be required to pay a certain sum for the schooling of such children; and that they should be allowed to choose what school it should be. But he soon despaired of seeing his idea carried into effect, and acknowledged that the course of public opinion seemed to tend away from the principle of compulsion rather than towards it.

Our own judgment was necessarily emphatic. All else apart, the practical difficulties were at that time unsurmountable. The existing schools belonged to private managers, and we had not in contemplation the provision of schools of any other kind. In our view, if there was to be compulsion it must be on logical lines, and if the Government adopted such a measure the consequences were inevitable. Not only would it devolve upon the State to supply an adequate number of schools, but there would rest upon it in the last resort the obligation to pay the fees of the scholars. So we determined to hold our peace. The very stones would have cried out twenty-seven years ago at the mention of national education, universal, compulsory, free.

Such was the contribution to the educational progress of the nation in which it was my very great privilege to share. To this generation it must, of course, appear meagre and timid, and if at the time there were some who similarly regarded it, the same answer holds good. We went as far, in some respects farther, than public opinion permitted or called us.

Those of us whose hopes were more buoyant yielded to circumstances and contented ourselves with cherishing an ideal which might some day come to realisation. The result was an unanimous report.

One early consequence was the Revised Code issued in 1864 by Mr. Lowe, the Vice-President of the Council. This abolished the capitation grants, and substituted the system of payment by results. But the less obvious effect was a gradual awakening of general interest in the whole question of elementary education.

I took no very active part in the controversies which preceded Mr. Forster's measure of 1870. To a large extent they seemed to me meaningless and unworthy. The Church made its old mistakes, and the Nonconformists showed themselves apt imitators. Neither side realised the difference between the possible and the impossible, and happily neither side Justice won, and the cause of the children won. It is waste of words to praise Mr. Forster. That is done now-a-days by those who because they were narrow and suspicious and half-hearted themselves, thought then that he was the same.

won.

The City of London handsomely returned me at the head of the poll and at no expense to myself, as one of its representatives to the first London School Board. Lord Lawrence was chosen chairman, and the members were a very representative body of men.

I took an active share in the proceedings of the Board until such time as it became necessary for me to consider my position. I was overdoing things, and I had to choose what to give up. After a good deal of consideration, I came to the conclusion that the work of the School Board was not that which lay nearest to my hand, and in November 1871 I resigned my seat. My colleagues were good enough to unanimously ask me to reconsider my resolve, but I did not see my way to do so, and therefore made my bow.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MIDDLE CLASS SCHOOLS.

The

Ar Bishopsgate, as I have already said, there were not the same local calls to concern myself about elementary education that I had found at St. Thomas Charterhouse. I was thus free to turn my attention to a neglected department of scholastic effort. success of the Upper Boys' School in Goswell Street pointed to the necessity for some more ambitious undertaking of a similar kind. Much had been done for the children of the poor, and it could not be long before more would follow. But what about those whose parents touched a higher social stratum, clerks, for instance, and tradesmen with moderate resources? I had long had grave misgivings as to the conditions under which they were being instructed. The work of the College of Preceptors was in its infancy, and the Local Examinations of the two Universities had not begun. London swarmed with "academies," "seminaries," "commercial schools," and "colleges for the sons of gentlemen;" and, though some of them

were doing useful work, they were, taken generally, anything but efficient institutions.

I knew this and dreamed a dream. It took the shape of an organised scheme of middle-class education, and, for the money, my longing eyes were fixed upon the parochial charities of the City. It was rapidly becoming impossible to apply these funds to their original purposes. The residential population of the City was gradually decreasing, and the supplicants for coal and bread and flannel petticoats were either dying off or emigrating to the suburbs. Many of the trusts, too, existed for objects which had become useless, obsolete or, in some cases, pernicious. Why, with the consent of those who administered them, should they not be turned to wiser and worthier ends, and, as one, what better direction could be indicated than the promotion of education? That was my dream, and I did not at the time consider it too bold a one.

In October 1865 I took upon myself to issue a circular setting forth these views. My exact proposal was that the City parishes should combine in the establishment of a day school for the children of parents who could not afford to pay more than, say, £1 per quarter for their education. I suggested that the surplus charity funds should contribute towards the cost of its erection, the trustees of contributing parishes being represented on the Board of Management, and that the children of persons who either resided or