On the other hand the act of 1902 met with the most violent antagonism from the enemies of the voluntary school system. It was urged with good reason that complete maintenance from the public funds should be accompanied by full public control, that no denomination should be allowed to have instruction in its tenets given at the public cost, and that in any parish where there is only one school, the chil dren of the minority, who have no alternative but to attend it, are liable to suffer from a stigma attached to the exercise of the conscience clause. Nonconformist teachers moreover found it difficult to obtain engagements in church schools or places in training colleges of which very few are undenominational. The Church party on the other hand were not un reasonably unwilling to allow only undenomina tional religious instruction to be given in schools which they had built, largely at their own expense, for denominational instruction, and claimed a right to have such instruction for their children.
A complex Education Bill passed the House of Commons in 1906, but fell through. Another, in 1908, went no further than a second read ing. In 1914 there was approximately one cer tificated teacher to every 49 scholars in England and to every 60 in Wales. Important changes have been made since 1911 in the training of teachers. There were 13,093 training colleges in England and Wales in 1916. In 1914 pro vision was made for feeding poor children in addition to educating them. During the first year 39,596,018 meals were supplied to 421,975 children. All pupils undergo medical inspec tion. The total expenditure on elementary education in England and Wales for 1913-14 amounted to $71,843,970, for 21,498 schools with an average attendance of 5,420,000 scholars.
English Secondary Education.— The best defense of English secondary schools at any rate during the past century, is that they have successfully educated a large number of men of high character and ability who have served the nation well in political and administrative life, not only in England, but all over the world. There was, however, till recent years, nothing that could be called a system. Each school utilized or abused its endowments and its opportunities, and the abuses were very slowly revealed by the inquiry of royal com missions, and still more slowly corrected. Al though inquiries began in 1818 under Broug ham, it was only in the ((sixties" that the reports of the commissions on the great ((Public Schools" (nine in number) and on the endowed schools led to two acts of reform, the Public Schools and the Endowed Sc:iools Acts, and under these most of the abuses of endowments have been brought to an end.
But in the leading English 'Public Schools' (i.e., the leading secondary schools for boys, and principally for boarders), a considerable measure of reform had come in early days from within. The twin names of Arnold and Rugby are best known, but the Rugby reform was in part inspired by Winchester, and great names are not •wanting to Eton and Harrow which with the many glaring defects they pos sessed at that period were relatively efficient.
From Arnold and his successors, Temple and Percival, influence radiated and few schools failed to become different, whether by attrac tion or repulsion. Thring at Uppingham, Vaughan at Harrow, Cotton and Bradley at Marlborough, Bradley at Haileybury, were mighty instruments in "changing the face of education all through the public schools of England.' Not only have science and modern languages been introduced, as well as opportunities for the arts and manual instruction, but the teach ing of Greek and Latin has to a great extent been remodeled. Physical development, which was always encouraged in those schools by games, has been pushed to a degree which now makes against intellectual interests. Nearly all the so-called first grade schools are boarding schools, and consequently the corporate life gives far greater scope to the influence of mas ters and of boys, and thus to education in the widest sense, than is possible in day schools. For good or evil, the effects are more marked, and on the credit side must be set that inde pendence and self-reliance which the best schools produce.
The first chief influence of modern science on the schools' curricula came from a government department founded in 1836 as a school of design. In 1853 this was reconsti tuted as the department of science and art, largely by the influence of Prince Albert, and partly as a consequence of the first international exhibition held in London in 1851. This de partment began to hold examinations and make grants for teaching of science and art, and ulti mately extended its subsidies to schools recog nized by it as "Organized Science Schools,' in which regular courses of instruction in science were given. In 1900 the new board of education absorbed the department of science and art, and also the education department dealing with elementary schools. It thus be came the sole central authority, and in 1901 be gan to give grants to approved secondary day schools with regular courses. It has also in connection with these grants developed a very full and valuable system of inspection con ducted by its own staff. In 1902, as already mentioned, the county and country boroughs became education authorities, the minor locali ties possessing only concurrent jurisdiction with the counties in higher education. Since 1902 these authorities almost without exception have made considerable annual grants to the second ary schools in their areas, and a marked im provement is already visible in the efficiency of the schools, and the length of attendance of the pupils. These grants of course are given almost entirely to the smaller schools. The endow ments and fees of the first grade "Public Schools' render them independent of such as sistance and consequently of the board of edu cation. In 1914 there were 910 grant-aided schools, all free to children from the public elementary schools.