=Centralized Administration of the French Education.=--The centralization of education is even more complete in France than in Germany. The supreme head of the system is the minister of education. He is immediately assisted by three directors, one each for primary, secondary, and higher education. A rector is in charge of each of the ‘academies,’ except Paris, where the minister nominally holds the office and a vice rector performs the duties. The rector has authority over all three fields of education in his academy, but does not appoint the teachers. That office is performed by the prefect, or head of each civil department, upon the recommendation of the academy inspector. There is also a departmental council, presided over by the prefect, that appoints delegates in each canton, to take charge of the school premises and equipment. Further organization is effected through the maintenance of a complete corps of general, academy, and primary inspectors. [Sidenote: Slow evolution.] [Sidenote: Church monopoly.] [Sidenote: Philanthropic institutions.] =Early Development of English Education.=--In England the nationalization of education was delayed even longer than in France. This country was never controlled by enlightened despots, who could, as in Germany, force the growth of public educational sentiment, nor was it overwhelmed by the sweep of a great revolution, destroying, as in France, all opposition to popular progress. National education in England has gradually grown out of the conflict of a number of elements represented in its society. It has been the product of a series of compromises among many different factors,--the church, state, economic conditions, private enterprise, and philanthropy. For several centuries education was regarded as a function of the church and family, and the sentiment for universal training was retarded by the attitude of the upper classes, who strove to keep the poor in ignorance and to maintain the educational control of the church. This domination was first seriously challenged in the eighteenth century, and while the training then furnished through the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, the Sunday schools, and other philanthropic institutions (see pp. 232 ff.), was rather meager, these organizations, together with the ‘monitorial’ instruction of the British and Foreign, and the National Societies (see pp. 240 f.), greatly advanced the cause of universal education. And toward the close of the century there began to appear a new point of view, especially with men like Bentham, Blackstone, Robert Owen, and Adam Smith, who advocated universal education, compulsory attendance, and a national system of schools. [Sidenote: First signs of progress.] [Sidenote: First parliamentary grant in 1833.] [Sidenote: Committee of Privy Council in 1839.] [Sidenote: ‘Payment by results’ in 1861.]