[29] This was a development of the monitorial system of training, and was virtually an apprenticeship form of teacher-training.
[30] In 1885 the same liberty was extended to rural laborers. This added two million more voters, and gave England almost full manhood suffrage. Finally, in 1918, some five million women were added to the voting classes.
[31] Nearly two million children had been provided with school accommodations, three fourths of which had been done by those associated with the Church of England. In doing this the Church had spent some £6,270,000 on school buildings, and had raised some £8,500,000 in voluntary subscriptions for maintenance. The Government had also paid out some £6,500,000 in grants, since 1833. In 1870 it was estimated that 1,450,000 children were on the registers of the state-aided schools, while 1,500,000 children, between the ages of six and twelve, were unprovided for.
[32] Speech before the House of Commons, July 23, 1870.
[33] "The clergy of the National Society exhibited amazing energy and succeeded, according to their own account, in doing in twelve months what in the normal course of events would have taken twenty years. By the end of the year they had lodged claims for 2885 building grants, out of a total of 3342. They also set to work, without any governmental assistance, to enlarge their schools and so increased denominational accommodation enormously. The voluntary contributions in aid of this work have been estimated at over £3,000,000. At the same time the annual subscriptions doubled…. By 1886, over 3,000,000 places had been added, one-half of which were due to voluntary agencies, and Voluntary Schools were providing rather more than two-thirds of the school places in the country. In 1897 the proportion had fallen to three-fifths." (Birchenough, C., History of Elementary Education, pp. 138, 140.)
[34] These were the seven endowed secondary boarding schools—Winchester (1382), Eton (1440), Shrewsbury (1552), Westminster (1560), Rugby (1567), Harrow (1571), and Charterhouse (1611)—and the two endowed day schools,— Saint Paul's (1510) and Merchant Taylors' (1561).
[35] At least one hundred towns, the Report showed, with a population of five thousand or over had no endowed secondary school, and London, with a population then (1867) of over three million, had but twenty-six schools and less than three thousand pupils enrolled. All the new manufacturing cities were in even worse condition than London.
[36] The University of London was originally founded in 1836, and reorganized in 1900.
[37] The scientist Thomas Huxley was a London School Board member, and, speaking as such, he expressed the views of many when he said: "I conceive it to be our duty to make a ladder from the gutter to the university along which any child may climb."
[38] Royal (Bryce) Commission on Secondary Education, vol. I, p. 299. London, 1895.