under 16 years of age were relieved in the metropolitan districts.

From a careful examination of the official half-yearly returns of six of the largest metropolitan unions, it was found by this writer on January 1, 1866, that while 1,469 children were relieved, there were admitted, during the half year, 2,730 cases, and it is found generally that the yearly admissions of different children are double the number admitted on any single day. Applying this rule to the whole of the metropolitan district, we discover that 19,082 children are found in the workhouses for a longer or shorter period every half year.

With regard to the children relieved at their own homes, the numbers are found to vary in proportion as the relief given is temporary or permanent. Thus, when given on account of the temporary illness of parents, there is found a frequent change in names of those relieved. In the

6 months investigated, 1,226 children were relieved at their own homes on January 1, 1866; but in the half year no less than 8,911 children had been entered on the relief list. So that under this form of distress, for 1 child relieved on any particular day, there are 7 relieved in the course of the half year.

So again, with another form of distress, occa sioned by the husband leaving his wife in search of work at a distance, it was found that for 95 children relieved on January 1, 415 were relieved in the 6 months. The proportion here was about 1 to 4.

In the case of widows the relief is of a more continuous and less varying character. The order for relief is often given for a month or 3 months, so that for 1 person relieved on a particular day, probably 2 only will be found on the books for the half year. It is the same with widow's children; it was found that the number relieved on January 1 being 2,622, only 3,785 were relieved in the 6 months. Taking all the children on outrelief on January 1, nearly 5,250, there were 17,228 relieved in the course of the half year ending on Lady Day, 1866.

It would appear, therefore, that multiplication of the number found on a particular day by 31 would give the total number for half a year. This done in the case before us gives us a total

of 110,799 pauper children on out-relief, which, combined with the number in workhouses and district schools (9,541), make together 120,340 children whose parents obtain parish relief in the half year. If to this sum we add only a 4th more, for the addition of the number received in the second half of the year, the total then represents, as the writer referred to says, "150,000 children, whose parents live in a state of chronic indigence, and who obviously are not able to pay much for the education of their families."

The last report of the Ragged Schools' Union informs us that the number of their Sunday scholars is about 36,000, and the usual number of children on the books of the day and evening schools is about the same. The changes in the year are often 3, and occasionally 4 times the number of scholars in attendance at any particular date. Therefore there must be about 100,000 children belonging to the pauper class, and appearing in these schools for a longer or a shorter time, and, as the writer quoted points out, "if we add to those a few whose parents struggle to pay for a better education than is here obtained; and also some 10,000 at least, who have never seen the inside of a school, and about 40,000 more who are too young to go, we arrive at pretty much the same result " as that obtained by a study of the relief parish books.

D

Mr. Farnall reports-"That the condition of out-door pauper children in the rural districts, and in the same class in London, is very dissimilar, and more especially as regards their physical and intellectual state, in which the London children display a marked inferiority. It is well known," says he, "that the homes of these children are in the comfortless garrets and cellars of the unwholesome courts and alleys of London, that their parents form a portion of the refuse of the people, and that they and their children are to be found huddled together in swarms, clothed for the most part with raggedness and filth, and indebted for their very existence to the poor-rates. Corruption of an obstinate and firm growth has its fixed abode amongst them, and is the inevitable consequence of their miseries, their helplessness, and their vices."

Dr. Kay and Mr. Tufnel wrote thus of these children 20 years ago, and the description is perfectly applicable now-"The pauper children come to Norwood from the garrets, cellars, and wretched rooms of alleys and courts in the dense parts of London, in a low state of destitution, covered only with rags and vermin, often the victims of chronic disease, almost universally stunted in their growth, and oftentimes emaciated with want. The low-browed and inexpressive physiognomy is a true index to the mental

darkness, the stubborn tempers, the hopeless spirits, and the vicious habits upon which the master has to work."

The Master of the North Surrey School says that it is easy to distinguish a child brought from Croydon, Lewisham, or Richmond, because he is as tall and strong at 9 years old as the Londoner at 13.

The Master of the Central London School said that "The children admitted form the dregs of the population, and they arrive in various stages of squalor and disease; all of them are more or less debased, their intellectual capacities are of the lowest order; their moral sense is stifled or inactive through suspicion or obstinacy." All except 20 in last year's admission were unable to read more than monosyllables, the majority had never learned the alphabet, and for the most part those who had done so had been at the school before. Two children, fit for the 3rd and 4th classes, came, the one from another pauper school, and the other from a charitable ladies' establishment situated in the Borough."

At Limehouse there were admitted 107 children, of whom only 12 knew how to read and 27 had never been at a school of any kind.

Colonel Jebb observes that from this great mass of neglected childhood, spring the juvenile criminals that eventually stock our gaols with hardened offenders.