In July, 1856, at the end of the session, the Education Bill for England and Scotland figured in the "Massacre of the Innocents," sixteen in all. As a set-off the Cambridge University Bill introduced some useful reforms, though it failed to secure the admission of Dissenters; and a Minister for Education was created under the title of Vice-President of the Committee of the Council of Education. But _Punch_, in these years at any rate, had no love for the older universities. He regarded them, and especially Oxford, as the strongholds of mediævalism, obscurantism, and all the "isms" against which he was always tilting in Church and State; and he seldom failed to satirize the opposition of academic authorities to inquiry and reform. The romance of "the home of lost causes" made no appeal to his practical mind. Yet of classical scholarship and the classical curriculum he was a loyal supporter. Classical allusions, quotations and parallels abound in his pages: he even printed translations in doggerel Greek by Dr. Kenealy. But the education of the masses was his prime concern, and after the fiasco of 1856 Parliament remained inactive for nearly six years--until the notable measure, establishing the principle of "payment by results," was introduced by Lowe in 1862. In this context it may be noted that as early as 1848 _Punch_ avowed his belief in the value of making lessons interesting to children:-- The reason why school books are so dreary to the child is because they are full of subjects he has no sympathy with. Children's books should be written for children. The child may be father to the man, but that is no reason why he should be treated with literature which is only fit for a father.... If battles are to be fought before children they should be fought with tin soldiers.... Study should be made into a good romp, learning turned into a game, and children then could run into the schoolroom with the same eagerness they rush now into the playground. [Sidenote: _A Child's Letter to Hans Anderson_] [Illustration: HOMAGE TO HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN] Here we have a crude anticipation of the Montessori system, around which so much controversy rages to-day. _Punch_ has always been a lover of children, gentle and simple, but at the same time a faithful critic of the _enfant terrible_ and of juvenile precocity. One of the most delightful letters that ever appeared in his pages was the genuine epistle from a little girl printed in the issue of January 10, 1857:-- "MY DEAR MR. PUNCH,