HISTORY OF

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

CONTEST IN ENGLAND.

BY

FRANCIS ADAMS,

AUTHOR OF

"THE FREE SCHOOL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES."

CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED,

11, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.

INTRODUCTION.

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.

From the

Such a sketch necessarily fails to do justice to many who have taken part in the labour. 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 inaccessible, 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