by-law and to table it before Parliament to make attendance compulsory unless there was an excuse, such as sickness, living more than three miles from a school or having been certified as reaching a certain standard of education. In 1873, 40% of the population lived in compulsory attendance districts. All schools would be inspected by making use of the existing regime. The individual schools continued to be eligible for an annual government grant calculated on the basis of the inspection ('payment by results'). Contentious provisions Two provisions of the Act became, for religious reasons, matters of contention within the governing Liberal Party. Firstly, nonconformists objected to their children being taught Anglican doctrine. As a compromise, William Cowper-Temple (pronounced "Cooper-Temple"), a Liberal MP, proposed for religious teaching in the new state schools to be non-denominational and so restricted in practice to learning the Bible and a few hymns. The Cabinet accepted that amendment on 14 June 1870, and Gladstone proposed it to the House of Commons two days later. It became the famous Cowper-Temple clause (Section 14 of the Act). HCG Matthew, the editor of Gladstone's diaries, believes that compromise to have hurt Gladstone more deeply than any other that he had to make. However, on 30 June 1870, a stronger amendment by Jacob Bright, a younger brother of John Bright, insisting that religious teaching not be for or against any denomination, was defeated by 251 votes to 130. The supporters of the amendment were all Liberals, and the government won only with Conservative support. Section 7 also gave parents the right to withdraw their children from any religious instruction provided in board schools and to withdraw their children at any time to attend any other religious instruction of their choice. Secondly, parents still had to pay fees for their children to attend school. Section 25 gave school boards the power to pay the fees of poor children, including those attending voluntary (church) schools. Although few school boards actually did so, the provision caused great anger among nonconformists, who saw it as a new source of local ratepayers' money being spent on Church of England schools. A large conference was held at Manchester in 1872 to lead resistance to the section, and one of the campaigners was the Birmingham politician Joseph Chamberlain, who emerged as a national figure for the first time. The resulting splits (some education campaigners, including Chamberlain, stood