40 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. I 



the view that the teaching in all subjects, secular or 

 sacred, should be periodically tested. 



On December 13, Huxley raised the question whether 

 the selection of books and apparatus should be referred to 

 his Committee or to the School Management Committee, 

 and on January 10 following, a small sub-committee for 

 that object was formed. Almost immediately after this 

 he retired from the Board. 



One more speech of his, which created a great 

 stir at the time, must be referred to, namely his 

 expression of undisguised hostility to the system of 

 education maintained by the Ultramontane section of 

 the Eoman Catholics. 1 In October the bye-laws came 

 up for consideration. One of them provided that 

 the Board should pay over direct to denominational 

 schools the fees for poor children. This he opposed 

 on the ground that it would lead to repeated contests 

 on the Board, and further, might be used as a tool by 

 the Ultramontanes for their own purposes. Believing 

 that their system as set forth in the syllabus, of 

 securing complete possession of the minds of those 

 whom they taught or controlled, was destructive to 

 all that was highest in the nature of mankind, and 

 inconsistent with intellectual and political liberty, he 

 considered it his earnest duty to oppose all measures 

 which would lead to assisting the Ultramontanes in 

 their purpose. 



Hereupon he was vehemently attacked, for example, 

 in the Times for his "injudicious and even repre- 

 hensible tone" which "aggravated the difficulties his 

 1 Cp. " Scientific Education," Coll. Ess. iii. p. 111. 



