of disorder occasioned by a free use of the Scriptures.’^5
According to this new trend, it was ‘meet for the ploughman’s
son to go to the plough, and the artificer’s son to apply the trade
of his parent’s vocation: and the gentlemen’s children are meet
to have the knowledge of Government and rule in the
commonwealth. For we have as much need of ploughmen as any
other State: and all sorts of men may not go to school.’^6
A century and a half later (that is, from about the end of
the 17th century), there is a slow reversal of the above trend,
leading to the setting up of some Charity Schools for the
common people. These schools are mainly conceived to provide
‘some leverage in the way of general education to raise the
labouring class to the level of religious instruction’; and, more so
in Wales, ‘with the object of preparing the poor by reading and
Bible study for the Sunday worship and catechetical
instruction.’^7
After a short start, however, the Charity School movement
became rather dormant. Around 1780, it was succeeded by the
Sunday school movement.^8 ‘Popular education’, even at this
period, ‘was still approached as a missionary enterprise.’ The
maxim was ‘that every child should learn to read the Bible.’^9 ‘The
hope of securing a decent observance of Sunday’^10 led to a
concentrated effort on the promotion of Sunday schools. After
some years, this attention focussed on the necessity of day
schools. From then on, school education grew apace.
Nevertheless, even