e. Hannah More gives
a strange account of the utter absence of any civilising agencies in the
district around Cheddar where she and her sisters laboured. She was
accused of 'methodism' and a leaning to Jacobinism, although her views
were of the most moderate kind. She wished the poor to be able to read
their Bibles and to be qualified for domestic duties, but not to write
or to be enabled to read Tom Paine or be encouraged to rise above their
position. The literary light of the Whigs, Dr. Parr (1747-1825), showed
his liberality by arguing that the poor ought to be taught, but admitted
that the enterprise had its limits. The 'Deity Himself had fixed a great
gulph between them and the poor.' A scanty instruction given on Sundays
alone was not calculated to facilitate the passage of that gulf. By the
end of the century, however, signs of a more systematic movement were
showing themselves. Bell and Lancaster, of whom I shall have to speak,
were rival claimants for the honour of initiating a new departure in
education. The controversy which afterwards raged between the supporters
of the two systems marked a complete revolution of opinion. Meanwhile,
although the need of schools was beginning to be felt, the appliances
for education in England were a striking instance of the general
inefficiency in every department which needed combined action. In
Scotland the system of parish schools was one obvious cause of the
success of so many of the Scotsmen which excited the jealousy of
southern competitors. Even in Ireland there appears to have been a more
efficient set of schools. And yet, one remark must be suggested. There
is probably no period in English history at which a greater number of
poor men have risen to distinction. The greatest beyond comparison of
self-taught poets was Burns (1759-1796). The political writer who was at
the time producing the most marked effect was Thomas Paine (1737-1809),
son of a small tradesman. His successor in influence was William Cobbett
(1762-1835), son of an agricultural labourer, and one of the pithiest of
all English writers. William Gifford (1756-1826), son of a small
tradesman in Devonshire, was already known as a satirist and was to lead
Conservatives as editor of the _The Quarterly Review_. John Dalton
(1766-1842), son of a poor weaver, was one of the most distinguished men
of science. Porson (1759-1808), the greatest Greek scholar of his time,
was son of a Norfolk parish clerk, though sag