dr hoppus was profoundly interested in ideas of popular education and took a prominent part in the controversy in 1847, seeking establishing of a national educational system to build on the work of the ragged schools or charity schools, and of the sunday school movement, voluntary bodies that had initiated educational provision for the working classes in the large industrial cities. dr hoppus firmly advocated a role for the government in the provision of education – a view then unpopular amongst many in his dissenting circles who viewed potential government control with suspicion, having been excluded from state education by governments for so long. though unsuccessful at the time, some twenty years later hoppus's arguments won the day, and his belief that "no child... be excluded from instruction through the parents' poverty" came to fruition after the renewed campaign by him and others in the 1860s, which led to the elementary education act 1870.