Whitbread, a statesman whose name was very prominent about this time for efforts to promote the interests of the bulk of the people, tried to induce Parliament at this stage to take the subject into its consideration, by proposing a plan for the establishment of parochial schools "for the exaltation of the character of the labourer," and it would have been well if he had met with more success. As it was, the sage legislators of the day, led on by Mr. Windham, considered that such a plan would be very liable to give an education to these classes much above their condition, and Mr. Whitbread's scheme, like many other of his wise proposals to which we shall have subsequently to allude, was set aside. The work, however, had begun and could not be stopped by the attitude of the government. Dr. Bell commenced his system by the establishment of National schools; Mr. Lancaster, supported by Nonconformists principally, set up Lancasterian schools. Although there was for some time much hostility displayed between the rival factions, both organizations struck deep into the dense masses of ignorance in our towns and villages. Then came Government assistance, and gradually that system of Government education and supervision which, in spite of many objections to it, has been an untold blessing to the land. Within the last thirty years the wise legislation of the Government has had a direct influence on the progress of the people in education, and in their social well-being. No more powerful aid, for example, was given towards the triumph of enlightenment than the passing, in 1839, of the penny postage measure, when thousands of the poorer classes became emulous of each other in learning the rudiments of education, so as to be enabled to possess themselves of the untold advantages of this wonderfully successful scheme. Mr. Laing, the celebrated traveller, after visiting the Continent, declared that the system of penny postage was far more likely to cause the spread of education among the masses than the Prussian system of education, if it came to be adopted in this country. Only second to the repeal of the taxes on correspondence was that of the reduction of the newspaper stamp duty, and, still more recently, the abolition of the paper duty. The relinquishment of these taxes redounds to the honour of those who took part in the agitation for their abolition, and who held that no artificial impediment, such as a paltry consideration of revenue, ought to stand between the people and the free circulation of thought. Lord Brougham said on one occasion that, "if newspapers, instead of being sold for sixpence, could be sold for a penny, there would immediately follow the greatest possible improvement in the tone and temper of the political information of the people." Lord Campbell once expressed a hope that newspapers would be sold for a halfpenny. Much of this has been realized, and the result has been powerful for good.