EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS 28
Charity Commissioners or the Endowed Schools
Commissioners or the Board, conscientiously and
with no kind of indifference to the interests of
“the poor” and no kind of preference for the
interests of the rich.
The idea, indeed, that there is a large reservoir
of money in many cases misappropriated or diverted
from the pious founder’s original purpose of edu-
cating the poor, which might be drawn upon to
provide funds for the extension of popular education
and increasing the facilities open to the poor, has
been very persistent and still survives. It has almost
always, however, been expressed in general terms,
and it has been difficult to find a prima facie case
for further inquiry by a Royal Commission, which
has sometimes been asked for. The amount of
endowment money which has been sunk in sites
and buildings of secondary schools has made great
inroads upon income and in many cases absorbed it,
while on the other hand the schools have been made
accessible to “the poor ” or at all events to those
who have commenced their education in public
elementary schools by the system of free places and
by the provision out of publi: funds of scholarships
and maintenance allowances. The “i -hwa of
education has become muc! _reac=- -r.d longer,
and at the ==-=-=* “me ~». con able ~casure
of *restorat.. cacewment: weuld make very
little addi“iep ~ z7ca*ian! opportunities of
the pocr.