Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/391

 1850.] Resignation of Sir Robert Peel to his Death. 377 made teaching inaccessible, and books and newspapers dear, and then said that power should always go with learning. Against these doctrines the Radicals have always protested, and from the time when Roebuck, in the first reformed Parliament, raised the plea for national education, a constant effort has been made on behalf of that object. The agitation thus carried on was brought into a complete and systematic form after the close of the free-trade struggle. In 1847 an association was formed in Manchester, which was after- wards converted into the "National Public School Associa- tion," the object of which was to promote the establishment by law in England and Wales of a system of free schools, supported by local rates and managed by elective local authorities, to give secular instruction only, leaving to parents, guardians, and religious teachers the inculcation of religion, to afford opportunities for which it was proposed that the schools should be closed at stated hours in each week. The movement originated with Mr. Samuel Lucas, Mr. Jacob Bright, Professor Hodgson, Mr. Alexander Ireland, Mr. George Wilson, and the Rev. W. McKerrow. It won the support of the best-known Liberal politicians in the country, and Mr. Cobden devoted a large part of his valuable life to secure its success.* On the 26th of February W. J. Fox moved in the House of Commons for leave to bring in a bill for national education founded mainly on the plan of the Public School Association, but leaving religious instruction an open question, and giving assistance to voluntary denominational schools for secular results. Leave was given, and the bill was ordered to be brought in by Fox, Henry, and Osborne. Between the intro- duction and the second reading an agitation on both sides was carried on, and the spirit of religious fanaticism was 152. Mr. Adams says of this movement, "It had the benefit of the experience and machinery of the Anti-Corn Law League. The Liberal press advocated it almost unanimously. . . . Manchester now became the centre from which, under various conditions, an agitation was maintained unceasingly until the passing of the Education Act of 1870."
 * Adams, "History of the Elementary School Contest in England," pp. 151,