ead of the school boards being universal, they should
only come into existence where the ecclesiastical party was not strong
enough in wealth, influence, and liberality to keep them out. Instead of
compulsory attendance being universal, that principle could only be
applied where a school board was found, and where the school board liked
to apply it. The old parliamentary grant to the denominational schools was
to be doubled. This last provision was Mr. Gladstone's own. Forster had
told him that it was impossible to carry a proposal allowing school boards
to contribute to denominational schools, and the only compensation open
was a larger slice of the grant from parliament.

III

The storm at once began to rage around the helmsman's ears. Some days
earlier the situation had been defined by Mr. Brand, the whip, for his
leader's guidance. The attempt, he said, made by Fawcett, Dilke, and
others, to create a diversion in favour of exclusively secular education
has signally failed; the opinion of the country is clearly adverse. On the
other hand, while insisting on the religious element, the country is just
as strongly opposed to dogmatic teaching in schools aided by local rates.
"You ask me," said Mr. Gladstone to Mr. Brand (May 24), "to solve the
problem in the words 'to include religion, and to exclude dogma,' which,
as far as I know, though it admits of a sufficient practical handling by
individuals acting for themselves, has not yet been solved by any state or
parliament." Well might he report at Windsor (June 21) that, though the
auspices were favourable, there was a great deal of crude and
indeterminate opinion on the subject in the House as well as elsewhere,
and "the bill, if carried, would be carried by the authority and
persistence of the government, aided by the acquiescence of the
opposition." It was this carrying of the bill by the aid of the tory
opposition that gave fuel to the liberal flame, and the increase of the
grant to the sectarian schools made the heat more intense. The most
critical point of the bill, according to Mr. Gladstone, was a proposal
that now seems singularly worded, to the effect that the teaching of
scriptures in rate schools should not be in favour of, or opposed to,
tenets of any denomination. This was beaten by 251 to 130. "The minority
was liberal, but more than half of the liberal party present voted in the
majority."

(M95) "We respect Mr. Forster," cried Dale of Birmingham,