eighteenth.[116] In the same way, the first
attempts at providing a general education for the poor had been made by
Archbishop Tenison, who founded a parochial school about 1680 in order
'to check the growth of popery.' Charity schools became common during
the early part of the eighteenth century and received various
endowments. They were attacked as tending to teach the poor too much--a
very needless alarm--and also by free thinkers, such as Mandeville, as
intended outworks of the established church. This last objection was a
foretaste of the bitter religious controversies which were to accompany
the growth of an educational system. Colquhoun says that there were 62
endowed schools in London, from Christ's Hospital downwards, educating
about 5000 children; 237 parish schools with about 9000 children, and
3730 'private schools.' The teaching was, of course, very imperfect, and
in a report of a committee of the House of Commons in 1818, it is
calculated that about half the children in a large district were
entirely uneducated. There was, of course, nothing in England deserving
the name of a system in educational more than in any other matters. The
grammar schools throughout the country provided more or less for the
classes which could not aspire to the public schools and universities.
About a third of the boys at Christ's Hospital were, as Coleridge tells
us, sons of clergymen.[117] The children of the poor were either not
educated, or picked up their letters at some charity school or such a
country dame's school as is described by Shenstone. A curious proof,
however, of rising interest in the question is given by the Sunday
Schools movement at the end of the century. Robert Raikes (1735-1811), a
printer in Gloucester and proprietor of a newspaper, joined with a
clergyman to set up a school in 1780 at a total cost of 1s. 6d. a week.
Within three or four years the plan was taken up everywhere, and the
worthy Raikes, whose newspaper had spread the news, found himself
revered as a great pioneer of philanthropy. Wesley took up the scheme
warmly; bishops condescended to approve; the king and queen were
interested, and within three or four years the number of learners was
reckoned at two or three hundred thousand. A Sunday School Association
was formed in 1785 with well known men of business at its head. Queen
Charlotte's friend, Mrs. Trimmer (1741-1810), took up the work near
London, and Hannah More (1745-1833) in Somersetshir