many are damp and dirty; more than one-half of them are used as dwelling, dormitory and school-room, accommodating, in many cases, families of seven or eight persons: above forty of them are cellars."

In Manchester, "the greater part of them are kept by females, but some by old men, whose only qualification for this employment seems their unfitness for any other. Many of these teachers are engaged at the same time in some other employment, such as shopkeeping, sewing, washing, &c., which renders any regular instructions among their scholars absolutely impossible. Indeed, neither parents nor teachers seem to consider this as the principal object in sending the children to these schools, but generally say that they go there in order to be taken care of, and to be out of the way at home."

"In Salford, as was found to be the case in Manchester and Bury, very little instruction is conveyed; in fact, the younger children appear only to be sent thither in order to relieve the parents from their charge."

Very few of these schools were found to possess more than fragments of books, and in many cases no books were to be seen; the mistress not having the means, had she the inclination to procure them."

"Order and cleanliness are little regarded, and the children are, for the most part, congregated in close and dirty rooms, in which the whole business of the school is carried on, and where the family sleep. The generality of the teachers are wholly incompetent to the task of instruction, and their ignorance on the most common topics is lamentable.'

The common schools, which are attended by children between the ages of five and fourteen, are represented in the Reports to be very little superior to the dameschools with respect to instruction; and, with respect to ventilation, to be often worse. The Birmingham Report thus speaks of those, which are in that town :"Ventilation is very little attended to in these schools, and, in some, cleanliness is equally neglected. There is generally a much greater number of children crowded together than in dame-schools, and the effluvia, arising from the mass of the scholars mingled with the close air exhausted of its oxygen, and unfit for the purpose of comfortable or healthy respiration, under any long continuance in the school, intolerable to a person unaccustomed to it. The systems of instruction adopted are of the most imperfect kind; the general principle of by far the largest number is that of requiring the child to commit to memory a certain quantity of matter, without any attempt being made to reach the understanding... In only twentynine out of the whole 177 schools out of this class, do the teachers profess to interrogate the children on what they read and learn; eight out of the twenty-nine who do interrogate their children, admit that it is only done occasionally, when time and opportunity permit. As in the dame-schools, corporal punishments form almost the whole of the moral training in these establishments."

The Manchester schools are described thus:" In the great majority of these schools there seems to be a complete want of order and system. The confusion arising from this defect, added to the low qualifications of the master, the number of scholars under the superintendence of one teacher, the irregularity of attendance, the great deficiency of books, and the injudicious plan of instruction, or rather the want of any plan, render them nearly inefficient for any purposes of real instruction." According to the Reports, the schools of the same class in Liverpool, Salford and Bury, are very similar to those of Birmingham and Manchester.

From the answers uniformly made to my inquiries on this subject among persons acquainted with the poor, I judge that the great majority, both of dame and common schools, in the Lancashire towns, answer to these descriptions; and the very few which my time enabled me to visit did not contradict that conclusion. In one of these dame-schools I found thirty-one children, from two to seven years of age. The room was a cellar of about ten feet square and about seven feet high. The only window was less than eighteen inches square, and not made to open. Although it was a warm day, towards the close of August, there was a fire burning; and the door, through which alone any air could be admitted, was shut. Of course, therefore, the room was close and hot; but there was no remedy. The damp

subterraneous walls required, as the old woman assured us, a fire throughout the year. If she opened the door the children would rush out to light and liberty, while the cold blast rushing in would torment her aged bones with rheumatism. Still further to restrain their vagrant propensities, and to save them from the danger of tumbling into the fire, she had crammed the children as closely as possible into a dark corner at the foot of her bed. Here they sat in the pestiferous obscurity, totally destitute of books, and without light enough to enable them to read, had books been placed in their hands. Six children, indeed, out of the thirty had brought some twopenny books, but these also having been made to circulate through sixty little hands, were now so well soiled and tattered as to be rather the memorials of past achievments than the means of leading the children to fresh exertions. The only remaining instruments of instruction possessed by the dame, who lamented her hard lot, to be obliged at so advanced an age to tenant a damp cellar, and to raise the means of paying her rent by such scholastic toils, were a glassful of sugar plums near the tattered leaves on the table in the centre of the room, and a cane by its side: every point in instruction being thus secured by the good old rule of mingling the useful with the sweet.

Not far from this infant asylum I entered a common school. It was a room on the ground-floor, up a dark and narrow entry and about twelve feet square. Here forty-three boys and girls were assembled of all ages, from five to fourteen. Patches of paper were pasted over the broken panes of the one small window, before which also sat the master intercepting the few rays of light which would otherwise have crept into the gloom. Although it was in August, the window was closed, and a fire added to the animal heat, which radiated from every part of the crowded chamber. In the front of the fire, as near to it as a joint on the spit, a row of children sat with their faces towards the master and their backs to the furnace. By this living screen the master, though still perspiring copiously, was somewhat sheltered from the intolerable heat. As another measure of relief, amidst the oppression of the steaming atmosphere, he had also laid aside his coat. In this undress he was the better able to wield the three canes, two of which, like the weapons of an old soldier, hung conspicuously on the wall, while the third was on the table ready for service. When questioned as to the necessity of this triple instrumentality, he assured us the children were "abrupt and rash in their tempers," that he generally reasoned with them respecting their indiscretion, but that when civility failed he had recourse to a little severity.

There was no classification of the children; and the few books in the school were such as some of the parents chose to send. Under such circumstances the poor man had an arduous task to accomplish; and not knowing what situations night not be in our gift, he informed us that he would gladly avail himself of any opportunity of quitting an employment, to which extravagance alone had caused him to descend.

Schools so conducted can answer few of the purposes of education. They may teach some of the children reading, writing, and arithmetic; while occasionally a favourite scholar, who pays well for it, may learn the elements of grammar, or read a few pages of history. But the mass of the children cannot there learn their duties, nor obtain any useful knowledge, nor become observant or reflective, nor acquire the habit of self-government, nor be prepared to be wise and good men in after life.

Nearly the whole, therefore, of the number attending these schools must be substracted from the numbers supposed to be receiving sound instruction.

The next item in the total of 122,758 reported to be under instruction in the five towns, is 48,966 who receive Sabbath instruction only. The whole number of Sunday-scholars in these towns is 79,299, who are gathered into 270 schools, and are taught by 7,518 teachers, the great majority of whom are gratuitous. It is not a little remarkable, that so many children and young persons, engaged for the most part in factories, for thirteen hours each day through the week, should be willing to devote their Sunday hours, not to recreation, but improvement, It is yet more remarkable, that in these towns about 7,000 persons, generally young, and often themselves laboriously engaged during the week, should devote their

leisure on the Sabbath to this work of benevolence. Nor can I doubt that their labours are of immense value. Many of the children learn to read, who would have been without that attainment. Some, by means of the evening-schools attached to the Sunday-schools, learn also writing and arithmetic. Numbers of them who, to attain the art of reading, stay long in the school, confirm the habit of attending Divine worship, and of consecrating the Sabbath to religious objects. These, by forming friendships for other well-behaved young persons at school, learn to dislike the society of the coarse and profligate; while some, regarding their teachers with affectionate gratitude, receive their Christian counsels, become devout communicants, conduct themselves respectably in after life, and at length are chosen to be teachers themselves. In the Sunday-schools connected with St Paul's, Manchester, about 200 teachers and scholars are communicants. At Bolton, a class was pointed out to me in the Sunday-school of the old Church, nearly all the members of which attend the Lord's supper. In the adult school belonging to St. Paul's, at Preston, seventy-one young persons, either grown up or nearly so, and most of whom could read fluently, were being instructed by eight teachers in the truths and duties of religion. And in several large schools I was assured that nearly all the teachers had themselves been taught in the school.

But, on the other hand, it is to be feared, that the mass of children attending these schools, are far from obtaining all those great and permanent advantages which are thus reaped by many. Some of these schools are exclusively Roman Catholic, in which the reading of the Scriptures forms no part of the school exercises. Others are devoted to the doctrines of Unitarianism. In some, the Sabbath hours, which should be occupied with religious instruction, are partly spent in learning writing, arithmetic, grammar, secular history, and elocution. In some, the majority of children attend no place of worship; and in others, there being no gratuitous teachers, their whole business is to assemble for church, or to go through some reading lesson with the master and the monitors, much as they would do on any other day of the week.

There are also very serious obstacles to the usefulness of all the remaining schools. More than half of them are in operation for less than four hours in the day; and much of this time is necessarily occupied in opening and closing the school, registering the names, and putting such vast machines in motion. Many of them have scarcely any discipline with respect to attendance, and the children come or stay away at pleasure. With many of these scholars, the main object of coming to school is to learn to read; and in some cases the teachers seem to forget that they ought to have higher ends in view. When this is not the case, many of the teachers, being very young, and never having been at any day-school, may themselves be very ill-qualified; since they very rarely are instructed in the art of teaching, either by the superintendents of the schools, or by their ministers. But the deficiencies of the teacher must materially affect the class; and the more so, because the method and course are often left wholly to his discretion. Often, too, it happens, that the scholars, working in the same factories with their teachers, and obtaining perhaps nearly equal wages, fail to regard them with that respect which superior station, age, and attainments would command. Further whatever impressions may be made upon the children's minds in the four hours during which the school is in operation, must in various cases be obliterated by the opposite impressions made by their intercourse with the promiscuous crowds of the factories during seventy-five hours of weekly labour; and should this influence fail to be sufficiently corrupting, some of the children have the additional misfortune to receive bad counsel and to witness bad example at home. When, on the other hand, parents are prudent and well principled, their influence is sometimes fatally counteracted by the early independence of the children. Should they, as is frequently the case, be deriving much of their income from their children's labour, it would require more resolution than they may possess, to exercise any moral discipline; and the dread of their leaving home, or the certainty that they will despise their counsels, is said to render many the helpless spectators of faults in their children, which they have not courage to correct. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that teachers should occasionally complain that their best efforts are often

:

frustrated; and that many of the children whom they instruct, become, on leaving the schools, both immoral and profane. Instruction so superficial cannot properly be termed education; nor can the children who are taught in Sunday-schools alone-destitute, as they are, of all secular instruction, untrained by any moral discipline, and, on the contrary, exposed to the most demoralizing influences through the six days of the week-be rightly said to be educated. But of the 79,299 Sunday-scholars in the five towns, 48,966 attend Sunday-schools only. These must, therefore, be subtracted from the number under instruction, if we wish to ascertain the number who are educated. But when to this number is added 36,033 who are taught in dame and common schools only, and both numbers are subtracted from 122,758, who are reported to be under education, there remain only 37,759 of whom it can be said that they are receiving education.

In the next place, as my inquiries extended only to schools for the working classes, I must divide this reduced number into two parts; since 10,236 of these children, belong to superior schools, which did not come within my inquiry. When these also are subtracted, there remain only 27,523 children collected into all sorts of public schools for the children of the working classes.

These schools are of three kinds-infant, juvenile, or evening. The infant-schools receive children from two years to six and seven; the juvenile-schools receive those who are above six or seven; and the evening-schools are opened for those children or young persons who, being engaged during the day in manual labours, cannot attend the daily schools. 3,273 infants attend the first class of schools; 20,004 children attend the second class; and 3,246 young persons are instructed in the

third.

Infant schools, if they only rescued young children from an exhausted atmosphere and a wearisome confinement, from their own fretfulness and the irritation of their gaolers-if they did nothing but contribute to their health and cheerfulness -if they were only safe and comfortable asylums when their parents are obliged to leave home for their daily employments-would be most merciful institutions: but they do much more than this; since many of their little inmates learn the first rudiments of arithmetic, acquire the art of reading, are taught to observe and reason on what is around them, and receive the first lessons of religion and morality. The evening-schools also are useful to those young persons, whose education, having been neglected in their early childhood, are anxious to add to the art of reading the power of writing and the knowledge of the first rules of arithmetic. But infant schools can only be regarded as the commencement of education, since children leave them at seven years of age, while they are still infants; and the eveningschool, which only affords instruction for four hours in the week, and that when the scholars are jaded with twelve or thirteen hours of toil, cannot educate those who attend it. The only schools, therefore, in these five towns, in which any thing which can be termed education, even in the most limited sense of the word, is imparted to the children of the working-classes, are the public, day, or juvenile schools, containing 20,004 children; and I now beg to lay before your Lordships some remarks upon the quality of this education.

To estimate rightly the state of our elementary schools, it is necessary to bear in mind some of the chief objects of the education of the people. These are to make them, under the blessing of God, happier and better; or, in other words, to make them well-informed, intelligent, industrious, moral and religious.

It would be a great mistake to point out to children instances of persons raised by successful industry, or by remarkable talent, to dignity and wealth, as illustrating what education may do for them. This, with respect to the greatest number who never can so rise, would form in them expectations which must be disappointed. What is worse, it would give them false views of a life of labour. Our Lord, by becoming a poor man, has taught us that lowly stations are honourable when connected with wisdom and with piety; and every day's observation may show us how much of genuine happiness may be found in them. We have, then, to teach children, not that they should seek to raise themselves above the necessity of labour; but that labour, which is the appointment of God, and while it secures the health also strengthens the understanding, is consistent with the greatest en

it

joyment of life; that, supplying a nation with all its comforts, and being the source of its opulence and strength, it must be creditable to individuals; and that a man of intelligence, wisdom, and moral worth in a cottage has more true dignity than a sensual, selfish, ignorant, and irreligious man, though he should be the owner of a palace. But, while education is not meant to raise the working classes above their condition, it may greatly multiply the comforts which they enjoy in it. It may preserve them from exchanging light, clean, and cheerful cottages for comfortless cellars; it may give them better clothes, better food, and better health; it may deck their windows with fairer flowers, spread cleaner linen on their tables, and adorn their dwellings with more convenient furniture. While it may enable a few, by superior attainments, to fill higher situations with credit to themselves and with advantage to their employers, it may enable many to turn to account the advantages of their humbler situations. It may teach them how to gain and how to spend; it may secure to them employment, and save them from waste; may hinder them from sinking into abject poverty, or should they, by the force of adverse circumstances, be brought into trouble, it may so multiply their intellectual resources, and nerve them with so firm a courage, as may enable them again to rise above it. By increasing and elevating their domestic affections it may invest their homes with an undecaying charm; by inspiring them with a thirst for knowledge it may provide rational and ennobling amusement for their hours of leisure; and by both these additions to their spiritual existence may rescue some from spending their evenings idly in their chimney-corner in mere vacuity of thought; and others, from resorting to the public-house for the pleasure of talking obscenity and scandal, if not sedition, amidst the fumes of gin and the roar of drunken associates. Good principles, good sense, and good manners, the fruits of education, may give them the honest satisfaction derived from the respect of all their neighbours. By its aid they may learn to think so soundly, and to weigh evidence with so much acuteness, that the wild doctrines of a licentious Infidelity may shock their understandings as well as revolt their hearts. And thus placed beyond the reach both of superstition and profanity, they may be led to seek and enjoy, through faith in Christ, the favour and the blessing of God. Education may thus raise the character of their enjoyments through life, and teach them, in the wellfounded hope of happiness beyond the grave, to meet death with tranquillity.

If in this way education may make the working classes happier, it is equally certain that it may make them better. It may teach them to show civility to passing strangers instead of treating them with rudeness; it may accustom them to respect females, and to resent any affront put upon them, instead of making them, as is now often the case, the object of their coarse and insulting merriment; and it may lead them to protect the innocent animals who may labour for the service of men, instead of showing, as the ignorant often do, a fiendish exultation in inflicting pain upon them. It may teach them to master their appetites, to contend with their passions, to resist temptations, and to seek through all their lives that improvement of mind and heart which may only end in the moral and intellectual perfection of a better state. By it they may be taught to obey their parents with cheerfulness, honour them in their words and conduct, and repay their kindress with gratitude; to behave with courtesy, justice, and kindness to each other; to be just to their employers, careful of their property, and anxious to promote their interests; aud sympathizing with the trials of the afflicted, to be ready to do for them all the little services in their power. It may further inspire them with loyalty to the Queen, and with love to their country; raise them above the temptation of a bribe in the exercise of any political rights which they may possess, and separate them from those who would seek any supposed amelioration of the laws by the methods of violence and injustice. Under its influence they may become upright, generous, disinterested, affectionate, and benevolent in all their intercourse with their fellow-creatures; and as our greatest debt is due to the greatest and best of beings, our Maker, Preserver, and Redeemer, it may lead them to love and serve Him, to obey His precepts, to trust Him in their trials, to praise Him for every blessing which they enjoy, and generally to glorify Him with all their faculties and in all their habits.