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5,000 singers, there was an enormous crowd of other children 

 and their parents, the total number, said the President of the 

 Board, was over 30,000. The Crystal Palace Company gave 

 free admission to the children. Tom. Hughes, the President of 

 the Company, made a Speech of cordial welcome to all, and 

 congratulated and commended the School Board that had 

 already accomplished so noble a work. The main speech was 

 given by Lord Sanden, a single sentence of which indicates 

 the moral influence already exerted by the London schools. 

 " When we think of the future of the children before us and 

 of the various lots in life which will become theirs, it is im- 

 possible not to be deeply affected, or to look at these children 

 without being grateful to Sir Charles Reed and his colleagues, 

 for bringing these children into school, who might otherwise 

 have been left in the streets, a plague to their parents and a 

 danger hereafter to the State." Similar facts might be given 

 as to the good influence of compulsory education in many 

 other cities of England, and especially in Birmingham, the 

 head-quarters of the National Educational League, — an associa- 

 tion embracing such men as George Dixon, M. P., and Br. 

 R. W. Dale, — which has been active and influential in the 

 advocacy of educational reforms. Visiting most of the schools 

 of that city last summer, I gained ample proofs of the good 

 effects of obligatory instruction, as there rigidly applied. 



A striking conversion occurred in the case of the late Canon 

 Kingsley. Though he long took a lively interest in the im- 

 provement of the working classes, an interest deepened by his 

 service as government inspector of schools, he at first opposed 

 obligatory education as un-English and offensive to the inde- 

 pendent spirit of his countrymen. On finding that the working 

 people favored compulsory attendance, his objections vanished. 



A still more remarkable change has occurred in the views of 

 Mr. Forster, the father of the Educational Act of 1870. He 

 then opposed all efforts to make compulsion universal. Per- 

 mission only was given to local Boards to adopt coercion. 

 Though convinced of the justness of this measure, he argued 

 that the people are not prepared for it, and that outcries of 

 "un-English," "arbitrary," ''tyrannical," "invasion of one's 

 home," "usurpation of parental rights," and all the easy clap- 



