the committee in 1815.

Two other schemes arose out of this, in which Mill was specially
interested, but which both proved abortive. Mill and Place resolved in
1813 to start a 'West London Lancasterian Institution,' which was to
educate the whole population west of Temple Bar. They were joined by
Edward Wakefield, father of the Edward Gibbon Wakefield who in later
years was known as an economist, and himself author of a work of
considerable reputation, _An Account of Ireland, Statistical and
Political_ (1812). The three joined Joseph Fox, and ultimately a
meeting was held in August 1813. Sir James Mackintosh was in the
chair. Mill wrote the address, and motions were proposed by his friend
Joseph Hume and by William Allen. Papers were circulated, headed
'Schools for all,'[15] and the institution was launched with a
sufficiency of applause. But the 'gloomy bigot' was secretary. He
declared that he would rather see the institution destroyed than
permit it to be used for infidel purposes. The Bible was, of course,
to be read in the schools, but Fox wished that the Bible alone should
be read. As the committee, according to Place, included four infidels,
three Unitarians, six Methodists, two Baptists, two Roman Catholics,
and several members of the Established Church, it was hardly a happy
family. To add to the confusion, Sir Francis Burdett, who had
contributed a thousand pounds, had taken it into his head that Place
was a government spy.[16] The Association, as is hardly surprising,
ceased to exist in 1816, after keeping up a school of less than three
hundred children, and ended in hopeless failure. The Utilitarians had
higher hopes from a scheme of their own. This was the Chrestomathic
school which occasioned Bentham's writing. An association was formed
in February 1814. Mackintosh, Brougham, Mill, Allen, Fox, and
Wakefield were to be trustees. The school was to apply Lancasterian
principles to the education of the middle classes, and Bentham was to
supply them with a philosophy and with a site in his garden. There the
old gentleman was to see a small version of the Panopticon building,
and, for a time, he took great delight in the prospect. Gradually,
however, it seems to have dawned upon him that there might be
inconveniences in being overlooked by a set of even model schoolboys.
There were difficulties as to funds. Ricardo offered L200 and
collected subscriptions for L900, but Place thought that he might have
been mor