It is at school that young England begins to learn to make genuflections before the Golden Calf. The best prizes awarded in the large public schools are prizes of money. These establishments grant exhibitions of from £40 to £100 a year, during four or five years, to the best of the pupils who leave them to go to the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge.
This scholarship system would be admirable if its object was to help the sons of poor[4] parents to continue their studies at the Universities; but such is not the case; these scholarships are constantly awarded, either through competitive examination, or through the personal interest of a governor, to sons of rich parents. And yet, these scholarships were founded by charitable persons, who bequeathed money to be applied to the education of the intelligent sons of poor parents. At present, the scholarships of the great schools of the City are at the disposal of the City Companies, who have monopolized them for their families and friends, for charity is organized on an immense scale in England, especially that well-ordered kind which begins at home.
The consequence of this state of things is that John Bull, that unsurpassed payer of taxes, is obliged to keep up Board schools in London at an enormous expense. If the great City schools fulfilled the purpose for which they were established by their "pious founders," school rates would be reduced by one-half.
"No money, no Englishman."
The Royal Academy is closed on Sundays; no free day.
The now annual exhibitions at South Kensington are closed on Sundays. No free entry during the week.
The Zoölogical Gardens are, as a matter of fact, open free on Sundays ... but only for the well-to-do classes, who may obtain special orders from the Fellows of the Zoölogical Society.
All the museums are closed on Sundays.
There is no place for the poor at the banquet of life in England. For them, beer and Bible, only.
They take beer.