DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 39) by the aid of the railway and the telegraph, the views of the leading organs of public opinion were known in every corner of the country at the same time. Epucatron.—You may have gathered from the various facts I have put before you that the attain- ment of our civil and religious liberties, the adequate representation of the people, the expansion of the press, the progress of agriculture, the facilities of communication, have all conduced towards promoting the growth of public opinion. But one of the chief causes which has led public opinion into a healthy channel is the spread of education amongst all Hy classes. There was no systematic method of affording Se elementary instruction to the children of the working- classes before the passage of the Elementary Educa- tion Act of 1870, by which local School Boards were it established. There were endowed schools and so- | called public schools before that, but the richer classes derived the benefit. The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and the National f Society began the educational work, which was largely supplemented by the foundation of Voluntary Schools; but the great mass of the children of the poor were left ignorant of the rudiments of learning. In 1834 the Government began to make grants for | the promotion of public educatian. Thenceforward