George Dixon, Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham, and Joseph Chamberlain, mayor of Birmingham, both nonconformists, were leaders of the National Education League and campaigners in the 1860s and 1870s for the provision of education free of influence by the churches. The Anglicans and Catholic Churches were in control of the existing voluntary schools, and controlled the religious education of those who attended. The Liberals and Dissenters wanted compulsory education without religious doctrine. In the end the Elementary Education Act 1870 was a compromise filling in the gaps of the voluntary system.