realized, and ought at least to be aimed at, fall far short of the sober truth respecting them. Even the moral regeneration of the people, depending on influences about which we are not perfectly agreed, and on causes, the working of which we certainly cannot calculate, is manifestly to be improved, to an extent that no sober man would wish to define, by the diligent use of means adapted to that end. But the means by which men's intelligence is to be cultivated, and their physical and mental faculties exercised, are more within our reach; we can employ them without hesitation; and their results may be more safely estimated. And surely no satisfactory correction of a higher estimate of results can be established by adducing merely negative evidence from facts of the past, or present. An end, which can only be effected by the long continuance, and growth during their continuance, of social arrangements peculiarly adapted to it, may be. quite attainable; even though it may never, in the world's history, have been attained, under social arrangements that were not made in contemplation of such an end. Something has been done before our own eyes, by ourselves; more has been done by some of our neighbours; and perhaps by them as much as fairly corresponds, when fairly estimated, with the means they have employed. Let us use the means more abundantly, and we shall probably reap more abundant results. And those who are disposed to fix some low measure for what is attainable, may be desired to consider the results actually realised in the middle and upper classes of society, and the circumstances under which, and the means by which, they have been realised. Take from these classes a child of average culture, at 13 years of age; compare that child with an average instance from the lower classes. What a difference in knowledge, in the power of acquiring knowledge, and of applying it, in the culture of the reason and the imagination!

Yet consider the means by which this difference has been produced; amongst the rest, the influence of daily intercourse with educated persons, and that of good teaching. Surely we may look hopefully to the effective employment of like influences. The difference between the two children only shows that we have a very wide margin to work upon, and that we may confidently hope to reduce it greatly.

Results are at this moment being produced, which will show that much more may be done for the children of the poor than has hitherto been thought of. And, in the realization of the most sanguine anticipations of results from the instruction in the schools for our people, there is surely nothing to apprehend; for every part of the instruction, of which the secular character alone has been contemplated in the above observations, is, and it is to be hoped will not cease to be, connected with moral and religious training, and the whole penetrated by moral and religious influence, so far as man can provide, by the employment of suitable means.

Factory Schools, and Factory Children.

Having introduced what remarks I had to make on the general results of my inspection, in connexion with the review of that part of my work in which I had only general objects before me; whereas, during the latter part of the time my attention was directed specially, and almost exclusively, to the selection of pupil-teachers; I may now proceed to report the general results of my observations on the schools frequented exclusively by children working half the day in factories, and on the scholars of this class, of whom a few were very frequently found in other schools.

In some places, where the population was not crowded, and where, perhaps, other circumstances, such as the state of the demand for labour, the ventilation of the cotton-mills, &c. were favourable, the physical condition of the factory children was not obviously low. But in each of the exclusively factory schools that I visited, the difference between its scholars and those of other schools would have been at once obvious, even though there had been no difference in the state of their clothes, &c. Not only was there a duller, less awakened aspect in a bench of factory children, but there was a greater proportion of pale sickly faces, and more manifestations of low organization and bad tendencies; and the contrast in the looks of the factory children with those of the other scholars, amongst whom they were found, was often quite painful; and it was equally striking and painful in respect to their comparative culture. They stood usually a head and shoulders above the children of equal attainments, amongst whom they were mixed -dirty, ignorant, and dull. I would refer to the "general observations" on the girls' school of St. Paul's, at Staley-bridge; and in my diary, written after a visit to a school composed of factory children only, I find the following remarks upon the scholars of that and another similar school:

"A fearful deficiency they present, and one that can scarcely be supplied, without very much greater assistance from Parliament than has yet been given or contemplated. The educating power applied is good, but there is not half enough of it. The vacant countenances are still painfully before me; and the dull replies to the commonest questions, on subjects of universal and unbounded interest, still ring in my ears."

In another diary is this passage.

"The master seems an intelligent, active man, quite equal to his work; but the state of his school, as to instruction and intelligence, is a sad illustration of the working of the factory system. He cannot attempt anything, beyond a routine of the most elementary instruction. To produce moderately satisfactory results, he would require an able assistant, and an additional hour's charge of each set of children." One set comes each morning, and a different set succeeds in the afternoon.

In some instances the spectacle presented was of a less unsatisfactory description. For example, I find from my diaries, in a report upon an excellent school consisting chiefly of factory children, the following remarks:

"With special attention to the point, I could discover but little difference between the whole-day and half-day scholars of the upper classes. All are fused together, and the whole-day scholars sacrificed to the greater number. The master says that the halfday scholars are very anxious not to be left behind. In the lower classes there was many a sad instance of backwardness and ignorance; e. g., boys of 11 and 12 years old scarcely able to read monosyllables."

Doubtless the diminution of the children's half day's work, by an hour, under the late statute, will render their school-hours more instructive; for it was a constant complaint of the teachers that the poor factory children, when they came to school in the afternoon, were too fatigued to apply with effect to their learning.

Again, I cannot but think that more might be done, to make those school-hours effectual, by an improvement in the character of the instruction, by having better teachers, and more of them. The supply of such increased teaching power will soon be, if it be not now, merely a matter of money; and, when it is considered that the children earn above 3s. a-week, and that the payment for their instruction is usually but 2d., it could scarcely be considered a hardship, for such an object, were the Legislature to insist on the school-fee being at least doubled, and on its being applied to support well-appointed schools.

If, in conjunction with a decided improvement of this kind, it were insisted on that no child should be permitted to work in a factory, unless, besides having attained the requisite age, it had also attained a reasonable amount of instruction for its age, a great deal would be effected towards a better state of things. At present, the benefit that the factory child derives from being obliged to attend a school for half a day, as a condition of his being employed in the mill during the other half, is, in a considerable proportion of instances, small, on account of the deplorable state of ignorance in which he has been allowed by his parents to grow up. It seems requisite to make it the interest of the parent to provide for his children that early instruction without which, as a foundation, little good can be effected during the present compulsory period of school attendance. Under such regulations, moreover, the interests of those by whom poor-rates are paid would induce them, if permitted by law, to aid the parent, when necessary, in the early education of his offspring.

I am aware that the application of an educational test is considered to be accompanied by great difficulties. Those difficulties would be surely the least imaginable in the case of very young children, whose attainments have to be tested in certain arts, almost

mechanical, or in exercises of memory mainly. Moreover the failure of the test, to a great extent, in individual cases, and the liberal exercise of a mild discretion on the part of the person whose duty it might be to apply it, could be of little moment here; the general effect would be in a great degree produced by the mildest application of any reasonable test. And then, as to the difficulties to be encountered in deciding such cases, they cannot surely be greater than those which a medical man has in deciding on the health of individuals, which is constantly done for various important purposes; very imperfectly, no doubt, but still, on the average of a large number of instances, sufficiently for what is required.

With a reasonably good education, and diminished hours of labour, and that labour of a light kind, carried on in thoroughly well-ventilated rooms, there would be little to apprehend from the consequence of the employment of children in cotton factories. Hitherto, there can be no doubt, the consequences have been the degradation of the race, from one step to a lower, continually. Something has been done to diminish the evil, and avert the curse; but much more remains to be done; and against its being done, the supposed interests of both the classes immediately concerned will, of course, not cease to create opposition.

Bad as the condition, as regards education, of these poor factory children has been, it is not worse than that of other, and at least equally numerous, portions of Her Majesty's juvenile subjects. Still, the even greater difficulty in the way of improving the education of the children of agricultural labourers, and others, supplies a strong argument for persevering attempts in favour of children who are employed in large numbers, and within a small compass; so that they are accessible and can be dealt with. The cases of greater difficulty may, perhaps, be met effectively, when the others have been successfully treated, as they have been already, to some useful extent.

But the measures that have already been taken in this direction are by many looked upon with suspicion, as if they savoured of a despotic interference with things that claim to be let alone. And such suspicions would be well founded, could these questions be let alone by the Government, consistently with a due regard for the general interests of the country; as they assuredly cannot be. It will scarcely be contended that a civilized and Christian country has no right to provide against savages and heathens being nourished in its own bosom, and admitted to a share in all its advantages and privileges, at whatsoever risk. And yet the claim to exercise such a right is commonly questioned; as if its exercise were an infringement on the national liberties, instead of being a preservative and safeguard to them. Here again we must waitwait for a change in the current of public feeling-wait for the next advance towards that state of it, when the very populace will look

upon the blessing of a good and Christian education, as every man's birthright, and a parent's neglect of securing it for his child, as a crime against the community. The laws which, in Germany, compel the attendance of every child at some recognized school, for a prescribed period of its life; which provide that the child shall have support, and decent clothes in which to go there; and thus leave none to be picked up in the streets, and coaxed into attendance at a "ragged school;" these laws have not been forced on the people by despotic rulers, but have received the full support of public opinion. Frederick the Great began the work in North Germany, which we set about some few years ago, and in which we have, as yet, very much to do. There can be no good reason why every beneficial result of what has been done abroad should not attend our exertions; and there are many reasons for thinking that to us advantages will accrue, exceeding theirs in every respect.

There is another class of children, that came occasionally under my observation, whose condition is perhaps still more deplorable than that of any of those employed in cotton-mills, except only as regards their bodily health, which seemed satisfactory enoughI allude to the children employed in cotton-print works, with regard to whom the Legislature merely requires that they shall attend school, on the whole, 150 hours during each half-year. This regulation has been adopted on account of the irregular nature of the work required of the children, the times for which cannot, it is said, be predetermined. Of the necessity I cannot judge; but the smallness of the benefit derived by the children from their occasionally dropping in for an hour or two, and the disadvantage to the schools of having their systematic proceedings so intruded upon and disturbed, were sufficiently obvious.

If instead of a requirement of 150 hours, it were possible to dispose the same time for instruction in half-days, so that each child attended school during 50 half-days each half-year, it would be greatly to the advantage of the children. In most schools the occupation of each half-day is, or might be, arranged so as to include the most important lessons; thus no essential part of the instruction would be entirely lost to the children. Three hours' continuous instruction, moreover, would effect much more for them than three separate hours.

With regard also to another class of children, whose condition the law does not altogether neglect, viz., those employed in mines, I may add an extract from a letter addressed to me by an intelligent schoolmaster, and to which fully corresponds whatever I learned respecting the same class elsewhere:-"At the age of 10, they are allowed to go down and work in the mines; and, no sooner are they arrived at that age, than their parents, generally anxious and desirous that they should contribute something towards their own maintenance, readily seize the opportunity for accomplishing their wishes. The effect produced upon the moral