To return to pi iinary instruction. In England there was no national system, properly so called before 1870, but voluntary efforts were largely aided by the state in the form of privy council grants. These grants were also extended to Scotland, as it became necessary to supplement the parochial schools there, owing to the increase of population. The principal conditions on which these grants were made were that they were only to gnpplentent local efforts, that the schools should pass a satisfactory examination before a government inspector, and that the Bible should be read in them. As much additional religious instruction might be given as the school managers pleased, but no schools were admitted to privy council aid from which the Bible was excluded. Under the stimulus afforded by these grants, the educational wants of England were, after 1S39, to at great extent supplied; but many districts were left unprovided with schools, and many more very badly supplied. In 1870 an important measure, entitled "An act to provide for public ele mentary education in England and Wales," was passed by parliament, according to which it is enacted that " there shall be provided for every school district a sufficient amount Of acconunodation in public elementary schools available for all the children resident in such district, for whose elementary education efficient and suitable provision is not other wise made." It is enacted further, that all children attending these schools whose
parents are unable, from poverty, to pay anything towards their education, shall he admitted free, and the expenses so incurred be discharged from local rates. The new schools are placed in each distAet under "school-boards" invested with great powers— among others, that of compelling parents to send their children to school. An act in most respects similar to the above was passed in 1872 for Scotland, whose educational wants had previously been well supplied.
In Ireland, a national system, instituted and maintained by the state, exists, and one of its main features is the separation of the religious from the secular teaching—at least in theory. The extent to which this principle has been encroached upon in the course of working out the scheme, is not accurately known, but is worthy of special inquiry.
In the British colonies, as in the U. S. of America. adequate state systems of eduea flan have been provided on the basis of the secular principle. See the articles NATIONAL EDUCATION, and PRIVY COUNCIL, COMMITTEE OF, ON EDUCATION.