STATISTICS AS TO 10,595 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS FOUNDED BY THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES (BRITISH CENSUS RETURNS, 1851)
The National
Society,
or British
Church and For- Indepen- Other
Total num- of eign dents, or Wesleyan Roman rel-
ber of England Schools Congrega- Method-Cathol- Bapt- gious
Date schools schools Society tionalists ists ics ists bodies
Before 1801 766 709 16 8 7 10
1801-1811 410 350 28 9 4 10
1811-1821 879 756 77 12 17 14
1821-1831 1,021 897 45 21 17 28
1831-1841 2,417 2,002 191 95 62 69
1841-1851 4,604 3,448 449 269 239 166
Not stated 498 409 46 17 17 14 131 331
Totals 10,595 8,571 852 431 363 311 131 331
After about 1820-25 the rising interest in elementary education expressed itself in the formation of a number of additional societies, the more important of which were:
1824. "London Infant School Society" founded by Brougham. 1826. "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge" founded by Brougham. The Journal of Education begun. 1836. "Central Society of Education" founded. 1836. "Home and Colonial Infant Society" founded. Beginning of a Pestalozzian Training College. 1837. "Educational Committee of the Wesleyan Conference" established. 1843. "Congregational Board of Education" formed. 1844. "Ragged School Union" founded. 1845. "Catholic Institute." 1847. The "Catholic Poor-School Committee." 1847. "Lancashire Public School Association" formed. 1850. The "National Public School Association." 1867. "Birmingham Education Aid Society." 1868. The Manchester Conference. 1869. Formation of "The League."
Some of these were formed to found and support schools, and some engaged primarily in the work of propaganda in an effort to secure some national action.
III. THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION
THE PARLIAMENTARY STRUGGLE. During the whole of the eighteenth century Parliament had enacted no legislation relating to elementary education, aside from the one Act of 1767 for the education of pauper children in London, and the freeing of elementary schools, Dissenters, and Catholics, from inhibitions as to teaching. In the nineteenth century this attitude was to be changed, though slowly, and after three quarters of a century of struggle the beginnings of national education were finally to be made for England, as they had by then for every other great nation. In 1870 the "no-business-of-the-State" attitude toward the education of the people, which had persisted from the days of the great Elizabeth, was finally and permanently changed. The legislative battle began with the first Factory Act [25] of 1802, Whitbread's Parochial Schools Bill [26] of 1807, and Brougham's first Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry of 1816 (R. 291); it finally culminated with the reform of the old endowed Grammar Schools by the Act of 1869, the enactment of the Elementary Education Act of 1870 (R. 304), and the Act of 1871 freeing instruction in the universities from religious restrictions (R. 305). The first of these enactments declared clearly the right of the State to inquire into, reorganize, and redirect the age-old educational foundations for secondary education; the second made the definite though tardy beginnings of a national system of elementary education for England; and the third opened up a university career to the whole nation. The agitation and conflict of ideas was long drawn out, and need not be traced in detail. The following tabulated summary will give the main outlines of the struggle, and the selection on "The Educational Traditions of England" (R. 306) gives a good brief history of the long conflict.
THE PARLIAMENTARY STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION IN ENGLAND
Dates Proposals, Reports, etc., and Results