We have seen that since 1837 the advance in popular education equaled
that made in the extension of suffrage and in civil service reform.
When Victoria began her reign a very large proportion of the children
of the poor were growing up in a stat bordering on barbarism. Many of
them knew little more of books or schools than the young Hottentots in
Africa.
The marriage register shows that as late as 1840 forty per cent of the
Queen's adult subjects could not write their names in the book; by the
close of her reign (1901) the number who had to "make their mark" in
that interesting volume was only about one in ten. This proves, as
Lord Brougham said, that "the schoolmaster" has been "abroad" in the
land.
The national system of education began, as we have already seen, in
1870 (S602). Later, the Assisted Education Act (1891) made provision
for those who had not means to pay even a few pence a week for
instruction. That law practically put the key of knowledge within
reach of every child in England.
613. Religious Toleration in the Universities; Payment of Church Rates
abolished.
The universities felt the new impulse. The abolition of religious
tests for degrees at Oxford and Cambridge (1871) threw open the doors
of those venerable seats of learning to students of every faith.
Since then colleges for women have been established at Oxford and in
the vicinity of Cambridge, and the "university-extension"
examinations, with "college settlements" in London and other large
cities, have long been doing excellent work.
The religious toleration granted in the universities was in accord
with the general movement of the age. It wil be remembered that the
Catholics were readmitted to sit in Parliament (S573) late in the
reign of George IV (1829), and that under Victoria the Jews were
admitted (1858) to the same right (S599). Finally Mr. Bradlaugh got
his Oaths Bill passed (1888), and so opened PArliament to persons not
only of all religious beliefs but of none.
In the meantime the compulsory payment of rates for the support of the
Church of England had been abolished (1868) (S601); and the next year
(1869) was made memorable by the just and generous act by which
Mr. Gladstone disestablished the Irish branch of the English Church
(S601).