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trap of demagogues, would create a reaction, and therefore he 

 did not ask for a general compulsory law. It was said, no 

 matter what can be done in Prussia, or even in Switzerland, 

 the people of England have too much independence, too much 

 aversion to any semblance of tyranny, ever to submit to com- 

 pulsory education. Mr. Forster now admits that he had no 

 expectation that the town population would, to so great an 

 extent, adopt the principle of compulsory education. Every 

 town in England with 20,000 inhabitants, which has a School 

 Board, has adopted it. The permissive provision for local 

 compulsion was ingrafted in this bill with little faith that it 

 would be ratified and applied in any of the large towns. But 

 the people have surprised Parliament. In March last Mr. 

 Forster said in the House of Commons : " Almost the entire 

 town population of England is now under compulsory educa- 

 tion. And there is no sign of reaction. If compulsion had 

 worked with hardship on the people, nothing was so easy as 

 to revert to the former state of things. If a motion were now 

 made antagonistic to this principle of compulsion, it would not 

 have a single supporter in the School Boards of London^ Manches- 

 ter^ Birmingham^ or any other large town. The school attend- 

 ance in those towns where it has been made compulsory, has 

 been improved 80 per cent. Leeds, for example, had almost 

 solved the problem of getting hold of all the children. The 

 attendance there has doubled by compulsion. The same has 

 been done at Sheffield. At Stockport they had increased the 

 average attendance until there were less than 2|- per cent, of 

 the children between 5 and 16 who were not at school, and 

 some of them were excusable on account of mental or physical 

 inability. The right to compel a father to feed and clothe his 

 child is admitted, and we have now arrived at a point of civili- 

 zation at which we can declare that it is his duty to see that he 

 is educated. The sole meaning of compulsion is that this is 

 the duty of every parent, and that it is the business of the 

 State to secure the performance of that duty, and if the parent 

 is disabled by poverty, then to help him from local rates or 

 imperial funds. It has been said, we must wait for public 

 opinion. Well, public opinion has declared itself, for every 

 town that by law was able to do so, has put the compulsory 



