GENERAL PRINCIPLES 23 



it was a mistake to abolish the fee-system 

 altogether. All that justice required was 

 to make ample provision for cases of 

 necessity. The education of children ought 

 to be a first charge on the parents a 

 necessary as much as food and clothing. 

 No one apparently at present is prepared 

 to propose universal free meals and free 

 clothes ; it is admitted that a distinc- 

 tion can be made between the deserving 

 and the undeserving, and it is generally 

 said that the parents are to be made 

 primarily responsible. It is a pity the 

 discovery was not made before. It is now 

 too late to go back on this part of the 

 educational system ; free education (at any 

 rate, elementary) has come to stay. But 

 in considering the equities in the readjust- 

 ment of local and national taxes, we ought 

 certainly to take account of the fact that 

 the benefit of the education taxes is directly 



