THE STORY OF ENGLISH EDUCATION. 347 



attainment.' The schools were bound by a conscience clause and 

 had to be open to government inspectors, who could report whether 

 the conditions laid down by the central authority as precedent to a 

 grant had been complied with. This new system comprised two kinds 

 of schools — the schools supported by voluntary subscriptions, which 

 were in existence at the date of the passing of the act, and board schools. 

 These latter schools came into existence in districts where there was 

 InsuflBcient voluntary school accommodation and where in consequence 

 the rate payers had elected a school board. This board erected, at the 

 expense of the rate payers, schools sufficient to supply the wants of the 

 district, and these schools were maintained out of the rates, central 

 grants and school fees. In the board schools, in addition to the con- 

 science clause in use in voluntary schools, the Cowper-Temple clause 

 of the act of 1870 enforced the rule that *no religious catechism or 

 religious formulary which is distinctive of any particular denomina- 

 tion shall be taught in the school. ' Thus the effect of the act of 1870 

 was to place side by side two great school systems — a denominational 

 system, the schools of which had for the most part been built and 

 were maintained by voluntary subscriptions, to some extent supple- 

 mented by grants — and an undenominational rate-supported system 

 independent of voluntary subscriptions. The passage of years saw the 

 rapid increase and development of both systems. The act of 1870 

 gave the various school boards power to compel parents by by-laws to 

 send children to school between the ages of five and thirteen years, 

 but it was not until 1876 that the legislature created the universal 

 parental duty of causing all children to 'receive sufficient elementary 

 instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic' This was followed 

 in 1891 by an act granting to practically all the public elementary 

 schools a fee-grant in lieu of the fees hitherto paid by the parents. 

 This important step of creating free elementary education was an 

 almost necessary corollary of the institution of compulsory education, 

 and it was essential for the reason that those children who most needed 

 school life were the offspring of the most needy parents. The result 

 of these various acts was to create vast school board systems in London 

 and the great towns which in certain areas crushed the voluntary schools 

 out of existence. The standard imposed by the Education Department 

 rapidly rose, and the number of subjects taught greatly increased. 

 Gradually the great school boards endeavored, by the creation of what 

 were known as higher elementary schools, to bring secondary educa- 

 tion within their control and to supply this education out of the rates 

 in competition with the newly-efficient endowed secondary schools of 

 their districts. In 1901, in the famous case of Cockerton, it was 

 held that this was illegal, and it became necessary at once to create by 

 statute a national system that should control and develop both primary 

 and secondary education. The school board system, while it had been 



