mr. R. L. Chance, Rev. Charles Clarke,
Mr. J. A. Cooper, Mr. George Dawson, Rev. Charles Evans, Mr. Sebastian
Evans, Rev. Canon Gover, Mr. William Harris, Mr. Hawkes, Rev. Micaiah
Hill, Mr. J. S. Hopkins, Mr. John Jaffray, Mr. T. C. S. Kynnersley, Mr.
William Kenrick, Mr. Alderman Manton, Rev. Canon O'Sullivan, Mr. Alder-
man Ryland, Mr. W. L. Sargant, Mr. Sam. Timmins, Rev. Charles Vince,
Rev. A. Ward, .and Rev. Dr. Wilkinson.
19V
The League had its origin in a conversation between
Mr. Dixon and Mr. Ceilings, when it was resolved to call a
private meeting to consider the ad visibility of organising a
National Association for the purpose of agitation. A
meeting was held at Mr. Dixon's house early in 1869.
There were present, Mr. Dixon, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr.
Collings, Mr. Bunce, Mr. Harris, and many others, who after-
wards joined the Provisional Committee.
All these gentlemen took an active share in the struggle
which followed, and many of them during the succeeding
eight years devoted themselves, without reserve of time or
energy, to secure the objects of the Society.
A circular was shortly issued inviting adhesions to the
League on the following basis : —
OBJECT.
The establishment of a system which shall secure
the education of every child in the country.
MEANS.
1. — Local authorities shall be compelled by law to
see that sufficient school accommodation is provided
for every child in their district.
2. — The cost of founding and maintaining such
schools as may be required, shall be provided out of
local rates, supplemented by Government grants.
3. — All schools aided by local rates shall be under
the management of local authorities, and subject to
Government inspection.
4. — All schools aided by local rates shall be
unsectarian.
5. — To all schools aided by local rates admission
shall be free.
6. — School accommodation being provided, the
State, or the local authorities, shall have power to com-
pel the attendance of children of suitable- a<je not
* *^^Z — • i^ A TT"^!^.
otherwise receiving education, ^
OTI7IRSITT:
Of
198
This was, with slight alteration, the basis which had
been proposed by Mr. Collings in his review of the American
common school system.
The response to the circular proved that public opinion
was ripe for the movement, and that there was a deep-seated
conviction on the subject throughout society, which was only
waiting to be led. In a few months, and before any public
demonstration had been made, 2,500 persons, including many
of the best known politicians, thinkers, and writers in
England had joined the League. A provisional committee
was appointed to make arrangements for a general conference
of members, and to transact the preliminary business of
the organisation. Mr. Dixon was elected chairman, Mr.
Chamberlain, vice-chairman; Mr. Collings, honorary secretary;
and Mr. Jaffray, treasurer. At a somewhat later period the
author was appointed secretary, a post which he held until
the dissolution of the League. (J)
The movement was embraced with great avidity in all
the large towns, and in the autumn local committees were
formed in London, Manchester, Bradford, Bristol, Leicester,
Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds, Huddersfield, Exeter, Bath,
Warrington, Devonport, Carlisle, Merthyr Tydvil, and
Wednesbury. From this time the agitation rapidly increased
in influence, and the first meeting was looked forward to
with great interest and enthusiasm from all parts of the
country.
The programme for the general meeting included the
formal constitution of the League ; the discussion of Parlia-
mentary procedure, and of the general principles advocated
1 The members of the first Committee were — Henry Holland (Mayor) ;
Aldermen Hawkes, Osborne, Ryland, and Wiggin ; Councillors George Baker
and William Harris ; the Revs. Charles Clarke, Charles Vince, and H. W.
Crosskey ; Messrs. W. J. Beale, J. Thackray Bunce, J. H. Chamberlain, R. L.
Chance, George Dawson, A. Field, T. P. Heslop, W. Holliday, G. J. Johnson,
T. Kenrick, J. A. Kenrick, G. B. Lloyd, C. E. Mathews, W. Middlemore,
Follett Osier, Wm. Ryland, S. Timmins, a J- S. Wright.
199
as the basis of the agitation ; a soiree to the members by
the Mayor, and a demonstration in the Town Hall.
Mr. Dixon took the chair at the Exchange Assembly
Kooms on the 12th October. The report of the provisional
committee, stating the origin and purpose of the League,
was read by Mr. Collings. Archdeacon Sandford moved
that the report should be adopted, and in doing so he
warned the members that they must be prepared for opposi-
tion. He said, " I am quite satisfied that very many severe
things will be said of your platform. We shall be told no
doubt that it is a godless scheme ; that it is a revolutionary
scheme ; that it is a scheme utterly unsuited to the taste and
feeling of the British people ; that it cannot succeed ; and
that if carried out it will flood the land with atheists and
infidels." He strongly opposed, as leading to perpetual
divisions and dissensions, the scheme of concurrent denom-
inational education, to support which a conference had been
held at Willis's Kooms in the preceding year ; which was in
fact the final effort of Archdeacon Denison.
Mr. Dawson seconded the resolution in a speech which
will be long remembered by those who heard it for its
argument, its eloquence, and its humour.
Mr. Edmund Potter, M.P. for Carlisle, moved the
appointment of the Officers, Council, and Executive. This
was seconded by Dr. Hodgson, who had been one of the
founders of the National Public School Association, and an
Assistant Commissioner in 1858. He said, " The President's
reference to the Manchester Association leads me to say that
although death has thinned the ranks of those who composed
that Association for obtaining secular, rate-paid education,
there still remain a large number, who, instead of looking
upon the labours of the League with jealousy, will hail its
co-operation with the greatest earnestness and enthusiasm,
200
not even desiring to meet it in friendly rivalry." Mr. Dixon
was chosen chairman of the Council, Mr. Jesse Collings hon.
secretary, and Mr. Jaffray treasurer. The Council was a
consultative body, consisting of all members of Parliament
who joined the League, donors of £500 and upwards, repre-
sentatives appointed by the branches, together with nearly
300 ladies and gentlemen chosen from the general body of
members. (*)
During the eight years of the agitation there were many
changes in the constitution of the Executive. Before the
conclusion of their labours death had removed from the
Committee some of their most trusted and able colleagues,
including Mr. Dawson, Mr. Vince, and Alderman Kumney.
1 The Executive Committee appointed at this meeting consisted of —
Messrs. J. T. Bunce, Joseph Chamberlain, J. H. Chamberlain, Charles Clarke,
H." W. Crosskey, George Dawson, Alfred Field, William Harris, Henry
Holland, William Kenrick, William Middlemore, E. C. Osborne, Follett
Osier, Arthur Ryland, Charles Vince, and J. S. Wright, of Birmingham ;
Mr. Charles Booth, Liverpool ; Rev. Dr. Caldicott, Bristol ; Major Ferguson,
Carlisle ; Edward Huth, Huddersfield ; Canon Kingsley, Eversley ; Mr.
Maxfield, Leicester ; Captain Maxse, Southampton ; William Simons, Merthyr
Tydvil ; Rev. S. A. Steinthal, Manchester ; Rev. F. B. Zincke, Ipswich ;
Angus Holden, Bradford ; and the Hon. Auberon Herbert, Dr. Hodgson,
George Howell, and Herbert Fry, London.
During the continuance of the organisation the following names were
added to the Committee :— R. Applegarth, London ; Rev. J. J. Brown,
Birmingham; Professor' Fawcett and Mrs. Fawcett, Cambridge; G. B.Lloyd,
Rev. M. Macfie, R. F. Martineau, S. Timmins, C. E. Mathews, Rev. J.
Renshaw, Rev. J. M. McKerrow, Dr. Langford, Birmingham ; Thomas
Webster, Q.C., Sir C. W. Dilke, F. Pennington, Edward Jenkins, R. Williams,
London ; C. H. Bazley, William Cheetham, Alderman Ruinney, Harry
Rawson, Manchester ; William Bragge, J. Taylor, Councillor Hibberd,
H. J. Wilson, John Muscroft, Sheffield ; W. F. Collier and William Adams,
Plymouth ; Joseph Cowen, Newcastle ; James Kitson, Rev. J. Haslam,
Rev. H. W. Holland, Leeds ; S. S. Mander, Wolverhampton ; F. G. Prange,
Liverpool ; G. B. Rothera, Nottingham ; Stephen Wihkworth, Bolton ;
Bancroft Cooke, Birkenhead ; J. C. Cox, Belpec ; Alderman Hutchinson,
Halifax ; Rev. R. Harley, Leicester ; Isaac Holden, Keighley ; Captain
Sargeant, Bodmin ; Rev. J. Marsden, Taunton ; John Morlcv, Tunbridge
Wells ; Thomas Nicholson, Forest of Dean ; James Hanson, Bradford ;
S. C. Evans Williams, Rhayader ; and John Batchelor, Cardiff.
201
There were a few secessions on questions of policy. Mr. Simons
went over to the Welsh Committee, which decided in favour
of purely secula,r teaching ; Canon Kingsley gave his support
to the Education Act ; and Professor and Mrs. Fawcett
withdrew on the ground of the opposition to the 25th section.
But with few exceptions the members of the Committee
remained loyal to the principles and policy of the League,
and gave the Officers an undivided trust and support during
the most trying years of the agitation, and notwithstanding
the strain on party loyalty, which was caused by the
opposition to the policy of a Liberal Government.
It was determined to make parliamentary work a
prominent feature in the League programme. Accordingly,
at the meeting on the twelfth of October, Professor Fawcett
moved, and Professor Thorold Kogers seconded a resolution
that a bill, embodying the principles of the League, should be
introduced during the next session. Papers were also read
by Mr. Dixon on " The best system for National Schools,
based upon local rates and government grants ;" by Professor
Rogers on " Secular Education;" by the Rev. S. A. Steinthal
on " Local Educational Rating ; " by Mr. Pentecost on
"Compulsion; "by Dr. Rowland Williamson "The legislative
enforcement of attendance ; " by Alderman Rumney on
"Compulsory attendance;" by Mr. Alfred Field on "Free
schools ;" by the Rev. F. B. Zincke on " Unsectarianism ;" by
the Hon. Auberon Herbert and Mr. G. J. Holyoake on "Secular
education ;" by Mr. H. J. Slack on " Denominational schools;"
and by Captain Maxse on " Free and compulsory education."
The following gentlemen took part in the discussion which
followed. Mr. Simons, Merthyr ; Mr. Applegarth, Mr. Green,
Sir C. Rawlinson, Sir William Guise, the Hon. George
Brodrick, Mr. Follett Osier, the Rev. Septimus Hansard, the
Rev. H. W. Crosskey, and the Rev. Dr. Caldicott. The
Conference was brought to a conclusion by a great meeting in
26
202
the Town Hall, not the least enthusiastic and striking of the
many celebrated gatherings which it has witnessed. The
speakers were Mr. Dixon, Professor Fawcett, Mr. Mundella,
Mr. J. Chamberlain, Mr. Cremer, Mr. Carter, and Mr. Collings.
It is necessary to notice one incident which took place
at the first meeting, which while it did not disturb in an
appreciable degree the harmony of the proceedings, and did
not divert attention for a moment from the ultimate object,
yet pointed to a difference of opinion within the League, and
was prophetic of future difficulty. Then, as ever, it was the
religious difficulty which raised its head to confront progress.
The Chairman was challenged by the Eev. Mr. Dowson of Hyde,
to say whether the League supported secular education or the
British school system. Mr. Dixon replied, " We do not use the
word ' secular ' ; but we exclude all theological parts of
religion, and I am sure that what is left is what even Mr.
Dowson himself would call secular." In answer to further
questions on the same subject Mr. Dixon stated that the word
"unsectarian," excluded all dogmatic and theological teaching,
and all creeds and catechisms, and also that if the Bible were
read it must be without note or comment. (J) Concisely
stated the programme of the League as to religion in school,
was Bible reading or not, at the option of the ratepayers. As
events proved it might have been wiser to have gone at first
for the absolute separation on all points, of religious and
secular teaching. Bible reading was satisfactory to no
considerable party ; and the permissive use of the Bible did
not prevent the members of the League from being denounced
on Church and Tory platforms as the enemies of religion, of
government, and of morals.
The financial prospects of the League were, from the
outset, of a very encouraging character. It was thought
probable by the founders of the League that the agitation
1 Report First General Meeting, 187-194.
203
might extend over a period of ten years, and a guarantee
fund was therefore arranged, of which a tenth part was to be
called up annually. (!)
Of this fund eight instalments were called up ; but as
special funds were raised during the struggle for electoral
purposes, to which the ordinary subscribers were contributors,
the sums originally promised were, in many cases,
actually exceeded. The total amount of the guarantee
fund was £60,000, showing an annual income of £6,000 —
which was occasionally raised by special donations to between
£7,000 and £8,000. These sums did not include sub-
scriptions for purely local purposes, which were also large.
On the day after the introduction of the Government Bill, a
full list of the subscribers to the central offices was advertised
in the Times, and covered a page of that newspaper.
Immediately after the first meeting the business of the
League began in earnest, and its progress was unexampled in
the history of public organisations. The work of the central
office was of a very absorbing and exacting nature. It is
proper to record that by far the greatest share of the labour
was wholly voluntary, and was undertaken by men who
inevitably sacrificed their individual pursuits and private
interests in its performance. Even when the magnitude of
1 Theie were many generous subscriptions to the fund, including those
of Mr. Dixon, M.P., £1,000 ; Mr. A. Brogden, M.P., £1,000; Mr. R. L.
Chance, £1,000 ; Mr. J. Chamberlain (Moor Green), £1,000 ; Mr. Joseph
Chamberlain, £1,000 ; Mr. G. B. Lloyd, £1,000 ; Mr. A. Field, ^1,000 ;
Mr. Follett Osier, £1,000; Mr. William Middlemore, £1,000; Mr. A.
Kenrick, £1,000 ; Mr. J. H. Nettlefold, £1,000 ; Mr. Alderman Phillips,
£1,000; Mr. F. S. Bolton, £1,000 ; Mr. Isaac Holden, £1,000; Sir Titus
Salt, £1,000; Mr. C. Paget, £1,000; Mr. Thomas Thomasson, £1,000;
Mr. Edmund Potter, M.P., £500 ; Mr. T. Kenrick, £500 ; Mr. J. A. Kenrick,
£500 ; Mr. John Jaffray, £500 ; Mr. Clarkson Osier, £500 ; Mr. F.
Pennington, £500 ; Mr. William Kenrick, £500 ; Mr. Hugh Mason, £500 ;
Mr. Edward Ashworth, £500 ; Mr. Joseph Cowen, £500 ; Mr. John Leech,
£500 ; Mr. William Leech, £500 ; Mr. Haslam {Bolton), £500 ; and
Mr. Harold Lees, £400. Sir Charles Dilke was also an annual subscriber,
for several years, of £100.
204
.
the operations compelled the appointment of a large staff
of stipendiary assistants, they were drawn from the ranks of
men who were willing to make personal sacrifices for the
success of principles which were dear to them, and in the
performance of a public duty.
It may be interesting to note the division of labour
which was maintained as a rule, for eight years, amongst
those who were chiefly responsible for the direction of the
agitation. Mr. Dixon was Chairman of the Council and the
parliamentary leader and adviser of the League until his
retirement from Parliament in 1876. For eight years he de-
voted himself without reserve to the service of the organisation.
In the interval between the constitution of the League and
the introduction of the Government Bill in 1870, over a
hundred public meetings were held in different towns to
advocate and explain the platform. Mr. Dixon's attendance
at these meetings was always eagerly sought. After the
Parliamentary struggle began, his attention was necessarily
more confined to the proceedings of the House of Commons,
but at all times, and wherever and whenever they could be
best employed, his services were at the disposal of the
Executive. The pains which he has since bestowed upon the
local administration of the Education Act, and the
development of the resources and powers of School
Boards, are well known throughout England. It is perhaps
the best refutation of the calumnies which were heaped
upon the League, that the leader of those who were
branded as sectarians, revolutionists, irreconcilables, sciolists,
infidels and communists, has devoted himself unremittingly
for fifteen years with many of his colleagues, in the first
place to secure an efficient education law, and afterwards
to derive the largest possible product which able adminis-
tration is capable of yielding.
Mr. Chamberlain was the head of the Executive Com-
205
mittee, and the acting Chairman of the League, and as such
was chiefly responsible in originating and conducting its
policy in the country. In this department he was earnestly
seconded by Mr. Collings, the honorary secretary. For the
general policy, all the Officers were jointly responsible, under
the direction of the Executive. As a matter of convenience
and efficiency however, it was found advisable to place an .
Officer at the head of each department of work. Mr. Bunce
was Chairman of the Publishing Committee, and in that
capacity he had not only the supervision of all the publica-
tions, the variety and extent of which were great; but he
drew up most of the important circulars which were issued to
the members and branch committees, and to the parliamentary
supporters of the League. Mr. Martineau, as chairman of
the Branches Committee, undertook to overlook and direct the
local organisations, a post involving a great amount of corres-
pondence, investigation, and advice. Mr. Harris was chairman
of the Parliamentary Committee and Mr. Clarke of the Finance
Committee; positions which involved a large amount of admin-
istrative labour, and often the decision of important matters
of policy. Mr. Jaffray was treasurer for several years, and
was succeeded in the post by Mr. Mathews. Meetings of the
Officers' Committee were held always twice a week, often
more frequently, and as a rule one or more of the Officers
attended at the central office daily. At the beginning of the
agitation an immense amount of public speaking was thrown
upon the Officers. But in that branch of the work they were
greatly relieved by the assistance of Mr. J. H. Chamberlain,
Mr. Sam. Timmins, Mr. Dale, Mr. Dawson, Mr. Vince, Mr.
Zincke, Mr. Herbert, and other members of the Executive.
This notice of the personal services which were rendered
to the League is necessarily most imperfect. There were at
every local branch, members who were working in their
districts with the same degree of earnestness and disinterested-
206
ness — the mere record of whose names would fill many pages.
But in mentioning those who took a prominent share in the
agitation, it is impossible to overlook the services of Mr.
Steinthal, who undertook the organisation of the Manchester
district, and who with the assistance of Mr. Winkworth of
Bolton, Mr. Dowson of Hyde, and others, induced the
people of Lancashire to take a part in the work worthy
of the fame of the foremost educational county of England.
An idea of the progress made by the League, and of the
hold which its principles had taken on the public mind, may
be obtained, if its position at the end of four months is
considered. By the end of February the guarantee fund
amounted to £60,000 : there were in connection with the
central office 113 branch committees in different towns, and
many of these had local auxiliary committees in corres-
pondence with them. Trade societies, representing a large
section of the working population, had joined the League and
subscribed to its funds. Nearly two hundred public meetings
had been arranged from the central office, and nearly all of
them had been attended by one of the Officers or members
of the Executive. A quarter of a million copies of different
publications had been put in circulation, including 7,000
copies of the Eeport of the general meeting, and 10,000 copies
of Mr. Ceilings' Essay on American Common Schools. In
December a monthly paper was started. This was continued
during the existence of the League, and had an average
circulation of about 20,000 copies.
In regard to the political constitution of the League, it
was composed, without exception, so far as the author's
knowledge goes, of members of the Liberal party. But all
shades of religious opinion, except Eoman Catholicism, were
represented on the Committee and amongst the members.
The first list of members comprises the names of four hundred
clergymen and dissenting ministers, including many eminent
207
Liberal Churchmen, and the best known and most trusted
Nonconformists.
The prophecy of Archdeacon Sandford, at the first
meeting, was speedily fulfilled. Notwithstanding the strong
religious element in the personal constitution of the League,
it did not escape the charge of being animated by hostility
to religion. If the authors of the accusation had contented
themselves with saying that every liberal movement in the
way of education must necessarily come into conflict, not so
much with religion, as with the pretensions of the directors,
professors, and exponents of theology, there might have been
room for an admission, that the League came under the
common indictment. It is hardly necessary to say that
there was no foundation whatever for the charges that
the Officers, the Executive, or the members of the
League were thinking of anything but the best way of
getting children into school. But the success of the early
operations gave alarm to the Church and the Conser-
vatives. They saw, in fancy, their cherished preserves
invaded, and their vested interests in danger. Two " Unions "
were immediately started in opposition. One had its head
quarters in Birmingham, the other in Manchester, the
latter being the most prominent and representative. The
avowed object, as expressed in authentic documents, was
stated to be " To counteract the efforts of the Birmingham
League, and others advocating secular training only, and the
secularisation of our national institutions."
The new programmes were put forth under the sanction
of a long array of Archbishops and Bishops, Dukes, Earls,
and Tory Members of Parliament. While the League could
hardly boast a Coronet, the " Unions " had very little else
to boast of. Their lists were wholly uncontaminated by any
association with popular institutions, or their representatives.
They were Conservative organisations, as much as the League
208
was a Liberal and Democratic organisation. A feeble effort
was made to relieve the aspect of Toryism by parading the
names of Mr. Cowper-Temple, Mr. Baines — and some more
doubtful Liberals, but it was not very successful. What is
essentially to be noticed in regard to these Unions is that they
were called into existence to obstruct and not to construct. But
for the League they would never have been heard of, and edu-
cation might have languished for another half century. The
Bishop of Manchester, at one of the Union meetings, after
referring to 'the educational destitution of the country, said,
' "Now to this educational destitution, without meaning to ignore
the labours of the Manchester Education Aid Society, or of
those gentlemen who have prepared the Manchester Committee
Bill — I wish to give them all credit for what they have
done, — I think the Education League was the first to call,
prominently, national attention ; and I suppose if it had not
been for the existence of the Education League, and the
programme they put forth, this Education Union, which has
assembled us here to-night, would have had no existence." (J)
It was into the arms of a Society thus constituted and
originated, that Mr. Forster the Eadical and Puritan
precipitated himself, and attempted to drag after him the
Liberal party.
The contest between the rival societies was conducted
with much animation, and before the assembling of Parlia-
ment there was not a town of any importance in England
where meetings or conferences had not been held. In Wales,
also, the excitement was intense. These discussions had their
natural effect upon the Government, and in January Mr.
Forster, the Vice-President, announced their intention to
bring in a bill.
Acting upon the resolution passed at the first meeting of
members, the Executive Committee had prepared instructions
1 Report of Meeting, Free Trade Hall, 1870, 6.
209
for a League bill, and the draftsman had nearly completed
his work. Early in the session, Mr. Dixon had expressed his
intention to proceed with this measure, but on the announce-
ment of the Government bill he consented to suspend action
until the proposals of Ministers were made known. Great
expectations had been raised amongst the people and the
Nonconformists by the committal of the education question to
the care of Mr. Forster/ He was regarded as the Radical repre-
sentative in the Ministry. He had been used to pride himself
on his ultra-liberalism, and his alliance with the extreme section
of the popular party. He had given for many years con-
siderable attention to the subject, and had taken an active
share in the agitation of the National Public School Associa-
tion. He had also backed Mr. Bruce's bill in 1868, which was
a Free School bill — the feature of an education programme
dearest to Radicalism. There was another circumstance
upon which the popular party founded their hopes — Mr.
Bright was a member of the Cabinet. But, most unfor-
tunately, before the education question came under the
notice of Parliament, he had been attacked by the distressing
illness which robbed the country of his services during
this critical period.
The Government measure was submitted to the House
on the 17th of February, 1870. Its author bespoke for it the
favour of the House, divested from considerations of party.
It was a bold request to make, remembering that this had
been a critical question with all Ministers for forty years , and
had kept alive the most intense and acrimonious divisions in
the country. The demand that it should be suddenly raised
above the region of passion, and feeling, and self interest,
suggested to practical minds a political impossibility, and
awakened amongst earnest Liberals a corresponding feeling
of distrust. But although Mr. Forster was courageous, he
27
210
was not original. A greater Minister, when about to sur-
render the traditions and principles of his party on a
crucial question, had suggested that the time had come when
it ought no longer to decide the fate of parties. But the
Kadical's imitation of the Conservative was inappropriate
and infelicitous, because there was the important distinction
that Mr. Disraeli was struggling in a hopeless minority, while
Mr. Forster was member of a Cabinet supported by a great
parliamentary majority, and backed by a nation enthusiastic
for searching legislation. There was all the difference between
resignation to unavoidable surrender, and the desertion of
principle when its triumph might have been won. It will
no doubt be pleaded that the difficulties of the Government
were great, and had been piled up year by year since the
formation of the Committee of Council. They had to inter-
weave a new and efficient system with one which was
inherently defective, and had been discredited by results.
No doubt this was the case ; but if Mr. Forster had possessed
the courage of Mr. Lowe, there was no insuperable difficulty.
The opportunities of 1870 were such as few Ministers
enjoy. The people had been sickened by living for six
years in an atmosphere of unworthy compromises and of
tinkering legislation, and they would have gladly supported
the Government in passing a thorough measure on distinctly
Liberal lines. No one asked at this stage of the agitation
that the existing system should be destroyed, but the
people had a right to ask that a system which had proved
itself incapable, should not be riveted upon the nation,
and entrenched behind new privileges and larger sub-
sidies. They had a right to expect a Liberal measure
from a Liberal Government. As a matter of fact, the
clergy aul tha Tories had never ventured to hops
from any Ministry such concessions as thosa which were
off are 1 to them by Mr. Forster. Thsra ware two courses
211
open to the Government — to make old and admittedly
imperfect plans bend to the necessities of modern life, or
to sacrifice efficiency in favour of custom and authority.
They chose the latter. The bill was studiously framed to
secure the support of the existing managers, and through
them, of the Conservative party.
As explained by Mr. Forster, the provisions of the bill he
introduced were : —
The Country to be divided into School districts —
(Municipal Boroughs and civil parishes).
The Government to take powers for ascertaining
the deficiency of school accommodation.
The abolition of denominational inspection.
The imposition of a conscience clause (the benefit
to be claimed by the parent in writing).
The removal of restrictions against secular schools.
The denominations to have a year's grace to supply
the deficiency of accommodation.
On the failure of the denominations, School Boards
to be elected, with powers of rating to establish schools.
School Boards to be elected by the Town Council
in Boroughs, and by select vestries in parishes.
School Boards to have power to remit school fees on
the ground of poverty, and in special cases to establish
free schools, the consent of the Education Department
being first obtained.
School Boards to have power to assist existing
schools out of the rates.
No restrictions to be placed on School Boards in
regard to religious instruction, except the observance
of the conscience clause.
212
The School Boards to have powers to frame bye-
laws for compelling the attendance of children between
five and twelve years of age.
The precise effect of the bill was hardly perceived upon
its introduction, and it was received with a chorus of satisfac-
tion from the Liberal benches, which reflection greatly modified.
Mr. Dixon while giving a general assent to the principles
enunciated, criticised its provisions. He condemned the year
of grace allowed to denominational effort, and complained that
instead of meeting the religious difficulty by the separation
of religious and secular instruction, the bill threw it upon the
School Boards to decide. He also strongly opposed as weak
and inefficient, the permissive compulsion on which the
Government relied.
A circular was at once issued by the Officers of the
League to the branches and members, pointing out the
particulars in which the bill appeared to be defective, and
inviting the expression of local opinion. Eeplies were
received from sixty-eight branches, and were laid before a
meeting of the Executive Committee on the 24th of February.
Great disappointment was experienced at the incomplete
character of the Government proposals. It was resolved to
withhold the bill which had been drafted, and to use the
whole force of the League in pressing for amendments in the
ministerial bill which was held to be inefficient in the
following points.
The only means proposed for enforcing attendance was
through the agency of School Boards. Therefore unless
such Boards were generally established, great irregularities
and inequalities would exist. There would be the anomaly of
abundant provision, and imperfect attendance. The bill was
wasteful, to the extent that it required school provision, and
took no security that it should be used,
213
Great and unnecessary delay was encouraged by the bill.
It was estimated that three years, or even half a generation
of school life might be lost before it came into operation.
There was first of all to be an enquiry to ascertain the
deficiency — then a year's grace was to be allowed to the
denominations — and upon the formation of a School Board,
another year might elapse before operations were begun.
The proposal to extend the denominational system was
in itself objectionable. The country had a right to ask that
the new system should be of a public character, under public
management, and conducted on unsectarian principles. The
extension of the denominational system was a direct
restraint on the establishment of a national system.
The election of School Boards by select vestries was
strongly opposed, as an attempt to restrict the free
exercise of the ratepayers rights, by confiding the election to
bodies consisting of self-chosen, and ex-officio members,
usually representing two interests — the land and the Church.
The ballot was also demanded as a security against coercion.
The illusory provisions in regard to compulsion were
objected to, it being evident that " permissive compulsion "
was wholly inadequate. The uselessness of such legislation
had been recently demonstrated by the failure of the
Workshops Act. It was clear also, that influences and
interests which were opposed to education might seek
representation on School Boards with the object of preventing
the exercise of their powers.
On the subject of free schools, the Committee pointed
out the injustice of taxing the working classes to provide for
schools partly free, and imposing an additional tax in the
shape of school fees. They were also opposed to the
pauperising influence of the Government provisions, and to
the obstruction to attendance which would be created,
214
The provisions in regard to religious instruction were
condemned. The bill threw the question of religion to the
constituencies, to be fought out in every borough and parish,
In order to avoid a parliamentary conflict it was to be
transferred to electoral platforms throughout the country.
The League demanded the time table conscience clause,
and the exclusion from state-aided schools of catechisms,
formularies, and doctrinal teaching.
The proposals for granting aid out of the rates to existing
denominational schools were opposed, as creating a scheme
of concurrent endowment, the chief effect of which would be
to enrich Church schools.
The amendments resolved upon were : —
1. — School Boards to be established in all districts,
instead of only in those districts in which education is
declared to be unsatisfactory after enquiry by the Privy
Council.
2. — Such Boards to be elected immediately on the
passing of the Act, and to be required to provide without
delay for the educational necessities of their districts.
3. — In districts not included in boroughs, School
Boards to be elected by the ratepayers generally, voting
by ballot.
4. — Compulsory attendance of children at school to
be made imperative, instead of being left to the discretion
of School Boards.
5. — Admission to schools established or maintained
by School Boards to be free.
6. — No creed, catechism, or tenet peculiar to any
sect to be taught in schools under the management of
School Boards, or receiving grants from local rates. In
all other schools receiving Government aid the religious
teaching to be at distinct times, either before or after
215
ordinary school business, and provision to be made that
attendance at such religious teaching should not be com-
pulsory, and that there should be no disability for non-
attendance.
In a statement of the provisions and amendments, they
were thus summed up : — " The bill provides, in a feeble,
hesitating, tentative way, for the application of certain
principles — local rating, local management, direct compul-
sion, free schools, and unsectarian teaching. The amendments
of the League propose to carry these principles into full
operation, by dealing firmly with them, and providing that
their application shall be rendered certain, instead of being
left to accident or caprice. In a word, the League proposes
that Parliament shall legislate, giving to local bodies only
administrative powers."
Mr. Forster's idea of raising the question above party
considerations was to throw himself into the arms of the
Opposition, and to rivet an intensely sectarian and party
system upon the country. He had approached a subject
which had baffled Ministers for half a century with too light
a heart, and too easy a conviction of his ability to " canter
over " the religious difficulty. He ended by over-riding
some of the most cherished convictions and principles of the
party to which he belonged. From the beginning of the par-
liamentary discussion he was adopted as the protegt and
instrument of the Tories and the clergy, a position which
ought not to have been a comfortable one for a strong Liberal
statesman. The Executive Committee of the League therefore
determined to make a direct appeal to the Prime Minister.
On the 9th of March, a deputation waited on Mr. Glad-
stone at his official residence. Mr. Dixon introduced the
deputation — probably the most numerous and representative
which had ever visited Downing Street. It comprised 46
members of Parliament, and 400 members of the League,
216
representing 96 branches. Mr. Chamberlain, as Chairman
of the Executive, stated the views of the League. He
described its origin, its rapid growth in numbers and
influence, and its claims to fairly represent Liberal opinion
throughout the country. In stating the objections of the
Committee to the bill, he said they were opposed to the year's
delay, which would give to the denominations opportunities
to run a race of wasteful expenditure, and to increase sectarian
bitterness. They objected, also, to the permissive recognition
of great principles, to permissive compulsion and permissive
sectarianism, and also to the retention of school fees. The
conscience clause proposed was entirely unsatisfactory : no
parents would dare to make use of it, or to place themselves
under the ban of the parson and the squire by signing such
a document. If the Government entertained any doubt as to
the opinion of the country, and would give them a little
longer time, they would make that opinion sufficiently mani-
fest. In conclusion, he asked that the Government which
secured the support of Liberal Churchmen, and of the leading
Dissenting bodies, in their efforts to carry out the principles of
religious freedom and equality in Ireland, should not reject
their petition for the application of those principles in
England, and that they would remove from what was
otherwise a noble measure, clauses which would inflict
intolerable hardship and oppression upon a large class of
the community.
Sir Charles Dilke spoke on the conflict between the
principle of permissive, and of direct and general compulsion :
Mr. Mundella described the application of compulsory laws
in foreign State* : Mr. Applegarth represented the views of
the working classes : The Kev. S. A. Steinthal advocated the
abolition of school fees : Mr. Illingworth, the Eev. F. Barham
Zincke, and the Kev. Charles Vince explained the views of
the deputation on the treatment of religion.
217
Mr. Gladstone expressed a hope that a basis was
afforded upon which, by united efforts, they would be able to
work out a satisfactory result. On the same day the Premier
also received a deputation from the Welsh Educational
Alliance — a body working in sympathy with the League.
On the second reading of the Government Bill,
Mr. Dixon, at the request of the Executive Committee,
moved " That this House is of opinion that no measure for
the elementary education of the people will afford a
permanent or satisfactory settlement, which leaves the
question of religious instruction in schools supported by the
public funds and rates, to be determined by local authorities."
Mr. Dixon explained that his amendment did not cover the
ground of his objections to the bill, which might be improved
in many respects. He could have wished to show reasons
for the general establishment of School Boards, and for their
free election by the ratepayers ; also for the immediate and
general application of compulsion, and for the abolition of school
fees. He was also 'opposed to the granting of a year's grace
for the establishment of new denominational schools. But he
confined himself to a review of what was called the religious
difficulty, which would be greatly aggravated by the bill.
In the course of time School Boards would become universal,
rates would be levied everywhere, compulsory attendance
would be generally enforced, and members of different sects
would have to pay for, and to send their children to schools
of other denominations. The minority would have to pay
for the religious teaching of the majority. Denominationalism
would thus be increased, rather than lessened, as he held it
ought to be. If the Irish system had been adopted there
would have been no opposition to the bill. He believed they
could not reach a solid foundation short of separate religious
teaching. If the agitation should be continued there would
arise in th3 country, a party who would ask for exclusively
28
218
secular education. The Vice-President of the Council had
misunderstood the nature and extent of public feeling
on the question. A contest between the Church and Non-
conformists already seemed inevitable. Looking at the
lessons of history he had no doubt which would prevail. If
the bill should pass, at future elections of Town Councillors,
to be a Dissenter would be a qualification for office, to be a
Churchman a disqualification, amongst Liberals. The con-
science clause had been tried and found wanting. Parents
would not avail themselves of it. The time-table conscience
clause was the only one that would work. There ought to be
separate religious instruction apart from secular teaching. He
hoped that the Government would modify the clauses, and
that it would not be left to School Boards to decide this
question after a conflict involving much strife and religious
animosity. He had taken the unusual and grave step of
moving an amendment to the second reading, because it was
the only way in which he could gain for the subject the
importance it deserved. There would have been a deep
feeling of disappointment in the country unless the first
opportunity had been taken for giving expression to the
strong and decided feeling which existed. If the Government
should not think it right to make any declaration of opinion
in compliance with these views, it would remain for the
constituencies to express their opinion in a manner which
would leave no doubt as to public sentiment.
Mr. Illingworth seconded the resolution.
Mr. Forster complained that an amendment had been
proposed on the second reading — a course generally taken by
members hostile to the Government and the measure. He
quoted from proceedings of the League, the "Welsh Alliance,
and the Congregational Union, to show that they were not
agreed on the question of religious instruction. Eemarking
on his Puritan blood, and his connection with the Kadical
219
school, he asked, with a strangely distorted sense of Puritan
and Eadical principles, that religious questions should be
submitted to the decision of municipal bodies ; the inevitable
effect of which would have been to introduce into their
discussions, subjects of dispute and contest which had been
excluded since the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts,
and to restore the tyranny of majorities in matters of religion.
He gave great praise to the Opposition for the concessions
they had made in the acceptance of a conscience clause and
the abolition of denominational inspection. He asked that
the House should go into Committee, his speech containing
no indication that the Government were prepared to make
any concessions.
The debate was continued on the following evening
by Mr. Winterbotham in a speech of marked ability. Mr.
Auberon Herbert, Mr. Vernon Harcourt, Sir Henry Hoare,
Mr. Jacob Bright, Mr. James Howard, Professor Fawcett,
Mr. H. Eichard, and Sir Charles Dilke also supported the
amendment. The Liberals who opposed it were Sir Eoundell
Palmer, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Lowe), Mr.
Mundella, Mr. Cowper-Ternple, and Mr. U. Kay-Shuttleworth.
A number of Conservatives also gave their support to the
Government; being determined apparently by the general agree-
ment which existed below the gangway on the Liberal benches.
As the result of three nights discussion, Mr. Gladstone
indicated that certain modifications would be considered by
the Government — such as those referring to the popular
election of School Boards, and the separation, in time, of
religious and secular instruction, with other provisions to give
to the minority equal privileges with the majority. Under
these circumstances Mr. Dixon said he felt it his duty to
withdraw the amendment.
The alterations proposed by the Government were not
laid on the table of the House until the 26th of May.
220
During the interval, although, much uncertainty was caused
by the delay — there being many rumours that the measure
would be withdrawn — the country was not idle in giving
expression to its views. The opinion that nothing but a
thorough measure would be of use was strengthened and
confirmed by the publications of the reports of Mr. Fitch and
Mr. Fearon on the elementary schools of Birmingham, Leeds,
Liverpool, and Manchester — verifying, as they did, the conclu-
sions of the Education Aid Societies. In March a large number
of petitions were presented, praying for more decisive and
perfect provisions in the bill. As an illustration of public
feeling, though perhaps not the most conclusive one, it may
be noticed that the signatures to the League petitions
amounted to 277,651, while those on the opposite side were
only 18,822.
A meeting of the Executive was held on the
24th of March, when the following resolution was passed : —
" That the Executive Committee regards with satisfaction the
spirit of concession manifested by Mr. Gladstone in his
speech on the second reading of the bill, but desires to
reiterate its unshaken conviction that no amendments can
be satisfactory in reference to the religious difficulty which
do not provide that no creed, catechism, or tenet peculiar to
any sect shall be taught in schools under the management of
School Boards, or receiving grants from local rates, and that
in all other schools receiving Government aid the religious
teaching shall be at a distinct time, either before or after
ordinary school business, provision being made that attendance
at such religious teaching shall not be compulsory, and that
there shall be no disability for non-attendance. That this
Committee is further of opinion that the whole of the League
amendments should be moved in Committee."
Amongst Nonconformists the bill had created feelings of
.mingled surprise, anger, and dismay. They were startled to
221
receive such a blow against their most cherished principles
from a Government to which they had rendered such loyal
service. Almost for the first time since 1839, all sections of
Protestant Dissenters were found closely united in support of
common views. There were individual exceptions, amongst
whom Mr. Baines was the most prominent ; but such men
admittedly did not represent the opinions of any considerable
or important section of the Nonconformist body, either in
respect of numbers or authority.
The Central Nonconformist Committee, which was
formed in Birmingham, and was in connection with Dissenting
Committees throughout the kingdom, took an active and
important share in the agitation against the objectionable
provisions of the bill. The Chairman of the Committee was
Mr. Middlemore. Mr. E. W. Dale and the Eev. H. W.
Crosskey were the Honorary Secretaries, and Mr. Schnadhorst,
who has since acquired a national reputation, was the
Secretary. The Committee at once called meetings of
Dissenters in every part of the country to consider the
religious clauses. Petitions were presented to the House of
Commons praying for a reconsideration of the proposal to
give local boards unrestricted power to determine the religious
character of schools supported by local rates. This petition
was signed, in a few days, by over two thirds of all the
Nonconformist ministers in England and Wales, of all
denominations. On the llth of April a deputation waited on
Mr. Gladstone and presented to him personally a protest in
the same language and representing the same bodies. The
deputation comprised Mr. Dale and Mr. Crosskey, the Eev.
J. G. Eogers, of the Congregational Union Committee ;
Eev. W. Brock, President of the Baptist Union; Eev. J.
Hargreaves, of the Wesleyan Methodists ; Eev. G. Lamb, of
the Primitive Methodists; Eev. J. S. Withington, of the
United Methodist Free Churches ; Dr. Cookev President of
222
the New Connexion Methodists ; and the Eev. W. Gaskell,
President of the Provincial Association of Lancashire and
Cheshire Unitarian Churches.
But perhaps the most earnest, formidable, and unanimous
opposition to the bill proceeded from Mr. Forster's own
borough — and from his own constituents and friends. At ten
open public meetings convened in the town in the month of
May, resolutions were passed in favour of a compulsory,
unsectarian, and free system. Petitions were forwarded to
Mr. Miall for presentation to the House, and a memorial was
addressed to Mr. Forster, begging him to reconsider his course.
This agitation was, perhaps, stimulated by the strong support
which the clergy and Conservatives gave to Mr. Forster, and
it was encouraged and promoted by the great majority of the
Liberal party.
The Manchester Corporation also appointed a deputation
to wait on the Premier to advocate more stringent provisions
for procuring attendance, to protest against assistance out of
the rates to denominational schools, and to urge the Govern-
ment to settle the religious question at once by deciding what
should be taught, instead of leaving it to be contended for
amongst municipal bodies.
In the course of the discussions on the bill, the Man-
chester Bill Committee, which had been in favour of leaving
the religious instruction to local decision, and under whose
advice Mr. Forster had acted in drawing up his clauses,
became convinced that public opinion would not tolerate
such a method of dealing with the question, and advised that
it should once for all be settled by the Legislature.
Earl Kussell also wrote to Mr. Forster confessing that
he had changed his views, and thought it would be
impolitic to remit religious questions for local decision. He
also strongly advocated the time-table conscience clause, and
the prohibition of catechisms and distinctive religious teaching
223
in rate-aided schools. He added, " such men as Mr. Miall
and Mr. Winterbotham ought surely to be conciliated by
justice and not overpowered."
There was during the same period, a steady growth of
the League branches, of the number of members, and of the
funds placed at its disposal. Eepeated warnings were
addressed to Ministers from all sources, that persistent
adherence to the objectionable features of the bill would
result in a formidable breach in the ranks of the party. In
several Parliamentary contests which had occurred, the
League had made its power felt; and this feature of
the agitation promised to become much more prominent.
The first batch of Government amendments — those
indicated by Mr. Gladstone on the second reading — were laid
on the table, on the 26th of May. They provided, 1. That
where select vestries were not popularly chosen, the School
Boards should be elected by the ratepayers generally, voting
by ballot. 2. That a time-table conscience clause should be
imposed on all schools receiving Government aid, or assistance
from local rates : and 3. That Government Inspectors should
not examine the religious teaching in any school.
Great disappointment was felt at the imperfect character
of these alterations. At a meeting of the Executive
Committee, held on the 3rd of June, resolutions were
passed declaring the Government amendments inadequate
and unsatisfactory, and expressing the view that if no further
amendments could be secured it would be desirable to
postpone legislation until the next session. It was determined
to raise a special fund of £10,000 for the purpose of con-
tinuing and extending the agitation, which had grown to
dimensions making a heavy strain upon the resources of the
central office.
The Central Nonconformist Committee also adopted
resolutions complaining of the unsatisfactory character of the
224
ministerial proposals, and advocating an organised opposition
to the passage of the bill in the form which it presented.
The critical position of affairs induced the officers to
summon the Council of the League — a body which by the
constitution was entitled to be called together only on special
occasions — the object being to make the most formal and
impressive protest which they could put on record. The
meeting was held at Willis's Eooms on the 16th of June, Mr.
Dixon presiding, when there were present members of the
Council and representatives from all parts of England. This
body sustained the action of the Executive — and resolved that
the amendments proposed to be introduced by the Govern-
ment were wholly insufficient to meet the requirements of
the country, as expressed in public meetings and petitions.
Mr. Yernon Harcourt had given notice of an amendment
on going into committee, to the effect that provision should
be made to secure that in all schools deriving assistance from
the public rates, the religious teaching given should be
undenominational in character, and confined to unsectarian
instruction in the Bible : and that no measure of National
Education would be effectual which did not provide for the
compulsory attendance of all children of school age, to be
enforced by School Boards established in every district. As
an amendment to this resolution Mr. Cowper-Temple intended
to move, " that in all schools established by means of local
rates, no catechism or religious formulary which was distinc-
tive of any particular denomination should be taught." (*)
1 Mr. Cowper-Temple was Chairman of the Education Union. He
explained, however, during the debates in Parliament that he did not put his
amendment on paper at the request, or as the representative of the Union.
The wording of the clause is somewhat ambiguous, and might be interpreted
to admit catechisms and formularies which are distinctive of more than one
sect. Mr. Cowper-Temple is said to have stated that he intended it to allow
the use of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and Apostles Creed.
But I believe that in practice the interpretation of its author has been
considerably narrowed.
225
But on the order of the day for going into committee
Mr. Gladstone rose to make a further statement. From this
it appeared that the Government had decided on adopting
Mr. Cowper-Temple's amendment — and on the time-table con-
science clause. They had also resolved to strike out clause
23, which authorised School Boards to give assistance out of
the rates to voluntary schools. In lieu of this clause they
proposed to raise the grant to denominational schools out of
the consolidated fund, so that it would be equivalent to fifty
per cent, of their expenditure. They also proposed to
discontinue the building grant after the period of grace
allowed to the denominations to establish new schools,
These proposals could hardly be satisfactory to the
League or to Nonconformists. The Ministry, in fact, threw
themselves into the arms of their enemies. They adopted
the clause proposed by the Chairman of the Union, and the
suggestion made by Lord Eobert Montagu that they should
return to the former liberal scale of grants. The building grant
was discontinued in such a manner as to give a stimulus to
the foundation of denominational schools. The grants which
were applied for before the end of the year would, at the
normal rate of application, have extended over from fifteen to
twenty years. In the schools thus established and endowed, any
kind of religious instruction might be given at the pleasure of
the schoolmaster — excepting the use of catechisms and formu-
laries. Mr. Disraeli charged the Government with creating a
" new sacerdotal class." They also refused to concede the
principle of direct and general compulsion, upon which
public opinion chiefly relied to secure an efficient system.
Mr. Henry Eichard gave notice of a motion " That
grants to existing denominational schools should not be
increased, and that in any national system of elementary
education the attendance should be everywhere compulsory,
and the religious instruction should be supplied by voluntary
29
226
efforts, and not out of the public funds." It was resolved
by the Executive to support this amendment. The most
representative Nonconformist bodies also passed resolutions
in its favour. The debate upon it occupied four nights,
and extends to 250 pages of Hansard. Sixty-two Liberals,
representing many of the largest constituencies in the
kingdom, went into the lobby against the Government
upon this motion.
A still larger defection occurred on the discussion of
clause 17, providing for the regulation of public elementary
schools. To the Government clause (that adopted from Mr.
Cowper-Temple) Mr. Jacob Bright moved a further amend-
ment— that in rate-supported schools in which the Scriptures
were taught, the teaching should not be used or directed in
favour of, or against the distinctive tenets of any religious
denomination. The division upon this amendment ought
to have conveyed a sufficient warning to any Ministry not
absolutely blind, or bent upon rushing on its own destruction.
One hundred and thirty-three Liberals walked out of the
House without voting, while 132 Liberals, representing
1,063,579 electors, voted against the Government. The
clause proposed by the Government was carried by the
union of 121 Liberals (including 25 Government officials)
and 132 Conservatives. The Liberal minority included
members of every section of the party, representing con-
stituencies of all diversities of character, from the city of
London to the West Biding.
From this time, although the League did not relax its
efforts, it was felt that the struggle in Parliament was nearly
a hopeless one. In the progress of the bill through Com-
mittee the Government steadily resisted all amendments,
whether proceeding from the League or the Church party.
Where attempts were made to give a more reactionary
character to the measure the adherents of the League gave a
227
cordial support to the Ministry, but only in their turn to be
crushed by an alliance between the Ministerialists and the
Tories.
Mr. Walter's amendment for the establishment of
School Boards in all districts was defeated, but as an evidence
of the importance which the country attached to the repre-
sentative principle in educational management, it is worthy of
notice that 112 Liberals voted against the Ministry. As a
partial concession to the strong feeling which existed
Mr. Forster consented to introduce a provision for the creation
of School Boards on the application of the inhabitants.
Sir Stafford Northcote made an effort to omit the words
prohibiting the use of catechisms and formularies in rate-
supported schools, and Sir John Pakington moved to make
the reading of the Bible compulsory. Both proposals were
lost,
Mr. Dixon's motion to secure free admission into rate-
supported schools was equally ineffectual.
Sir Charles Dilke moved that the School Boards should
be elected by the ratepayers instead of by Town Councils
and Vestries. The amendment was opposed by the Govern-
ment and rejected by the narrow majority of 150 against
145. The lesson of this division, however, was not lost,
since at a later stage the Government accepted the proposal.
Lord Frederick Cavendish is responsible for the cumula-
tive vote, which Mr. Gladstone, with some impetuosity,
accepted on the part of the Government.
One of the most remarkable circumstances in the
progress of the bill is, that clause 25 permitting the payment
by School Boards of fees in denominational schools, was
agreed to without discussion or division. The explanation
however is obvious. The clause was grouped with clause 23
of the original bill, which provided for assistance out of the
rates to existing schools. The greater clause over-shadowed
228
the lesser, and it was not discovered that the latter involved
a similar principle. It was therefore overlooked. Consider-
ing the feeling which was afterwards aroused by the attempt
to enforce the 25th section, it is worth while to reflect what
would have happened if clause 23 had been allowed to pass.
A further effort was made by Sir Thomas Bazley to
insert clauses providing for direct and general compulsion,
but it was defeated.
On the motion of Mr. Candlish that the parliamentary
grant should not be extended to schools not then in existence,
unless they were provided by School Boards, Mr. Dixon
entered a formal protest against the course pursued by the
Government, which he predicted would end in creating religious
dissensions, disastrous both to religion and education. With a
fine sense of casuistry, Mr. Forster replied that the money
offered by the Government was intended for secular and not
for religious teaching ; and this notwithstanding the admission
of the voluntary managers, that their schools could not
continue to exist without aid from the Government. In
considering the conduct of the measure by the Vice-President,
one of the least satisfactory features is, that while professing
to change the principle upon which grants were made,
allocating them for secular instead of religious instruction, he
did it in such a manner as to strengthen and encourage the
foundation of schools, whose chief object was, by their own
admission, to foster denominational interests. In 1839 Lord
Melbourne and Lord Eussell, in the name of the Queen,
declared that education must have a religious basis, and they
consistently refused aid to schools in which religion was not
taught. In 1870 Mr. Forster professed that the sole object of
the Ministry was to provide secular education, yet he was
careful to carry it out in such a way that sectarian schools
would receive the largest share of the advantages offered by
the Government.
229
On the discussion of the parliamentary grant Mr.
Trevelyan, who had resigned his post in the Ministry,
addressed the House. He said that private members stood
in a happier position than members of the Government, for
they were justified in voting for the bill under protest, at a
future time opposing the increased grant ; but it would be
the duty of the Government to press forward the increased
grants, for which every member of the Government would
be bound to vote, however much it might be against the
Liberal creed. He was not prepared to incur such an
obligation. Politicians of his standing had formed their
beliefs and aspirations during the Irish Church Agitation
of 1868, and during that period, Scotland and Wales and
many of the large towns of England, pronounced against
denominational education. That election was, in large
portions of the country, a crusade in favour of religious
equality. Very great was the responsibility of confusing
ideas of right and wrong by repudiating denominational
ascendancy in Ireland, and then pouring out the public
money like water in favour of denominational education
in England. He felt bound to oppose the increased grant,
and this was why he had taken the painful step of leaving
the Government.
In the House of Commons, the ballot in School Board
elections was stoutly contested by the Conservatives, but was
carried by the Government after an all-night sitting. The
House of Lords subsequently expunged the clause, to which
the Government assented.
On the third reading of the bill, Mr. Dixon said that he
had not offered to it a factious opposition, or attempted to
delay its progress, but it must not be concluded that he
was satisfied. It was his intention to give notice that early
next session he should move for leave to bring in a bill to
amend the act, It owed its success in the House mainly
230
to two causes, which would not be forgotten in the country.
The first was the constant and earnest support given to it by
the Opposition, and the other was the statement, made over
and over again by the Government, amounting almost to a
threat, that unless their usual supporters went into the same
lobby with them, they would run the risk of losing the bill,
and incur the condemnation of the country. He regretted
that the success of the bill had been purchased at such a
heavy price, for he could not hide from himself that it had
roused the suspicion, the distrust, and the antagonism of
some of the most earnest supporters of the Government.
He thought it was a great disadvantage, if not a positive
evil, that those who had done so much to place the Govern-
ment in the position it occupied, should be accustomed to
an attitude of opposition, and to make appeals that would be
repeated to the Liberal party outside the House, against the
action of a Ministry which had hitherto received from them
the most unvarying, loyal, and enthusiastic support.
The concluding debate was also marked by a passage of
arms between the Prime Minister and Mr. Miall, who
spoke as the Nonconformist representative in the House.
The latter complained that he and his supporters had been
made to pass through the Valley of Humiliation. The
Administration was in power mainly in consequence of the
support given by the Nonconformist body to the policy
announced by the first Minister of the Crown two years
before. They gave whatever new impulse was given to the
Liberal cause, then and for years to come. When this question
was brought forward they did not expect anything immoderate,
or demand anything that was selfish ; but they thought that
some consideration would have been paid to their objections —
which, however, had been increased and aggravated by the
remedies applied. He suggested that there would in future
be a diminution of the confidence which they had formerly
231
reposed in the Ministry, and greatly incensed the official
Liberals by using the expiession, " once bit, twice shy."
Mr. Gladstone made an impetuous reply, in which he
justified the course which had been taken by the Government.
He said, " my honourable friend thinks it worthy of him to
resort to a proverb, and to say that the time has come when
he is entitled to use the significant language, ' once bit, twice
shy.' But if my hon. friend has been bitten, by whom is it ?
If he has been bitten, it is only in consequence of expectations
which he has himself chosen to entertain, and which were not
justified by the facts. We have been thankful to have the
independent and honourable support of my hon. friend, but
that support ceases to be of value when ; accompanied by such
reproaches as these. I hope my hon. friend will not continue
that support to the Government one moment longer than he
deems it consistent with his sense of duty and right. For
God's sake, sir, let him withdraw it the moment he thinks it
better for the cause he has at heart that he should do so."
The language used on both sides proves how intense was the
exasperation which existed between Ministers and a large
section of their supporters ; and the subsequent history of the
Administration shows how ready the Nonconformists were to
take the Prime Minister at his word. A subsequent portion
of his speech may be adduced in proof of the political honesty
of his character, but at the same time it exhibits the wide
gulf which existed in. feeling between himself and the mass
of those who had 'returned him to power. He made no
pretence that the Education Act was a measure for secular
education only, or even that it was impartial in character.
He said, " it was with us an absolute necessity — a necessity
of honour and a necessity of policy — -to respect and to favour
the educational establishments and machinery we found
existing in the country. It was impossible for us to join in the
language, or to adopt the tone which was conscientiously and
232
consistently taken by some members of the House, who look
upon these voluntary schools, having generally a denomina-
tional character, as admirable passing expedients, fit indeed
to be tolerated for a time, deserving all credit on account of
the motives which led to their foundation, but wholly
unsatisfactory as to their main purpose, and therefore to be
supplanted by something they think better." These expres-
sions were consistent at any rate with the course which Mr.
Gladstone had always pursued in relation to education,
though they did not exhibit great sagacity in estimating the
weight and direction of public opinion.
In the concluding stages Mr. Forster made light of the
threat of an agitation' against the act — but this did not deter
Mr. Dixon from giving notice of his intention to move in the
next session for its amendment.
The act received the Royal assent on the ninth of
August, 1870.
The Denominationalists were allowed up to the 31st of
December to make application for building grants. The
Church papers demanded immediate and energetic action on
the part of Churchmen. Not a moment, they declared,
was to be lost. They were advised to ascertain the
educational need in every district, and to report " schools in
progress " to the Department. The Roman Catholics took the
same course, the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Howard leading
the movement. These appeals to purely sectarian interests
resulted in 3,111 applications (*) to the Department for
building grants in less than five months — the normal rate
of application being about one hundred and fifty per annum.
If any doubt had been felt as to the effect of the act in
stirring up sectarian feuds, it was soon dissipated by the action
of the country. Everywhere the introduction of the law was
the signal for the revival of disputes of the most painful
1 Of these applications 1,332 were afterwards withdrawn.
233
character, which previously had slumbered, and which it was
hoped were gradually dying out. Mr. Forster's reward for
passing the act, which he accomplished by means of an
ability and persistency which are not denied, was a seat in the
Cabinet. But his relations with his constituents, or more
correctly with the Liberal party in Bradford, were embittered
for the next ten years. In January, 1871, he went to
Bradford to deliver an account of his stewardship. He was
met by a vote amounting to one of want of confidence.
Mr. Alderman West moved, and Mr. Alderman Scott
seconded, a resolution, —
"That this meeting tenders its congratulations to the
Eight Hon. W. E. Forster, M.P., on his having obtained the
high and honourable position of a member of Her Majesty's
Cabinet, and begs, at the same time, to thank him for the full
and clear account of his parliamentary experience during the
past year, which he has given this evening."
Mr. Charles Turner moved as an amendment, —
" That this meeting having heard Mr. Forster's account
of his parliamentary experience during the past session, and
fully recognising his previous services to the Liberal cause,
regrets its inability to approve of the educational measure
passed mainly by his exertions, and deplores deeply the
means resorted to, to secure its adoption in a Liberal
House of Commons."
Mr. Elias Thomas seconded the amendment, which was
carried. The Vice-President, however, had his consolations
in the confidence and praise of the clergy, the Tories
and their press. On a rumour of his removal from the
Education Department, the Guardian remarked, " We should
be glad to see his advancement to any post of greater dignity,
but certainly it will illustrate very unhappily the necessities
of parliamentary government if, just as he has shown himself
master of the situation in one most important Department, he
30
234
should be transferred to another in which he has everything
to learn. The work of the education bill is not done ; on the
next two or three years everything will depend. We doubt
whether Parliament would have given such unexampled
autocracy to the Department if they had not fancied that
Mr. Forster was to preside over the inauguration of the new
work."
With these ill omens, the Education Act of 1870
entered upon its work.
235
CHAPTEE VI.
PERIOD.— FROM THE PASSING OF THE EDUCATION ACT, 1870,
TO THE ADOPTION BY THE LEAGUE OF THE SECULAR
PLATFORM, 1872.
NOTWITHSTANDING its defects in important particulars, the
Education Bill, as it was sent up to the House of Lords,
was a very different measure from the draft which Mr. Forster
had introduced. The separation of religious and secular
instruction effected by the time-table conscience clause was
only partial — it was as Mr. Gladstone said, a separation in
time alone. Yet it was the acceptance of a principle, which,
step by step, with a persistency which never yields, has been
gradually asserting itself in the practice of our legislature
and government for a century past. Ten years before the
passing of the Act the justice and practicability of any
conscience clause was denied by nine-tenths of the school
managers ; and the general imposition of a time-table
conscience clause would have been felt to be the most complete
and disastrous defeat which Denominationalism could sustain.
It is not desirable to over-estimate the value of the conces-
sion. The time will probably come when such a badge of
toleration will not be required. It is very doubtful indeed
whether in the existing state of society, any conscience clause
which ingenuity could devise would prove effectual. The
actual experience under the existing clause has not been
satisfactory ; but still something was gained. Mr. J. S. Mill
said, " I should be glad to forget as soon as possible what the
bill would have been without it. Though brought in by a
Government which lias earned such high distinction as the
236
destroyer of religious inequality in Ireland, a more effectual
plan could have scarcely been devised by the strongest
champion of ecclesiastical ascendancy, for enabling the clergy
of the Church of England to educate the children of the
greater part of England and Wales in their own religion at
the expense of the public." (J) The integrity of the denomi-
national teaching was broken by the clause. The principle of
the division in time between the two branches of instruction
once admitted, the complete separation in other respects has
become a question of patience.
In some other points the denominational character of the
bill had been successfully attacked. The proposed year of
grace was reduced to about five months ; the direct power to
subsidize denominational schools out of the rates had been
negatived; and the teaching of catechisms and formularies
in rate-aided schools had been prohibited.
The amendments in the civil clauses of the bill, striking
also against denominational influence, were even of greater
value. These provided chiefly for the free election of School
Boards by the ratepayers, and the power of localities to
acquire School Boards on application to the Department.
These amendments brought more freely into play the
principles of local rating and local management. The
permissive power to establish Boards by the vote of the
School district, became in practice of the highest value, for
it was by this means that the best results of the Act were
produced.
As soon as the bill became law, the Executive Com-
mittee decided on a double line of policy. It was
resolved in the first place to make the most of the
Act as an educational measure, by encouraging the appli-
cation of the representative principle, in the formation of
School Boards, the provision of schools, and the adoption of
1 Speech at St. James's Hall, March 25, 1870.
23*7
compulsory bye-laws. While the Act was yet passing
through its final stages, the Town Council of Birmingham, at
the instigation of Mr. Dixon, took steps for acquiring a School
Board. This example was immediately followed in Leeds
and Sheffield, and at a short time later by the Corpora-
tions of Manchester, Liverpool, Middlesborough, Leicester,
Nottingham, Oxford, Bolton, Coventry, Canterbury, Black-
burn, and other important boroughs.
It was also determined to agitate against the proposed
increase of grants to denominational Schools, and to strive
for other amendments calculated to make the educational
operation of the Act more universal and efficient.
A circular was issued by the Officers to the local
branches, explaining how the Act might be put into opera-
tion without waiting for the formal notices and enquiries,
and urging the adoption of this course in all districts where
there was an obvious deficiency of accommodation. With the
same object, a letter by the Chairman of the Executive on
the advantages of School Boards was circulated, and a
legal hand-book containing an Analysis of the act, for the
use of members, was distributed.
At a meeting of the Executive Committee, held on the
7th of September, it was resolved to maintain and extend
the organisation of the League for the following purposes : —
" 1. To assist in putting the Education Act in operation,
so as to secure, as far as possible, the establishment of
unsectarian, compulsory, and free schools. 2. To promote
amendments in the Act by converting the permissive into
obligatory clauses, and securing the recognition of the
principle of religious equality in rate-aided schools. 3. To
resist the increase of parliamentary grants to sectarian
schools. 4. To watch the progress of educational legisla-
tion in reference to the Irish system. 5. To influence
238
public and parliamentary opinion by meetings, publications,
petitions, and all other available means, in favour of a
national, unsectarian, and free system of education ; and
with this view to secure the return of members to the
House of Commons pledged to support the principles of
the League."
With these objects, renewed efforts were made to extend
and re-invigorate the organisation. A large number of
travelling and local agents were appointed, and an active
canvass of the constituencies was undertaken, with the
result that in a short time the branches and adherents of
the League were doubled.
The electoral policy of the League was as yet undeveloped,
but in the action taken at Shrewsbury, Newark, and other
towns, there were distinct indications that principle would
not be sacrificed for the sake of party cohesion. Speaking at
Shrewsbury, Mr. Dale had called upon the constituencies not
to vote for candidates who were unprepared to resist a
denominational system, and the increase of grants to
sectarian schools. " Nonconformists must make it clearly
understood that there were certain terms by which their
allegiance to the Liberal party stood or fell, and that they
meant to take some part in Liberal counsels."
The deep-seated distrust which the policy of the Govern-
ment had created amongst Dissenters, was illustrated by the
action of the Central Nonconformist Committee. This body
had been appointed to watch the progress of the Education
Bill in Parliament, but it was not dissolved on the passing of
the Act. At a meeting held at Can's Lane, on the 19th
of October, Mr. Chamberlain in the chair, it was decided
to continue the existence of the Committee, to obtain the
amendment of those provisions which violated the principles
of religious liberty, to secure the refusal of national aid to
239
new denominational schools, and its gradual withdrawal from
schools under sectarian management — to prevent the develop-
ment of the denominational system in Ireland and Scotland,
and to resist legislative encroachments on the rights of
Nonconformists.
A new departure in the movement was now taken. The
Chairman said that the Committee were of opinion that they
had previously been a little too moderate, and whereas
they had formerly asked that there should be no increase
of aid to denominational schools, they now asked that all
grants of national money for denominational purposes should
gradually be withdrawn. The Committee proposed to assist
in a movement which had already obtained many supporters
in Scotland, and still more in Ireland, to resist any alteration
of what was called the mixed system of education.
The second annual meeting of the League was held at
the Queen's Hotel, Birmingham, on the 25th of October, 1870.
In moving the adoption of the report presented by the
Executive, Mr. Dixon sketched the progress which had been
made. Since last year they had gained an Education Act,
which, notwithstanding its defects, would set the country in
motion. It depended greatly upon the League that the
movement should not cease until every child in the country
was efficiently educated, and he trusted they would be
animated to still greater exertions. They had not worked
in vain in the past, but it was to the future that they must
look for results. They had merely prepared the ground on
which they might hope to labour successfully. He referred
to some of the defects of the Act which they might hope to
amend. One of the greatest was the sanction of an increase
of grants to existing denominational schools. He felt it to
be a bitter thing to swallow, that they should have to listen
to the leader of the Liberal party — a man to whom they
240
owed the Irish Church Bill — and to accept from him a
clause which was a deviation from the principles of religious
liberty and equality. He urged the members earnestly to
promote the establishment of School Boards, and the enforce-
ment of compulsion.
Mr. Vernon Harcourt in seconding the motion, strongly
condemned permissive legislation, which he described as a
complimentary phrase for parliamentary cowardice. The
word " efficient," crept in, in only an obscure manner in the
clauses of the Education Act. The foundation of the Act
was School accommodation, which many people understood
to mean a question of bricks and mortar. The party opposed
to the League seemed to think that National Education
consisted in eighty cubical feet of space ; whether it con-
tained a child, and whether the child could read and write,
did not seem to be considered. It was argued that schools
being provided there was to be no School Board. He trusted
this was not the true interpretation of the Act, but a
grejat many people held that opinion, he might almost
say, cherished that hope. The consequence was that
there was a great rush on the building grants, quite irrespec-
tive of what was to be done with the schools when they
were built.
A motion was made at this meeting to substitute the
word " secular " for " unsectarian " in the programme of the
League. The proposition received considerable support, but it
was withdrawn on its being explained by Mr. Chamberlain
that the general body of subscribers were not prepared for it,
and that it would impair the efficiency of the organisation.
Sir Charles Dilke proposed a resolution advocating the
establishment of School Boards, and the execution of
the permissive powers of the Act, which was seconded by
the Rev. Mr. Steinthal.
241
The Eev. J. W. Caldicott proposed and Mr. E. W. Dale
seconded a resolution, recommending resistance to the increase
of grants to voluntary schools.
On the motion of Mi\ Vince, seconded by Mr. Wilkinson,
the following resolution was carried, definitely pledging the
League to assist in maintaining intact the Irish system : —
" That this meeting has heard with satisfaction that an
Education League has been formed for Ireland, on a basis
similar to that of the National Education League, and
strongly sympathises with its promoters in their efforts to
prevent the overthrow of the present system in Ireland,
and the substitution of the denominational system in
its stead."
During the autumn and winter the agitation of all
public questions was in a measure suspended, so completely
was attention engrossed by the Continental war then raging.
But in many boroughs preparations for a struggle were
beginning; while in nearly all the parishes the clergy and
Tories were making superhuman efforts to provide school
accommodation, and thus prevent the formation of Boards.
The most nattering, exaggerated, and fallacious estimates of
existing accommodation were prepared for the Department.
The National Society's paper said the clergy were doing in
one year " what, in the ordinary course of things, would have
been done in twenty years." Begging letters were sent out
on a scale never practised before; visitors at holiday
resorts were hunted down by collectors ; and every sort of
misrepresentation was used to exaggerate the cost and
the inconvenience of School Boards. These efforts were
so far successful that it was estimated by the officials
of the National Society, that some six thousand applications
for building grants had been sent in, four-fifths of which
were on behalf of Church Schools. On no previous occasion
31
242
had the clergy ever shown a greater fear and distrust of
popular control. They had not forgotten the warning of
Bishop Wilberforce, " Immediately you introduce the rate-
payer, you must give him the real direction of the instruc-
tion furnished by the rate."
The opposition to School Boards was led by the Bishops.
The Bishop of Salisbury publicly returned thanks that there
was only one School Board in an important part of his
diocese. The Bishop of Chester headed the attempt to
prevent the formation of a Board in his Cathedral Town.
When the regulations were issued by the Department for the
formation of Boards in rural districts, there were some
populous parishes in which steps were taken at once to secure
a poll of the ratepayers. These contests were marked by
every kind of intimidation, misrepresentation, unscrupulous
influence, and false cries, employed to maintain sectarian
supremacy, and prevent popular representation. (*) The
clergy were suddenly and newly inspired with a great horror
of rates, which, to say the least of it, was suspicious. The
Bishop of Hereford, with sly humour, told his clergy that
although the farmers might fear God, it could be taken for
granted that they feared a rate more. The ratepayers were
urged to vote against a Board unless they wanted their rates
raised and their wages reduced. Pressure was put on tenants
to secure their votes ; they were taken by their landlords to
the poll ; and in some instances they were evicted where they
voted for a School Board. The terrors of compulsion, threats
of the prison, and the cat-o'-nine-tails were put before the
labourers. These tactics were in many cases successful, and
the much dreaded institution was often rejected ; a result
frequently secured by the votes of illiterates. The parish
1 For details see the Monthly Paper of the League ; also papers by
Mr. Bunce, Mr. J. C. Cox, and Mr. Sonley Jolmstone, read at the third
Annual Meeting, 1871.
243
having decided against a School Board it was sometimes found
an easy matter to collect what was called a " voluntary "
rate ; or more frequently to throw an extra charge .upon the
parents by raising the School fees.
The attitude of the clergy towards School Boards, where
they were found to be inevitable, was characteristic and
consistent. There had been much talk, when the bill was
before Parliament, about the liberality of the Church, and her
willingness to accept and work the measure in an undenomi-
national sense. In the discussion on Mr. Jacob Blight's
amendment, which sought to prohibit the teaching of dis-
tinctive tenets in rate-aided schools, Mr. Forster had said,
that " it mattered little how the clause was worded, because,
whatever its precise terms might be, undenominational
religious teaching would be given (in Board Schools). The
Government had already given the strongest indication, in a
general way, that the religious instruction was not to be
sectarian or dogmatic." The Church, however, had no
intention of accepting Mr. Forster's interpretation of the
clause. The object the clergy set before themselves was to
get the largest amount of distinctive Church teaching which
was possible under the conditions of the Act. At a meeting
of the Saltley Training College, held after the Act was
passed, Bishop Selwyn said, " The foundation of all teaching
was the gift of the Holy Spirit in baptism. All school
teachers should be communicants, and by their example lead
their scholars to the Holy altar. In fine, let all schoolmasters
first learn, and then teach all others they could, the grand
truths of that Catholic faith once for all delivered to the
Saints."
On the same occasion, Lord Lyttleton, in advising
schoolmasters to do the best that was possible under the
fetters imposed upon them, said, "The Act of Parliament
put no restriction upon schoolmasters in teaching from the
244
Bible, and, though he did not say they would be able to teach
the full amount of distinctive doctrine, he defied any one to
say how much they would be limited to teaching."
The Bishop of Winchester told his clergy that although
creeds and catechisms were excluded, it would be easy for the
schoolmaster to teach all the distinctive doctrines of the
Church without the use of those standards.
The Bishop of Ely said, " he would rather see Mahomet-
anism taught in the country than have that undogmatic
Christianity, which really meant Christianity with no doctrine
at all."
The Bishop of Peterborough said, " the position of the
Church in relation to rate-aided schools was, that an attempt
was about to be made to solve the problem, which he believed
to be impossible, of teaching an indefinite Christianity."
Mr. Disraeli advised that Churchmen " should omit no
opportunity and no occasion to maintain and increase the
legitimate and holy influence of the Church."
The National Society declared that it was more necessary
than ever that pupil teachers should be taught dogmatically,
in order that they might give the religious lessons in schools
which had been built, principally for that object. The
Monthly Paper of the Society said : " If by a time-table,
religious instruction be limited to a single hour a day, the
more need is there, that the teaching given in that hour
should be pointed, dogmatic, and unmistakable. All that is
happening in the matter of education, is a call to the Church
to put out her strength, and to do valiant battle for her
principles in her schools."
" Our work is to teach children the facts of our religion,
the doctrines of our religion, the duties of our religion. We
must teach them the facts of our religion, that they may be
intelligent Christians, not ignorant as Heathens ; the doctrines.
245
that they may not be Christians only, but Churchmen ; the
duties, that they may not be Churchmen only, but communi-
cants. This last, in fact, is the object at which we are
uniformly to aim, the training of the young Christian for full
communion with the Church ; and, as preliminary to that, a
training for confirmation. The whole school time of a child
should gradually lead up to this."
" They (the children) ought to know why they should be
Churchmen, and not Dissenters ; why they should go to
church, and not to meeting ; why they should be Anglicans,
and not Komanists."
" The time has come when probably the whole fate of
the Church of England, humanly speaking, will turn upon the
hold she may have upon the rising generation. Political
changes are giving more and more power to the people. If
the Church have the people with her, she will be beyond all
danger from adverse legislation. Let her, then, educate the
children of the people in her principles." (*)
A Church clergyman, Mr. Gace, the vicar of Great Barling,
improved upon these instructions and put them into the
practical shape of a catechism for use in parochial schools.
A specimen will suffice.
" Question. — We have amongst us various sects and
denominations who go by the general name of Dissenters.
In what light are we to consider them ? "
" Answer. — As heretics, and in our litany we expressly
pray to be delivered from the sins of false doctrine, heresy,
and schism."
" Q: — Is, then, their worship a laudable service ?
" A. — No, because they worship God according to their
own evil and corrupt imaginations," &c.
" Q.— Is Dissent a great sin ? "
1 Monthly Paper of National Society, August, 1871.
246
"A. — Yes, it is in direct opposition to our duty towards
God."
" Q. — Is it wicked then to enter a meeting house at
all ? "
"A. — Most assuredly; because as was said above, it is
a house where God is worshipped otherwise than he has
commanded, and therefore it is not consecrated to his honour
and glory."
This was the kind of teaching which might be given
in substance, if not in form, in Board Schools, and the precise
words of which might be taught in schools receiving aid
from the rates, under section 25. There were doubtless
many clergymen of sufficient liberality to shrink from
putting the Act to the purposes suggested ; but as ninety
per cent, of all Church Schools were in union with the
National Society the extracts given may be taken as fairly
representative of the intentions and views of the great body
of the clergy.
At the second stage of the conflict caused by the opera-
tion of the Act — the election of School Boards — the divisions
and hostilities of parties were more strongly marked than
ever. The disappointment, the confusion, and the bitterness
of feeling were greatly intensified by the working of the
cumulative vote, with its curious and anomalous results.
Whatever may be the ultimate decision upon the advantages
of this method of election, about which there was much
difference of opinion, even amongst the members of the
League ; it must be admitted that the choice of the education
question as the subject of the first experiment was
unfortunate. The Goverment of Sir Eobert Peel had
introduced into the Factory Bill of 1843, clauses based on a
somewhat similar principle, having the like object of
fettering the majority ; but Lord John Eussell at once
exposed the insidious nature of the device. If any
247
expectation was now entertained that election by the cumula-
tive vote would smooth the working of the Act, and lead
to compromise and harmony, it was speedily negatived. The
immediate result was to exasperate the majority, to widen
the breach, to encourage the spirit of sectarianism, and to
make the Act the most unpopular measure of modern times.
The avowed principle of the Act was to leave the decision of
important questions of policy and administration to the
judgment of localities. The effect of the cumulative vote
was, in the greatest number of instances, to deprive the
majority of the power of laying down any broad principles
of action. Worse than this, in many cases, it enabled the
minority, brought together by the combination of sectarian
interests, to impose a policy and conditions absolutely
repugnant to the views of the majority. In the working
of the vote everything depends upon accurate knowledge of
proportionate strength, upon the nice manipulation of
numbers, upon the absolute obedience of the voters, and
upon skilful electioneering. Under such circumstances, it
was an easy matter for a drilled, compact, organised minority,
or a combination of sects, amenable to discipline, to obtain a
victory over an undisciplined and independent majority, who
were practically disfranchised by the difficulty of securing an
equal distribution of votes. In execution the new franchise
became a Church and Chapel franchise, giving power to a
number of discordant sects, which had the resources of
electioneering at their command, and whose last thought
was the promotion of general education. In the first
elections the Tories and the Church party, reinforced by
the narrowest and most exclusive sects, achieved greater
successes than they had done for generations in parliamentary
and municipal contests.
To add to the embarrassments of the cumulative vote,
the early elections were taken under a system of voting
248
papers, which was unintelligible to the great mass of the rate-
payers. The result was that in the large boroughs, one-half
of the electors took no part in the struggle. This happened
in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Notting-
ham. While the denominationalists, Churchmen, Eoman
Catholics, and the representatives of cliques and interests
were polled to a man, the majority of the community who
care little about isms, were virtually disfranchised.
To show how a minority may thus secure a triumph
over the majority, the case of Birmingham may be taken.
There was never any doubt that Birmingham was liberal, and
was with the League. There was not an assured Liberal of
reputation in the town who publicly dissented from the
League scheme. The party was absolutely united and was
in a vast majority. At the parliamentary election in 1868,
the Borough had refused to be fettered by the minority
vote, and by means of an able organisation had broken
through its restrictions. The Liberal leaders now refused to
acknowledge the principle of the cumulative vote, and
determined to nominate fifteen candidates — that is the whole
Board. This has been generally regarded as a tactical error,
but if the Liberals had been able to poll their full strength,
there was good reason to believe that they could have carried
fifteen candidates against eight Conservatives. If it was a
mistake for the Liberals to run fifteen candidates, it was a
greater mistake, considering the proportion of parties, for
the Conservatives to run eight candidates. In the result eight
Churchmen and Tories were returned, with one Koman
Catholic and six Liberals. A careful examination of all the
circumstances leads to the conclusion that the Liberals were
beaten, not because they attempted too much, but because
the party was not sufficiently organised, and because the
managers had not mastered the difficulties and intricacies of
the new method of voting. It is a matter of notoriety that
249
the Liberal party at this time, though united on the question
of principle, was not as highly organised as it had been before
and has been since. Too much confidence was placed in the
known superiority of numbers, and too much reliance on the
prestige of 1868.
Although the fifteen Liberal candidates secured a majority
of 4,462 voters, and of 66,934 votes, they were defeated — and
a Church majority was returned. As a curious result of the
first election under the cumulative vote the figures deserve to
be recorded — but in estimating their significance it must be
remembered that a large portion of the Liberal strength was
left unpolled — a fact which could be easily demonstrated by
a reference to the statistics of previous and subsequent
elections.
The voting was as follows: —
For the Fifteen Liberals,
Voters. Votes.
Chamberlain, Joseph (Unitarian) ... 13,861 ... 15,090
Dale, R W. (Independent Minister) ... 14,394 ... 16,387
Dawson, George (Dissenting Minister)... 14,238 ... 17,103
Dixon, George (Churchman) 14,435 ... 16,897
Vince, Eev. C. (Baptist) 14,138 ... 15,943
Wright, J. S. (Baptist) 13,567 ... 15,007
Baker, George (Friend) 13,399 ... 14,101
Collings, Jesse (Unitarian) 13,432 ... 13,873
Crosskey, Eev. H. W. (Unitarian) ... 12,917 ... 13,314
Holland, Eev. H. W. (Wesleyan) ... 12,955 ... 14,359
Lloyd, G. B. (Friend) 13,461 ... 14,642
Middlemore, William (Baptist) 13,446 ... 14,332
Eadford, William (Baptist) 12,284 ... 12,515
Archdeacon Sandford (Churchman) ... 12,790 ... 13,202
The first six were successful.
32
250
For the Eight Conservatives and Churchmen.
Burges, Eev. Dr. ..." 10,065 ... 21,925
Dale, Eev. F. S 8,807 ... 17,465
Elkington, A. J 8,010 ... 14,925
Gough, J. 8,461 ... 17,481
Hopkins, J. S 8,344 ... 15,696
Lloyd, S. S 11,134 ... 30,799
Sargant, W. L 8,520 ... 15,683
Wilkinson, Eev. Dr 9,601 ... 19,829
The whole eight were returned.
The Eev. Canon O'Sullivan, the Eoman Catholic
representative, headed the poll with the smallest number of
voters, and the largest number of votes — voters 3,171;
votes 35,120,
Numerical Result.
Votes for the " Fifteen " 220,637
Votes for the "Eight" 158,703
Majority of votes for the " Fifteen " 66,934
Voters for the "Fifteen" 14,709
Voters for the "Eight" 10,247
Majority of voters for the " Fifteen " 4,462
These figures sufficiently demonstrate that the cumula-
tive vote gives the control, not to numbers, but to organisation.
In other towns the anomalies were quite as glaring, and the
general result of the first elections was, that in most Liberal
boroughs in England the Tories and the Church secured the
control of the School Boards for the first three years, with
the power of taxing the majority to teach the religion of the
minority.
Much has been said in disparagement of the " Caucus/'
but the caucus, which is simply another name for electoral
251
organisation, was the offspring of the cumulative vote and
the minority vote.
The system of voting papers adopted in the first School
Board elections has, happily, been abolished. While it
existed, it was the parent of every description of trickery,
deception, and fraud. Mr. Swinglehurst wrote from Kendal :
" I have seen something of voting in half civilised States,
but Mr. Forster's School Board voting has no equal in
fostering falsehood and trickery."
This electoral chicanery was accompanied by a revival
of sectarian quarrels in their most objectionable form.
Accusations of bigotry and intolerance on the one side,
and of infidelity and irreligion on the other, were freely
exchanged amongst candidates. The Bible was brought into
the fray, to serve as an election rallying ground. The Church
party in Birmingham declared that the question was one of
" Bible or no Bible," notwithstanding that their opponents
advocated the reading of the Bible ; and this hustings' cry
was advertised by huge placards, on posting stations, from
the windows of gin palaces and beer houses, and on the
backs of cabs. The Church rate controversy was renewed
under another semblance, and with more intense passion
and irreconcilable hostility. No parliamentary or local
contests had for generations previously been known to pro-
voke the same amount of bitterness and division between
parties.
Protests against the cumulative vote were sent to the
Government from the Birmingham Liberal Association, and
other Liberal centres. An exhaustive analysis of the results
of the early elections, with an able essay on the subject, was
prepared for the League by Dr. James Freeman, of Birming-
ham, and was widely circulated. In the next session of
Parliament, Mr. Dixon introduced a bill for the alteration
252
of the law. He met, however, with little support, and the
bill, which was opposed by some members of the League,
who belonged to the school of philosophic Badicals, and who
were anxious to experiment in forms of proportionate
representation, was withdrawn without a division. The
working of the system has since been greatly improved by
the abolition of voting papers, and the application of the
ballot ; but it still depends upon nice calculations of
strength, upon perfect organisation, and upon implicit sub-
mission to discipline. The natural tendency of such artificial
forms of voting is to make electioneering a science, and to
reduce political arrangements to machinery. By the practice
of these means a more equitable balance of parties on the
School Boards has been secured at recent elections. If
evidence were wanted to prove how completely the majority
were baffled and misrepresented in the first contests, it is
only necessary to compare the results with those of single
elections to supply the vacancies which arose. In many
places Liberals were returned without effort, and by large
majorities, where Tories had obtained the control of the
Boards.
The effect of remitting religious questions to the decision
of School Boards was exhibited the moment they began
operations. The choice of chairmen, clerks, school visitors,
and other officers, was determined by theological qualifica-
tions, and on sectarian grounds. The system of proportionate
representation had no influence in restraining sectarian
majorities from administering the Act, in matters alike of
principle and detail, to their own advantage. The School
Boards were the arenas in which solemn questions of religion
and delicate matters of doctrine were made the shuttlecock
of debate. No better device could have been imagined for
encouraging a spirit of irreverence. Candidates for the post
of schoolmaster were publicly examined respecting their
253
interpretation of selected passages of Scripture. The
doctrines of the Trinity, the Atonement, the Inspiration of
Scripture, of Eternal Punishment, of the Actual Presence,
became subjects of dispute. Extracts were read from the
lesson books of the Catholic Church, to the cry of " ISTo
Popery," and sometimes a Jew would possess himself of
Watts's hymns from which to quote "specimens of Christian
charity." There was no cohesion upon the majority of the
Boards, except that of sectarianism. Acrimonious personal
disputes were frequent. It was not an uncommon thing for
a minority to leave the room in a body, or to refuse to serve
on committees with members of opposite opinions. The first
meeting of the London Board was marked by a long and
heated discussion as to the propriety of having private
prayers before the opening of business. It was eventually
decided that a room should be set apart for the purpose for
the use of those members who desired it. But at the next
meeting the whole of the requisitionists were absent, and the
chairman, Lord Lawrence, was left to his solitary devotions.
The first chairman of the Birmingham School Board published
a pamphlet, in which he indulged in personal reflections and
criticisms upon the characters, abilities, and conduct of his
colleagues in the minority.
It is notable that these discussions arose in towns which
had been remarkable for liberality of thought and toleration
upon religious questions. If the occasion sometimes seemed
trivial, and if the personal feeling evoked was at times little
short of scandalous, it was the more evident that nothing but
very ingrained convictions could provoke divisions of such
extent, in a society where different denominations had worked
harmoniously together for many years for the promotion of
social happiness and improvement. The conflict, though
fought out on matters of detail, was throughout one of
principle. On the one side it was an attempt to revive and
254
re-enact religious privilege and prerogative, and on the other
to preserve and advance the fullest measure of religious
liberty and equality.
The signal for the conflict was given at the Birmingham
School Board, and for the following three years the proceed-
ings of the Board were watched with intense interest through-
out the country. The Eev. F. S. Dale, the most able and
persistent member of the Church majority, gave notice of two
resolutions, one for the enforcement of the powers of com-
pulsion, and the other for the payment of fees in existing
schools. The motion was brought forward before there was
any school under the control of the Board, and its object, as
generally received, was to fill and to assist the denominational
schools at the cost of the ratepayers. The resolution took
the form of empowering the remission of fees under Sec. 17.
It was shown that this could not be done, as the Board had
no Schools ; but it was discovered that fees could be paid at
existing Schools under Sec. 25, and it was to the powers
of this section that the subsequent debates had special
reference.
Mr. Chamberlain led the country agitation against the
25th section. At the School Board he moved an amendment
to Mr. Dale's resolution declaring that the payment of money
out of the rates to the denominational schools would be an
infringement of the rights of conscience, and would delay the
establishment of free schools. At a later stage of the discus-
sion the special reason advanced in support of the 25th
section, was the alleged " right of choice " which it gave to
the parents. But, as Mr. Dixon pointed out, the clause was
introduced when there was no right of choice — the only
schools being those of a denominational character. The party
which opposed compulsion as un-English and unconstitutional
was now trying to use the law to force children into sectarian
255
schools. In some parts of England the law was administered
in this manner. For several years the Manchester School
Board had no schools under its control. The Board did
precisely the same work, and occupied the same position which
the Education Aid Society had done, with this difference — that
instead of voluntary subscriptions the rates were used, and
instead of persuasion a compulsory bye-law was enforced.
It was not until several years had passed that the Board
asked for any right of inspection in the schools which were
assisted. The Board was in fact merely a relief agency for
the denominational managers.
A similar course would have been followed in
Birmingham if it had not been opposed by every device of
controversy which the Liberal leaders, backed by three-
fourths of the ratepayers, could employ. The six Liberals on
the Board — Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Dale, Mr. Dawson,
Mr. Dixon, Mr. Vince, and Mr. Wright — were the acknow-
leged leaders of the Liberal party in the borough, and the
ablest speakers and debaters which the town could produce
when it was celebrated for a wealth of talent amongst public
men. The fortnightly meetings of the Board were looked
forward to with the greatest interest and zest, partly because
of the principles at stake, though no doubt also because
of the intellectual enjoyment they afforded. They were
always inconveniently crowded by the public. The successful
resistance which the minority offered to the enforcement of
of the 25th section, against a united and resolute majority, is
unique in the proceedings of public bodies. Eor nearly three
years the question was fought resolutely, step by step ; at
the Board, in Parliament, in the Town Council, at the
Education Department, in the Queen's Bench, and at every
election and public gathering of Liberals in every ward
of the borough. When at last the majority, by Mandamus
from the Queen's Bench, compelled the Town Council to
256
honour the precept of the Board, they did not venture to
enforce the bye-law they had made ; since it was well under-
stood that the levies would have been resisted in the homes
of the ratepayers, and distraints, on a scale wholesale and
unparalleled, would have been necessary to collect the rate.
It must not however be understood that the first
Birmingham School Board did nothing but wrangle about
first principles. At the Committees of the Board much
solid work was done, in estimating the school requirements
of the borough and in arranging for its supply. In the
first three years the foundation was laid for the system of
splendid schools which are now conducted under the
administration of the Board.
It has been sometimes objected that the 25th clause
was a small matter to cause such an unusual amount of
feeling. The total payments made by virtue of the clause
in 1872 were a little over £5,000, of which about two thirds
was voted in Manchester and Salford. This sufficiently
indicates the extent to which the subsidy might have
grown if it had not been checked by public agitation.
If the example of Manchester and Salford had been generally
followed in parishes having a complement of school accom-
modation, the country might have had imposed upon it a free
and compulsory system in denominational schools alone,
with School Boards established for the single purpose of
paying fees out of the rates and enforcing compulsion.
It has always been surprising how easily the objections of
denominational managers to free education disappear, when
the school fees can be provided with advantage to, or
without embarrassing their financial arrangements.
But the 25th clause was merely the key of a position,
chosen upon which to fight the issue, whether the country
was prepared to accept in perpetuity the system of sectarian
257
schools supported by public rates. Mr. Disraeli saw the
position. He said, "The 25th clause may be called the
symbol of the question ; those who are in favour of the
25th clause are in favour of religious education, and those
who are against it are in favour of secular education."
Mr. Chamberlain accepted the situation. He wrote, " It is
futile to allege that the practical results are small, and that
the grievance is sentimental, for Dissenters are almost
unanimous in their conviction, that a grave principle
is involved, and that now or never they must take
their stand against what they affirm to be a retrograde
policy."
Outside the School Board the agitation was conducted
by the League, reinforced by Liberal associations and by
the various combinations of Nonconformists, and of Working-
men. The movement amongst the Dissenters was strikingly
active and earnest. A conference of the Nonconformist
Committees of Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham was
held at Manchester in April, 1871, at which it was arranged
to call a general conference, and also to appoint a deputation
to represent to the Prime Minister their insuperable objection
to the 25th clause. This deputation represented all sections
of Protestant Nonconformists, and comprised representatives
from various parts of the country. At Mr. Gladstone's
request, their case was stated in writing and submitted for
his consideration. A part of their contention was that he
had undertaken, in striking out clause 23 of the original
bill, that a distinct and definite line should be drawn
between School Boards and voluntary schools — that the tie
between them should be altogether severed. Instead of the
direct subsidy contemplated by clause 23, the grants had
been increased to them by fifty per cent., but the payments
under the 25th section, though nominally for fees, were in
the nature of a subsidy.
33
258
The managers and supporters of the Nonconformist day
schools in Birmingham declined to receive the fees, and in a
memorial to the Board protested against their payment to
other schools. At an immense gathering of Dissenters in the
Town Hall, an appeal was made from the School Board to
the constituency. At meetings of the Congregational and
Baptist Unions it was declared to be a new form of the old
Church-rate, to be resisted more resolutely than ever. A
representative gathering of the London Nonconformists was
held at the Cannon Street Hotel, at which a most emphatic
protest was adopted. At every meeting of Dissenters
throughout the country, and at the annual meetings of the
Associations of Nonconformist churches, resolutions were
adopted, encouraging the League in the continuance of the
agitation. There was no division or disunion amongst the
Dissenters on the question ; and the meetings at which the
subject was to be discussed were as remarkable for their
numbers as for their unanimity.
The feeling was intensified by the partiality shown at
the Education Department, and the pressure put upon School
Boards to make them adopt bye-laws under section 25. In
cases where a power was taken to remit fees under section 17,
Mr. Forster said " it would not be just " for the Boards not
to avail themselves of section 25. Thus, the Liberals had to
contend not only against the Tories, the Church, and the
disadvantages of the cumulative vote, but against a Liberal
Government, an adverse administration of the Act, and
against the moral weight of the Education Department. The
Department had often been unpopular in the country, but
never so much out of favour as now. The feeling which Mr.
Lowe's action upon the revised code had aroused, was of a
very different character to that inspired by Mr. Forster. The
former had provoked the personal hostility of a few thousand
school managers, teachers, and monitors, upon whose vested
interests he was supposed to have encroached. There was
a large admixture of personal spite in the antagonism, which
was based upon no principle, but upon selfish considerations.
But the opposition to Mr. Forster had nothing personal in its
nature. It arose from the conviction that he had betrayed
the principles which had been entrusted to him, and had
thrown back the cause of progress. The respect which he
had professed for municipal opinion was in strange contrast
with his attempt to make localities accept a forced interpreta-
tion of the Act. The usefulness of the Education Department
was greatly undermined. It is desirable that a State Depart-
ment having such extensive and various ramifications should
be able to command the respect of the country. This could
not be the case when the School Boards flatly refused to obey
the instructions of "my Lords." A conflict between a central
board and the local governing bodies, backed by the people,
could have but one issue. The School Boards at Southamp-
ton, Portsmouth, Wednesbury, and other towns refused to be
dictated to by the Department. Opinion was still further
outraged by the partiality with which the Endowed Schools
Act was administered, the tendency of which was to throw
the secondary education of the country entirely into the
hands of the clergy.
The result was that very early in the course of the
agitation, the relations between the Government and their
Eadical and Dissenting supporters were seriously imperilled.
Some attempts were made to check the disintegration ; but
no concessions were offered on the part of the Government,
who held with obstinacy rather than with firmness to the
policy they had laid down. Appeals were made to the leaders
of the country movement not to endanger the union of the
party. Mr. Winterbotham and Mr. Melly were both strongly
opposed on principle to the payments in question, but they
held that the matter was settled by the Act of 1870, and
260
that the position must be accepted. This idea was repudiated
by the leaders of the agitation, and by the rank and file of
the party, and open revolt from the first was only restrained
by the strong sentiments of affection and esteem which the
Prime Minister had inspired amongst all sections of the
party.
The plea of the " right of choice," supposed to be
guaranteed by the 25th section, whether put forward by the
clergy or the Department — it was never put forward by the
parents — was disingenuous. The clause was enforced where
there were only denominational schools, and where there
could be no right of choice. The very men who set up the
cry of the right of choice were those who had made it
impossible that there should be any choice in three-fourths
of the school districts. Mr. Bright said " I suppose there
are probably thousands of parishes in which there will
scarcely be any schools but Church schools." This was the
state of things which the Act was aimed to produce. The
"right of choice" was a pretence and was advanced in the
interests of the denominational schools. But if the cry had been
ever so genuine it was one which the temper of the country
would not have acquiesced in. If it meant anything it
meant that parents should have the right to have the religion
of their choice taught out of the public rates — a claim
wholly opposed to the tendencies and principles of modern
legislation.
The Act had hardly been a year in operation — scarcely a
Board school had been opened, when distraints were being
made for the recovery of rates, upon the goods of persons
who refused to contribute to the support of denominational
schools.
New complications were introduced by the movements
in Scotland and Ireland. The Scotch Bill of the Government,
261
introduced in 18*71, was more sectarian in character than the
English Act, as it had been amended. The conscience clause,
if not a sham in purpose, would have been in practice the
merest delusion. The time table was given up. Creeds and
formularies were permitted throughout the daily instruction.
The universal formation of School Boards, with powers of
compulsion, became, under these circumstances, a concession
to the Denominationalists, and made it a certainty that
wherever compulsion was carried out, sectarian instruction
might be forced on every child.
From Scotland attention naturally turned to Ireland. In
any case this was inevitable, but it was quickened by the
appeals which came to the English Nonconformists from
the Protestants of Ireland. The members of the disestab-
lished Church, with those Protestant sects who had helped to
procure disestablishment, were already fearful of seeing
another religion established in its place. The agitation of
the Roman Catholic hierarchy for the overthrow of the
combined or mixed system had been stimulated by the
definite extension of the sectarian system in England, and
there was a growing distrust amongst Protestants in all parts
of the kingdom as to the intentions of the Government. In
a debate on a Bill of Mr. Fawcett for the abolition of tests
in Trinity College, Dublin, Mr. Yernon Harcourt called
attention to the reserve and mystery with which the
Government shrouded their opinions on the question, and,
with great sagacity, predicted that it was the subject which
would probably cause the shipwreck of the Liberal party.
The uneasiness which was felt had led to the formation
of the Education League for Ireland, which was in union
with the English League. The objects were, to maintain
non-sectarian education in Ireland, to oppose changes in the
national system, and to raise the status of teachers and
improve the quality of education. If it had not^been for
262
the agitation against the English Act, there would have been
great danger of an anarchy of opinion on this subject, caused
by the want of candour on the part of Ministers, and their
demoralising concessions to Denominationalism in England.
While the Times supported denominational education in
England, it thought it was high time the Government
informed the Eoman Catholic prelates that their demands
could not be complied with. The Spectator, with more
even-handed justice, thought that what was fair for England
was fair for Ireland. There was probably some doubt and
division in the Cabinet, and it was well known to be a
ticklish question. Some Ministers were openly advocating
State supported denominational colleges. Mr. Goschen, and
Mr. Chichester Eortescue, the then Chief Secretary, proclaimed
their desire to extend the denominational system. Mr. Glad-
stone's speeches left his opinions in doubt, and this very
uncertainty was the cause of much anxiety.
The changes demanded by the Eoman Catholic heirarchy,
as put before the Irish Eoyal Commission which reported in •
1871, were great, startling, and aggressive. The manifesto
of the Bishops required " all restriction upon religious
teaching to be removed " — " the fulness of distinctive religious
teaching to be permitted to enter into tbe course of secular
instruction " — " full liberty to be given to the performance of
religious exercises, and the use of religious emblems." (*)
The intention to push their demands to the extremity by
means of religious and political organisation soon received
confirmation. At a meeting of Eoman Catholic Bishops held
in October, 1871, a series of resolutions were drawn up and
ordered to be read at public masses of the Eoman Catholic
Church throughout Ireland. Amongst other things the
Bishops " declared their unalterable conviction that Catholic
education was indispensably necessary for the preservaiton of
1 Report of Mr. Laurie, Assistant Commissioner, par. 40, 3.
263
the faith and morals of the Catholic people." " In union
with the Holy See and the Bishops of the Catholic world
they renewed their often-repeated condemnation of mixed
education as intrinsically and grievously dangerous to faith
and morals." They drew from Irish history evidence that
" godless education was subversive of religion and morality,
of domestic peace, of the rights of property, and social
order." In f~all future elections of Members of Parliament
they pledged themselves to oppose the return of candidates
who would not uphold the principle of denominational
education for Catholic children. Cardinal Cullen said,
" they pronounced for Catholic schools, Catholic teachers,
Catholic books, everything Catholic in the education of their
children ; " and they claimed " an adequate share " of patron-
age and endowment.
No one will deny to the Koman Catholic Bishops the
merit of candour and honesty. They did not cloak their
design under the pretence that the subsidies they demanded
were for secular instruction. In the plainest language they
asked for the endowment of the Eoman Catholic religion
out of the public funds. They required that the Eoman
Catholic Church in Ireland should be placed in the same
position of paramount authority towards other sects which
the Church of England occupied in regard to English and
Welsh Dissenters. The religion of the minority had been
disestablished, and they now asked that the religion of the
majority should be put in its place.
These were demands which, if there was any principle
or stability in the professions of English and Scotch
liberalism, could not be conceded. Here began a new step
in the disintegration of the Liberal party. The Liberals had
given to the Koman Catholics religious equality ; and they
now asked for religious preference. Most Liberals had looked
264
forward to a time when the alliance between the Roman
Catholics and the Liberal party would be severed by a
natural divergence of policy and feeling, and the hour
appeared to have arrived. The Dissenters of Great Britain
had not lent their aid to the disestablishment of one religion,
with the view of elevating another, to which they were more
hostile, in its stead. The appeal therefore from the Irish
Protestants of all sects for assistance in resisting these
threatened encroachments, was taken up with much cordiality,
and was supported and encouraged by the Eadicals and
Nonconformists of England, in numbers and weight, which
left no doubt that, with the exception of a few Ministerialists
and the Eoman Catholics, all but a fraction of the Liberal
party was opposed to any tampering with the existing
Irish system.
The Parliamentary action this year was confined to an
attempt to amend the new revised Code which was issued in
February, and which gratified the Denomiriationalists by the
large increase of grant. In the discussion of its provisions
in the House of Commons on the 10th of March, Mr. Dixon
moved " That an address be presented to Her Majesty praying
that she would be graciously pleased to direct that such
alterations be made in the new Code of Eegulations issued by
the Committee of the Privy Council on Education, and now
lying upon the table of this House, as shall prevent any
increased scale of grants of public money to denominational
schools." There was much fluttering and indignation amongst
the Tories and the clergy when the intention to move this reso-
lution^was made public, and they denounced in no measured
terms the " unblushing and unprincipled persistence " in
opposition to the grant, There was, however, no cause for
their alarm, for in spite of the efforts which were concentrated
against the proposal, it was carried by the now familiar
combination of Ministerialists and Tories. Sixty-six Liberals,
265
representing the most influential and populous constituencies
in the Kingdom, voted against the Government, while a much
larger number absented themselves from the division.
A joint deputation from the League and the Central
Nonconformist Committee waited on the Vice-President to
protest against the increased grant, and to suggest some
additions to the Code for securing more effectual teaching,
and a more economical administration of public funds. The
chief suggestions were that there should be a graduated
system of grants, with larger payments for passes in the
higher standards ; that a certain proportion of subscriptions
should be required in voluntary or denominational schools ;
that the balance sheets of the latter schools, as well as those
of the Board schools, should be published ; with other
provisions to prevent so-called voluntary schools from
being conducted wholly at the public cost — a result easily
attainable by the combined action of the Education Act
and the new Code. The extreme tenderness felt at the
Education Department for the views and interests of
the Denominationalists prevented the adoption of these
recommendations.
In other respects the code was a small step towards
proficiency. The number of attendances required to obtain
a grant was increased, and the standards of examination were
raised. All amendments intended to improve the quality of
instruction were heartily supported by the League.
The events which have been noticed made 1871 a busy
year for the League, which was the head quarters and centre
of advice, instruction, and encouragement for all who* were
striving for an efficient national system based on unsectarian
lines. The promotion and election of School Boards ;
administrative work upon the Boards ; resistance to the
sectarian tendencies of the act, and agitation for its extension
and amendment so as to secure higher educational results,
34
266
fully occupied the members of the branches, acting under the
direction of the Executive.
The influence and operations of the League in the
country were of a more extended character than in the
previous year. At the Annual Meeting in 1871, the
Committee reported that the branches had increased to 315.
Agents, resident and travelling, had been appointed for each
division of the country. A great number of publications
were issued, designed to show the deficiencies of the Act,
and to promote the formation of School Boards, and the
enforcement of compulsion. Papers on Normal schools, the
Scotch bill, the cumulative vote, the defects of the Act, the
cost and results of denominationalism, the revised code, and
the 25th clause, were widely distributed during the year.
The special work undertaken in the constituencies with a
view to parliamentary elections, was also of a very important
and suggestive character. The breach was not so wide as it
afterwards became, but the League had no intention to
decline the challenge of Ministers to appeal to the country,
and action was being taken in many boroughs which
was much to the discomfort of the Whig supporters
of the Government, and laid the foundation for that
unpopularity at St. Stephens' which the organisation
afterwards acquired.
The serious nature of the disruption in the party, and
the intense dissatisfaction caused by the persistence of the
Government in their policy of retrogression, were manifested
at the third annual meeting of the League, held at Birmingham
on the 17th and 18th of October, 1871. The meeting was
attended by specially appointed delegates from various sections
of the party, representing especially the Labour organisations
and the Nonconformist associations. Probably no gathering
of Liberals, so numerous and representative, coming from every
part of the kingdom, had ever met together to protest against
267
the action of a Liberal administration. There were present in
large numbers earnest Liberals who felt that Liberal principles
were endangered, and Educationists of note who remonstrated
against a policy which had obstructed education by mixing it
up with the question of religious establishments.
Mr. Dixon presided, and in his opening address exposed
the defects of the Act as an educational measure, and the
danger of the sectarian struggle which it had aroused. He
said that the Government had been warned against their
policy, but the warning had been unheeded. Kef erring to the
future he said, "in the Scotch Education Bill which the
Government are to introduce next session, the Denomi-
nationalists may be again triumphant ; and when the Irish
Education question is dealt with, the Ultramontane Eoman
Catholics may be equally successful in gaining a victory over
the champions of united secular and separate religious instruc-
tion ; but the pages of history tell us that the spirit of
religious freedom and equality in this country is unquench-
able, and rises more vigorous from defeat. And the reports
which the Officers of the League receive from all parts of
the country induce me to believe that forces are now silently
gathering which will undermine the power of the strongest
Government, and overthrow the political fabric of the most
time-honoured of Churches."
Sir Charles Dilke moved the adoption of the report of
the Executive. In the course of his speech he said, " such a
pass have things come to that every gathering of Liberals in
the kingdom is a meeting for the denunciation of the Liberal
Ministry, except in Scotland, in which happy country the
effect of this bill has not been felt." " I think the only men
who can look with confidence to the future are those who
take the view that these difficulties will never cease until the
Government confines itself to giving facilities for teaching
that which can harm the conscience of no man, and leaves the
268
religious teaching to be given, at their own time, by religions
men. If we can look with confidence to the future, we
cannot look with any feelings but those of horror, and almost
of despair at the present, because compulsion is being very
nearly forgotten during the sectarian strife ; and, whilst the
bigots are endeavouring, not only to preserve but to extend
their stronghold, the children go untaught."
Mr. Alfred Illingworth seconded the resolution and
described the sectarian struggle in the Borough of Bradford.
He touched a subject which was very prominent in the minds
of those present. " I am glad to see we have gentlemen
present from Scotland and Ireland. I am watching with a
great deal of interest and somewhat of a mischievous feeling,
to find out how the supporters of Denominationalism will act,
when asked to apply the principle to Ireland."
Mr. Colefax of Bradford' moved the appointment of the
Council, the Officers, and the Executive Committee. He
contended that the Act created a new Church-rate. If he
were asked to pay a shilling rate in some of the districts
of Lancashire, he would be paying something like sixpence
towards the maintenance of the Church of England, and
fourpence or fourpence halfpenny towards the Church
of Eome.
Mr. William Middlemore, Chairman of the Central Non-
conformist Committee, seconded the motion.
Mr. Chamberlain, then moved on behalf of the Executive
Committee, " That Mr. Dixon be requested to give notice of a
motion to the following effect, at an early period of the next
session — ' that, in the opinion of this House, the provisions
of the Elementary Education Act are defective, and its
working unsatisfactory, inasmuch, as it fails to secure the
general election of School Boards in towns and rural districts ;
it does not render obligatory the attendance of children at
269
school ; it deals in a partial and irregular manner with the
remission and payment of school fees by School Boards ; it
allows School Boards to pay fees out of the rates levied upon
the community to denominational schools, over which the
ratepayers have no control ; it permits School Boards to use
the public money of the ratepayers for the purpose of
imparting dogmatic religious instruction in Schools
established by those Boards, and by the concession of these
permissive powers, it provokes religious discord throughout
the country, and by the exercise of them it violates the
rights of conscience.' "
Mr. Chamberlain proceeded to justify this early attempt
to amend the Act, and accepted the onus of proof that
parliamentary action was opportune and desirable. In a
convincing argument he showed that when the Education Act
was introduced, the condition of the country was disgraceful
and dangerous, perilous to morality, and the welfare of the State.
The semi-public, semi-private system, after a trial of thirty years
had failed, and for a great national want, a complete national
system was the only remedy. So much was admitted by
Mr. Forster. The bill had been in operation fourteen months
and what had been its results ? More than half the boroughs,
and 98 per cent, of the parishes, had not taken the first step
towards the provision of a national system — the formation of
a School Board. Under the conditions of the act a national
system was rendered impossible, when a single sect was
allowed to provide accommodation in excess of its numbers
and importance. Education had become the monopoly of one
denomination. The major part of the act was a dead letter.
In a bill of a hundred clauses the working of two or three
operated against all the rest. Vast sums of public money were
pledged for denominational objects. Three thousand new
vested interests were created, which were three thousand fresh
stumbling blocks in the way of a national system. The bill
270
had revived sectarian animosities and religious feuds in their
worst form. The School Board election in Birmingham had
caused more ill feeling than all the political contests for a
quarter of a century. Under the partial operation of
compulsory bye-laws a new crime had been created, so subtle
in character that it evaporated with a parochial boundary.
What was a penal offence in Birmingham, might be
committed at Smethwick with impunity. What was a
misdemeanor at Liverpool was none at Birkenhead. The last
anomaly was that " voluntary " schools might be supported
solely by enforced contributions, levied upon persons who
dissented from the doctrines which those institutions were
primarily established to maintain. The principle of municipal
government was violated, and the money of the ratepayers
was applied in support of institutions over which they had
no control. Not a school had been built, and not a child
owed its education to the Act. Time had been wasted and
temper tried in disputing principles which ought to have
been settled by the legislature. Money had been squandered
in contests which might have been rendered unnecessary.
The call for their action was the more urgent because of the
animus with which the act was administered. It was
perfectly intolerable that they should have a denominational
act, denominationally administered. The Education Depart-
ment had gone out of its way to admonish and advise School
Boards, and make them conform their decisions to denomina-
tional interests. The League had never ceased to protest
against the measure. They had not been a party to the
so-called compromise, and would not be bound by compromises
which violated principle. Great principles were at stake and
endangered. The cause of National Education was gaining
very little — but the cause of religious equality was losing
much. There was another consideration. To-morrow they
would discuss the questions of Scotch and Irish Education,
271
The system adopted in those countries would depend on the
decision of England. If they acquiesced in a denominational
system for this country, they could not in justice and
consistency refuse a similar system to Ireland and Scotland.
They were not influenced by sectarian motives. The League
was an educational organisation. Compulsion and free
schools were their key stones — with unsectarianism as a
necessary condition precedent, in a country situated as
theirs was. In seeking these things they believed they were
seeking the true happiness and welfare of the land in which
they lived.
Mr. Joseph Cowen seconded the resolution. He advised
Nonconformists not to pay the school rates. He said he had
no hope of gaining anything from Mr. Forster, but he had
hopes of the Prime Minister. Mr. Gladstone was a sincere
and earnest man, and when he was once satisfied that his
principles were correct, he had courage and ability to
carry them out.
The resolution was supported by the Eev. H. C. Leonard,
Mr. George Howell, the Eev. H. W. Crosskey, Mr. Giles,
Mr. P. W. Claydon, the Eev. J. J. Brown, Eev. Mr. Tilly,
Mr. Snowdon, and the Eev. W. W. Jubb.
Mr. Bunce, chairman of the Publishing Committee, read
a paper on the " Working and defects of the Education Act."
Mr. Bunce's paper was founded on statistical information
supplied to Parliament, and facts collected and collated for
the purpose by the agents and secretaries of the League.
It was an exhaustive enquiry and comparison, demonstrat-
ing the operation of the Act during the fourteen months of its
existence, and exposing its patchwork character, its delays,
and the embarrassment caused by the bitter controversy
it had aroused. In summing up, Mr. Bunce wrote, " As to
its working the Act is imperfectly applied ; large portions of
the country being left without a single School Board, and
272
the Boards already established are few in number and most
unequally distributed. Though the Act has been more than
a year in operation it has not produced a school ; but it has
evoked a storm of religious bitterness, and developed incessant
conflict ; it has inflicted great injustice upon the opponents
of sectarian teaching at the public expense, by taking their
money and giving it to the maintenance of denominational
schools ; and thus it has precipitated ecclesiastical and
political questions of incalculable magnitude, and pregnant
with vital issues. As to the defects of the Act, these are
described in the original objections of the League, which
experience has confirmed to demonstration^ — namely, that it
is defective in leaving to decision by localities, essential
points which should have been settled by Parliament for the
whole country ; and that it suffers from the influence, at
once enfeebling and irritating, of permissive adoption, permis-
sive compulsion, permissive freedom, and permissive
sectarianism."
Mr. E. W. Dale read a paper on " the payment of School
Fees." After describing the effect of section 25, Mr. Dale
said, " How this invasion of the religious rights of the com-
munity, under the pretext of guarding the religious rights
of the individual, is to be resisted, I will not now discuss.
Seizures for church-rates are too recent for some of us to
forget that it was only by a persistent refusal on the part of
Nonconformists to pay the rate that the sentiment of public
justice was aroused to the inequality of the law under which
church-rates were levied. But there is yet another course
which I trust every member of the League will adopt.
Every representative now sitting in Parliament for a Liberal
constituency, every new candidate for Liberal suffrages,
should be asked whether he is prepared to vote for the repeal
of clause 25 of the Elementary Education Act, and the
amendment of clause 74. A refusal, or an ambiguous
273
promise, should be met with a clear and definite declara-
tion that he cannot have our vote."
" This may lead to the breaking up of the Liberal party :
When the Liberal party is false to its noblest principles, it is
time that it should be broken up. The ( Liberal party/ which
carried the most objectionable clauses of this Bill by Conser-
vative votes in the House of Commons, must either be willing
to retrace its steps, or else must depend for continuance of
power upon Conservative votes in the country."
Mr. J. Charles Cox, of Belper, read a paper called " Blots
in the Bill." In the course of his paper, Mr. Cox said,
" Though an ardent supporter of the Government at the last
election, I refuse to see the slightest difference between this
present injustice, and the old Church-rate question, which we
thought had been finally stifled. The matter is beyond argu-
ment, and I for one, though a magistrate of my county, have
made up my mind to refuse to pay one farthing of any such
rate, in the same way that I refused to pay the old Church-
rate, and I believe that the truest policy of the League would
be to advise all its adherents to do the same."
The Eev. Sonley Johnstone described the working of the
Act in Wales, and the excessive rancour and virulence which
its introduction had caused.
The Eev. J. W. Caldicott, Head Master of the Bristol
Grammar School, characterised the Act as a bundle of com-
promises, combining the utmost possible magnificence of
promise, with the utmost possible shabbiness of performance.
The Act said, " every child ought to be educated ; but if the
majority in any place so pleased, they might allow the
children to remain ignorant. The Act said the parent who
was proved to have neglected the education of his child ought
to be punished ; but it left the proof of the offence in the
parents hands. The Act said inefficient schools ought not to
be allowed to exist, but they might have as many as they
35
274
chose, and they might cram them full of children. The Act
said the State ought not to intermeddle in matters of religion;
but yet every ratepayer might be taxed to pay for the teaching
of his neighbour's creed."
The second day of the meeting was devoted chiefly to
the discussion of the Irish and Scotch systems. The Rev.
David Wilson, D.D., of Limerick, a member of the Commis-
sion appointed in 1868 to enquire into the condition of
primary education in Ireland, described in an elaborate paper
the working of the mixed system in Ireland. He impugned
the fairness and impartiality of the report presented by the
Commissioners. The Rev. John Scott Porter of Belfast, a
member of the deputation from the Irish League, pleaded for
the maintenance in its integrity of the Irish system, as the
only guarantee for the religious freedom of the minority.
Mr. Miall, Mr. Walter Morrison, and Mr. J. H. Burges
took part in the discussion. Mr. Morrison cautioned the
meeting against the well-known proclivities of some of the
Cabinet in favour of a denominational system for Ireland.
Papers were also read by the Eev. Robert Craig, of
Glasgow, and by Professor Mchol, from the Scotch Education
League, on Education in Scotland; and by Sir Charles Dilke
and Mr. Collings on Free Schools. The Rev. William Binns,
Birkenhead, Rev. Mr. Gould, Norwich, Mr. Cremer, London,
the Rev. J. Haslam, Leeds, Dr. Lunge, South Shields, and the
Rev. S. A. Steinthal, continued the discussion. The Chairman
announced, at the close of the meeting, a large increase of
subscriptions. The proceedings were closed by a Soiree in the
Town Hall, given by the Mayor, Mr. G. B, Lloyd, to the
members of the League.
A full report of the meeting was widely circulated.
The papers and speeches contain an admirable exposition of
the lines of the controversy at the period.
275
The agitation was immediately followed up in all the
large towns, and within the next three months a hundred
and twenty meetings were held in England and "Wales, which
were attended by the Officers or deputations from the
Executive. These meetings were almost without exception,
free and open to the public, and though they were often
scenes of great excitement, and sometimes of disorder, they
convinced the leaders of the movement that the great
preponderance of public feeling was on their side. Amongst
the new adherents was Earl Enssell, who wrote to Mr. Dixon
publicly joining the League, and strongly condemning the
Government policy.
The beginning of 1872 marks a new period in the
growth and direction of the agitation, which may be more
conveniently described in a separate chapter.
276
CHAPTEE VII.
PERIOD. — FROM THE KECOMMENDATIONS OF 1872 TO THE
GENERAL ELECTION, 1874.
THE Government, in bringing in the Education Bill had
professed a desire to supplement the denominational system.
But the controversies of 1870-71, and a year's administration
of the Act, had convinced the most sceptical that their real
purpose was to perpetuate, strengthen and extend it. The
large increase of annual grants, the thousands of new
denominational schools endowed with building grants, the
undisguised administration of the Act in the interests
of Church schools, admitted of no other interpretation.
There was also, in the background, a suspicion, always on
the alert, that a similar system would be extended to
Scotland and Ireland. These new conditions threw upon
the Executive the responsibility of considering how the
original scheme of the League could be adapted to the
altered circumstances, in such a manner as to secure efficient
local control over the public schools, to promote the observ-
ance of sound principles in public expenditure, and at the
same time to afford to all denominations the fullest opportu-
nity of giving religious instruction to their own scholars,
at their own labour and cost.
The step now taken by the League was the sequence of
the aggressive coalition between the Ministry, the Clergy, and
the Tories. Until the Denominational system had been
encouraged to claim fresh privileges, and to usurp new
ground, the League had been content that it should be left
pretty much alone, to merge by degrees, and as experience
should suggest, in a national system. The idea of gradual
277
extinction was now abandoned for that of active conversion,
having regard, of course for just privileges, and the interests
of religion.
At a meeting of the Executive Committee held on the
18th of January, 1872, it was resolved to submit the following
recommendations for the approval of the members.
"1. — The compulsory Election of School Boards in all
districts.
" 2. — No schools to be recognised as public elementary
schools but those under the control of elected
School Boards.
" 3. — Existing School buildings to be placed by consent
under the control of such Boards, for use during the
hours of secular instruction, to be given under the
direction of School Boards; the buildings to be
retained for all other purposes by the denominations
with which they are connected.
" 4. — Any school in respect to which such control is declined,
to be excluded from participation in the annual
Government Grant.
" 5. — In all schools provided by School Boards out of local
rates, periods entirely separate and distinct from the
time allotted to ordinary school teaching may be set
apart for instruction on week days. Such religious
instruction to be given by denominations at their own
cost, and by their own teachers appointed for that
purpose, but no privilege to be given to one denomina-
tion over another. In cases of dispute appeal to be
made to the Education Department."
Thus by the logic of facts, and in pursuit of elementary
principles of justice, the " combined " system was once more
placed before the nation. The old accusation of following
"godless" and "irreligious" education was raised more
278
vehemently than ever ; but the people were getting a little
used to this cry of " wolf." The League had been denounced
as godless and irreligious when it advocated Bible reading ;
and it was now condemned as infidel and atheistic in
upholding a system which the Primate and Bishops of the
Established Church in Ireland had supported, and which
Irish Protestants, without exception, regarded as the chief
safeguard of their religious freedom. That which on one
side of the Channel was preached as the palladium of liberty,
was denounced on the other as an intolerable tyranny, and
this by members of the same sect.
The members of the League, almost without exception,
adopted the proposals of the Committee, and there was a
considerable increase in numbers and subscriptions. The
only member of' note whose decided views they contravened,
was Earl Kussell, who had joined on the express ground of
his warm approval of Bible reading as part of the ordinary
school work. The change, however, did not lessen his
interest in the question, or his disposition to advance the
work of education ; and he became, before his death, a
convert to the doctrine of free schools, which twenty years
before he had stifled in Parliament.
The great Conference of Nonconformists, held at
Manchester early in the year, comprising delegates from
nearly two thousand churches, accepted the principle ; and
it was widely advocated by the liberal press, as the only
means by which a complete and efficient system could be
brought into general use. The educationists of the old
Manchester school especially, felt that they were standing on
firm ground again.
At the annual meeting in the autumn, Mr. Collings
moved the adoption of the suggestions, and explained the
reasons which had led the Executive to recommend them
as the only practical solution of the difficulties created by
279
the new Act. Mr. Charles Vince seconded the resolution.
His argument was a forcible illustration, not only of his
strong common sense and power of persuasive reasoning, but
of the absolute impartiality, justice, brightness, and purity
which were the distinctive features of his mind. He upheld
the scheme as one of equal justice to all creeds and classes,
and asserted that having regard to the divisions and
differences in English Christendom, strictly unsectarian
religious teaching was impossible.
Mr. Chamberlain in speaking upon the proposed change,
said that Bible reading without note or comment, offered as a
compromise in 1869, had not given satisfaction. It did not
please the religious bodies or conciliate the Eoman Catholics
or Secularists, towards whom it was certainly sectarian.
Moreover the Act of 1870 had altogether altered the circum-
stances under which it was put forward. It had stimulated
denominational schools, and made their existence easy at a
minimum of cost to their supporters. In considering the
increase of these schools, their " suitability " was an element
in the discussion. The Act provided that schools must be
" suitable " as well as efficient. It had been held by the
Department that Eoman Catholic Schools were not suitable
for the children of Protestants. On what principle then was
it considered that a Protestant school was suitable for the
children of Eoman Catholics, or a Church school for the
children of Nonconformists ? Under such arrangements com-
pulsion was only possible at the sacrifice of every principle of
justice. The League put forward this scheme as the proper
solution of the educational difficulty.
It is a matter for surprise that the advantages which
this scheme offered, in educational, religious and social aspects,
were not more accurately appreciated outside the ranks of the
Dissenters. There were guarantees for efficient education,
under wiser management and with larger means and better
280
appliances, which should have made it welcome to education-
ists of whatever party. There were opportunities given for
religious teaching, which religious men of all sects ought
ardently to have embraced. It was a protection for conscience
which would have satisfied every principle of justice, and it
was a social peace offering which the country, and especially
the interests of the children stood sadly in need of.
There were certain direct and obvious benefits offered to
the Church, as the denomination in possession of the vast
majority of schools and buildings, which it was folly for
Churchmen to overlook. While preserving the use of their
buildings, and an active and in most instances preponderating
share in the school management, they could have thrown the
entire cost of secular instruction on the rates. The clergy at
once and for ever would have been relieved from writing
begging letters. Some of the secular papers which usually
advocated Church interests, cautioned the clergy not to reject
the scheme, while they were in a position to make terms,
without considering whether the difference between them and
their opponents was fundamental or superficial. The Bishop
of Manchester, whose services to education throughout these
discussions were of inestimable value, told Convocation that,
under the scheme, " if they were only faithful to their own
convictions, if all they had been saying about religious
education in their different parishes had any meaning at all,
and was not merely talk, they certainly had still, as managers
and teachers of schools, ample scope and opportunity for
indoctrinating their children with that sound religious
teaching they thought most conducive to their welfare."
The clergy however, with some conspicuous exceptions, were
blind and deaf to any merits of the proposal, apparently on
no other ground than their jealousy of the intervention of a
School Board, in matters where by custom they were invested
with supreme rule.
281
To Dissenters, as such, the advantages of the plan would
have been great. New avenues for social and educational
work would have been opened to them, and a more real and
effective guarantee for the free exercise of opinion would have
been established. The time-table conscience clause was
defective in essential qualities. In its very nature it was
but a half-provision. It professed to guard the conscientious
convictions of parents ; but it did not recognise the conscience
of the ratepayer. As a matter of fact the agitation against
the Act proceeded from citizens rather than from the parents
of scholars. But even in its express design, as a defence for
parents and children, it was illusory. Its terms enabled
children to be withdrawn from religious instruction without
forfeiting any benefits of the school. When religious instruc-
tion was given it required that it should take place at certain
hours, specified in the time-table, either before or after the
secular business. It also contained a provision that no
scholar should be obliged to attend, or to abstain from attend-
ing any particular Sunday School or place of religious
worship, as a condition of admittance to a day school. Mr.
Forster said that the advantage of the clause was that it
was self-working, and required neither notice on one side nor
claim on the other. It was certainly an improvement on the
first draft which required a claim to be made in writing.
Perhaps a more stringent clause might have been devised, but
the fault did not lie so much with the clause as with
the circumstances. From the nature of the case it was
impossible that general advantage should be taken of the
clause. There was the same difficulty about it, as there was
about voting before the ballot was introduced. Of necessity
there could be no secresy in withdrawing children from
religious instruction, and without secresy the clause was
practically worthless.
36
282
It may be urged that men, who, having objections based
on conscience, fail to avow them on account of some social
disadvantage they may entail, are not entitled to very much
sympathy. That is an insidious view ; especially for the
large class who have no great faith in conscientious objections.
But it must also be acknowledged that there are persons, even
amongst the humblest classes, who while they might be
willing to suffer themselves for opinion, would naturally
hesitate before they would subject their children to the same
kind of endurance.
However, the fact remains, that the Dissenters did not
avail themselves of the clause. The general testimony of
the Inspectors was, that practically the whole of the
children attended the religious instruction. In the few
instances in which the parents took advantage of the
clause its working was not satisfactory. We put aside
the cases of actual violation of the time-table. In regard
to its observance, the public, without the supervision of
School Boards, was absolutely in the hands of managers
and teachers. That the law is frequently broken is well
understood. One Inspector reported that he found upon
his visits of surprise, that the time-table was unobserved
in ten per cent, of the schools. But assuming that the
letter of the law is generally obeyed, it is still pertinent
to enquire how far the spirit is fulfilled, when the legal
right of withdrawal is insisted on. A few out of many
cases reported to the officers of the League will serve as
illustrations.
It was a custom in some Church schools to assemble
the children at holy days or festivals, and to march them to
service in hours which, according to the time-table should
have been devoted to secular instruction. The Department
held that this was allowable, so long as the day was not
reckoned for attendance in the computation of the grant, and
283
notice was given to the parents. The consequence was that
any school able to earn an excess grant, might, without being
fined at all, devote a number of spare days to religious
exercises. A verbal message to the children to come to
school clean and tidy on the morrow, as they were going to
church, was held to be sufficient notice ; and the notice was
equivalent to a command.
Down to the formation of the League, the National
Society enforced its rule in many parishes, that children attend-
ing its schools should also attend Church and the Church
Sunday-school. When the conscience-clause came into force
there were many parents, who, while they did not withdraw
their children from religious instruction on week days, were
glad to avail themselves of the privilege of taking them to
their own Chapels on Sundays. In such cases, without
infringing the actual letter of the law, there was room for the
exercise of a petty social tyranny; which in the rural
districts especially could be practiced with impunity.
In one village notice was given to the parents that the
clay scholars must also attend the Church Sunday-schools, or
they would be excluded from the benefits of the clothing
club. It was also stated that if the parents did not wish the
children to attend Church the reasons must be fully explained
to the minister.
A Dissenter, whose children attended a National School,
sent them to a Dissenting Sunday-school. Their school fees
were at once raised from 5d. to Is. 6d. per week.
In another town notice was given that attendance on
Sunday would be a special qualification for prizes. The vicar
wrote, " You must bear in mind that these schools were
founded and partly endowed for the express intention of
teaching the principles of the Established Church." He had
no difficulty in satisfying " my Lords " that he was within
the law in confining his prizes to Sunday scholars.
284
The following seductive advertisement, designed to fill
the Church schools of a country town, was issued at the
beginning of the cold weather : — " Coal, shoes, bread and
beef charities. Persons with families will take notice that
they will receive nothing from any of these charities unless
their children are sent regularly to the National or infant
school on week days, and to the Church Sunday-school on
Sundays."
It is a favourite copybook text that example is better
than precept. The children attending the National school of
a Wiltshire village were invited by the vicar to the school-
room on Christmas-eve. Being assembled they were grouped
as Churchmen and Dissenters. The prizes were then distri-
buted— amongst the Church children only. This seemed to
the spectators a strange proceeding, but was intelligible on
the ground that the Church children might be the best
scholars. But when the awards were over, the little dis-
senters were dismissed, while the more fortunate orthodox
ones were rewarded for their virtue with tea and buns. The
sequel is almost as sad. A huge Christmas tree was
subscribed for in the town, the Dissenting children were
mustered, marched round with a band of music, and taken
to enjoy themselves, while the small upholders of the
Establishment were left out in the cold. In this way
Christianity was taught.
In another instance the anniversary of a Baptist chapel
was celebrated. The Sunday-school children were invited
to tea. Some of them attended the Church day-school. To
the parents of these the vicar sent notice that he had made
up his mind that "those parents who could afford to send their
children to the tea party could not want help, and that the
children could not come to the school treat in August."
Many other examples might be quoted to show the
partiality with which the law worked, and which could only
285
i
be redressed by the extension of the representative system,
and by drawing a strict line of demarcation between the
business of the State and that of the Churches. In consider-
ing the suitability of schools, no account was taken of the
character of the population where it would have told against
the pretensions of the Church to control education. In
parishes where three-fourths of the inhabitants were Dissenters
Church schools were enlarged to prevent the formation of
School Boards. Even when Boards were established they
were frequently made subsidiary to denominational purposes.
Masters were advertised for and elected to Board Schools, on
the ground that they were Churchmen or communicants, or
"of thorough Church principles." In addition to their
school duties, they were often required to assist in the
Church service — to play the organ or to instruct the choir.
The master of one Board School was dismissed for not
attending Church, the vicar writing to him that they intended
to have a schoolmaster "who would be helpful in Church
matters." Another was discharged for attending a lecture on
Oliver Cromwell in a Methodist chapel. In several instances
the Catechism was taught in Board Schools in open defiance
of section 14.
It is difficult to convince the members of dominant
Churches that more is gained by toleration than by
persecution. It was the hereditary tendency of the clergy
to grasp at every morsel of power, and to entrench
themselves behind walls of prescription and privilege which
drove the Dissenters to the conviction that their only
safeguard was in the final separation of religious and secular
teaching. But all the advantages in the struggle were on the
side of the Church. They were in possession. They were backed
by the whole Conservative force, and they had succeeded in
disuniting the Liberals. They aimed, also, at dividing the
Dissenters, and in this move they were partially successful.
/^1S%,
(UHI7BE.SIT7)}
286
In the matter of tactics the Dissenters might wisely take a
lesson from the Church. Whatever their secret differences
may be, and however much they may enjoy abusing each
other privately, the clergy present a firm and united front to the
common enemy. On the other hand it is never difficult for
a Minister or a Bishop to find Dissenters who will assist in
pulling the nuts out of the fire for the Church.
It was so in 1870, and because of the secession of a
few, the Nonconformists were twitted with not knowing their
own minds. The same device was resorted to in 1872.
Not long after the Manchester Conference had declared for the
League recommendations, a declaration appeared called " The
School and the Bible," protesting against the exclusion of the
Bible from the school. It was signed by nearly six hundred
laymen and ministers, unconnected with the Established
Church. Most of them were unknown, but there were a few
representative names, including those of Mr. Samuel Morley,
Mr. Charles Reed, Mr. Spurgeon, Mr. Newman Hall, and
Dr. Stoughton. The protest was speciously drawn to catch
signatures. As a matter of fact there was no party which
was striving to exclude the Bible from national education.
It was already excluded by Act of Parliament from the
ordinary work of the day. Under the plan of the League
it might have been taught more freely, fully, and
explicitly — but at the cost of the denominations. In
reference to this declaration, Mr. Dale wrote, "A careful
examination of the names that are known to us, shows that
in nearly every instance they belong to men who, from the
first, have upheld the Government policy, and opposed the
Nonconformist agitation. They do not represent any secession
from the great and growing party, which, for the last two years,
has been contending for religious equality in education." (*)
1 The Report of the Manchester Conference, and the debates on
religious instruction at the Birmingham School Board, contain the most
authentic accounts of the position taken by the Dissenters at this time.
287
However the declaration answered its design, by making
it appear that the Nonconformists were divided, and thus
playing into the hands of the National Society.
The Parliamentary session of 1872, was a dismal one for
the Liberals, who were passing through a creeping process of
disintegration which was anxiously watched, and carefully
promoted by the Tories. Tumultuous cheers from the Oppo-
sition benches greeted the appearance of Mr. Forster, espe-
cially when he could be drawn on to snub a Leaguer or a
Eadical, the temptation to which was great, and the oppor-
tunity frequent. Mr. Dixon's motion, 1 which covered the
whole ground of the League exceptions to the Act of 1870,
was met by a skilfully conceived amendment, to the effect
that the time which had elapsed and the progress made were
not such as to enable the House to enter with advantage on
a review of the operation of the Act.
The amendment was a harbour of refuge for both positive
and doubtful politicians. It was supported by all who were
opposed to further change, including the phalanx of Whigs
and Tories ; by those who shrank from pronouncing a definite
opinion on the League scheme : by those who placed party
loyalty above principle — and by the numerous section who
prefer delay to action. The speech in which Mr. Forster
moved it was also calculated to propitiate Liberals who were
strongly opposed to his policy. He did not deny that the
Act needed revision, and he prompted the belief that in the
next session the Government would be prepared for alterations.
It was gathered that they had under consideration the forma-
tion of Boards in all districts, the universal enforcement of
attendance, and a modification of the 25th clause. These
assurances detached a number of votes from Mr. Dixon's
following, but nevertheless over a hundred liberals voted
against the Ministry, while an equal number refused them
1 See page 268.
288
their support. Comparing the division with that of the
preceding year, it showed that the League strength in the
House had exactly doubled.
In the same session Mr. Candlish brought in a bill to
repeal the 25th section. The straits to which the Govern-
ment were now reduced, were exemplified by the voting on
this occasion. One hundred and thirty-two Liberals sup-
ported the bill. The Ministerial majority was composed of 123
Liberals and 195 Tories. Eleven members of the Govern-
ment, including three Cabinet Ministers, took no part in the
division. In the meantime the irritation in the country
was intensified. The Nonconformists were exasperated by
the policy of the Ministry, and were preparing for electoral
action. Eefusals to pay rates, followed by distraints, were
common, while School Boards and Town Councils were at
open war.
As an educational measure the Scotch Bill of this year
was an improvement on the English Act, since it provided for
universal School Boards and compulsory attendance. It was,
however, intensely sectarian. The time-table conscience
clause was given up. Denominational instruction might be
given at the cost of the ratepayers without restriction or
limitation. The payment of fees in voluntary schools was
made obligatory. These provisions were taken to foreshadow
the views of the Government in regard to Ireland, and
the suspicion daily gained ground that a coalition of
Ministerialsts and Tories had resolved to enforce a compulsory
system of denominational education throughout the United
Kingdom.
The Government was now (1872) in its fourth session,
and had therefore reached more than the average age of
Parliaments. The serious divisions of the party rendered it
the more probable that a dissolution might come abruptly.
For these reasons much attention was given to electoral
289
organization. The details of this department are not of a
character to make public. Many public meetings were held,
and conferences between members and their constituents
were promoted. In some places the League was strong
enough openly to assert the right to take part in the counsels
of the party, and to make its own terms. In others the
work was of a more delicate nature ; but in the end the
organization contrived to make its influence respected, often
where its presence was least suspected. A large electoral
fund was subscribed to meet the special expenditure which
these operations demanded.
In view of the expected amendments of the Govern-
ment it was determined that the whole strength of the
League should be devoted to assist in carrying them. There-
fore at the annual meeting of 1872 it was resolved that the
Parliamentary action should be confined to three points —
universal School Boards, compulsory attendance, and the
unconditional repeal of section 25.
There was some ambiguity in the utterances of
Ministers respecting this clause. That there might be no
mistake on the part of the League, the Executive took
pains to make it clear that nothing but unconditional
repeal would satisfy them. Mr. W. H. Smith had given
notice that he should move that the power to pay fees should
be transferred from School Boards to Guardians of the
Poor. Whether the motion was a trap for the Ministry,
or was sincerely designed to help Mr. Forster in his perplexity
may be a little doubtful. It led, however, to more formid-
able differences between the Government and their natural
adherents. Mr. Hebbert, the Parliamentary secretary to the
Poor Law Board, took up the idea, and during the recess
expressed his approval of it. This was in time for the
League to make it clearly known that no such solution of
the difficulty would appease the quarrel. Mr. Chamberlain,
37
290
representing the Executive, characterised the idea as a proof
of the incompetency of its authors to understand the scruples
of Dissenters. While it would not remove a single ground of
their hostility, it would create evils fatal to the spread of
education and the independence of the people. It was a
pretended concession, ignoring principle, and would carry
sectarian conflict into the election of another group of public
bodies, placing Magistrates, Guardians, and School Boards in
constant antagonism. Where it secured the education of a
child, it would be at the price of the degradation of the
parent. Eather than any such shifting of the cards,
Mr. Chamberlain advised that the question should be left
alone.
It may be objected to the action of the Dissenters that
they had never opposed Denison's Act, which enabled
Guardians to pay the fees of the children of out-door paupers
in denominational schools, and which involved the principle
of the 25th clause. But, although Denison's Act had been
on the statute book for fifteen years, it was inoperative and
unknown. The new proposal was that it should be enforced,
and should be widely extended in its application. The
Boards of Guardians had never liked the Act, and the
Manchester Board on the motion of Mr. J. A. Bremner, now
passed a strong resolution against its extension.
In opening the fifth session of Parliament the Queen's
speech announced an amending bill. Mr. Dixon also gave
notice of his bill for School boards, compulsion and the repeal
of section 25. In March Mr. Gladstone asked that the
League bill should be postponed until the Government
measure was introduced, and as there was a general expecta-
tion that the latter would follow the same lines, this was
readily conceded. In the meantime there was a ministerial
crisis on the question of Irish University education, and a
dissolution seemed to be imminent. But the difficulty was
291
bridged across, and after repeated delays the Government
brought forward their Bill in June.
A bitter sense of betrayal was produced amongst
Educationists and Nonconformists by the statement of
the Vice-President. The Act of 1870 had been three
years in operation, and the Education Department had not
yet sent out the whole of the notices to provide the deficiency
of accommodation. While education languished the sectarian
conflict was incessant. Energy which might have been
employed in execution, was occupied in the struggle over first
principles. In these circumstances the Government made
no proposal calculated to advance education a step, or to give
peace to the distracted country. They made no provision for
School Boards, or attendance ; and in regard to the religious
question they precipitated themselves into the arms of their
enemies. The authority to pay fees was transferred from
School Boards to Guardians, with this difference, that where
it had been permissive, it was now to be made compulsory.
Where a hundred pounds had been spent before, thousands
might now be applied for precisely the same purpose.
The Opposition were in ecstacies ; but Mr. Dixon and
Mr. Eichard warned the Government of the feeling which
would be aroused in the country. The Executive declared the
Bill to be an aggravation of the evils complained of. It was
a further concession to denominationalism, and its pauperising
influence would be a national calamity. The Guardians of
Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, and many large towns
condemned it in the strongest terms. The Nonconformists
refused to accept it as any alleviation of their grievances.
Just before the bill was introduced a vacancy had
occurred in the representation of Bath. Captain Hayter, the
Liberal candidate, had stated in his address that the Act
required amendment, and had expressed the hope that
Mr. Forster's promised bill would prove satisfactory. But
292
when it appeared he carefully avoided any reference to its
provisions ; and the local wire pullers, who were anxious to
secure every vote, were cautious not to introduce any element
of discord. But while the disappointment was fresh and
keen, Mr. Paynter Allen, who was one of the confidential
agents of the League, was instructed to visit Bath, to
ascertain Captain Hayter's views, and to obtain his support
for Mr. Dixon's bill. This was not an isolated proceeding
on the part of the League. It had been the habit of the
Committee to " interview " Liberal candidates ; and, on
several occasions, active support or opposition had been given
to particular nominations. In some of the bye elections,
which had recently occurred, the League had made its power
respected by the Whig element of the party.
The Liberal candidate for Bath, acting probably under
the advice of his Committee, excused himself from seeing the
agent of the League. The local leaders of the party took
very high ground ; though one which, under ordinary
circumstances, would have been reasonable enough. They
were committed to Captain Hayter, whatever his opinions
might be; they were in the thick of the fight; and they
were indisposed to allow, if they could prevent it, any side
influences to come into operation. Most of them were
Nonconformists and were wholly at one with the League in
principle. But it is noticeable that while Dissenters will
go to a Conference and pass resolutions with acclamation
not to support candidates opposed to their views ; yet when
the practical issue has to be tried, and the party has to be
transfixed for its own good, they generally find local reasons
why their own particular constituency should not be selected
as the worthless object for the experiment. In this instance
they denied the right of the League to make any requisition
on the subject of their candidate's opinions.
In this conjunction the officers invited Mr. J. C. Cox,
293
a member of the Executive, to come forward as the
representative of the League. At much personal incon-
venience, and with great moral courage, Mr. Cox accepted
the invitation. But it was felt to be highly undesirable to
intervene in the contest if any ground of accommodation
could be found. With this view, the author, with
Mr. Thompson. Mr. Cox's agent, went to Bath to make a
further effort to ascertain Captain Hayter's opinions, which,
at this period, were of abnormal importance. His Committee
peremptorily declined to make any statement on the subject,
or to allow their candidate to be approached. The represen-
tatives of the League then offered to withdraw, without
exacting any public statement which would jeopardise his
success if they had the private assurance that Captain
Hayter was generally favourable to the principles of
Mr. Dixon's bill. But this also was denied.
Mr. Cox then issued his address to the electors. For a
few days the city was in a state of great excitement. On
making an attempt to hold a meeting Mr. Cox and his
friends were assaulted and temporarily blinded by the free
use of cayenne pepper. The Liberal leaders, in an interview
which they sought with Mr. Cox, refused to make any
concession, and denied his right to interfere in the contest.
On the part of the League it was contended that Mr. Cox
stood on the same footing as Captain Hayter, and was
equally entitled to solicit the suffrages of the electors. The
commotion increased when it was known that Mr. Cox was
nominated. There had been some difficulty in securing the
nomination. The Ballot Act was newly in operation and
required the names of ten electors. So great was the
pressure put upon Liberals that the names were not easily
procured. When the nomination paper was sent in, it was
discovered that some of the assenting electors were on the
Committee of the Conservative candidate. The mistake was
294
owing to the ignorance of Mr. Cox's agents of local politics ,
but in any case it was only following the example of the
Liberal Ministry, which relied on Tory votes to carry its
policy. Mr. Cox and his friends were now loudly denounced
as emissaries of the Carlton.
Terms of compromise were at last arranged through the
intervention of Dr. Caldicott, of Bristol. Captain Hayter
publicly declared himself in favour of School Boards and
compulsion, and against the payment of fees by Guardians ;
thus making, in the end, larger concessions than were asked
at the outset. The Liberal Committee had, throughout the
contest, played the game of the League. Mr. Cox now
withdrew, but the split in the party had gone too far to avert
the defeat of the Liberals.
This election was the cause of much excitement in
political circles, and especially in the clubs and the lobby
of the House. The political Committee of the Eeform Club
was set in motion, and other important agencies were
invoked to reconcile the quarrel. The managers at the
Treasury began to suspect that the country was in earnest.
The election was followed by a Conference of Liberals at
the Westminster Palace Hotel. The announcement that the
League intended to pursue the same policy in other
constituencies was received with acclamation. Mr. Bright
made his first public appearance, after his long illness, at
this meeting, and while deprecating the division of the party,
he characterised the Education Act, as in some respects, " the
worst measure passed by a Liberal Government since 1832."
The Bath policy was followed up at Shaftesbury,
Greenwich, and Dundee ; and, in prospect of a general
election, League candidates issued addresses in other towns
where the sitting members were hostile to the League
platform. In this action we incurred much odium for
dividing the party. The accusation was ably rebutted by
295
Mr. Harris in an article called " Who divides the Liberals ? "
The elections in which we took part demonstrated that the
League was in a great majority in the party. In Parliament
the Government had only been able to go on by means of
the Tory vote. The Treasury candidate at Dundee,
Mr. Fitzjames Stephen, was the strongest to be found ; yet
Mr. Edward Jenkins, a member of the League Executive,
polled three times his number of votes. The same results
happened elsewhere. Mr. Harris wrote, " If concession is to
precede union, it must be clear from which side it ought to
come. It may be doubtful if a tardy recognition of this
truth would save the present Ministry, or preserve the
prestige and power of the Liberal party ; it is absolutely
certain that without it further defeats and humiliation are
inevitable." Mr. Chamberlain said, " The majority will not
always yield to the minority, and the principle of religious
equality must be accepted as part of the programme of any
party which in future seeks our support and alliance.
Therefore you may expect to see the lesson of the Bath
election again and again repeated."
The session which had been looked forward to with hope
was barren of results. The hostility provoked by the
Government bill led to its withdrawal. But Denison's Act
was made obligatory, and it was estimated that about 100,000
children of paupers would receive some sort of education
under its provisions. An Act for indirect compulsion in the
agricultural districts was also pushed through Parliament by
a private member. It provided that no child under
eight should be employed in agriculture, and no child under
twelve who had not made in the preceding year a certain
number of attendances at school. But no securities were
taken for carrying it into effect, and it remained on the
statute book a dead letter. The 25th section continued in
force, and distraints were constantly levied on the goods of
296
Magistrates, Town Councillors, Members of School Boards,
and ministers of religion who refused to comply with the
law. In Parliament the Government still adhered to its
Palmerstonian policy of playing off Conservative votes against
those of its own adherents. This course was pursued both
upon the Education Bill, and the Endowed Schools Act
Amendment Bill ; and the Tories were only too pleased to
assist in widening the breach.
Towards the end of the year the Eadicals enjoyed a brief
hour of triumph, and much consternation was produced in the
Tory and Whig confederacy by Mr. Bright's re-entrance into
the Ministry. His acceptance of office after his severe judg-
ment upon the Education Act, was received as an assurance that
the ministerial policy would undergo important modifications.
The Executive of the League at once suspended their electoral
action, and prepared to sustain the Ministry in any
measures they might take for the redress of the grievances
complained of. Mr. Blight's address to his constituents
confirmed the opinion that some substantial alterations were
under consideration. He wrote " I hold the principles when
in office that I have constantly professed since you gave me
your confidence sixteen years ago. When I find myself
unable to advance those principles, and to serve you honestly
as a minister, I shall abandon a position which demands of me
sacrifices that I cannot make." In speaking to the vast
meeting in Bingley Hall which welcomed his return to public
life, he declared decisively for a national in preference to a
denominational system. He said the fault of the Education
Act was " that it extended and confirmed the- system, which
it ought, in point of fact, to have superseded." The 25th
clause contained an evil principle, " and one that should not
be continued." " With regard to this question of educating
through the sects, I believe it is not possible to make it truly
national or truly good. The fact is, I think we all feel, that the
297
public do not take great interest in Denominational schools.
The Church cares nothing for Dissenters : and in regard
to this question, Dissenters care just as little for the Church.
The people regard these schools as Church schools, as Chapel
schools. They do not regard them as public and national, and
general schools, and as part of a great system, in which the
whole people unite for a great and worthy national object.
Then again, the School Board! I do not know that the
Government of that day were responsible for the mode of
electing School Boards. It was not certainly in the original
memorandum of the Bill, which I was permitted to see ; but
the mode of electing appears to me about the very worst for
purposes of general and national education which could
possibly have been devised. When a contest for a School
Board arises, the question of real education seems hardly
thought of. It is a squabble between Church and Chapel
and Secularists, and I know not how many other ' ists ' ; and
when the School Board meets there is priest and parson and
minister and other partisans. There is no free breeze of
public opinion passing through the room, but rather an
unwholesome atmosphere of what I call sectarian exclusive-
ness, and sometimes of bigotry, in which no good can thrive."
In conclusion he said, " I apprehend, I cannot but believe
that further experience, and something like failure, will before
long force on Parliament and the country a general recon-
sideration of the question."
But notwithstanding these strong expressions and the
expectations they created, it was soon made abundantly clear
that no real unity or harmony upon the question existed in
the Cabinet. In taking a new pilot on board they had not
dismissed the old one. While Mr. Bright was denouncing
the 25th section, as containing an evil principle, Mr. Forster
was still using all the moral pressure of his department to
compel School Boards to adopt bye-laws for its execution
38
298
In October Mr. Bright came to Birmingham to censure the
Act, and in November Mr. Forster went to Liverpool to
defend it. In this hopeless muddle and confusion of counsel
there could be nothing but discouragement before the party,
and no wonder the Tories won the elections. How greatly
the Liberals were broken and disheartened was shown when
the dissolution came.
But while the Liberals were losing the Parliamentary
contests, they were winning all round in the School Board
elections, which came on again in the autumn of this year.
However disunited and demoralised in regard to Parliament-
ary policy, they were compact enough for other purposes,
and having mastered the intricacies of the cumulative vote,
they were in most cases able to reverse the decisions of three
years back. In Birmingham a liberal majority was returned
by a vast preponderance of votes. The candidates stood on
the League platform of separate and voluntary religious
teaching, and this plan was carried out in the Board Schools
of the town during the next six years. A Eeligious
Education Society was formed to give religious instruction.
The teachers were volunteers and were admitted to the
Board schools at certain hours in accordance with the time-
table, to instruct the children whose parents wished them
to attend. (!)
The annual meeting this year was of a formal character,
owing to the uncertainty respecting ministerial intentions.
At an Executive meeting held at the close of the year it was
decided to draw a more distinct line between the polemical
and educational work of the League. "With this object
1 The clergy, with a few exceptions, refused to take any share in this
work, and owing to the insufficiency of teachers amongst the Dissenters it
was but a partial success. The religious communities were forced to admit
their inability or their disinclination to teach religion without state assist-
ance. To avoid a contest in 1879, it was agreed that the Bible should be
read in the schools by the ordinary teachers without note or comment.
299
Mr. Dixon was asked to confine his bill to School Boards
and compulsion only, while Mr. Candlish undertook the
repeal of section 25.
During the two years under review a vast amount of
educational work was done by the members of the League,
in connection with School Boards and the enforcement of
attendance. Although this department of the work was not
so prominently before the public, it was never lost sight of
by the officers, and it constantly engaged the close attention
of the staff. Amongst the publications of the year may
be noticed "The Struggle for National Education," by
Mr. John Morley, and Mr. Dale's articles in the Contem-
porary Review.
Although a dissolution of Parliament had not been
unexpected, its precise hour took everyone by surprise.
Members and candidates were scattered abroad ; constituen-
cies were unprepared ; plans were not matured, and
differences were unreconciled. For a fortnight all was con-
fusion and scramble, out of which came the Liberal party,
a shattered wreck. It went into the contest, weakened,
distracted, and divided. The main wing, composed of
Dissenters, was suspicious and sullen. The Prime Minister's
manifesto offered them no rallying ground. In regard to
education he thought that " no main provision of the measure
could advantageously be reconsidered without the aid of
an experience such as we had not yet acquired." He also
suggested that the uneasiness caused by one or two points
was out of proportion to their importance or difficulty. He
did not fairly estimate the temper of the Dissenters, and
offered them, instead of principle the abolition of a tax.
The chief issue in the election was the school or the
publichouse. The Tories went for restricted education
and unlimited drinking. With the latter they coupled
300
religion, as a matter of course, and " Beer and Bible " made
a telling election cry.
The League took immediate action in the election. The
address of the Prime Minister was taken as indicating a
serious misapprehension of the gravity of the situation.
The Executive asked that a national system of education
should be made a distinct feature of the Liberal programme.
The Branches were advised to press candidates for definite
pledges on this head. The result was so far satisfactory that
out of 425 English, Welsh, and Scotch candidates, 300 were
pledged to the repeal of the 25th section, which was
accepted by Liberals and Conservatives as the " symbol " of
the controversy. In the new Parliament there was a large
gain of members in favour of League principles.
The results in particular constituencies were curious.
Mr. Gladstone was again returned for Greenwich, but this
time "as junior colleague to a gin distiller." He would
have been invited to stand for Manchester, but for the
threatening attitude of the Nonconformists.
The prominent members of the League had various
fortunes. Mr. Dixon's seat was of course assured. But the
Chairman of the Executive was defeated at Sheffield. In the
selection of candidates there had been a test ballot between
Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Allott, a popular local politician.
It was decided in favour of the former, but Mr. Allott's
supporters were disappointed at the result, and did not
accept it with loyalty. This, coupled with the dissertion of
the Whigs and Moderates, who looked upon Mr. Chamberlain
as a firebrand, led to his defeat. This was the most serious
blow which the League had sustained. Several other mem-
bers of the Executive were unsuccessful, including Mr. Cox,
Admiral Maxse, and Captain Sargeant. On the other hand
Mr. Cowen, Sir Charles Dilke, Mr. Jenkins, and Mr.
Pennington were returned.
301
Mr. Candlish retired from the representation of Sunder-
land on account of failing health, and the charge of the 25th
clause passed to Mr. Henry Eichard.
Mr. Forster was opposed by the Liberal Committee in
Bradford. He was however ostentatiously and avowedly
supported by the Conservatives, and with the aid of the
Catholic vote, and a small proportion of Liberal votes, was
returned at the head of the poll.
Mr. Baines lost his seat for Leeds on account of his
views on the Education question. In some twenty other
constituences Liberal upholders of the 25th clause were beaten,
owing mainly to the defection of the Nonconformists. It
must be said however, that generally the Dissenters had the
greatest difficulty in breaking away from their traditionary
support of the Liberal party, and many obstinate adherents of
the Government policy were sent back to Parliament from
constituencies where the absence of the Dissenting vote could
easily have turned the scale.
The defeat of the Liberal party, calamitous as it proved
in some respects, was not an unmixed evil. It has taught the
country that no Government will be allowed to juggle with
great principles with impunity. It also prepared the way for
the re-union of the party on a more liberal basis, with more
assured purposes, and with infinitely superior organisation.
It is impossible also not to believe that the events recorded
will have a marked influence on the educational and eccle-
siastical legislation of the future.
302
CHAPTEE VIII.
PERIOD — FROM THE GENERAL ELECTION, 1874, TO THE
PASSING OF LORD SANDON'S ACT, 18*76, AND THE
DISSOLUTION OF THE LEAGUE.
THE political revolution which has been described threw upon
the Executive the duty of reviewing their policy. The
change of Government found their work but half done. The
object they had placed before themselves — " the establish-
ment of a system which should secure the education of every
child in the country " — was far from being realized. The
provisions made by the Liberal Government were incomplete,
inefficient, and illusory. Securities were wanting for the
instruction of half the children of the nation. Under such
circumstances there could be no thought of relinquishing the
purpose for which the League was instituted.
There were, by common confession, great difficulties before
the Committee, but they had to ask themselves in what man-
ner and degree these had been increased by the defeat of the
Whig party. During the election struggle the Tory leaders
had accepted the defence of the denominational system as an
integral part of the Conservative creed. But in this respect
they did not differ from the Liberal Government which they
followed. The League could be under no greater disadvantages
now, than when it had had to contend against a coalition of
Whigs and Tories. In one respect the committee were relieved
from great embarrassment. They could no longer be accused
of endangering the existence of a Liberal administration ; and
as a matter of choice it was far preferable to them to contend
against avowed enemies rather than professed friends. They
303
did not accept the late ballot as a verdict of the country
against the proposals of the League, but rather as a vote of
no confidence in the Whig policy, and they believed that in
the reconstruction of the party their principles would assume
greater prominence, and take a firmer hold upon the attach-
ment of the nation.
The immediate objects aimed at were resistance to any
further extension of the denominational system, and the
acceptance by the party of a national system, as a distinct
and leading feature of the Liberal programme of the future.
The means proposed were the continued propagation of
opinion as to the necessity of School Boards and compulsion,
the ultimate absorption of the denominational system under
representative management, and the completion of the
structure by universal free schools. It was also determined
to pay increased attention to the non-political details of the
system, such as greater efficiency of instruction, the extension
of school age, the encouragement of the higher standards by
a graduated scale of grants, and the elevation of the status
and qualifications of teachers.
The actual state of education was defective and humili-
ating to a degree very imperfectly realized, not withstanding the
efforts which the League had made to enlighten opinion.
Beginning with the Training schools, the fountain-head
of the system, it was throughout wasteful, unproductive, and
inefficient. One of the primary requisites of a fruitful
system is a staff of trained and skilful teachers. The Normal
schools afforded no guarantee for an adequate supply. The
case against them, both in point of cost and efficiency, was
a strong one. Starting as voluntary institutions under exclu-
sive management, and with sectarian aims, they had in course
of time, contrived to throw 75 per cent, of their expense, on
the public ; and this without investing Parliament or the
EducationDepartment with any powers of effective supervision.
304
At thebeginning of the League agitation the voluntary subscrip-
tions to the Normal schools amounted to about two per cent,
of their cost, the remainder being made up of Government
grants, students' fees, endowments, and the sale of books ;
and the managers were still appealing for larger subsidies.
Of the total accommodation which they afforded three-
fourths was in the hands of the Established Church ; and
Dissenters were then, and are still being taxed out of all
just proportion to pay for the theological training of Church
teachers, with the prospect of being afterwards compelled to
send their children to them for instruction in Church doctrines.
Neither was this grave injustice counter-balanced by any
reasonable anticipation that the scholars would be made to
receive sound and lasting secular knowledge. For national
purposes, and as national institutions, the Normal schools
were an imposition and a delusion. The chief object of their
managers was to qualify the students to teach dogma. The
catechism and the liturgy were the corner-stones of the
system, and attention was devoted to them to the neglect of
mental exercise, and effectual training in the science of
teaching. Their tendency also was to grow more extravagant
and more exclusively sectarian.
It is not a matter for surprise that under such con-
ditions the general status and attainments of the teachers
were of an inferior order. The only wonder is that any
good teachers were produced under a system not calculated
to stimulate independence of character, or to raise intel-
ligence into prominence. The social position of the Church
teacher in the country districts was that of a menial Church
officer. A Church schoolmaster wrote that many teachers
of his class were subjected to a worse slavery than the most
dependent labourer in the parish. Eest and relaxation,
except for brief periods of the year, were almost unknown
to them. After an exacting week's work in the school, they were
305
generally compelled to undergo a similar drudgery on the Sun-
day. Fifty per cent, of the advertisements for Church teachers
stipulated that they should assist in Church offices. From
quasi-curate to beadle and gravedigger, there was no employ-
ment which the schoolmaster was not expected to undertake.
Some of the inducements offered to them may be gathered
from the advertisements in the National Society's Paper.
" To officiate as parish clerk ;" as " collector of charity and
Church funds," as " choirmaster and precentor." " To attend
Sunday school and take charge of the children at Church,
and to and from Church." " An organist, willing to assist in
Church matters." " Parish clerkship, with liberty to take
private pupils." " Clerkship and sexton." " Ability to
manage and train a surpliced choir indispensable." Situations
were offered to certificated mistresses whose husbands or
brothers " followed agricultural pursuits," or could undertake,
" at stipulated wages, the management of a kitchen garden
and two or three cows." The social standing of the
rural schoolmaster was little above that of the agricultural
labourer, and the only ambition he was encouraged to
entertain was that of "the charity boy who longs to be a
beadle."
And even of their kind the staff of trained adult
teachers was wholly insufficient for national requirements,
so that the mass of scholars were left under the care of
mere boys and girls. The pupil teachers of 1870 were
little better qualified than the monitors of Lancaster's and
Bell's day. The method was an off-shoot of the discredited
monitorial system, which had the one recommendation of
cheapness, for the sake of which true economy was sacrificed.
The pupil teachers were generally badly instructed, often of low
intelligence, and the common standard of their attainments
was below a decent average. Far from being efficient
teachers and helpers, the Inspectors found their attempts
39
306
to express their own knowledge, such as it was, were
lamentably poor, meagre, and childish.
If anyone thinks that this picture is overdrawn let him
study the education blue books. The reports of the Inspectors
are a standing record of the humiliating but inevitable
results of teaching so conducted. In the upper classes of a
very few of the best schools there might be found a fair
amount of intelligence and information. But such schools
were rare exceptions. The ordinary condition of the scholars
in the higher standards was that of comparative ignorance,
and they were, as a rule, incapable of expressing by word
or writing any minimum of knowledge they might possess.
The sixth standard does not stand for a large amount of
knowledge for a child to take out into the world as a
weapon in the battle of life ; yet there was not one scholar
annually to every other school who passed this standard.
And if this was the plight of the children in the highest
classes, what was to be expected of those who never got
beyond the lower standards. The Committee of Council
reported in 1869, that of " four-fifths of the children about to
leave school, either no account or an unsatisfactory one, was
given by an examination of the most strictly elementary
kind." In the overwhelming majority of cases the children
took away from school no knowledge which they were likely
to retain. The largest percentage of passes was in reading, but
it was seldom indeed that the scholars understood what they
read, or that the words which they pronounced mechanically
and by rote, conveyed any meaning to their minds. The
Bishop of Manchester, an old Inspector, having an intimate
knowlege of every detail of the system, applied to the
results produced, the terms " inconceivable," " disgraceful,"
" discreditable," and "miserable," and said "it filled him with
great shame when he realised it." Mr. Kennedy, another
Inspector of great experience, wrote " We are contented with
307
little more than a pitiful counting of heads, and that we
call education."
It would be a grave injustice to the schoolmaster to hold
him responsible for the whole of this lamentable failure. By
general admission, irregular attendance and migration from
school to school were concomitant causes. Keasonable
progress, under such conditions, was impossible. The regular
scholars were thrown back and discouraged by the irregular
ones ; the masters were disheartened and perplexed and made
to despair of any excellent standard. It is difficult to
convey in figures an adequate idea of the extent of this evil.
In 1873-74 the Committee of Council estimated that there
were two-and-a-half millions of children who ought to have
made the 250 attendances — which might have been com-
pleted in half a year — required to qualify them for examina-
tion. But only 752,268 were presented to the Inspectors.
Of the rest no account was given. A third of those who were
examined in the lower standards ought to have been in the
higher. And in all cases the percentage of passes was
lamentably low.
For seven years the League strove without relaxation to
put the actual state of the school system fully and fairly
before the public, and to rouse the nation to a sense of the
danger and discredit which were involved. With the same
object the systems of foreign countries were carefully
examined, and their methods and results stated and tabulated
for comparison. The energy and persistency with which
these views were urged produced their inevitable effect upon the
public mind. In all meetings of workmen the free school
platform was received with enthusiasm, (*) and notwith-
1 On the Free School system, see papers and addresses by Mr.
Chamberlain, Sir Charles Dilke, and Mr. Collings, published by the League.
Also a series of articles in the Monthly Paper of the League by Mr. Allen.
On American Free Schools, Bishop Fraser's Report, and the author's "Free
Schools of the United States" may be consulted. Later contributions to
the same branch of the subject are contained in the speeches of Dr. Cameron,
M.P., and in papers by Dr. Watts, of Manchester.
308
standing the temporary disadvantages to which it subjected
them, compulsion was not only acquiesced in, but demanded.
The natural and the most earnest allies of the League were
amongst the class who were most affected by the changes
proposed. But the desire for compulsion grew amongst all
parties, and the chief difference of opinion was as to how it
should be carried into effect. The early working of the
compulsory bye-laws of School Boards had demonstrated that
so far from injuring the voluntary schools, the enforcement of
attendance was of great advantage to them. This experience
reconciled the clergy of the towns to compulsion, but in the
parishes progress was greatly retarded by the clerical
distrust and jealousy of School Boards, and the farmers'
dislike of rates. The idea of a possible system of compul-
sion in connection with denominational schools had not
taken shape during the existence of the Liberal Govern-
ment, or if it had, there was no one with sufficient
hardihood to give expression to it.
The School Boards increased in number from 344 in 18*72,
to 1769 in 1876. The first Boards were formed in the Boroughs
and were with few exceptions granted on the requisition of
the locality. Many of the large parishes' also made appli-
cation for Boards. But the great proportion of the rural
Boards were formed by order of the Department to supply
deficiencies of accommodation. In all cases however they
might have been prevented by local exertion ; ample oppor-
tunity for which was always given by the Education Office.
On the subject of School Boards there was a marked difference
of feeling during the latter years of the League agitation.
The section of the public which holds itself independent of
party, had been partially awakened to the truth about educa-
tional results, and was revolting against the illiberality of the
clergy, who having proved themselves unable properly to
educate the people, were unwilling to let any other agency
309
into the field. That portion of the press too, which acts as a
barometer of public feeling amongst certain classes was
gradually coming round. The Bishop of Manchester warned
the clergy to prepare for a universal system of School Boards,
within a quarter of a century, whether they liked it or not.
Other leaders of the Church party concurred in this view;
but the rank and file of the country clergy held fast to their
objections. Lord Francis Hervey called the dissenters
"unclubbable" people; but in this matter the clergy better
deserved the description. They would permit no association
on the part of the community in this sphere of their
work. Had they not fought for years against the co-
operation of Church laymen in the management of their
schools ; and was it likely they would now permit the forma-
tion of a School Board, upon which by chance, there might
be an inquisitive or cantankerous Dissenter ? They had one
tremendous weapon ready to their hands, and they wielded it
with great energy and effect. It was the no-rate cry. The
impost was not so very terrible in reality. The average rate
for 1874-75 did not exceed threepence. But it was capable
of expansion. Some amusing examples of exaggeration came
under the notice of the Officers. The Government returns
gave the rate for each district, stating its amount in pence and
decimals. In this manner a rate of three halfpence would be
given as l*5d. This was easily convertible into Is. 5d., and
in this form was placed before the dismayed agriculturists.
Even small farmers were made to understand that a School
Board would cost them from £20 to £50 a year. No wonder
they threatened to reduce wages if the labourers voted for a
Board.
Upon the formation of the new Ministry it was not
seriously anticipated that any attempt would be made to
confer new advantages upon sectarian schools. It was
whispered that compulsory powers might be given to niagis-
310
trates or guardians, or even to voluntary managers, but no
great attention was paid to suggestions which were generally
acknowledged to be opposed to the spirit of modern legislation.
The Church party seemed to be thinking more of repeal of the
Cowper-Temple clause, which restricted the use of their
catechism. It seemed possible also that Ministers might
think themselves justified in extending the operation of the
25th clause which had been made a test question in the
election.
The issue between parties was first raised in the new
Parliament on Mr. Dixon's Bill for compulsion and School
Boards. Mr. Talbot, the member for West Kent, gave notice
of an amendment supposed to embody the views of the
denominationalists, which declared that the House could not
entertain the universal establishment of School Boards, until
perfect liberty of religious teaching was secured, and unless
the Boards were empowered to contribute to the support of
voluntary Schools. No overt action was taken in this session
by the leaders of the party to give effect to the amendment,
but the voting on the main question was of a character which
made all sections of Conservatives desire that it should be
taken out of Mr. Dixon's hands, and settled by their own
Government, on their own lines.
The beginning of 1875 was emphasised by Mr. Gladstone's
formal retirement from the leadership of the Liberal party,
and for several sessions he only appeared in the House on
special occasions. The disorganisation of the party was
now more than ever complete. But the incident gave to the
Executive Committee an opportunity of restating the terms
on which alone reconstruction was possible. They declared
their conviction that there could be no union under any leader
who was pledged to the continuance of a policy which en-
couraged denominational interests in opposition to national
education, and which was objected to by the majority of the
311
Liberal electors. Similar resolutions were passed by the
representative Nonconformist bodies, and by important
Liberal Associations, including that of Bradford. For a time
the Liberal leadership was put into commission, under the
immediate direction of Earl Granville and Lord Hartington.
Mr. Dixon's bill appeared again before Parliament in
the session of 1875. It had become the more urgent
because of the admitted failure of the Agricultural Children's
Act. The Conservatives were more generally recognising
the necessity of compulsion, and Mr. Salt, the member
for Stafford, had prepared a bill to give leave to municipal
and urban authorities in towns where no School Boards
existed, to exercise the power of Boards for enforcing
attendance.
An earnest appeal was made to the country to support
Mr. Dixon's bill, which, in spite of the foreshadowing gloom
of foreign, politics and the hopeless discomfiture of Liberals
in Parliament, was advocated by crowded meetings convened
by the League. A special enquiry had been made by
Mr. Allen into the education of the rural districts,
and Mr. Dixon was able to adduce on behalf of its
principle a mass of new and striking evidence, which
appealed in the strongest way to the sympathy and
intelligence of the House. The result of the divisions in
this and ths preceding session was that over two hundred
Liberals, including all the members of the former Govern-
ment, except Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Lowe, had now
voted for the bill, and the Officers had the satisfaction of
feeling that its ultimate fortunes were bound up with those
of the Liberal party, whatever they might be. The Marquis
of Hartington, the titular head of the party said, " I think
there is a disposition on the part of the Liberal party, to
sink their differences whether great or small, in consideration
of the great object which all are beginning to recognise —
namely, that there is a paramount necessity that a secular
system of education may exist and extend throughout the
country at large."
Another feature of the year was Lord Sandon's new code.
This was an educational surprise. The conditions of the
grant were made more stringent, and greater encouragement
was offered for better results in the higher standards. There
was a loud protest from the voluntary managers against
this process of " stringing up." The question with them was
the old one, and yet one which is ever new to them
— not what was desirable in the interests of educa-
tion generally, but what would suit their schools. The
stringency of the code had to be relaxed in response to their
piteous appeals, but it still recognised in its amended form
a principle for which the League had hitherto vainly con-
tended, the graduation of the scale of grants, dependent on
results and efficiency.
In other respects, however, Lord Sandon was very
gracious where denominational interests were concerned.
Under Mr. Forster's administration there had been grievous
complaints of the partiality shown to the Church. On Lord
Sandon's succession the evil was aggravated. Whitehall was
crowded by clerical wire-pullers and friars of all colours, and
the Department was interviewed and memorialized without
cessation. A clerical minority unable to carry its policy on a
School Board had nothing to do in order to frustrate the
majority but to hold a private meeting, and pass resolutions
and forward them to the Department. The wishes of the repre-
sentatives of the ratepayers were coolly ignored. Many flagrant
instances of centralized dictation occurred, and under the
adminstration of Mr. Disraeli, the country was treated to the
system of paternal Government, which Mr. Disraeli himself
had prophesied and denounced in 1839. School Boards were
not allowed to fix the fees desirable in the interests of schools
313
and scholars, for fear they might unduly compete with sectarian
schools. The Birmingham Board were ordered to double
their fees. They were strong enough, however, to resist,
and ultimately established a number of penny schools.
In the selection of sites, the wants and conveniences
of localites were made subordinate to the interests of
denominational schools. In the provision of accommoda-
tion the opinions of the School Boards were ignored. The
Department consulted the Inspector, the Inspector consulted
the Clergyman, and between them they settled the matter.
Eenewed opportunities were given to the voluntaryists to
take possession of the ground. Grants were made to new
Church schools when there was ample accommodation under
School Boards. The formation of Boards was obstructed on
every pretext. The Town Council of Winchester applied in
the usual way for a Board for the city. The clergy got up a
petition against it, and on an exparte statement, the Depart-
ment refused a Board to the locality. In another case, " My
Lords " ordered a School Board to confine the instruction in
their schools to infants, leaving the elder children to the de-
nominational schools. The Board flatly refused to obey, and the
Department was obliged to retire from an untenable position.
The Manchester Board passed a reasonable resolution refusing
to pay fees to schools which refused to admit the Inspector of
the Board. The Department interfered and addressed a
strong remonstrance to the Board. A most unwarrantable
interference was attempted in regard to elections. A regula-
tion was made that in borough elections there should be only
one polling station for each ward. It had been found by
experience that it was not possible to poll a thousand electors
at one station during the seven hours allowed for polling,
But the electors in the wards of large boroughs ranged from
five hundred, to five, ten, fifteen, and twenty thousand. The
average in Birmingham was four thousand voters to each
40
314
ward. If this regulation had been submitted to, it would
have disfranchised three-fourths of the borough electors.
The spirit of dictation in these matters was carried to such
an extreme, that Mr. Dixon was asked to bring the subject
under the notice of Parliament.
The question of attendance continued to press with
irresistible force on public judgment, and it became clear that
it could not be left long in abeyance. The League Bill in-
troduced for the third time in 1876, was supported by the
powerful advocacy of Mr. Bright, which brought a fresh
accession of Liberal strength. The process of conversion to
compulsion amongst Conservatives was rapid, and was accele-
rated by the desire to secure it on their own terms, while they
had the opportunity. As the Ministry settled into harness
there were many speculations current as to their intentions.
Great pressure was put upon them to take some decisive step
in the interests of Church Schools. On the change of
Government the National Society had threatened a reactionary
agitation, the objects of which were fuller liberty of sectarian
teaching in Board Schools, and fresh subsidies to denomina-
tional Schools. The modest request was that the Church
Catechism should be taught in the schools of the ratepayers,
that payments out of the rates should be made to denomina-
tional schools, and that powers of compulsion should be vested
in voluntary managers. These proposals were supported by
convincing arguments, for those Churchmen, who are first
Churchmen and then citizens. " For the Church to cease to
contend for the Education of her own children in her own
faith, would be a betrayal of a religious trust which must
eventuate in the loss of temporal privileges." (*)
Other proposals were to allow ratepayers to allocate their
rates to particular schools, on the Canadian plan, or to relieve
subscribers to voluntary schools from the payment of rates.
1 Monthly Paper of National Society.
315
Many alternatives were put before the Government by
interested advisers, and immediate action was urged from all
quarters. The pretext that it was not a party question,
which had answered their purpose admirably at one time,
was now roughly put aside. " If a Conservative Govern-
ment will not listen to the voice of Churchmen, what is it fit
for ?" was not unnaturally asked by the clergy. The Guardian
wrote, " The opportunity before Lord Sandon is a great one,
it can hardly recur, and advantage should be taken of it to the
utmost." There were many other indications that the Church
party and the Tories finding they could not baffle a state system
of education were bent upon getting it into their own hands.
Lord Sandon's bill in its earliest shape raised no great
expectations in any party. It was not a vigorous measure, cal-
culated to reconcile educationists, nor did it satisfy those who
had been clamouring for greater freedom to teach dogma at
the public cost. So far as its provisions went it promised to
benefit denominational schools by forcing children into them
and securing a more regular attendance. It gave leave to
Town Councils and Boards of Guardians in non-School Board
districts to make bye-laws for attendance. The power to pay
fees was transferred from School Boards to Guardians. There
were also provisions for indirect compulsion, similar to those
which had been so often tried with such imperfect success.
No child of a fixed age was to be employed in labour who
was not furnished with a labour pass — that is, a certificate of
having passed a certain standard, or made a stated number of
attendances at school. But while children were to be
prevented from working, there was no security taken that
they should be instructed. Canon Girdlestone said that in
rural districts the bill would prove a mere sham and dead
letter, and the feeling grew that its provisions were illusory,
and were intended as a sop to the public conscience, to
appease the agitation.
316
The position of the Liberal party did not encourage the
hope that they would be able to carry any thorough amend-
ments, but it was necessary to find a rallying ground. The
Executive Committee therefore restated the principles on
which they conceived a satisfactory solution could be based.
In the first place it was declared that no measure could
be permanently acceptable which did not provide for direct
compulsion in all cases.
It was also held desirable that local authorities entrusted
with the administration of compulsion should have powers
for the provision and management of schools.
The strong objections to the payment of school fees by
Guardians, which was equally unsatisfactory on social and
religious grounds, were recapitulated. The Committee
advocated a large extension of the free school principle, as the
proper means of meeting the case of parents unable to pay fees.
An extraordinary provision was contained in the bill
enabling the local authority to delegate their powers to
Committees, not of their own body. This was strongly
opposed as a violation of representative principles, the effect
of which would be to place compulsory powers in the hands
of irresponsible persons. It was suspected that this was an
indirect way of vesting such powers in the managers of
voluntary schools.
The Committee also criticised the financial clauses
which lessened the proportion of voluntary subscriptions
needed for maintenance, and rendered it probable that many
schools under private management would be conducted
wholly at the cost of the parents and the public.
They also protested against the large exemptions from
attendance, and the low standard of proficiency set up.
On the second reading Mr. Mundella moved a resolution
in favour of direct compulsion, and this being lost, Sir Charles
Dilke moved the rejection of the bill, which was now
317
regarded as a measure for increasing the powers and
privileges of the Establishment.
At this stage the League lost the parliamentary services
of Mr. Dixon, who, for domestic reasons, was compelled to
retire from the post which he had occupied from the
formation of the League. Mr. Chamberlain, who succeeded
him in the representation of Birmingham, strongly censured
the principle of the bill, which he regarded as a long
concession to denominational interests, and which, had
the Liberal party been united, would not have been suffered
to pass the House of Commons.
Mr. Henry Eichard gave notice that, on going into
Committee, he should move " That the principle of universal
compulsion in education cannot be applied without great
injustice, unless provision be made for placing public
elementary schools under public management." A large
meeting of Dissenters was held at the Westminster Palace
Hotel to back up the motion, and many meetings of Liberals
throughout the country also supported it ; but, in the state of
parties, its defeat was a foregone conclusion.
When the bill got into Committee its progress was
attended by surprises. The Tories, on the second reading,
had rejected the principle of direct compulsion when moved
by a Liberal, yet when the bill emerged from Committee it
embodied a more vigorous compulsory law than any Liberal
had ventured to propose to Parliament. It was a bill for
magisterial compulsion, under which proceedings might be
initiated by any person. The conversion of the Conservatives
had been rapid. They had originally opposed compulsion on
the ostensible ground that it was a violation of the liberty of
the subject ; but in reality, as had been strongly suspected,
and was now demonstrated, because they did not believe that
their own schools could continue to exist under such a law.
As soon as it was found that the popular desire for education
318
was greater than the fear of sectarianism, their opinions
developed at a wonderful rate. By virtue of the bill before
the House the country was to be placed under a compulsory
law without the safeguard of public representation, and
without the co-operation of the class affected by it ; a law
which might be set in motion by informers, and enforced by
magistrates in one class of denominational schools where
there was but the flimsiest protection for the rights of
conscience. This law was passed by the party which had
refused compulsory powers under School Boards in the name
of liberty, and which had taken for its motto, " the right of
the parent to choose the school."
A clause moved by Mr. Pell, enabling School Boards to
be dissolved on certain conditions, was strongly opposed by
Mr. Bright, but was carried. (J)
In regard to school grants Lord Sandon avowed that the
effect of the Bill would be to enable schools to be maintained
by the childrens' pence, combined with the money received
from Government.(2 ) The necessity for local subscriptions was
thus dispensed with, and with it the last guarantee for the
influence of public opinion upon the management.
1 The Tories, backed by the clergy, made a strong fight for this
clause, and evidently looked to important results from it. But not more
than two or three Boards have been dissolved under it during six years.
2 There are no means of ascertaining the number of schools which,
under these clauses, have been able wholly to dispense with voluntary
subscriptions. As the general result of the clauses the subscriptions fell
from 8s. 8|d. per child in average attendance in 1876 to 7s. 3|d. in 1880.
Dr. Watts estimates that a good school should earn 17s. 6d. per head on the
average attendance, when the cost of elementary instruction would stand
thus: Government 17s. 6d., school fees at 3d. per week 11s. 6d., plus
2s. 6d. for those who do not count in average attendance, 14s., or a total,
without any voluntary contributions, of 31s. 6d. per head. (Transactions of
Manchester Statistical Society, 1879, p. 64.) The total expenditure per
scholar in average attendance in voluntary schools in 1880 was 34s. 7|d.
The tendency of recent legislation has been to give the Denominationalists a
stronger hold upon the school system, and at the same time to make their
schools a heavier charge on the national exchequer.
319
A motion of Lord Eobert Montagu, making the pay-
ment of fees by Guardians compulsory and universal, was
carried with the assistance of Mr. Forster.
It may be doubted whether in their fondest dreams, the
National Society had ever looked for success like this. The
prospect held out to them by Lord Sandon's Act was this. In
the rural districts they were given supreme control over the
school system. They were relieved from the harassing
necessity of canvassing for funds. The pence of the children
always an uncertain source of income, were secured by the
rates. The Government grants in good schools were sufficient
for the rest. They had no competition to fear now, and
lastly they had powers for compulsory attendance. The title
of the Act should have been ".An Act for compelling
attendance in denominational schools, under private manage-
ment, supported out of the rates and taxes." In brief, it was
in the parishes a new Act of Appropriation and a new Act
of Uniformity.
A final effort was made by the Liberals to rally their weak-
ened and disordered forces against the principle of this legis-
lation. A representative deputation had an interview with the
Marquis of Hartington at Devonshire House, who consented to
move the following resolution upon the Keport, " That in the
opinion of this House principles have been introduced into
this bill which were neither mentioned nor contemplated on
the second reading, and which have a tendency to disturb the
basis on which education now rests, to impede the formation
of new schools, to introduce discord and confusion, and to
place the management of schools in the hands of persons
who neither contribute to their support nor are elected by the
ratepayers." The resolution was rejected by a strictly party
majority, but it reserved the right, and marked the determina-
tion of the Liberal party to re open, when occasion should
320
serve, the whole question of education by means of schools
under private management.
The effect of this act was to destroy the raison d'etre of
the League as an Educational Organisation. It put all
parents under a legal obligation to have their children
instructed, and subjected them to a penalty in default. It
threw upon local authorities the duty of seeing that parents
obeyed the law. It was not obligatory upon the School
Attendance Committees to make bye laws for attendance,
but the ancillary clauses declared their duty to see that the
law was enforced; while a final power was reserved to the
Education Department to supervise the work of the local
authorities, and to compel the observance of their duty.
Much of the strength of the measure was frittered away by the
saving clauses and exceptions; but, nevertheless, it professed
to provide for the object which the League was founded to
secure, " the education of every child in England and Wales;"
and only on the treble default of the parent, the local
authority, and the Education Department could it fail in its
purpose.
I propose, in conclusion, briefly to state the reasons
which led the Executive to advise the dissolution of the
League, and to review the operation of the law since
that event.
321
CHAPTEE IX.
CONCLUSION.
IT was not without mature deliberation that the Officers
took the decisive step of advising the dissolution of the
League. They felt that it was not a course to be taken
lightly. Whether judged by the following it had secured, or
the resistance it had provoked, the Organization had occupied
a conspicuous place in public attention for eight years. Its
object had been earnestly taken up in the country, and the
leaders of the movement had received a generous support and
allegiance through an exacting conflict, in which it became
necessary to sacrifice party loyalty for the preservation of
principle. The influence and prestige which it had acquired
were not denied by its opponents, and the eagerness with
which the Conservatives seized the first opportunity to
fasten the education system on their own lines was sufficient
proof of the apprehension with which they looked upon any
further development of a national scheme. Their avowed
object was to take the question out of the hands of the
League, and this accounted for the seemingly drastic nature
of the measure which they passed.
The Executive Committee could not fail to perceive
that while the functions of the League, as an Educational
Assocation, were materially affected by the legislation of
1876, the course of the previous agitation had also altered its
political relations towards the Whig or official element of the
Liberal party. If Lord Sandon's act were carried out with
integrity, and zealously enforced in the country, it promised
to secure universal schooling. If on the other hand it should
41
322
fail, the entire Liberal party was pledged to carry the work
forward to a fitting conclusion. The Committee had there-
fore to consider what had been the result of the movement,
and what remained to be done which required the continued
existence of a distinct organization.
When the League was established the public mind
was comparatively uninformed, both as to the extent of
educational destitution, and the principles upon which
a national system should be based. Notwithstanding the
efforts of many thoughtful and earnest men who had
exerted themselves to create an enlightened opinion,
ignorance, apathy, and indifference in regard to the
question prevailed through a large portion of the country.
The previous societies which had been formed to promote
education, after brief periods of agitation, had either
yielded to the discouragements and opposition they en-
countered, or had been silenced by some trifling concession
from Governments whose convenience or existence were
endangered by the controversy. There had been a political
bias upon the question, but no section of politicians having
control of the legislative machinery, had ever adopted it as
a distinct feature of a party programme. The Whigs, with
some honourable exceptions, of whom Lord John Eussell
was the most distinguished, had distrusted the advance of
popular intelligence almost as much as the Tories, and the
Radicals were too weak to prevail against the combined
forces of inertion. Many Governments had taken up the
question to quiet a troublesome demand or subdue a sectional
opposition, and had patched it here and there, but none
had undertaken the establishment of a general system. The
subject had been played and coquetted with by sects, and
interests and cliques, but it had never got down to the people,
and the men who were really in earnest and were pursuing
education for its own sake, had not been able to gather the
323
impetus which was requisite to carry the movement to a
successful conclusion.
Looking back on half a century of procrastination and
trifling, it may seem paradoxical to hold that the Act of 1870
was introduced prematurely, yet there are grounds for the
belief that a stronger and more liberal measure, and one
which, in an educational sense would have been economy
of time, could have been passed if legislation had been
delayed for another year. The time was no doubt opportune
for a compromise with the Church; but compromise with
ignorance, inefficiency, and sectarianism, which were the
characteristics of the existing system, was not desirable. Nor
was it necessary. The Church party would have accepted
any settlement which did not make a direct attack on the
institutions in existence. They had been alarmed by the
resources which the Nonconformists had shown in 1868, and
they certainly did not look to the Liberal Government for
reinforcement and indulgence. Then followed the League
agitation which created the popular enthusiasm for education.
These were the circumstances which enabled the Government
to approach the question with a prospect of success; but
it was not necessary that they should turn the weapons
which had been forged by their own supporters against
them.
The Act of 1870 was thorough in one particular. It
promised, sooner or later, to place efficient schools within
reach of the entire population. The process has been
needlessly slow. Canon Warburton, one of the Inspectors,
writing in 1880 enumerates twenty-six parishes or hamlets in
the fragment of a county, which are still " outside our national
system of elementary education." (*) But the supply of
schools has kept far ahead of the arrangements for their use.
In other respects the Act was pretentious and illusory, and
1 Blue Book, 1880-81, 409.
324
was speciously drawn to catch votes, to reconcile conflicting
interests, and to smother opposition. The Church was
conciliated by large concessions to a sectional interest, and
an attempt was made to propitiate the popular party by
embodying in a perfunctory way the principles of the League.
The sects were offered the first chance, and the Nation was
invited to follow and pick up the crumbs. Overlooking all
the lessons of history, the Government relied on the power
of sectarian competition as the principal factor in the construc-
tion of a system which by courtesy was called national.
The very opposite principle was the foundation of the
League scheme. Instead of relying on sectarian jealousy and
rivalry, on denominational patronage and private charity, the
members of the League appealed to public spirit, to local
Government, and National resources, and to the co-operation
of the parents and people. The scholars of the preceding era
had been mainly those who came under denominational
influences. It was now proposed to bring a much larger class
under instruction, and to introduce new and stringent experi-
ments in execution. The laws of compulsion and of local
rating were of this character, and it was insisted that they
could only be successfully worked by recognising Liberal
methods of administration. These were the extension of local
government and the direct representation of the class affected
by the law ; the removal of all taxes on attendance, and
perfect freedom and security for opinion and conscience. A
law based on these principles would not have been felt as the
imposition of harsh conditions by a superior authority, but as
a Liberal contract between the Government and the people.
The experience of eleven years has demonstrated that the
Education Acts have been successful in proportion only as
these principles were adopted.
The best justification of the objections taken by the
League to the Act of 1870 is to be. found in its results. Even
325
since it has been supplemented by the peremptory clauses of
Lord Sandon's Act, and after the school life of more than a
generation of children has elapsed, the law has failed to embrace
the school population of the country. In estimating a measure
of such pretensions and magnitude it must be judged by what
it has left undone, as well as by what it has done. After five
years of permissive compulsion there were children to be
counted by the million, who might and ought to have been
at school, and who were not there. In 1876 the Committee
of Council estimated that there were two-and-a-half-millions
of children above seven years of age who might reasonably
have been expected to make 250 attendances in the year,
to do which they would have only been required to attend
regularly for 25 weeks. The actual numbers who accomplished
this feat were 1,141,892. At the same period the children of
school age (between 3 and 13) were estimated at 4,606,544.
Of these 1,862,244 were not even on the school registers, and
did not see the inside of a school from year's end to year's
end. The average attendance, which is the best test of
success, fell short of the school population by 2,769,364.
Taking the low^r and inadequate estimate of seven years
(from 3 to 10) as the proper school life, there were still
1,387,400 children practically outside the system. (l)
Of the results which have hitherto been obtained, the
largest are due to concessions made to the League in 1870,
which strengthened the educational features, and moderated
in some degree the virus of sectarianism. The most important
amendment was the power to acquire School Boards by the
vote of the district. This gave scope for the greatest activity
in putting the Act into operation, and it was taken advantage
of by the League to the utmost extent. Out of 2,051 School
Boards established in ten years, 967 have been formed under
this provision, bringing a third of the population voluntarily
1 Blue Book, 1875-76.
326
under compulsory bye-laws. This indicates also where the
Act was weak. It failed in the same manner and for the
same reasons that the Privy Council system failed. In
districts where public spirit and intelligence abounded it
succeeded, but elsewhere neglect and apathy were left to take
their course. Notwithstanding the improvements which were
secured, it remained an Act for bolstering up a discredited
and unproductive system, which has never attained any high
standard of excellence. If the amendments suggested by the
League had been adopted years of slow transition might have
been years of active construction.
The evil of such partial measures is that they deaden
public movements, smother the inclination for improvement,
and become the obstructives they are designed to remove.
Interests which feign to be harrassed appeal for rest, and
there is the invariable demand that the " experiment " shall
have a fair trial. This disposition exists to such an extent,
that Ministers who pass mere stop-gap measures are generally
in a position to deride, for a time, all further agitation for
reform. If the League had been dissolved in 1870, there was
every likelihood that the question would have slept for
another generation, with the result, that at the end of that
time the country would still have found itself without a
system adequate to national requirements.
The controversy of the next five years was productive of
great good in several ways. The whole country was at last
awakened to the glaring deficiencies and contemptible results
of the system which had been jointly administered by the
Education Department and the denominations. On the
showing of the Inspectors themselves, a vast number of the
schools which they visited produced results little better than
those of the dame schools. The conviction grew that
education needed improvement in quality quite as much as
in quantity. Both parties in the State were converted to
327
compulsion as the first necessity of the situation. But
beyond this the Liberal party became united upon the
desirability of placing education under public administration,
and enforcing attendance through the machinery of School
Boards.
The rapid growth of these opinions, and the influence
which they exercised on Parliament, were manifested in the
Session of 1876. The new Code introduced by Lord Sandon
was the first indication that the Conservative Government
had been penetrated by the imperfection and inadequacy of
the system they were called upon to administer ; but their
well-meant attempt to raise the standard of acquirement was
frustrated, in a large degree, by the resistance of the voluntary
managers, who came forward again as the champions and
apologists of weak methods and poor results. The Code,
however, was, in some respects, an improvement, and
considered in connection with the Act which Lord Sandon
subsequently passed, it promised to effect important changes
in the educational condition of the country. At the end
of 1876 a law for universal compulsory education had been
embodied in the statute books.
The aspect which the question • had now assumed placed
the Officers and Executive Committee in a position of
considerable responsibility and difficulty. In advising as to
the future of the organisation they had to take several
circumstances into consideration. The object for which the
League was established was now guaranteed by legislation.
On the other hand, the means by which it was to be secured
fell so far short in efficiency, simplicity, and liberal qualities
of those proposed by the League, that serious doubts were
raised as to the easy and successful working of the law.
While an amount of school attendance might be obtained
which would satisfy the statutory requirement, the Officers
were unable to see how the steady and regular attendance,
328
on which efficiency so much depends, could be secured as
long as the payment of fees was enforced. They also
doubted whether education could be raised to a proper
standard under other than public management. It was
evident, moreover, that in the administration of the new Act
the principles of religious liberty and equality, for which
they had contended, would be subject to constant violation.
But the League was founded as, and had remained
throughout the struggle, an educational organisation. While
there was entire unanimity as to the object, much latitude
had been allowed to the members in the advocacy of
means. The position, in this respect, was put clearly by
Mr. Chamberlain at the annual meeting in 1872. He then
said " Our one object, as stated in our programme, is to
secure the education of every child in the kingdom, and in
seeking to solve that problem, our experience, and the
evidence we receive from other countries, lead us to the
conclusion that the only possible way is by universal
and efficient compulsion. That is the great point in our
scheme. The other things are mere corollaries, and part of
the necessary machinery for carrying compulsion into effect."
By virtue of the new legislation an attempt was now to be
made to carry out the same object by different machinery. To
a considerable number of members, who cared comparatively
little for the side issues of the controversy, this was a sufficient
satisfaction of the motives with which they had joined the
League. The polemical aspect which the discussions had
sometimes assumed was owing to the attempt made by a
Liberal G-overnment to impose reactionary principles upon
the country ; but the Liberal party was now pledged to a
review of the whole subject. So far as the legislation of 1870-76
was an attack upon Liberal principles its amendment passed
naturally and legitimately to the Liberal party, and to have
maintained a separate organisation for the purpose would
329
have been to preserve an appearance of divisions, where none
in reality existed. It was felt, besides, that after the
experience of 1870 and 1873, no strong Liberal Government
could be again formed in which the principles of the League
did not find representation.
The subject was fully discussed at a meeting of the
Executive Committee held on the llth January, 1877, at
which it was resolved to recommend to a special meeting of
the subscribers that arrangements should be made for the
gradual closing of the organization and the transfer of its
remaining work to the Liberal associations as part of the
general policy of the party.
The final meeting of the League was held on the 28th
day of March, 1877.
It may be useful to those who have followed the pre-
ceding pages to have before them the outcome of the last ten
years of labour in the field of education. The writer has not
space at his disposal to enter upon an exhaustive enquiry,
but it is hoped that the tables in the Appendix will indicate
with sufficient clearness the general result, and supply
materials for the most interesting points of comparison. A
brief explanation of the provisions of the Act passed in 1880,
under the Vice-Presidency of Mr. Mundella, will complete
the story of educational legislation down to the present time.
The public hears too much of the vast progress and
magnificent results which have followed the legislation of
1870 and 1876, and too little of the region which remains
unreclaimed. It is the interest of the partisans of one part
of our composite system to prevent any further disturbance
of its main principles, and therefore to make the most of its
capabilities. The " amiable philosophy of optimism " which
42
330
prevails largely in society comes to their support. Since the
dissolution of the League only one side of the shield has
been on exhibition. There can be no object, especially on
their part who originated the movement, in disparaging the
substantial gain which has been obtained, but nothing so
surely threatens the future of education as the public disposi-
tion to rest satisfied in the conceit of a presumed success.
Without doubt some remarkable changes were produced by
the Act of 1870. The mental energy and intelligence infused
by the establishment of School Boards has acted like a new
inspiration. If the returns made to the Government were put
before the public in a shape which admitted of complete analy-
sis, it would probably be seen that of real educational results, the
vast proportion, almost the gross quantity of those of a high
order, have been produced by the action and influence of
School Boards. Yet the members of the School Boards,
except those who are elected mainly as a drag on the machine,
will be the first to acknowledge that their work is still in an
embryotic state, and that neither in regard to methods of
instruction or principles of administration, can the education
controversy be considered as a closed chapter. If this is true
of the great towns where education is under the constant
stimulus of public energy and criticism, how much more is it
true of the country districts, where every breath of independ-
ent opinion and every shred of local influence are, as far as
possible, carefully excluded.
The Eeports of the Committee of Council are a stereo-
typed admission of very partial success. The Blue Book for
1873-74 referred to"the large number of children who were not
attending efficient schools, the small number even of those who
attended such schools who did so with anything approaching
to regularity, the large proportion of these last who were not
presented to the Inspector to give proof of the results of
their instruction, and the meagre nature of the results attained
331
by many of those who were examined." The Eeport for
1880-81 repeats the same story in almost identically the
same words, omitting only the sentence which relates to the
proportion presented for examination. Any one who will
take the trouble to go into the vast array of figures contained
in these Blue Books and carefully balance and weigh their
meaning will come to the same conclusion — that non-attend-
ance, irregular attendance, and meagre results are the most
striking characteristics of the system.
Perhaps the best test of the merits of a school system
is the average daily attendance compared with the population
of school age. It is not a perfect test, but it is the best
measure we have of the amount of irregularity and absentee-
ism combined. Applying it to the Government returns
it will be found that in 1871 the population of
school age (between three and thirteen) was 4,606,544,
and the average attendance was 1,231,434, the percent-
age being 26*73. To give an idea of the status which
these figures represent it may be mentioned that at the same
time a dozen of the American States had in average attend-
ance from 54 to 40 per cent, of scholars, calculated on a
school age of sixteen years, or between five and twenty-one. Yet
there were Englishmen in numbers who denied that our case
was bad, or that there was urgent necessity for improvement.
In 1880 the school population had risen to 5,151,781, and the
average attendance to 2,750,916, the percentage being 53'39.
That is to say, in ten years the average attendance has been
doubled. There is much reason to be thankful for this
measure of progress, but in judging of its value two things
have to be kept in view — first, what was the previous con-
dition, and secondly, how the advance compares with what
the nation has a right to expect, and with what is possible
under a system subject to less friction. What is left undone is
as important to our judgment of the results as what has been
332
done. It is a good thing to congratulate ourselves on the
1,519,482 more children brought into school, only so long as we
do not overlook the 2,400,865 who are still outside. Estimat-
ing on the basis of the present school population the average
attendance in 1871 amounted to 23*90 per cent. The percent-
age of gain is 29*49 ; the percentage of non-success is 46*60.
There is another light in which the figures can be put which
appeals strongly to people of economic instincts. Our present
school accommodation is for 4,240,753 scholars, but on the
average there are 1,489,837 places vacant throughout the
year. Counting the cost of the schools alone at £8 per
scholar and without including the expense of other machinery,
about twelve millions sterling is lying absolutely unproductive.
And this happens in a country in which one of the principal
obstructives to the adoption of a national system of educa-
tion is the question of cost.
In the United States the school age extends over later and
longer years ; from 10 to 15,. 6 to 16, or even to 20, which is in
itself an enormous advantage. In some of the most important
and populous States of the Union, the average attendance of
children between 5 and 15 ranges from 56 to 77 per cent.—
in others the proportion of the school population between 6
and 16 in average attendance varies from 57 to 87 per cent.
In some States an average attendance of 60 and 85 per cent,
is obtained on the population between 4 and 20. These
results it must be observed are produced where there is no
compulsion or at the most the mere show of compulsion, but
where the schools are absolutely free, where they belong to
the people and are administered by the people, where educa-
tion is not a matter of patronage and charity, but of right.
The experience of America taken with our own is conclusive
that free admission as a means of attendance is more pro-
ductive than compulsion. But the American people are not
satisfied with the results they have obtained, and are con-
333
tinually pressing for better attendance, and for compulsion
as the complement of the law.
Is it not a fair deduction that if the means which were
proposed by the League had been tried, something approach-
ing to these higher results might have been obtained, the
school life of hundreds of thousands of children have been
turned to fair account, and the heavy charges for machinery
which has remained idle have borne a fruitful interest?
The exact product of Lord Sandon's Act in the shape of
additional attendance is not known. The increase in the
average attendance between 1876 and 1880 was 753,139,
but the returns do not distinguish between the numbers
brought in by School Boards and the Attendance Committees.
But quite enough is known of the Act to justify the judg-
ment that it has been a dismal failure. The authorities
to whom its execution was in the main entrusted had not
been remarkable for large ideas upon education, and they
justified their reputation by doing just as much as they
were compelled to do and no more. The Act required
that each local authority (Town Council or Board of
Guardians) outside the jurisdiction of a School Board
should appoint a School Attendance Committee. This
was very much a formal matter, and was performed with
an alacrity that raised great hopes at the Education Depart-
ment. In about one-half the Unions, bye-laws were adopted
on the requisition of some of the parishes, but only in fifteen
Unions did the bye-laws extend over all the parishes. But
this proved to be a matter of comparatively small con-
sequence, since when the bye-laws were made they were
very rarely efficiently enforced. In short this seemingly
stringent Act, which Sir Charles Dilke described as the
most tyrannic measure that had ever become law in any
country, was laughed at and disobeyed by parents,
employers, and local authorities alike. And the Education
334
Department stood in the background and saw the law defied
and neglected with unruffled equanimity.
Where the Act was operative its effect was unfortunate.
It set up a low standard of education, and has habituated
the rural classes to that idea. The labour certificates enabled
children who passed the second standard in 1877 or 1878,
or the third standard in 1879 or 80, or the fourth standard
in any subsequent year to finish their schooling and go to
work, the certificate being good for all time. When the law
was obeyed at all, the object was to obtain the lowest quali-
fication for work. It was an encouragement to get as little
education as possible as quickly as possible. More than half
the children above ten are presented in standards suitable for
a lower age. Forty per cent, of all the scholars leave school
as soon as they have passed the fourth standard.
One of the first tasks of the new Liberal Ministry was to
bring in a bill to compel the adoption of bye-laws throughout
the country. This was accomplished by the short and
vigorous Act of 1880. (*) By the end of that year there were
only a few defaulting authorities, and for these the
Department at once proceeded to make bye-laws, thus
bringing the whole population under local compulsion.
The vigour with which the new Education Ministers are
conducting the work of their Department, and Mr. Mundella's
well-known views upon compulsion, afford the hope that
some improvement in attendance may be secured, but the
serious failure of Boards of Guardians as education authorities
must suggest grave doubts as to the propriety of pushing the
experiment any further. The powers of the Department for
dealing with defaulting authorities are great, but their
exercise on a wholesale scale has never been contemplated.
Yet if every defaulting authority under the Act of 1876 is to
become subject to these powers, it will require the permanent
1 43 and 44 Viet., c. 23,
335
location of a branch of the Education Department in the
largest number of parishes.
The testimony of the Inspectors, which is practically
unanimous, and which is the stronger because their bias
would probably be in favour of the machinery created
by the Act of 1876, affords no hope that education in rural
districts can be effectually carried out under the present
arrangements. The law, worked under pressure, may
produce, for a short time, a fluctuating and spasmodic
attendance, but it will never secure regularity. Indeed its
penalties are aimed not against irregularity, but habitual
neglect. But every one understands that irregular attendance
is almost as bad as complete non-attendance.
The general conclusions to be gathered from the fifty or
sixty reports upon the rural districts contained in the Blue
Books of 1878, 1879, and 1880, are as follows :—
1. Eegularity has been very little improved since 1870.
Irregular, convulsive attendance is still the great evil which
managers, teachers, inspectors, and all who are engaged in
the work have to struggle against.
2. Illegal employment is common. It is the rule and
not the exception. Employers do not ask for certificates.
The law is often unknown, or, when known, it is disregarded
by employers, parents, and the local authorities. Members
of school attendance committees frequently employ children
who have not complied with the requirements of the Act.
3. The regulations as to certified efficient schools are
inoperative. Dame schools and private adventure schools
exist in large numbers, and are encouraged by the local
authorities. Where attempts are made to enforce the law,
these schools often enable parents and employers to baffle it.
Cottages are opened to receive children, who are badly housed
and worse taught.
336
4. The attendance officers are of the worst description.
They are ill-paid for this special work, and are generally
fully employed with other duties. In most cases the
relieving officer is appointed to the post, and a small
addition is made to his salary. As a rule his compliance
with his duty is nominal. If he is energetic at the outset
he soon discovers that his superiors are not in favour of too
great a display of vigour, and he takes his cue accordingly.
5. There is a general disinclination on the part of
magistrates to convict. Sometimes they are afraid of
unpopularity, often they are indifferent, they are generally
disposed to accept frivolous excuses, and they inflict
fines at which the parents laugh, while the ratepayers
grumble at having to pay the heavy costs. Their adminis-
tration of the law has brought it into contempt.
6. But the chief obstacle lies with the School Attend-
ance Committees. They make a show of enforcing the Act,
and having adopted bye-laws and appointed a nominal
attendance officer, they leave the rest to chance. They are
always slow to prosecute and very often they employ children
in contravention of their own bye-laws. Sometimes they
instruct the attendance officers to do as little as possible.
They are the largest employers of juvenile labour and their
duties and interests are in antagonism. They do not meet
for months at a time, and owing to the wide area over which
their jurisdiction extends, a great part of the district is
unknown to the majority of them.
This picture is relieved by occasional lights, which only
serve to make the shadows more conspicuous. Taken
altogether the reports of the Inspectors are one long indict-
ment against the rural local authorities of apathy, indifference,
neglect or open violation of duty.
This is the state of affairs in regard to rural school
attendance, which Mr. Mundella has to face. If he can
337
succeed in improving it, as well as in raising the standard of
instruction, and placing the administration of the Government
grant on a sounder basis, his career at the Education Depart-
ment will be fortunate for the country, and in the highest
degree honourable to himself. But with the material he has
to work upon the difficulties before him are obviously great.
It is manifest indeed that whatever temporary modifica-
tions and adaptations the system may undergo, the battle of
National Education will have to be fought over again before
a durable basis is found. The so-called compromise of 1870 was
never accepted by the popular party, while the Act of 1876
was passed in the teeth of the strongest resistance which the
Liberal opposition could offer, and under the express reserva-
tion of their right and intention to re-open the question at
the first fitting opportunity. While the hands of the Govern-
ment are full and overflowing, there is no disposition to press
them, but if there was any sincerity in the agitation of
1870-1876, the present conditions cannot continue to exist
indefinitely.
The struggle of the immediate future will be over the
" Proposals " of the Education Department for a New Code, the
objects of which are to raise the standard of instruction, to
make the principle of payment for results more favourable
to intelligent methods of teaching, and to eliminate the
wasteful provisions by which the Government grant is given
away on the average attendance of scholars in infant schools,
who are not efficiently taught. The " special merit " grant
which is a prominent feature of the " proposals " is a great
step forward. The absence of some such money payment
for methods as opposed to mere mechanical results was
strongly animadverted upon by the Rev. E. F. M. MacCarthy
in a paper published by the League in 1876. (*) In
1 Analysis of Elementary Education Statistics, by the
Rev. E. F. M. MacCarthy, 11
43
338
In carrying out these reforms Mr. Mundella will be supported
against the outcry of the vested interests, and the inefficient
schools, by all who are earnest in the pursuit of a better
education.
But more searching alterations are demanded in the
interests of thorough efficiency. The points on which
educationists chiefly rest their hopes for the future are ( 1 ) the
readjustment of cost and the entire remission of school fees,
and (2) the placing of education under the direct control
and administration of the representatives of the ratepayers.
Compulsion, attended by the exaction of school fees, has
broken down, except in regard to a select class, and in large
towns such as Birmingham, where the school fees are low.
The requirement of fees is the parent of irregularity, which in
its turn is the fruitful source of unsuccessful teaching. With
short sighted wisdom the Legislature insists on attendance
on the one hand, and then raises obstructions on the other.
Expensive machinery is created to enforce attendance, and
then a direct tax is placed on every week's schooling ; and
this additional impost was placed on parents in originating an
experiment which compelled them to make severe sacrifices in
another direction. The difficulties of the parents have been
increased. They were obliged to lose the services of their
children, and their school fees were raised at the same instant.
The children's pence have risen from 8s. 6d. per child in
average attendance in 1870, to 10s. 4d. in 1880. And while
this burden was thrown on the class least able to bear it, the
tax on comfortable benevolence has declined. The voluntary
subscriptions have decreased in about the same proportion
that the school fees have been raised. The parents are directly
taxed to bolster up a system of proved inefficiency, and one
for which its advocates are increasingly unwilling to tax
themselves. There is a meanness about these arrangements
of which a wealthy country ought to be ashamed. If the
339
clergy are excepted, the subscribers to voluntary schools
generally contribute because the system costs them least. A
small subscription saves a larger rate, the tax on parents
is raised, and then the subscribers come before the public
and pose in an attitude of benevolence.
But the free school question has assumed a more serious
aspect than this. The tendency of recent legislation has been
to bring the school into conjunction with the workhouse, and
for a large class of parents to make the one a stepping stone
to the other. This is no longer theory. The Boards of
Guardians have had to pay school fees for five years. It is a
duty which the Boards in the large towns dislike, and which
they have protested against as tending to the degradation and
pauperization of a large class of the community, but it is a
duty which they have to perform, and the payments go on
increasing from year to year. To complete the unnatural
alliance the rural Guardians have made the relieving officer
the school attendance officer.
There is another reason why the incidence of cost will
have to be reconsidered. The 25th clause was repealed to
quiet the Dissenters. But it was re-enacted in another form
and with a wider application. Where hundreds of pounds
were paid by School Boards for fees in denominational schools
thousands are now paid by Guardians. The tax upon the
rates has risen from about £5,000 in 1873 to £16,000 in
1878, £23,000 in 1879, and £32,000 (l) in 1880. The
amount is not large at present, but it bids fair to become
large, and to afford the denominational schools a fruitful
and a certain source of revenue. But it was not the amount
that the Nonconformists were concerned about; it was
the principle. The principle of section 25 of Mr. Forster's
1 Of this amount about £5,500 is paid to Board Schools. It is difficult
to understand why the School Boards do not remit the fees in their own
schools, and thus save the necessity, so far as they are concerned, of applica-
tion to the Guardians.
340
Act, and of section 10 of Lord Sandon's Act, are one and the
same, and even the language of the two sections is almost
identical. The Nonconformists are no doubt indisposed to
add to the present embarrassments of the Government, but it
is idle to suppose that these payments will be permitted
to go on for ever.
The necessity for universal School Boards is pushed again
to the front by the failure of the Guardians as an attendance
authority, and by the increasing efficiency, intelligence, and
thoroughness of board-school work. Making all deductions
for the sectarian squabbles they have witnessed, which were
owing to the method of their election and the questions
remitted to them for settlement, Mr. Forster's Act has
reached its highest point of success in the administration of
the Boards. They have brought a new energy and capacity
into the field of education, they are sustained by the inspiriting
influence of public representation, and they have enlisted a
class of workers who pursue education for its own sake,
and who had little sympathy with the narrow aims and
antiquated methods of the voluntary schools. They have
borne the heat and burden of the day for the last ten
years, and have helped to fill the voluntary schools as
well as their own. They have elevated the status, the
emoluments, and the prospects of elementary school teachers.
They have raised the ideal of national education. The
tables in the Appendix will show how rapidly they have
overtaken the voluntary schools. Notwithstanding the social
tendency which has made the voluntary schools the select
schools, and filled the Board Schools with the refuse
of the streets and courts, they supply a better
education, obtained through higher methods and superior
teachers. But they cost more, it will be said. That is true.
The time may come, however, when the common sense of
the Nation will teach it that the cheapest article is not always
341
the truest economy. If this is true of anything it is pre-
eminently true of education. Mr. Cobden's wise words will
be recalled — that " England cannot afford to have a little
National Education." The motto of the School Boards is
" Excelsior," and their work alone lightens the dejection
with which otherwise our attempts after National Education
would be regarded.
There is one final consideration which cannot be too
often insisted on. Bishop Temple, in giving evidence before
the Newcastle Commission said, " Everything I think which
would tend to encourage local interest would improve the
school," (*) and he advocated giving to parents votes in the
election of managers of the voluntary schools. It is only by
direct representation that you can enlist the interest of the
people and secure their co-operation in the work of their own
instruction and elevation, in the absence of which no system
of education can be a great or a permanent success.
1 Newcastle Commission Report, 6, 331.
343
o &
* 1
s?
CO
<M
CO
10
3?
0>
co
o
to
O Oi O
C5 riH CO
CO Ci CO
o
CO
CO
CO
CO
co
i^
CO
OS
o
CO
CO
co
CO
i*3 co
(M
a
00^
co"
rH 00
J>- I i— I
00
i s
fi
P-4
O
O
1
0 P
02
CO
CO
00
rH
CO
co"
co
CO
CO
00
00
rH
»0
O
00
00
s
-§
o
PH
•S1
|1
d
PH
Jb-
00
^
03
.a
344
APPENDIX 2.
PERCENTAGES OF ATTENDANCE IN SOME OF THE AMERICAN
STATES.
Average attendance on School Population between 5 and 15.
Massachusetts 77 per cent. Maine 76 per cent.
New York ... 56 „ Illinois 61
Pennsylvania. 66 „ Michigan ... 66 „
On School Population between 6 and 16.
Connecticut... 66 per cent. Indiana ... 57 per cent.
Ohio 59 „ Kansas ... 87
Iowa . 69 Columbia . 56
On Population between 4
New Hampshire ... ... 65 per cent.
Oregon ... ... ... 60 per cent.
345
CO
H
PL.
%&
CQ
<NI CO
1>- 05
|
H
§
>
cb do
"H^ LQ
$
rH J^
S>
02
1
2
m
EH
CO 10
0
rH rH
.
CO 1^
B
.
CO O
^
ob do
10 10
1
rH IO
»J
§
1
o
pq
h
i
IO rH
B
CO O
8
j>
»O CO
cb ib
H
^
j>- op
Q ^*s
iO IO
g
1 1
«H
§ |
10 rH
I
g
*^H ^™^
HH
CO 05
H
HH
O5 IO
HH
^
05 05
|
H^
cb -^
^ti 10
g
>
O §
§
1"
(M 10
I
0 <M
H,
^
cb cb
O
HH
cb cb
"
co co
§
1
0
§
§
o
EH
zn
CO CO
1>- rH
N
IO ^t1
h
hH
cb ib
§
HH
OQ
O
CO co
1
1
§
§
pi
10 O
P4
10 O
fl
i
ir- oo
CO 00
i
Jt- 00
oo oo
K^
rH rH
><
rH rH
Ej
346
APPENDIX 3 .—continued.
In 1875 the Board Schools had the highest percentage of
complete passes (i.e., in Eeading, Writing, and Arithmetic) in
Standards II., III., IV., and V., and were second only to
Eoman Catholic Schools in Standard I., and to British
Schools in Standard VI. In 1880 they were first in all
Standards except I., and in this were second only to
Koman Catholic Schools. In Eeading they were second to
Eoman Catholic, British, and Wesley an Schools.
PERCENTAGE OF PASSES IN EACH SUBJECT SEPARATELY IN
ALL SCHOOLS.
YEAR.
Reading.
Writing.
Arithmetic.
1875
88-28
80-04
70-91
1880
88-25
80-44
74-9
The Board Schools were in 1875 : —
•92 below the average in reading.
2 '6 above the average in writing,
and 3 '03 above the average in arithmetic.
And in 1880:—
•11 above the average in reading.
2 '3 9 above the average in writing.
and 3-39 above the average in arithmetic.
347
APPENDIX 3— continued.
HIGHEK SUBJECTS.
NUMBER OF PASSES FOR EVERY 100 SCHOLARS EXAMINED.
(100 scholars may make 200 passes.)
In Denominational Schools.
1875 105-5
1880 86-29
In Board Schools.
1875 112-08
1880 97-61
NOTE. — The requirements for a pass have been somewhat raided.
Deductions from grant for higher subjects under Code
Article 21 c (that is for Schools in which 75 per cent, of
the passes attainable in the Standard Examination are not
made) : —
In Denominational Schools.
1875 11-31 per cent.
1880 5-52
In Board Schools.
1875 971
1880 2-87
DEDUCTIONS FOR FAULTS OF INSTRUCTION.
Denominational Schools.
1875 Mulcted in 145 per cent of total grant.
1880 Ditto 0-81 ditto
Board Schools.
1875 Mulcted in 0*88 per cent, of total grant.
1880 Ditto 040 ditto
348
APPENDIX 3— continued.
INFANT SCHOOLS.
Denominational Schools.
1875 20 per cent, more infants taught in separate Depart-
ments under specially qualified teachers than
in classes attached to upper Departments.
1880 37*2 ditto ditto dttto
Board Schools.
1875 130 per cent, ditto ditto ditto
1880 276 per cent, ditto ditto ditto
PROPORTION OF ADULT TEACHERS TO PUPIL-TEACHERS.
Denominational Schools.
1880 One Adult Assistant to 3*03 Pupil-Teachers.
Board Schools.
1880 One Adult Assistant to 1-77 Pupil-Teachers.
APPENDIX 4.
KATE OF GRANT PER SCHOLAR IN AVERAGE ATTENDANCE.
Denominational Schools.
1875 ... 12s. lOJd.
1880 ... ,; 15s. 5d.
Board Schools.
1875 11s. 5Jd.
. 1880 ... * 15s. 7Jd.
COST OF MAINTENANCE PER SCHOLAR IN AVERAGE ATTENDANCE.
1880 Board Schools £1 17 5f
„ Voluntary Schools £1 14 2
APPENDIX 4— continued.
SCHOOL BOARD KATES.
1880 Total average rate in England ... 51d.
Ditto ditto in Wales 57d.
PROPORTION OF POPULATION
1880 Under School Boards 13,318,492
Ditto School Attendance Committees 9,393,774
£22,712,266
EDUCATION GRANTS.
1880 To Voluntary Schools ... £1,681,684 3 10
To Board Schools 627,081 3 3
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any
University of California Library
or to the
NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station
University of California
Richmond, CA 94804-4698
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
2-month loans may be renewed by calling
(415) 642-6753
1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books
to NRLF
Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days
prior to due date
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
OCT 10 1991
YC 03341
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11