. VOL THE EDUCATION BILL OF 1906 AND THE FUTURE OF POPULAR EDUCATION. By the Right Hon. Lord Stanley of Alderley ENTENTE-ENGLISH OR GERMAN? By Alfred Naquet THE POPE AND FRANCE. By Wilfrid Ward AFGHANISTAN AND ITS RULER. By Ameer Ali THE EDUCATION OF INDIAN PRINCES. By H.H. the Raja I Rajgan of THE EVOLUTION OF THE INCOME TAX. By George McCrae THE CURSE OF MACHINERY. By Reginald Newton Weekes GIOTTO IN MODERN LIFE. By Basil de Sélincourt AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. By John C. Medà DIVORCE IN THE UNITED STATES. By G. Willett Van Nest MILTON'S 'DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE.' By C. B. Wheeler 'LA JEUNE CAPTIVE.' By Dominick Daly THE SPECTATOR EXPERIMENTAL COMPANY. By Lieut.-Colonel Alsager (6) By Sir John Wolfe Barry THE DECAY OF MANNERS.' By Adolphus Vane Tempest Barrie THE TRAGEDY OF THE 'Ex.' By Mrs. John Lane Hon. Lord Burghclere THE EMPLOYMENT OF MERCENARIES. By Walter Copland Perry UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING AS A PRACTICABLE SCHEME. By the THE BRITISH FLEET AND THE BALANCE OF SEA POWER. By Archibald S. Hurd WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR LAND? By the Lady Saltoun. THE BIRTH-RATE AND THE MOTHER. By Mrs. Alfred N. Macfadyen ENGLISH ORAL TRADITION. By the Rev. G. Monroe Royce MACBETH ON THE STAGE. By Walter Herries Pollock THE NEW SITUATION IN GERMANY. By Karl Blind WOMEN AND POLITICS: A REPLY. By Eva Gore-Booth THE DANCE AND THE PLASTIC ARTS IN ANCIENT GREECE. By Marcelle THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: A PLEA FOR REFORM. By the Earl of THE KING'S SPEECH. By Herbert Paul : EGYPT TO-DAY. By Sir Auckland Colvin MR. HALDANE'S DREAM OF A NATIONAL' ARMY. By Colonel the Earl THE EVIL OF IGNORING MINORITIES. By the Right Hon. Lord A COLONIAL STUDY OF LONDON CIVILISATION SOME LONDON CHILDREN AT PLAY. By Rose M. Bradley CHILDREN'S COMPETITIONS. By Eva M. Martin . A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY FEMINISTE. By Mrs. W. Kemp-Welch. M. CLEMENCEAU AS WRITER AND PHILOSOPHER. A PLEA FOR THE POPULAR IN LITERATURE. By J. A. Spender A RIDE THROUGH BOSNIA AND THE HERCEGOVINA. By Lady Thompson 685 THE PROBLEM OF EMPIRE. By the Hon. Sir Charles Tupper WILL THE BRITISH EMPIRE STAND OR FALL? By J. Ellis Barker OUR BROTHERS, THE BEASTS. By Lady Archibald Campbell PLAYING AT SOLDIERS. By E. N. Bennett THE ANGELIC COUNCIL.' By the Rev. Dr. A. Smythe Palmer RELIGION AND THE CHILD. By Havelock Ellis THE EDUCATIONAL LADDER. By Katharine Bathurst THE FEMALE PRISONER. By Captain Vernon Harris THE FIRMNESS OF CONSOLS. By Hartley Withers IDLE READING. By Herbert Paul THE PEARL FISHERY OF CEYLON. By Somers Somerset AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS. By the Rev. Alfred J. Church PAN-ISLAMISM By Behdjet Wahby Bey THE UNREST IN INDIA-ITS MEANING. By Ameer Ali THE WHITE FLAG' IN JAMAICA. By Ian Malcolm ARE CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA A FAILURE ? By the Right Rev. INDIAN ADMINISTRATION AND SWADESHI.' By E. B. Havell THE KING OF SIAM AND HIS COUNTRY. By Frederick Verney . THE CAPTURE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY AT SEA. By Julian S. Corbett . REVIEWERS AND REVIEWED: THE NEW CULTURE. By A. G. Hyde THE EDUCATION BILL OF 1906 AND THE FUTURE OF POPULAR EDUCATION THE Education Bill is gone. After a stormy voyage, and after the jettison of many valuable provisions, it has foundered in sight of the port in which its battered hull and damaged cargo might have found shelter. There were two main principles in the Bill which were nominally accepted by all: (1) Universal public management; (2) The abolition of tests for teachers. But, as is not uncommon in English legislation, these principles were not fully carried out even in the Government scheme, and they were further assailed by various sections of the Opposition. Those who listened to the long debates must have sometimes got a little tired of professions like those of the Archbishop of Canterbury that he would not favour any wrecking amendments, and they must have smiled at the latest attempt of Lord Lansdowne to count up the number of Opposition amendments and those proposed by Lord Crewe, and then to suggest that the Government alterations were VOL. LXI-No. 359 1 B more extensive than those of the Opposition. A well-directed thrust through the body is more fatal than a conspicuous rent in the outer garments. 'Tis not as deep as a well nor as wide as a church door, but it will serve. Before we consider what is the best course of action for the Liberal party in future, let us briefly sum up what led to the dead Bill and what that dead Bill would have done. There is no need to dwell upon relatively ancient history. Everyone knows that from the first beginning of State aid to education down to the Act of 1870 popular education was almost entirely in the hands of the Established Church, which not only opposed with all its great political and social force the establishment of a system publicly maintained and publicly managed, but strove, while accepting State aid, to keep State interference within the narrowest limits. The Act of 1870, by introducing the new force of the elected School Board supported by the rates, introduced that which was bound gradually to supersede the old privately managed system under ecclesiastical control. The Voluntary schools were allowed to subsist and to obtain increased Government grants, on condition that one-half their income should be derived from local effort. It is not necessary to recapitulate how this obligation was systematically evaded and weakened, even to such an extent as to reckon Parliamentary grants paid by the Science and Art department as contributions which should be accepted as filling up the gap and as preventing the diminution of the ordinary Parliamentary grant. The Statute book from 1870 down to 1902 is full of enactments one after another diminishing or removing the obligations which Mr. Gladstone laid down as essential to his scheme of continued recognition and Parliamentary aid, and, in addition, the Board of Education has systematically administered the Acts in a manner as sympathetic as possible to the Voluntary system, straining the law and the administration of the code where they might press hardly on Voluntary schools. Nevertheless the time came when, in spite of all these alleviations, the denominations, and especially the Established Church, found it impossible to maintain the struggle, and advantage was taken in 1902 of an exceptional majority won at an election where the Conservative party appealed on patriotic grounds for an exceptional and non-party support. The result was the Education Act of 1902, making the maintenance of all schools a charge upon the rates, while leaving the effective management in the hands of bodies two-thirds of whom were the successors of the old denominational managers. The one material duty left to private effort was that of main |