Despite being junior to the Lord President of the Council Mundella was in effect in charge of Education, and he was now positioned to achieve a number of his strong and long-held aims, in particular, that of compulsory elementary education, and he set to work with vigour, despite strong opposition. Referring to Mundella's researches into schooling in continental Europe, "The Times" sneered at the source of his inspiration, declaring that "compulsory education might do for the Saxons, but would never be endured by the Anglo-Saxons". To those organisations and people who maintained that compulsion was un-English he retorted that it was peculiarly English to be content to be in ignorance. Despite such attacks, immediately on reaching office Mundella introduced a Bill to complete the system of compulsion to attend school, which had not been achieved by previous Acts. The Mundella Act (yet another Act credited to his name), properly known as the Elementary Education Act 1880, which became law only four months after the Liberals returned to power, finally established the means to enforce that all children would be sent to school.