Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/392

372 teaching the unhappy young of these days—so unlike the honoured band of teachers who are doing some of the finest work in our land to-day. Look at a boys' school in 1869, the year before the great Education Act, which followed the Reform Act and formed a turning-point in the educational system of our country. In a small, low room, in a back court, there were forty-four boys of ages varying from four to fourteen. In the middle sat the master, a kindly man, but a hopeless cripple, whose lower limbs appeared to be paralysed and who was unable to stand up. The boys formed a dense mass round him, swaying irregularly backwards and forwards, while he was feebly protesting against the noise. In a corner the wife was sitting "minding" the six or eight youngest children. The reading, entirely from the Bible, was bad and inarticulate; no boy could explain the simplest words, and the master said he was not accustomed to ask questions. Only two boys could do an addition sum. The object of the schoolmaster was not to get the boys on too quickly, for as soon as the children knew a little, they were removed and the school pence stopped. Hitherto the State had aided existing schools, but no new schools had been provided; the initiative taken by voluntary