[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sta,—The financial objections to Miss Helen Taylor's motion in favour of free schools, so forcibly set forth in the Spectator of July 18th, will make the ratepayer hesitate to accept the responsibility of five or six millions, now cheerfully paid by the friends of voluntary schools and by the parents of the children. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that the very raison d'être of Board Schools is their engagement to supply education to neglected areas of the population which the volun- tary schools had previously failed to reach. The London Board now tells us, "We have to a considerable extent, by the means of local rates, supplied the deficiency, but our hands are tied from doing more by reason of the extreme poverty of the lowest class." As, then, the children I speak of are, either culpably or involuntarily, thrown upon the State, compulsory education must almost of necessity be also free.. Now, need there be any objection to Miss Helen Taylor's proposal, if the principle of free education were limited to the most destitute class, provided that sufficient safeguards were devised against offering a temptation to others to escape the payment demanded at the existing schools I would suggest that they should be confined to the most degraded districts in our cities, where the popula- tion cannot, by their misfortune or their fault, possibly pay the school fee. I would distinguish them by a designation which would be distasteful to the better class of artisans and labourers; and I would, moreover, make them to a great extent schools of practical industry.
There are but two systems of free admission in harmony with our existing legislation,—the system I now advocate, of an in- ferior grade of school, or the system of levying a school-rate over the whole school district, in which all schools shall parti- cipate, in proportion to results which, upon the report of the inspector, have been fairly achieved. I fear that compulsory attendance, unless free, will be impossible, or, if possible, will inflict an intolerable hardship in the localities which, from their very condition, both voluntaryism and School Boards fail to penetrate—localities where crime and poverty are principally bred.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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