I have always held that the exaction of fees in our primary schools



1885.3 OF THE PEABODY EDUCATION FUND. 233

was unjust and uneconomical, and prejudicial to the best interests
of education. It is a system which has been long ago abolished
in the United States. It has recently disappeared in France. It
does not exist in the majority of Continental countries, or in the
majority of the self-governing colonies of the British Empire, and
I hope that the workingmen will insist that in this country also
the system shall cease, which is only defended in deference to false
and pedantic notions of political economy, and in the supposed
interests of denominational schools."

The London School Board in June passed a resolution
to petition Parliament for power to open all its elementary
schools free to children of school age. Such an expression
of opinion by a body of experience is of much significance.
