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The Unionist Coalition and Education, 1895–1902

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. E. B. Munson
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Extract

Historians have generally accepted the verdict that the 1902 Education Act was ‘among the two or three greatest constructive measures of the twentieth century’. Most have accepted likewise the interpretation laid down by the biographer of the Act's alleged author, Sir Robert Morant, that an educational crisis forced the Unionist government to begin thinking seriously about education. Their ineptitude, shown in attempts at legislation in 1900 and 1901, forced them to turn to the one man who could help, namely Morant, secretary to the vice president of the Board of Education, Sir John Gorst, and then to the president, the duke of Devonshire. Thus ‘Balfour, Hicks-Beach and Chamberlain had all to bow the knee to his [Morant's] ruthless tenacity in argument’, whilst Morant ‘had to show Balfour and the Cabinet how the policies of their party and their own inarticulate major premises inevitably led them to the 1902 Bill – as Morant was writing it’.

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Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , September 1977 , pp. 607 - 645
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 Ensor, R. C. K., England 1870–1914 (Oxford, 1966), p. 255.Google Scholar Hereinafter all books cited, unless noted otherwise, were published in London. The writer wishes to thank Dr R. F. Mullen for his help in the writing of this article.

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6 Anon [Webb, Sidney], ‘The education muddle and the way out’ (1901), p. 9 (Fabian tract no. 106). Of 317 county and non-county boroughs, 118 had no Board (Board of Education memorandum, n.d., P.R.O. ED/24/20/185e).Google Scholar

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14 Peek, Francis, ‘Elementary education and taxation’, Contemporary Review, LXXIII (1897), 257.Google ScholarThe Schoolmaster declared on 28 Dec. 1901 that ‘The smaller middle class and professional man who has cheerfully paid the School Board rate… has an irresistible claim on the community to help him to secure cheap effective Secondary Education for his children.’

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21 Acland, C. T. D., ‘County councils and rural education’, Nineteenth Century, XL (1896), 598. Of the 2,563 Boards which were abolished on 1 April 1903, 1,369 (or 54%) had been created by order of the Education Department after the local area (in most cases a rural area) had refused to act.Google Scholar

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25 Parl. Papers, ‘Royal Commission on Secondary Education’, vol. 1, pp. 120–1.

26 The Spectator, 11 May 1901.

27 Campbell-Bannerman to Bryce, 23 Sept. 1902, Bryce MSS, Bodleian Library, Oxford, UB32, nofo. For Grey's position see his letter to A. H. D. Acland,4 Nov. igoi.Acland MSS, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Eng. Lett. d. 81, fos. 111–12. The same collection contains a letter from Asquith of 30 Oct. 1901 (fos. 107–8) which shows his apprehension concerning the idea of one local educational authority.

28 Martin, J. W., ‘State education at home and abroad’, passim; Webb, ‘The education muddle…’, pp. 8, 9.Google Scholar

29 Sadler, ‘Changes in opinion as to the administration of education in England between 1870 and 1896’, Sadler MSS, MS Eng. Misc. c 551, fos. 13–54. Bernard Mallet told Balfour in the same month diat ‘the “ad hoc” election of an education authority seems to be steadily losing ground in public favour’ (Mallet, ‘Amendments to die Education Bill’, 8 June 1896, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49786, fos. 226–31).

30 Ven. Wilson, J. M., ‘The voluntary schools’, Contemporary Review, LXVII (1895), 293.Google Scholar

31 Moberly, R. C., ‘Undenominationalism as a principle of primary education’ (1902), pp. 8, 24.Google Scholar

32 Cardinal Vaughan to Athelstan Riley, 10 July 1893. Riley MSS, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 2343, fos. 200–1.

13 Clifford, John, ‘The destruction of the Board school’, Contemporary Review, LXV (1894), 635.Google Scholar

34 Annual Register, 1900, p. 206.

34 See Massie, John, ‘The secondary education commission report’, Contemporary Review, LXVIII (1895), passim. Massie had been a Liberal-nonconformist member of the Commission.Google Scholar

38 See Ven. Wilson, J. M. et al. , ‘The voluntary schools’, Contemporary Review, LXVIII (1895), passim.Google Scholar

37 SirFitch, J. G., ‘Some flaws in the Education Bill’, Nineteenth Century, XXXIX (1896), 881. Fitch, a Wesleyan Methodist, was a former chief inspector in the Education Department.Google Scholar

38 The Times, 19 Jan. 1895, reporting his speech at Manchester.Google Scholar

38 Holland, Bernard, The life of Spencer Compton eighth duke of Devonshire (1911), 2 vols., II, 269.Google Scholar See Chamberlain's letter to the duke on 19 Apr. 1895 in Holland, ibid. II, 267–9.

40 Salisbury to Talbot, 7 Dec. 1901. Salisbury MSS, Christ Church, Oxford, Class H. The four were Devonshire, Selborne, Chamberlain and Lord James of Hereford.

41 Lockhart, J. G., Cosmo Gordon Lang (1949), p. 113. Lang was describing a conversation with Salisbury at Hatfield in the summer of 1894.Google Scholar

42 SirMackintosh, Alexander, Echoes of Big Ben: a journalist's parliamentary diary (n.d.), p. 39. See also The Spectator, 27 June 1896.Google Scholar

43 ‘Some memories and some reflections in my old age’, Selborne MSS, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Selborne MSS, 191, fo. 72. By consent of the Rt Hon. the earl of Selborne.

44 Salisbury to Gorst, 1 July 1895, Salibury MSS, no. 75.

45 Gorst to Salisbury, 2 Aug. 1899, Salisbury MSS, no. 83.

46 Kekewich to Sadler, 20 Nov. 1895, Sadler MSS, MS Eng. Misc. c 550, fos. 228–9.

47 Morant to Sadler, 19 Nov. 1895, Sadler MSS, ibid. fos. 16–19.

48 Morant to Sadler, 23 Nov. 1895, Sadler MSS, ibid fos. 20–1, and Acland to Sadler, 1 Nov. 1896, Sadler MSS, ibid. fos. 249–50.

49 Kekewich to Sadler, 30 Nov. 1895, Sadler MSS, ibid. fos. 130–1.

50 Morant to Sadler, 29 Nov. 1895, Sadler MSS, ibid. fos. 22–3.

51 Devonshire to Salisbury, 17 Dec. 1895, Salisbury MSS, no fo.

52 Salisbury to Queen Victoria, 18 Jan. 1896, Royal Archives, Windsor, CAB 41/23/43 (Bodleian Microfilm).

53 Sir Courtenay Ilbert MSS, House of Lords Record Office, diaries 1896–1903, no. fo., H.C. Lib. MS 66, Hereinafter Ilbert MSS, diary.

54 Balfour to Salisbury, ? Jan. 1896, and Devonshire to Salisbury, 13 Sept. 1896, Salisbury MSS; S. A. Barnett to F. G. Barnett, 8 Feb. 1896, in Henrietta Barnett, Canon Barnett… (1921, 3rd edn), p. 507.

55 Manuscript diary of Sir Michael Thomas Sadler, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Eng. Misc. e 204, fo. 103 (10 Mar. 1896), hereinafter M. T. Sadler MSS, diary.

56 The Schoolmaster, 4 April 1896.

57 M. T. Sadler MSS, diary (20 April 1896).

58 Michael Sadler, Minute ‘Notes on the present difficulties in English education’, Sadler MSS, MS Eng. Misc. c 550, fos. 132–53.

59 Gorst had wanted the amount of the grant to be decided by the L.E.A. but he was over-ruled by Balfour (M. T. Sadler MSS, diary, 20 Apr. 1896).

60 Hansard, , 4th ser., xxxix, 543.Google Scholar

61 The government, like the Education Department, had proceeded on die assumption that ‘The simple teaching of evangelical Christianity appears to be acceptable to large numbers of Churchmen and…the great majority of Nonconformists’ (Mallet, Memorandum on Cl. 27, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49786, fos. 226–31, dated 8 June 1896). Cf. memorandum by Sadler of 30 Sept. 1896 which came to die same conclusion, in Sadler MSS, MS Eng. Misc. c 550, fos. 221–3.

62 See, for example, Macnamara, T. J., ‘Religious teaching in… elementary schools’, Contemporary Review, LXIX (1896). Macnamara was one-time editor of The Schoolmaster and was returned as Liberal M.P. for Camberwell (North) in 1900.Google Scholar

63 Harcourt to Lady Glenesk, 31 Mar. 1896, in Lucas, Reginald, Lord Glenesk and the Morning Post (1910), p. 226.Google Scholar

64 Salisbury to Queen Victoria, 22 Apr. 1896, CAB 41/23/51; Harcourt to Lady Harcourt, 16 and 18 June 1896, Harcourt MSS, Bodleian Library, Oxford, WVH 7/8, by consent of the Viscount Harcourt.

65 Ilbert MSS, diary, n.d. Gorst had wanted a general right of entry for priests and ministers into all schools to give denominational instruction when desired. This would have aroused even more opposition than the clause as included in the bill although it could well have got greater support from the Church.

66 M. T. Sadler MSS, diary, fo. 113 (30 June 1896).

67 Ilbert MSS, diary, n.d. See also the view of Sir Hugh Orange, private secretary to Kekewich after 1898, in Sadler MSS, MS Eng. Misc. c 552, fos. 232–41.

68 Griffith-Boscawen, A. S. T., Fourteen yean in parliament (1907), p. 93.Google Scholar

69 Bernard Mallet to his wife, 20 June 1896, Mallet MSS, by courtesy of Mr P. L. V. Mallet. In the published correspondence, which does not include all the letters written, edited by Mallet, Victor (Life with Queen Victoria… 1887–1901 (1968)), ‘routine’ was read for ‘rotten’ (pp. 87–8).Google Scholar

70 Whates, H., The third Salisbury administration (n.d.), pp. 392–5.Google Scholar

71 Lucy, H. W., A diary of the Unionist parliament 1895–1900 (1901), p. 108.Google Scholar

71 Wilson, H. J. to Gertrude Wilson, 24 June 1896, Wilson MSS, M.D. 2605/6.Google Scholar

73 Michael Sadler, memorandum of 30 Sept. 1896, Sadler MSS, MS. Eng. Misc. c 550, fos. 221–3. The amendment would have added 220 new authorities; it also would have split the ‘whisky money’ (liquor duties) allocated to councils for technical education since 1890 and under Gorst's bill, now legally required for spending on secondary education (it had been optional) amongst all three types of L.E.A.s, thereby providing too many audiorities with too little money.

74 M. T. Sadler MSS, diary, 30 June 1896.

75 The Spectator, 27 June 1896. It did little to decrease the distrust many Tory back-benchers felt already for Gorst.

76 Marie Mallet to Bernard Mallet, 23 June 1896. Mallet MSS. In the published text it reads ‘very cross’ (Mallet, , Life with Queen Victoria, p. 89).Google Scholar

77 Salisbury to Queen Victoria, 22 June 1896, CAB41/23/59. See also CAB41/23/58 and the Queen's telegrams of 19, 20 (2), 22 and 23 June in Salisbury MSS, correspondence with Queen Victoria, July 1898–1901.

78 Ilbert MSS, diary, 7 Nov. 1896.

79 Chamberlain, et al. , ‘The Education Bill 1896’, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49669, fos. 84–111.Google Scholar

80 H. J. Wilson to Gertrude Wilson, 24 June 1896, Wilson MSS, MD 2605/6. For back-bench opinion see, for the Liberals, Channing, F. A., Memories of midland politics 1885–1910 (1918), pp. 179–84;Google Scholar for tory opinion see Griffith-Boscawen, , Fourteen years in parliament, pp. 100–6.Google Scholar

81 S. A. Barnett to F. G. Barnett, 7 July 1896, in Barnett, , Canon Barnett, p. 508. There was talk of moving Gorst to another position. See Devonshire to Salisbury, 13 Sept. 1896, Salisbury MSS.Google Scholar

82 Griffith-Boscawen, , Fourteen years, p. 115.Google Scholar

88 SirGorst, Eldon, ‘Autobiographical notes’ (1896).Google Scholar Gorst MSS, St Anthony's College, Oxford, Middle East Centre, DT 107.6, fo. 46. By kind permission of MrsThomas, K. R.; Gorst, , ‘Prospects of education in England’, North American Review, no. 163/4 (Oct. 1896), p. 427;Google Scholar the second article was ‘The voluntary schools’, Nineteenth Century, XL (11 1896); Ilbert MSS, diary, 14 Nov. 1896.Google Scholar

84 Salisbury to Queen Victoria, 5 Nov. 1896, CAB 41/23/65; Balfour to Salisbury, 9 Nov. 1896, Salisbury MSS; Balfour to Cranborne, 22 Oct. 1896, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49757, fos. 61–3.

88 Chamberlain to Salisbury, 11 Nov. 1896, Salisbury MSS.

88 See Beatrice Webb's diary entry for 3 Febr. 1897, quoted in Brennan, E. J. T., ‘The influence of Sidney and Beatrice Webb on English education 1892–1903’, unpublished M. A. thesis, University of Sheffield, 1959, p. 127;Google Scholar Devonshire to Salisbury, 24 Mar. 1897, Salisbury MSS; Salisbury to Queen Victoria, ? Nov. 1896, CAB 41/23/66 (see also letters of 5 Nov., CAB 41/23/65, 14 Jan. 1897, CAB 41/24/1, and 27 Jan. 1897, CAB 41/24/2); H. J. Gladstone to his mother, 26 Apr. 1897, Glynne-Gladstone MSS Flintshire (Clwyd) Record Office, Z/10/16. See also his letter of 2 May 1897.

87 The Schoolmaster, 13 Feb. 1897;Google ScholarGriffith-Boscawen, , Fourteen years in parliament, pp. 115–17. Gorst was not in the House when the bill was introduced.Google Scholar

88 Balfour to Edward VII, 26 Apr. 1901, CAB 41/26/8 (Salisbury was ill); The Schoolmaster, 6 July 1901; Salisbury to Edward VII, 28 June 1901, CAB 41/26/15, P.R.O. For the Cockerton case see Eaglesham, E. J. R., From school board to local authority (1956).Google Scholar

88 Balfour to Devonshire, 28 Aug. 1901, copy in Salisbury MSS; Lowther, J. W., A Speaker's commentaries… (1925), 2 vols., I, 324; Balfour to Salisbury, 28 Aug. 1901, Salisbury MSS. On 1 August a memorandum was circulated, probably by Morant, which called for the inclusion of a Clause 27, although he admitted that it ‘will raise immense racket’ he argued that ‘it would probably also raise immense enthusiasm’ (Department of Education files, ED 24/14/15/13 (a)).Google Scholar

90 Balfour to Devonshire, 25 July 1901, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49769, fos. 191–2; Morant to Sadler, 4 Jan. 1900. Sadler MSS, MS. Eng. Misc. c 550, fos. 79–80.

91 Lowther, , A Speaker's commentaries, I, 320;Google Scholar Davidson to Archbishop Temple, 20 May 1899. Temple MSS, Lambeth Palace Library, vol. 27, fos. 148–50; Cecil, Lady Gwendolen, Life of Robert marquis of Salisbury (1921-1932), 4 vols., III, 169;Google Scholar Esher to M. V. Brett, 14 July 1902, in Brett, Maurice V. (ed.), Journals and letters of Reginald Viscount Esher (1935), 2 vols., I, 340.Google Scholar In October 1900 the German ambassador noticed that Salisbury ‘was beginning to age very much’ (Von Eckardstein, Baron, trans, and ed. Young, George, Ten years at the court of St James' 1895–1905 (1921), p. 177).Google Scholar

92 Mary Gladstone Drew, ‘Notes on A. J. Balfour’, Drew MSS, British Library, Add. MSS 46270, fo. 178. Balfour was aided by the indefatigable Morant, with whom he established working contact during the duke's absence from London in August. Devonshire, on the other hand, would suffer because of Gorst's alienation and he too would turn to Morant. For the difficulties see Fitzroy, Almeric, Memoirs (n.d.), 2 vols., I, 28; Salisbury MSS, Gorst to Salisbury, 2 Aug. 1899, and Devonshire to Salisbury, 13 Sept. 1896.Google Scholar

83 Cabinet memorandum, Cabinet papers, Public Record Office. CAB 37/59/111; Asquith to A. H. D. Acland, 30 Oct. 1901, Acland MSS, MS Eng. Lett, d 81, fos. 107–8.

94 Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 63, and Salisbury to Edward VII, 5 Nov. 1901, CAB 41/26/23, P.R.O.Google Scholar

95 Memorandum of 4 Nov. 1901, CAB 37/59/112, P.R.O.

96 Chamberlain to Selborne, 7 Nov. 1901. Chamberlain MSS, University of Birmingham, JC 11/32/19. Radical Liberal Unionists were ‘already sore’ over previous legislation such as the 1900 bill.

97 Aretas Akers-Douglas to Allington Collard, 23 Dec. 1903, Chilston MSS, KentRec. Off., U 564/CLp 7/pp. 36–7.

98 Cabinet memoranda of ? Sept. and ? Oct. 1901, CAB 1/2/383–4, P.R.O. The second appears to have been written by Hicks Beach but circulated under Balfour's name (see Hicks Beach to Salisbury, i3Sept. 1901, Salisbury MSS). Whilst the grants turned an 1897 voluntary school adverse balance of £140,000 into a small favourable balance in 1898, by 1900 the schools were again in debt to over £105,000 (Memo., R. L. Morant, Feb. 1902, ED 24/13A/10(a)).

99 Devonshire to Chamberlain, 3 Dec. 1901. Chamberlain MSS, JC 11/11/5, and Chamberlain to Devonshire, 14 Dec. 1901, ibid., JC 11/11/7.

100 In a memorandum of 30 Dec. 1901 (circulated 6 Jan. 1902), Devonshire would tell his colleagues that the real problem for voluntary schools was not the unreal demands made by the Board of Education (as some had argued) but simply the lack of money (CAB37/59/145, Devonshire to Balfour, 6 Dec. 1901, Balfour MSS, 49769, fos. 201–2). Morant wrote to Balfour on 7 Dec. supporting the duke and arguing that the denominations should pay a fifth part of the expenditure on school maintenance as denominational religious instruction was a fifth of the curriculum. He wanted to drop Cl. 27, however, and keep the status quo (Balfour MSS, 49787, fos. 39–42; see also Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 66–7; Devonshire, memoran- dum of 12 Dec. 1901, CAB 37/59/131, P.R.O.).Google Scholar

101 Cabinet Committee, memorandum of 11 Dec. 1901, CAB 37/59/130, P.R.O.; see also Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 66. The Church readily agreed to this proposal. See Archbishop Temple to Devonshire, 29 Nov. 1901, Temple MSS, XLIX, fos. 423–4; Davidson to Selborne, 25 Nov. 1901, Selborne MSS, 11/88, fos. 52–5.Google Scholar

102 Ilbert MSS, diary, 13/14 Dec. 1901; see also Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 67–8, 69.Google Scholar

103 Morant, ‘Notes of conversation between Mr Chamberlain and Mr Morant on Education Bill’, 12 Dec. 1901, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49787, fos. 43–50. See Amery, Julian, The life of Joseph Chamberlain (1951), 6 vols., IV, 483–4,Google Scholar and Allen, Bernard M., Sir Robert Morant… (1934), pp. 166–9, for the text of the memorandum, the importance of which Allen greatly magnified.Google Scholar

104 Michael Sadler's father noted on 14 Dec. 1901 that a friend had seen a letter from Balfour to the bishop of Wakefield (?) ‘in which he [Balfour] complained of the Govt, being pressed to introduce favourable terms for Denominational Schools in the Ed. Bill on the ground that it had already done so much for the clergy’ (M. T. Sadler MSS, MS Eng. Misc. e 205, fo. 77, diary entry for 14 Dec. 1901). Another bishop to bring pressure was Talbot of Rochester who wrote to Salisbury on 4 Dec. (see Stephenson, Gwendolen, Edward Stuart Talbot 1844–1934 (1936), pp. 142–3).Google Scholar

105 Balfour to Strachey, 11 Dec. 1901, St Loe Strachey MSS, Beaverbrook Library, London, S/2/4/8, and Devonshire to Hicks Beach, 15 Dec. 1901, St Aldwyn MSS, Gloucester Rec. Off., D. 2655, PCC/89.

106 Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 69, and Salisbury to Edward VII, 19 Dec. 1901, CAB 41/26/28, P.R.O.Google Scholar

107 Morant, ‘Mr Balfour's Instructions to Me… as to Lines of Education Bill’, 20 Dec. 1901, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49787, fo. 51, and Morant to Balfour, 3 Jan. 1902, ED 24/18/138. Two draft bills along these lines were ready by 9 Jan. (see ED 24/18/149b and 24/18/149(b)).

108 Morant to Sadler, 6 Dec. 1898, Sadler MSS, MS Eng. Misc. c 550, fos. 65–6.

109 The best source for public opinion is the weekly summary of news in The Schoolmaster from July 1901 to March 1902. Cf. also Report of the Conference of Progressive Educationalists (1901), passim;Google ScholarThe Congregational year book for 1902 (1902), p. 13;Google ScholarThe Free Church Chronicle, Dec. 1901, p. 310;Google ScholarVaughan, et al. , ‘Statement of the Catholic Claim’, Dublin Review, CXXX (1902), 7–9.Google Scholar

110 M. T. Sadler MSS, diary, 31 Jan. 1902, fo. 81. For cabinet divisions see Salisbury to Edward VII, 31 Jan. 1902, CAB 41/27/3, P.R.O.; Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 73–4; Devonshire, memorandum of 4 Feb. for 5 Feb., CAB 37/60/31, P.R.O.Google Scholar

111 Balfour, memorandum of 6 Feb. 1902, CAB 37/60/32, P.R.O. See, for Hicks Beach's claim, his letter to Devonshire of 3 Feb. 1902, ED 24/19/171. Balfour's scheme of 3 Feb. was even more conservative as it required the L.E.A.S to meet only part of the improvements' costs (see ED 24/19/170b).

112 Balfour, memorandum of 11 Feb. 1902, CAB 37/60/37, P.R.O.

113 Spender, J. A. (ed.), A modern diary of Greville Minor for the year of agitation 1903–4 (1904), p. 1.Google Scholar For an expression of the popular view of Balfour's alleged aloofness from reality see ‘Saki’ (H. H. Munro), The Westminster Alice (1927 edn, first published in 1902 from articles in The Westminster Gazette), pp. 77–86.

114 Sandars to Balfour, 8 Mar. 1902, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49761, fos. 13–16. Indeed, on 7 Mar. the committee wished to drop the bill altogether (Balfour to Sandars, 7 Mar. 1902, Sandars MSS, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Hist, c 735 fos. 52–5). For Chamberlain's efforts see Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 80–1;Google ScholarAmery, , Life of Joseph Chamberlain, IV, 485–9,Google Scholar and Peter Fraser, Joseph Chamberlain: radicalism and empire, 1868–1914 (1966), pp. 216–19.Google Scholar For Hicks Beach's dislike see his letter to Devonshire, 25 Apr. 1906, Devonshire MSS, Chatsworth, 340.3215, by courtesy of H.G. the duke of Devonshire.

115 Salisbury to Edward VII, 18 Mar. 1902, CAB 41/27/10, P.R.O.

116 Balfour to T. A. Lacey, 10 Apr. 1902, ED 24/21/195. For Morant's arguments against the scheme see ED 24/14/15/28.

117 Cranbrook to Lord Halsbury, 1 Oct. 1902. Halsbury MSS, British Library, Add. MSS 56373, no fo.

118 See Rigg to Balfour, ? Sept. 1904. Balfour MSS, Add. MSS, 49857, fos. 25–8, where Rigg complains of the ‘anti-sectarian blind eyed zealots’ and also reports on the progress of his son whose place at die Record Office appears due to Balfour's help; Morant to Davidson, 10 Sept. 1902. Davidson MSS, Lambeth Palace Library, Education/Box, 1894–5,1901–2, no fo.; Sandars to Balfour, 4 Sept. 1902, Balfour MSS, 49761, fos. 26–9.

119 Anon., ‘The “New church rate”…’, 5 May 1902, ED 24/22/224.

120 For an example of the type of information concerning public opinion which Morant, Gorst, Devonshire and Balfour were receiving see Sadler, ‘Minute: notes on die present difficulties in English education’, n.d. (1896?), Sadler MSS, MS Eng. Misc. c 550, fos. 132–53; Sadler, ‘Memorandum: changes in opinion as to…education’ (June 1896; revised in 1898 with comments by Kekewich), ibid. c 551, fos. 13–54; and, anon., ‘Notes on die action and pronouncements of Nonconformists…’, n.d. (but before the introduction of the 1902 bill), ED 24/13A/8.

121 Lewis Harcourt to Sir Wm. Harcourt, 24 Mar. 1902. Harcourt MSS, WVH 1/9. But, as Sir William observed, however ‘bad’ the bill was, ‘the difficulty is diat Balfour cannot afford to abandon it’ (letter of 28 Mar. 1902, WVH 1/22).

122 Beatrice Webb, Diary, 30 Jan. 1902, quoted in Brennan, ‘The influence of Sidney and Beatrice Webb’, p. 290. Forster's 1870 bill had faced similar amendment, both by the Commons and by the cabinet (see Reid, T. Wemyss, Life of the Rt Hon. W. E. Forster (3rd edn, 1888), 2 vols., I, chs. xii and xiii).Google Scholar

123 Webb, R. K., Modern England… (2nd edn, 1969), p. 451.Google ScholarCf. Halevy, , History…, V, 202;Google ScholarEnsor, , England 1870–1914, p. 357 for similar interpretations.Google Scholar

124 Hansard, IV ser., cxiii, 1328–30 (31 Oct. 1902).

125 See Balfour's memoranda of 6 Sept. 1902, CAB 37/62/130 and CAB 1/3/61, P.R.O.

126 Balfour to Temple, 1 Oct. 1902, Temple MSS, vol. 53, fos. 332–3. To Balfour the eighth clause ‘considerably diminished’ the problem but ‘the grievance remains, nevertheless, substantial and unredressed’; to him it was insoluble (see Davidson MSS, Box/Education 1894–5, 1901–2, and ED 24/25/289). Those at the conference in addition to Balfour were Davidson, Anson, the bishop of Manchester, the attorney general and Morant (Morant to Anson, 20 May 1908, ED 24/25/289; Balfour to Edward VII, 12 Oct. 1902, CAB 41/27/30, P.R.O.).

127 Chamberlain to Balfour, 4 July 1902, Chamberlain MSS, JC 11/5/5; Chamberlain to Balfour, 4 Aug. 1902, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49774, fos. 4–12; Chamberlain to Balfour, 31 Aug. 1902, Chamberlain MSS, JC 11/5/8; and Chamberlain to Balfour, 13 Sept. 1902, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49774, fos. 32–3. For a selection of the correspondence see Amery, , Life of Joseph Chamberlain, IV, 494–508.Google Scholar

128 Collins to Long, 25 Sept. 1902, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49776, fos. 27–30; MSS diary, 10 Oct. 1902; Hamilton MSS, British Library Add. MSS 48680, fo. 33; Gladstone to Campbell-Bannerman, 11 Oct. 1902, Campbell-Bannerman MSS, British Library, Add. MSS41216, fos. 238–9; Chamberlain to Sandars, 9 Oct. 1902, ED 24/25/291.

129 Campbell-Bannerman to Bryce, 23 Sept. 1902, Bryce MSS, Bodleian Library, Oxford, UB 32 no fo. For Tory back-bench opinion see Griffith-Boscawen, , Fourteen years…, pp. 225–49;Google Scholar Campbell-Bannerman to Harcourt, 11 Oct. 1902, Harcourt MSS, WVH 9/7; Bryce to Gladstone, 29 Sept. 1902, Viscount Gladstone MSS, British Library, Add. MSS 46019, fos. 71–2. For high-church proposals see the draft bill in the Riley MSS, MS 2353/56–64. For back-bench displeasure see the letter in die Leeds and Yorkshire Mercury, 16 Oct. 1902, and Sir M. T. Sadler, Diary, entry for 17 Aug. 1902, MS Eng. Misc. e 205, fo. 97; Lytdeton to Viscount Milner, 27 Aug. 1902, MUner MSS, Bodleian Library, Oxford (on deposit by New College, Oxford), XL, fos. 154–7; Bryce to Ripon, 22 Sept. 1902, Ripon MSS, British Library Add. MSS 43542, fos. 17–18.

130 Balfour, A. J., ‘The Education Bill 1902…’ (1902), passim;Google Scholar C. E. Dawkins to Milner, 6 Nov. 1902, Milner MSS, XL, fos. 60–1 (see also Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 106);Google Scholar Sir Edw. Hamilton MSS, diary, 18 Dec. 1902, Add. MSS 48680, fo. 68; Lord Knollys to Balfour, 5 Dec. 1902, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49683, fo. 114. Chamberlain left for his tour of South Africa on 27 November 1902.

131 For Ilbert see Ilbert MSS, diary, entry for 4 Nov. 1902; for Kekewich see Balfour to Devonshire, 25 July 1901, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49769, fos. 191–2.

132 Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 73–4.Google Scholar

133 Chesterton, Cecil, Gladstonian ghosts (1905), p. 16.Google Scholar

134 See Balfour to Davidson, 27 Sept. 1902, Davidson MSS, Education/Box 1894–5,1901–2, no fo. Part of the responsibility must rest also on a divided cabinet as well as on Balfour and Devonshire.

135 Memorandum of 9 June 1902, ED 24/23/255a. Morant's reply is in a second memorandum, ED 24/23/255b.

136 The issue was not settled by the courts until 1906. For the arguments see Hakluyt Egerton [pseud, for Arthur Boutwood], The maintenance of denominational teaching… (1905).

137 See Sutherland, , Policy-making in elementary education, pp. 167–8;Google ScholarDale, A. W. W., The life of R. W. Dale (1898), pp. 281–3,Google Scholar and Reid, , W. E. Forster, I, ch. xiii, passim.Google Scholar

138 Fitzroy, , Memoirs, I, 189.Google Scholar

139 Balfour to Lord Robert Cecil, 29 Mar. 1904, Balfour MSS, Add. MSS 49737, fos. 20–1.

140 Arthur Ponsonby MSS, diary, January 1907. Bodleian Library, Oxford. MS Eng. His. c. 653, fos. 20a-3.

141 Hamilton MSS, diary, 27 Oct. 1902, Add. MSS 48680, fo. 41.

142 Strachey, J. St Loe, The adventure of living… (1922), pp. 397–8.Google Scholar Dr E. A. Knox, who became bishop of Manchester in 1903, recalled that when he was interviewed during the ‘heat of the contest’ over the 1902 bill, the duke ‘had seized on all the weaker points… as well as the stronger and had shown himself thoroughly at home in the Education Acts’ (Knox, , Reminiscences of an octogenarian 1847–1934 (n.d.), p. 211).Google Scholar

143 Birrell, Augustine, Things past redress (1937), p. 191;Google Scholar Ponsonby MSS, diary, January 1907, MS Eng. Hist, c 653, fos. 208–3; for Balfour's later comments on the 1902 act and his suggestions for improvement in light of the 1906 bill, see his secret memorandum of 4 July 1906 in Gerald Balfour MSS, P.R.O. 30/60/41.

144 Knox, , Reminiscences…, p. 212.Google Scholar