tion under Queen Supplementary Acts. CHAP. III. local activity with central supervision, and it asserted for the first time the constitutional right of the State to insist upon education for the young, in the same way as Victoria. through the poor-law system it had long asserted their claim to food and clothing. The Education Act of 1870 provided that the whole of the country should be divided into school districts, London forming one in itself, the boroughs another set, and the rural parishes the rest. Sufficient school accommodation was ordered to be provided in every district for all the resident children. Whenever the voluntary school supply was insufficient, school boards were to be created, with power to levy rates for the establishment and maintenance of schools, and at the same time to exercise by means of local byelaws the power to compel the attendance of children at school. The scope of instruction in the schools was enlarged. By supplementary legislation in 1873, 1874, and 1875, the curriculum was still further extended by the introduction of a list of specific or additional subjects beyond the class subjects, and by the allowance of grants on behalf of older children who were examined and passed in them. The Act passed under the auspices of Lord Sandon in 1876 gave to school attendance committees, in places where no school boards existed, the power to enforce attendance. It also embodied former factory acts, and made clearer the duty of parents to provide education for their children from six to fourteen, unless before that age they should have succeeded in passing the standard for exemption provided by the local authority. In 1880, when Mr. Mundella was at the head of the Education Department, an Act was passed superseding the optional compulsion provided by Mr. Forster's Act and the indirect compulsion of Lord Sandon's Act, and enforcing on the school authority in every district the obligation to make byelaws to compel attendance. Further important educational changes were made in the Code sanctioned by Parliament in 1882. With regard to infant schools, in addition to the reading, writing, and arithmetical tests, provision was made for a regular Legislation under Queen course of object lessons on the phenomena of nature and CHAP. III. of common life, and also for those manual and other employments commonly known as kindergarten games and occupations. These changes have not only brightened Victoria. instruction for the young, but have considerably raised the standard of excellence. Among other changes effected by the Code of 1882, graduated grants were substituted for the fixed sums heretofore paid for instruction in such subjects as English grammar and composition, geography, history, and elementary science. in Scot Touching education in Scotland, as far back as 1696 a Education law was passed establishing a school in every parish in land. Scotland; but the great Church disruption of 1843 led to the establishment of the Free Church and the collapse of the parochial school system. Free Church and Establishment schools now existed side by side, but the result was by no means all that could be desired. Accordingly in 1872, two years after Mr. Forster's English Act, the Scottish Elementary Education Act was passed. It established a school board in every Scottish parish, which had the control of all parochial schools-high-schools and academies as well as elementary schools-and was likewise empowered to erect and maintain new schools, according to the needs of the population. Grants were given to all schools under school boards, except highclass public schools. Free elementary education now practically exists all over Scotland. The Scotch Code provides for the teaching of more advanced subjects than the English. A committee of the Privy Council, called the Scotch Education Department, is charged with the administration of the Scotch Education Act. land. National education in Ireland is administered by twenty Education commissioners, ten of whom are Protestants and ten Roman in IreCatholics, all being appointed by the Lord Lieutenant. They distribute the Government grants to vested or national schools; non-vested or private schools; model schools, in which young people are trained as teachers; agricultural national schools; technical schools; convent and monastery schools; and workhouse national schools. Any child CHAP. III. tion under Queen may be withdrawn from religious instruction of which its Legisla- parents or guardians do not approve. With regard to higher education, in 1879 the University Education Act Victoria. (Ireland) was passed. It provided for the dissolution of the Queen's University, founded in 1850, and for the foundation of the Royal University of Ireland, which received its charter in 1880. Financial legislation. V. FINANCE. The financial legislation of the reign has been of the fullest and most comprehensive character. The first important measure was the Budget of 1839, which adopted Rowland Hill's scheme for a penny postage. The change resulted in a temporary loss, but in the course of a few years vast benefits became apparent, both to the public and the revenue. The national finances were in a disastrous condition in 1841. The aggregate deficiency for five years now amounted to £7,500,000. Mr. Baring brought forward a well-considered Budget, which proposed to make up the deficiency by a modification of the duties on sugar and timber and an alteration of the duties on corn; but, on the motion to go into committee on the sugar duties, a debate ensued which lasted for eight nights, Ministers being defeated in the end by 317 to 281 votes. The great feature of Sir Robert Peel's Budget for come Tax. 1842 was the imposition of the income tax, which was fixed at sevenpence in the pound. He stated, however, that it was to be an exceptional tax, and limited in duration. A sweeping revision of the Customs tariff was effected, the duties being either repealed or diminished on no fewer than seven hundred and fifty articles. The In Bank The year 1844 was marked by the passing of Sir R. Peel's comprehensive Bank Charter Act. Notwithstanding the previous act of 1833, London continually suffered from a scarcity of bullion, and it was to relieve the pressure upon the Bank of England that the measure of 1844 was passed. It enacted that the Bank should not be allowed to issue more than £14,000,000 in notes, unless a corresponding amount of specie were retained. No new CHAP. III. tion under banks established after the measure became law were to issue their own notes, and the old banks were not to increase their issue. Joint-stock banks were in future to be allowed to accept bills of any amount or date, and the Victoria. right of suing or being sued was provided. The Scottish banks already issuing notes were permitted to continue the practice, provided that for every note issued above the average amount for the previous year a corresponding amount of specie should be kept in stock. A full statement of the accounts of the Bank of England was to be rendered week by week to the Government for publication. This act was the last important piece of legislation affecting the Bank of England, though the terms of the charter are subject to modification or revocation by Parliament at pleasure. Further duties were remitted by the Budget of this year, and a considerable annual saving was effected by the reduction of the Three-and-a-half Consols. In 1845 Sir R. Peel had a surplus of £5,000,000, but instead of repealing the income tax, which was continued for three years, he made large remissions in general taxation, taking four hundred and thirty articles out of the tariff of duties and reducing the sugar and other duties. The financial schemes of 1846, involving the repeal of the Corn Laws, have already been described. When Lord John Russell resigned office in February, Mr. 1852, after being defeated on the Militia Bill, Lord Derby Disraeli's finance. became Prime Minister, with Mr. Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer. A dissolution of Parliament occurred in July, and when the new House met in November the following was the estimated strength of parties:-Liberals, 315; Conservatives, 299; Peelites, 40. On December 8th Mr. Disraeli introduced his Budget. To meet the loss resulting from the remission of taxes and of duties on malt, tea, and sugar, he proposed to extend the income tax to funded property and salaries in Ireland and to extend and increase the house tax. A formidable opposition set in against the proposals, and on December 15th the resolution respecting the house tax was defeated by 305 to 286. Ministers thereupon resigned, and the Earl CHAP. III. of Aberdeen formed his Coalition Government, with Mr. Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Palmerston as Home Secretary, and Lord John Russell as Foreign Victoria. Secretary. Legislation under Queen Mr. Gladstone's Budget of 1853. Panic in 1857. The next great financial measure was Mr. Gladstone's Budget of 1853. It was his first statement, and it remains one of the most important Budgets on record. After a searching analysis of the income tax, whose inestimable value in case of war he clearly demonstrated, he went on to propose its retention for one year at sevenpence in the pound, with a gradual diminution, so that it should expire in 1860. The duties on a hundred and thirty-three articles were to be reduced, the soap tax to be completely abolished, the assessed taxes to be rearranged, and a succession duty to be imposed. The total amount of remissions was estimated at upwards of £5,000,000. Although the Budget was received with general satisfaction, and all its main features were adopted, Mr. Gladstone was defeated on one interesting point. In place of his motion to reduce the duty on advertisements to sixpence, an amendment for total repeal was carried against the Government by 200 to 169. Mr. Milner Gibson brought forward the resolution which substituted a cipher, 0, for the figure 6d., and the Speaker decided that there was nothing informal in the proceeding. Mr. Gladstone carried a scheme for the reduction of the National Debt, which worked successfully until the outbreak of the Crimean war. In 1854, in consequence of the war, he was obliged to double the income tax for a year, to readjust the sugar duties, increase the malt tax, and place a duty on Scotch and Irish whisky. In 1855 the last penny of the newspaper duty was repealed, and in 1857 the income tax was reduced to sevenpence in the pound by the then Chancellor, Sir G. Cornewall Lewis. In November 1857 a severe commercial panic spread over England. As in 1847, when similar conditions prevailed, the directors of the Bank of England appealed to the Government for authority to increase their issue |