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Lord John Russell and the Origins of the Committee of Council on Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. L. Alexander
J. L. Alexander
Affiliation:
Polytechnic of Central London
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Extract

In February 1839 Lord John Russell put before the House of Commons a set of proposals for governmental action in the field of popular education. It was a contentious move by the Home Secretary, and the bitter political tussle which it provoked was predictable. In the context of a flagging ministry facing an opposition already scenting office, it seems almost cavalier. The well-known outcome was the formation of a new executive agency for the management of the state's role in the education of the people, the Committee of Privy Council on Education. The whole incident attracts notice in several dimensions of historical commentary. Social and political narratives must record it; students of Whiggery, Russell, reform or radicalism, must give it place and plausibility; it is a turning point for the historian of education; and it provides a case study for the investigation of government growth in the nineteenth century.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , June 1977 , pp. 395 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

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