ABSTRACT
The 1870 Education Act was designed to fill the gaps left by the voluntary system and, once the school boards which it established began their work, it became clear that a compulsory system of elementary education was both feasible and desirable. Education, as the inspector Dr Clutterbuck observed (14a), could teach even the children of depraved parents a proper sense of duty and independence, thus offering the prospect of reduced poor-rate expenditure. It was, indeed, the State’s duty to moralize children if parents would not.
