‘In framing schemes under this Act, provision shall be made as far as conveniently may be for extending to girls the benefits of endowments.’ This clause is the Magna Charta of girls’ education, the first acknowledgment by the State of their claim to a liberal education. This result was in great part due to those same men and women who had brought about the opening of the local examinations, and induced the Commission to take cognisance of girls’ schools, and were striving, in face of all opposition, to win something like a university education for girls. As early as 1860 at the Social Science Congress Madame Bodichon had entered a strong protest against the theory that boys’ education must be assisted and girls’ self-supporting. ‘Magnificent colleges and schools, beautiful architectural buildings costing thousands and thousands of pounds, rich endowments all over England, have been bestowed by past generations as gifts to the boys of the higher and middle class, and they are not the less independent and not a whit pauperised.’ At first this was but a voice crying in the wilderness, but the cry was taken up first by a few supporters, then by the whole country, and at last the _Times_, certainly not a revolutionary organ, declared that, ‘This country is most abundantly and redundantly endowed for men and boys, as if they were unable to take care of themselves, whereas there is little—indeed nothing, we may almost say—for that which is contemptuously called the weaker sex.’ An Association for Promoting the Application of Endowments to the Education of Women was formed, and offered to assist trustees of schools and other persons interested in education by supplying information and suggesting plans whereby available funds might best be applied to the education of women. It had a strong committee, which numbered among its members Miss Davies, Miss Clough, and Miss Bostock, as well as Mr. Bryce and Mr. Fitch, those constant and helpful supporters of all efforts to improve the education of girls. At this time the needs of the middle class seemed most urgent, since the State-aided schools were coming to the aid of the very poor, and the rich could pay the high terms that were then demanded by the better private schools. The immediate need seemed to be for schools of the second or third grade, _i.e._ those meant for girls who would leave school some time between fourteen and seventeen, and might be expected to pay fees ranging from £4 to £10 per annum.