and Mr. Bruce, M.P., stated at the Educational Conference at Manchester, "he would undertake to say that 50 per cent. of the children that ought to be at school were not at school." In Prussia, on the other hand, the attendance being compulsory, comparatively few on the school list will be absent from school.

3. In our calculation we included scholars of all sorts of schools of which the Scotch Assistant Commissioners reported, the other day, that 20 per cent. of the schools in Glasgow were below fair. Professor Jack concludes that our proportion of scholars to population is much nearer 1 in 15 than 1 in 7.7, which, we flattered ourselves, we might compare to the Prussian 1 in 6-27. To state the fact more clearly, he says that in England we have 5 children above the age of 6 at school for every 12 in Prussia.

It is very easy to anticipate the objections to so extended a school life for the children of the poor. It will be said that not only cannot the parents afford to maintain a child so long at school, and provide it with clothes, food, and lodging, but also that in many cases a child's earnings after reaching 12 years of age are often very necessary to the support of the parents and the younger members of the family; and for this reason these objectors would sacrifice such children's hopes and prospects, and

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deliver them over to an amount of toil for which they are unfit by want of age and strength, and to a mental starvation and evil influence which will either dwarf the intellect and commit it to a lasting and hopeless unfitness for progress; or will brutalise and demonise it; adding thus to the criminal and destructive enemies of our country. It may be replied, better than this cruelty and wickedness let us be taxed to supply the means to give such poor children a fair start in life. But, indeed, little taxation is necessary; like all other duties assigned to us by Providence, the difficulty diminishes with the earnestness and resolution we bring to overcome it. In this case there can be no doubt that self-supporting schools, that is schools maintained to a great extent by the labour of the children themselves, properly adapted to their age, strength, and ability, would enable the greater number of these poor children to be taken out of the wretched dwellings and surroundings of their parents, and completely maintained and educated independently of them. Many such schools can be associated with factories, workshops, farms, etc., and made nearly selfsustaining. Certainly there is no reason why children's labour after 12 years of age should not, with the conditions and guards named, be made available.

Moreover, as Mr. Chadwick has observed, in the address before quoted, how much more valuable and effective a field for moral training is the workshop than the school. In the latter morality must be perceptive for the most part, but in the workshop it may be made practical and habitual, so long as it is associated with school and education.

The facts brought forward bring us to the conclusion that in England and Wales alone at this time about 4,000,000 of children are to be found between 6 and 14, for whom education and training are conditions as vital and essential as their daily bread. Supposing half of these children to belong to the poor, we find that the action of the Poor-Law results in putting in appearances for 35,000 of them only, and that of the Committee of Council on Education for 664,000 more-we cannot receive those as educated who were not presented to the inspectors for examination.

With this understanding of the necessity for a compulsory law, and of its spirit and scope, we will next proceed to examine the scheme for sup plying the means to carry the law out, and the method of education and training to be adopted.

It is proposed, then, that the pecuniary means under this system should include the existing ones of school fees, voluntary subscriptions, and payment by Government for results; but in addition

an enforced parochial rating in all cases where the preceding sources of income are insufficient for parochial schools.

The school fees should be adjusted to the wages or incomes of the parents, varying from 6d. a week to nothing in cases of great poverty or sickness. The amount, whatever it might be, to be settled in all cases of dispute by a public officer appointed for the purpose, and whose aid might be requested by any kind of religious or educational body.

Voluntary effort would be quite unimpeded, and as the different religious bodies would naturally themselves prefer educating the children of their flock rather than have the work done by others, so the voluntary efforts of religious communities would be greater than ever. Government aid, it is proposed, should reach every educational body and religious community, under exactly the same circumstances, and those should be simply and solely in the way of premiums for results. Every elementary school would require to fulfil certain conditions, such as, that the system of education should include moral and religious training; that the children should be taught and trained for 8 years, from 6 to 14; that the schools should be healthy, the teachers competent, and that the registers of attendance of each child being accurately kept should be open to the Government

Inspectors on their annual visit. At each annual visit, the inspector, after examining all the registers, and inspecting the children, would proceed to examine those children who, having attained the age of 14, had been under education and training for 8 years. If their examination proved satisfactory to the examiners he would then award to the school fund 20s. for any part of the examination that the child passed successfully, so that if the child passed in 2 parts, he would bring an aid of £2 to the school for his education, if in 3 parts £3, and if in all 4 parts £4. But we may suppose that the average passes would be 3. Let us suppose now the case of a school of 100 children-that every year an eighth of their number would be of the suitable age for examination; that of the 12 or 13 sent in for examination, 10 only passed, and that while some passed in all the 4 parts, others succeeded in 3 or 2 only, and that the average was 3. The Government reward for this success would be equivalent to £30 per annum. This would well pay a third of the expenses of such a school. The school fees of a hundred children ought to produce at least £40 per annum, and would thus leave very little help from voluntary offerings necessary to maintain the school. To float new schools there can be little doubt that voluntary help would pour in from the rich and populous to the poor and sparsely peopled