re a matter of public concern, far less a matter
of private venture, than formerly. More and more we have come to see
that the State and the Municipality, in their respective areas, have
something to say on the matter. The idea of the Golden Ladder, having
its base in the Elementary Schools and its top rung in the highest
honours of the University, has taken hold of the public mind, and has
passed out of the region of abstractions into practical life.
Institutions of Local Government have developed themselves on the lines
desiderated by Arnold in 1868. The subordination of education to
municipal authority is a new and a risky experiment, but it is exactly
the experiment which he wished to see. The resuscitation of the
Edwardian and Elizabethan Grammar Schools all over the country has
brought the notion of the Public School to the very door of the Middle
Class, and has shaken, if it has not yet destroyed, Mr. Creakle's
stronghold. Even in the matter of Denominational Education in the
Elementary Schools, where many deem that a retrograde step has been
taken, the State has acted on a hint which Arnold gave to the extreme
reformers of his time.

"Most English Liberals," he said, "seem persuaded that our Elementary
Schools should be undenominational, and their teaching secular; and that
with a public elementary school it cannot well be otherwise. Let them
clearly understand, however, that on the Continent generally--everywhere
except in Holland--the public elementary school is denominational (of
course with what we should call a 'conscience clause') and its teaching
religious as well as secular."

In one important respect the State, which has so often adopted his
views, at once outstripped and fell short of his ideal. He was not a
strong or undiscriminating advocate for Compulsory Education. He
believed that, in the foreign countries where compulsion obtained, it
was not the cause, but the effect, of a national feeling for education.
When a people set a high value on knowledge, they would insist that
every child should have a chance of acquiring it. But you could not
create that high value by compelling people to send their children to
school. As late as the end of the year 1869, he seems to have feared
that any legislation which hindered a child from working for its own or
its parents' support would be highly unpopular and would be evaded. "A
law of direct compulsion on the parent and child would probably be
violated ever