The new type of workingman population thus created became a new political force, which demanded and received recognition in legislation. In the second place, women and children were employed in the factories in large numbers under the worst possible conditions of housing and sanitation, thus creating new social problems quite different from those of the period of domestic industries and handicrafts.

Parliament regulated education of factory children, 1802. It was these new conditions of child labor which called for the first Parliamentary or national action for compulsory education. This was an "Act for the Preservation of the Health and Morals of Apprentices and Others, employed in Cotton and Other Mills, and Cotton and Other Factories," passed by Parliament in 1802. This act included such requirements as the following: Where three or more apprentices were employed in a mill, the mill rooms should be ventilated. The rooms should be whitewashed twice a year. An apprentice should not work more than twelve hours a day, or between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M. Male and female apprentices should sleep in separate rooms. Instruction should be provided in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in the principles of religion.

The conditions of the act seem very mild indeed, yet the next year petition after petition was presented to Parliament, both from manufacturers and workingmen, praying for the repeal of the act as injurious and oppressive to the cotton trade. Such protests indicate the low state of public opinion. While some efforts were made to enforce the act, it was generally ineffective.

Defeat of first Parliamentary bill for public schools, 1807. Agitation until 1870.- The act for the education of apprentices was for only one class of children and made no provisions for public schools. In 1807 a bill was considered in Parliament to authorize the local authorities of any township or parish to maintain schools for educating the poor. The bill passed the House of Commons but was defeated in the

House of Lords largely because, as asserted by an opponent, it departed "from the great principle of instruction in this country by taking it out of the superintendence and control of the clergy." From the defeat of this bill until 1876 there was a period of energetic agitation and education of public opinion in favor of compulsory secular education. The whole struggle was characterized by intense sectarian jealousy and bitter criticism. In the earlier stages of the agitation the nonconformists (Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists), or dissenters from the Established Church, were in favor of a secular state system of elementary education. But most of the measures which Parliament passed were distorted by the influence of the Established Church so as to favor its schools especially. As a consequence even the dissenters became suspicious of state interference in educational affairs.

Fight for secular schools by associations in large cities. — The battle for secular schools during the middle of the century was fought primarily by associations organized in some of the new manufacturing towns such as Manchester and Birmingham. Two of these were especially influential. The first was the Lancashire Public School Association, organized in Manchester in 1847. This organization began as a committee which issued an address called "A plan for the Establishment of a General System of Secular Education in the County of Lancaster." In a few years the organization changed its name to The National Public School Association, having as its object to promote the establishment by law in England and Wales of a system of free schools; which, supported by local rates [taxes] and managed by local committees, specially elected for that purpose by the rate-payers, shall impart secular instruction only, leaving to parents, guardians and religious teachers the inculcation of religion. (2: 152.)

This movement secured the support of the leading Liberal politicians of the country, and Manchester continued to be the center of the agitation until Parliament created public-school boards in 1870.

The second public-school association, known as The League, was organized in Birmingham in 1869, as a result of the study of the educational needs of that city. The League adopted a constitution similar to that of the Manchester organization and continued a nation-wide agitation until 1876, when Parliament passed an act instituting general compulsory education.

Parliamentary acts in the direction of secular schools, 1833, 1839, 1870. The important Parliamentary acts by which a national secular system of schools, partially supported by local taxation, was gradually approximated, are the following:

Funds voted for the erection of schoolhouses (1833). — In 1833 the House of Commons voted £20,000 to be spent by the two voluntary societies (British and Foreign and the National) in the erection of schoolhouses. This act is significant in establishing the principle of national aid to elementary education. It did not require the assent of the House of Lords inasmuch as the House of Commons is supreme in matters of public expenditure. It was pernicious as it initiated the practice of paying public funds to private corporations, thus creating vested interests which later opposed the development of purely public schools. After 1833 this grant was made annually. After 1846 government funds were granted for the maintenance of schools as well as for the erection of schoolhouses.

State supervision of elementary education begun (1839).– In 1839 Queen Victoria appointed a committee of the privy council on education, to administer the expenditure of the money voted by the House of Commons. This was another step which did not require the assent of the conservative, obstructionist House of Lords. The latter, however, protested to the queen, but without avail. This act is significant in establishing state supervision of elementary education, and thus represents a definite weakening of the ecclesiastical control. The Committee of the Council decided that any school,

to share in the state funds, should be continually open to inspection by the government, and should come up to the standard which it set.

Parliament authorized local school boards and school taxes (1870). — Up to 1870 the principle upon which the government had proceeded was that of state aid to voluntary educational agencies. In 1870 we find the culmination of the efforts of the secular-school agitation, in the establishment of elementary schools on the new principle of local public control and public support. The bill passed by Parliament in 1870 provided that in cases where the national department of education considered that the accommodations in existing elementary schools in any locality were insufficient, it might order the election of a local school board. Such school boards were required to maintain sufficient elementary-school accommodations and were empowered to levy local taxes for this purpose.

The schools were not permitted to be free, however, all children (except indigents) being required to pay fees. No religious catechism or religious formulary distinctive of any particular denomination was to be taught in the board schools. Any school board could make by-laws requiring the attendance of all children between the ages of five and thirteen, but no provision was made for compulsory attendance in districts where no school board existed.

By the law of 1870 "three principles were carried into effect for the first time in English public education—a compulsory local rate (tax), a representative local authority, and the compulsory attendance of children at school."

Another phase of secularization besides the elimination of sectarian instruction from board schools, which was contained in the law of 1870, related to reading the Bible in the schools.

Until 1870 no public elementary school which did not include the reading of the Bible daily among the subjects taught, could earn a government grant; now, although the Bible was habitually read in nearly all board schools, a purely secular school might earn the grant without any question arising.

On the other hand, the voluntary schools continued to give denominational instruction while enjoying government funds. On this account or because of other similar survivals the struggle for the complete secularization of schools sharing public funds has continued down to the present day.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

1. MONTMORENCY, J. E. G. DE. State Intervention in English Education, a Short History from the Earliest Times down to 1833. (Cambridge University Press, The Macmillan Company, 1903.)

1a. MONTMORENCY, J. E. G. DE. Progress of Education in England (to 1904). (Knight & Company, London, 1904.) Continues No. 1. For a brief study of the secularizing tendencies in English schools, these are the best accessible books (1 and I a).

2. ADAMS, F. History of the Elementary School Contest in England. (Chapman and Hall, London, 1882.) As good as No. 1, but harder to secure.

3. Balfour, G. The Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland. (Clarendon Press, Oxford.) Chap. i. An authoritative and easily obtained account of the actual governmental enactments.

4. CUBBERLEY, E. P. Syllabus of Lectures on the History of Education. (The Macmillan Company, second edition, 1904.) Chap. xl, pp. 315-329. A most helpful outline of the whole development, with dates and tables.

5. GREENOUGH, J. C. Evolution of the Elementary Schools of Great Britain. (D. Appleton and Company, 1903.) Chaps. i and ii. Brief sketch of nineteenth-century development.

6. HOLMAN, H. English National Education. (London, 1898.)

7. MONROE, P. Cyclopedia of Education. (The Macmillan Company, now being issued, 1912.) Contains numerous valuable articles on English education by Montmorency, Leach, and Watson.