ABSTRACT
The Liberal victory in the general election of 1868 began a new period in British political history. Among the major reforms of Gladstone's first government (1868–74) was the Education Act of 1870, which created the nucleus of the modern state system of education. It looked for a brief period as if state intervention in secondary education would also achieve major changes. The report of the Schools Inquiry Commission (1868) had shown both the importance of the grammar school endowments and the many abuses which needed reform. The report had made radical recommendations for change: a system of graded schools; a central body with provincial authorities; and a national council for examinations with power to examine teachers.
