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From W. E. Darwin   [c. 17 February 1870]1

Southampton

Tuesday

My dear Father,

I am ordered as a secretary to the National Education League to make a stir for more subscriptions.2 We are now raising a special fund of £10,000 in order by public meetings in London and meetings & lectures in all Large town and by keeping up a constant fire on all M.P.s and by arranging for a permanent Committee to sit in London during the discussion in committee of the Education Bill, to improve the Govt. amendments to the Bill.3 It is hoped by making a great agitation to introduce some at least of the 4 points of the League—viz schools to be started at once—to be free, compulsory, unsectarian.

If you are inclined to subscribe again I could take & pay your subscription.4

Your affect son | W. E Darwin

Bicycle is come all right

1
The date is established by the date of the first reading of the Elementary Education Bill (see n. 3, below).
2
The National Education League was founded in 1869 to press for a national system of free, compulsory, and non-sectarian education in England and Wales; its first general meeting was held in Birmingham, 13 and 14 October 1869 (The Times, 13 October 1869, p. 10). CD’s name was mentioned as a subscriber in an article in The Times, 9 November 1869, p. 7; he had donated £20 (National Education League Monthly Paper, January 1870, p. 12).
3
The Elementary Education Bill was introduced on 17 February 1870 (Hansard parliamentary debates 3d ser., vol. 199 (1870), cols. 438–98). It was enacted on 9 August 1870 (33 & 34 Vict., c. 75).
4
No record has been found of any further contribution by CD.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7039F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7039F