as any definite creed to be inculcated? The extreme
Church party, perhaps naturally, held that the creed established by
law in the land should be taught in these new schools; extreme
supporters of other creeds, and a majority of ordinary people of all
creeds or of no creeds, objected to a new establishment of a sectarian
doctrine, even though that sectarian doctrine were the doctrine of the
national religion. The final result of the dispute as codified in the
Act of Parliament was what was known as the Cowper-Temple Clause: "No
religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive of any
particular denomination shall be taught in the school." The actual
value of any clause, however it may appear to be a fair compromise,
depends on the spirit in which it is practically interpreted, and no
sooner had the Act been passed than the battle was renewed again over
the interpretation of the clause. Many of the Church controversialists
held that the liberal or more advanced party intended to exclude all
reference to the Bible or to religion, on the plea that some sect
could be found to which the most attenuated expression of religion
would appear to be against the plain meaning of the clause, and
Huxley, who had been in the forefront of the controversy, and who was
a candidate for the first London School Board, was decried as an enemy
of the Bible and of all religion and morality because he had expressed
what he called a secular interpretation of the clause. In an article
published in the _Contemporary Review_ immediately after the election,
Huxley explained precisely what he took the clause to mean, and,
afterwards, at all events during the existence of the Board to which
he was elected, succeeded in carrying out his intentions in the main.

His first general point was to deprecate the action of those
extremists of both sides who tried to make the education of children a
mere battle-ground of religious dogmas. He then laid down what he
conceived to be the lines of most general utility upon which, under
the provisions of the Act, the education of children should be
conducted. In the foreground he placed physical training and drill, as
of supreme importance to young children, especially in the case of the
poor children of large towns.

"All the conditions of the lives of such are unfavourable to
their physical well-being. They are badly lodged, badly housed,
badly fed, and live from one year's end to anot