Though the Liberal Party was in power, it was well satisfied with the Reform Act of 1832 because through it the middle classes of the population, which the Liberal Party represented, had gained control of the government. The country, though, was not—the working-classes in particular demanding a share in the government. Finally the demand became too strong to be resisted, and the Second Reform Act, of 1867, became a law. This abolished a number of the remaining smaller boroughs, and greatly extended the right to vote. In the country the amount of property to be owned to vote was reduced from £10 to £5, and the leasehold value from £50 to £12. In the cities and towns the vote was now given to all householders, and to all lodgers who paid a yearly rental of £10. This legislation gave the vote to a vastly increased number of people, particularly city workers, [30] and was a political revolution for England of great magnitude.
From the passage of this new Reform Act to 1870, the organization of national education only awaited the formulation of some acceptable scheme. "We must educate our new masters," now became a common expression. The main question was how to create schools to do what the voluntary schools had shown themselves able to do for a part, but were unable to do for all, without at the same time destroying the vast denominational system [31] that, in spite of its defects, had "done the great service of rearing a race of teachers, spreading schools, setting up a standard of education, and generally making the introduction of a national system possible." The way in which these "vested interests" were cared for was typically English, and characteristic of the strong sense of obligation of the English people. In 1870 a compromise law was proposed and carried. Mr. Gladstone, then Prime Minister, stated the attitude of the Government in framing the new law, when he said: [32]
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 consistently taken up by some members of the House, who look upon these voluntary schools, having generally a denominational 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…. That has never been the theory of the Government…. When we are approaching this great work, which we desire to make complete, we ought to have a sentiment of thankfulness that so much has been done for us.
[Illustration: FIG. 194. WORK OF THE SCHOOL BOARDS IN PROVIDING SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS London taken as a type. Note the deficiency in school accommodation in 1838, that the voluntary schools made no appreciable gain on this deficiency up to 1870, the attempt to cope with the situation between 1871 and 1874, and the long pull of the new Board schools necessary to provide sufficient schools and seats.]
Accordingly the Elementary Education Bill of 1870 (R. 304) preserved the existing Voluntary Schools; divided the country up into school districts; gave the denominations a short period in which to provide schools, with aid for buildings; [33] and thereafter, in any place where a deficiency in school accommodations could be shown to exist; School Boards were to be elected, and they should have power to levy taxes and maintain elementary schools. Existing Voluntary Schools might be transferred to the School Boards, whose schools were to be known as Board Schools. The schools were not ordered made free, but the fees of necessitous children were to be provided for by the School Boards, and they might compel the attendance of all children between the ages of five and twelve. Inspection and grants were limited to secular subjects, though religious teaching was not forbidden. The central government was to be secular and neutral; the local boards might decide as they saw fit. Such were the beginnings of national education in England. That the new Board Schools met a real need, especially in the cities, is shown by the chart on the preceding page, giving the results in London.
IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL SYSTEM
PROGRESS UNDER THE LAW OF 1870. Beginning in 1871 the Board Schools had, by 1893, come to enroll 41 per cent of the pupils in elementary schools in England, as against 44 per cent in Voluntary Schools, and by 1903 the proportions were 49 per cent to 39 per cent. By 1902 the government grants for maintenance had reached, for all schools, £8,000,000 a year, and the Board Schools were rapidly outrunning the Voluntary Schools both in numbers and in per-capita expenditures. The Board Schools had made their greatest headway in the cities. In 1895 there were still some 11,000 small parishes which had no Board Schools, and in consequence paid no direct taxes for schools. Of these, 8000 had only Church-of-England Voluntary Schools.
In 1880 elementary education had been made fully compulsory, and in 1891 largely free. In 1893 the age for exemption from attendance was fixed at eleven, and in 1899 this was raised to twelve. In 1888 county and borough councils had been created, better to enforce the Act and to extend supervision. The Annual Codes, from 1870 to 1902, gradually extended governmental control through more and more detailed instructions as to inspection, the addition of new subjects, and better compulsion to attend. In 1899 a Central Board of Education, under a President and a Parliamentary Secretary, was created, to consolidate in one body the work formerly done by:
a. The Committee of Council on Education (established 1839), which administered the grants for elementary education.
b. The Department of Science and Art (established 1853), which
administered the grants for special and evening instruction in
science and art.