and certificates awarded in respect of it. 5. An Itinerating Library is provided, to which it is intended to add an Itinerating ArtExhibition. 6. A list of paid and honorary Lecturers is furnished, to which it is proposed to add a list of paid and honorary Teachers. 7. Facilities are afforded by the formation of Local Boards and otherwise, for conducting the examinations of the Society of Arts, the Department of Science and Art, and other examining bodies.

In order to facilitate the conducting of the several Examinations held under the auspices of the Union, the Executive have arranged -1. To distribute the Institutes into groups. 2. To hold the Examinations at convenient centres. 3. To form Local Boards to superintend the Examinations.

The Union has conducted three Examinations during the past year. The Elementary Examination is intended for candidates between the ages of 12 and 16 years, and for candidates above 16 years of age, who from the insufficiency of their elementary knowledge, are not qualified for admission to the "Final Examination of the Society of Arts."

It has been found difficult to obtain the services of Certificated Science Teachers. It is confidently asserted that this difficulty would be materially diminished by rescinding the regulation of the Department which practically prohibits Elementary Teachers who have pupil teachers under their charge, from acting as Science Teachers, by refusing to admit them to payment on results.

It is felt that the regulation is altogether indefensible in point of principle, while it seriously impedes the formation of Science Classes, and is besides inconsistent with the rest of the procedure of the Committee of Council on Education, which now gives to School Committees and Teachers free action to make such arrangements as they may find expedient. The Executive of the Union have made persistent efforts to get this oppressive restriction removed.

One very remarkable feature in the history of Mechanics' Institutes is the strong and almost universal tendency to subordinate all their agencies and machinery to the promotion of class-instruction. Viewed in relation to the progress of sound education, it is impossible to overrate the importance of this feature. It is in connection with this characteristic that the movement in the direction of Working-Men's Clubs and other similar organisations stands in such intimate association with the future of Mechanics' Institutes. The movement is a very real and valuable part of education. It constitutes an opportunity of applying to the lives of the hardworking members of the community, richer and more varied resources in reference to pleasure and recreation. The social element of the club-room will, in many instances, prove a door of entrance to the class-room. In it, too, tastes might be cultivated, and sentiments awakened, which might lead to a higher culture.

It seems evident that the labours of the Union should, in reference to immediately educational objects, be energetically directed

towards giving prominence to three points at least in the working of the several Institutes, viz.:-1. To press upon each Institute the great importance of founding such a system of classes, as shall place within the reach of every member the elements of a sound and useful education. 2. To urge the application of the most earnest efforts, to introduce into all branches of the elementary instruction the utmost possible soundness and accuracy. 3. To assist the arranging in every district, for the employment of one or two efficient teachers, who may itinerate through the several parts of the district. The great utility of this last arrangement, in many directions, is very manifest. It is here that the principle of co-operation and mutual helpfulness may act with eminent effect. That teaching power which any single institute would be quite unable to provide by its unassisted efforts, becomes easily procurable where several institutes are so grouped together. It may be added, that wherever the experiment has been tried, it has been attended with surprisingly successful results. On the whole, then, the Union may be said to have proved not unequal to the purposes for which it was instituted, though its operations have been, as might have been expected, much affected by the circumstance of the distress which has greatly prejudiced the progress of some institutes, and imperilled the very existence of others. The Union collects, organises, and applies whatever is most useful in the general action and procedure, to the end that the best experience of each may be made common to all. And while it tends to improve the method of teaching, and raise the standard of attainment, it helps also to diffuse through the whole system a higher order of life and purpose.

WORKING MEN'S CLUBS.

The Rev. H. SOLLY read a paper "On Working Men's Clubs and Institutes." Its object was to trace the origin and organic principles of the Working Men's Club and Institute movement, and to show that these institutions must gradually aim at the complete culture and social enjoyment of working men, if they are to be permanent. He maintained, that while they should begin with the simplest forms of relaxation, they must lead up to the higher aims of Working Men's Colleges, and that if they had an organic principle of life in them, they would inevitably grow into higher forms.

EDUCATION OF FARM SERVANTS.

The Rev. F. DIGBY LEGARD read a paper "On the Education of Farm Servants." He stated, that on the Yorkshire wolds it was the custom for farm servants to live under their master's roof, some farmers having as many as thirty young men and boys in their service. There was great complaint of the character and conduct of the class, which Mr. Legard traced to the want of education and moral control. Farm boys leave school at the age of nine or ten,

and soon forget all that they learn there; the farmers pay no regard to moral character in hiring the lads, and exercise no moral control over them. Mr. Legard advocated the establishment of evening classes for farm servants, but said that the co-operation of the masters was necessary in order to secure attendance on the part of the youths, and that this co-operation had yet to be obtained."

Miss MARY SIMPSON also contributed a paper "On the Life and Training of Farm Boys," in which she dwelt in detail on the evils pointed out by Mr. Legard. This paper has been published elsewhere.

THE HALF-TIME SYSTEM.

The Rev. H. G. EARNSHAW read a paper 66 On the Necessity and Facilities for a further Extension of the Factory Act, with Special Reference to the Half-time System." He described the causes that had led to the adoption of the Factory Act as a protective measure for the children employed in the factories, and showed that it had been most beneficial in its operation, and ought to be extended to other classes of the community.

DISCUSSION.

Mr. AKROYD gave some interesting details of the working of the half-time system in his large establishment. He and his father had been opposed to the introduction of the measure, but after it was carried they had striven to give it their most earnest and practical support. The result of the steps they had taken, by the establishment of schools, &c., was that they have now in the schools at the Copley Mills, 273 girls and 240 boys; at Haley Mill, 332 girls and 330 boys, making a total of 1,175. The schools they had established for persons not employed in their mills were attended by 242 infants; the Women's Institute by 54 women; and the Working Men's College by 162 adult males; making an aggregate total of 1,633 persons who were receiving some degree of education. Throughout the whole of the West Riding similar educational machinery had been called into operation for the benefit of the half-time workers. It had been said that the Factory Act had not been a complete success, but that arose not from the operation of the Act itself, but from one particular portion of it which enabled employers to employ "full-timers" without their previously having attended any school whatever. He reviewed the means that the Act provided for the education of children, and showed that they were to a great extent inoperative because there was no provision for compelling the attendance of the children at school until the age of 13. Their labour was beneficial to their parents, and the latter had not sufficient regard for the interests of their offspring, and their own ultimate good, to restrain them from taking them away from school at a tender age. All the prize systems that had been devised had failed, and would fail unless they could compel the attendance of children up to 13 or 14 years. He advocated the extension of the principle embodied in the Act to all classes of workers, and argued from experience that the measure which had been so beneficial to the children in the factory towns would be equally advantageous for those in the agricultural districts. The system had been tried with success by Mr. Paget, in Nottinghamshire, and by Lord Hatherton. It was clear that in proportion as we elevated the substratum of society, we must raise the whole of the superincumbent strata; and he thought there were powerful means for effecting this end placed in their hands by the Factory Act. The quality of their workmen, as workers, had been improved. Since the full benefit of the Factory Act had been shown in the character of their workpeople, they had hardly had any serious misunderstanding with them. There had been no

such thing as a serious strike. He and his firm had to deal now with an intelligent body of men: and when any little disagreement as to wages arose, they found that they were able to settle all difficulties in the course of a short interview with their leading workmen. As the result of the superior intelligence on the part of their workmen-an intelligence that was the offspring of the Factory Act-a much better feeling had prevailed between employers and employed in their works.

REFORMATORY SCHOOLS.

The Rev. I. FISH read a paper entitled "The Curriculum of a Reformatory," showing the method of education in a reformatory school. The material on which the teacher operated was probably the most unpromising to be found in the land. It consisted of children whose simple qualification was crime. The first requisite, therefore, was provision for safe custody. School instruction formed, as might be supposed, a primary element in reformatory training. Of the last 100 boys admitted to the Castle Howard Reformatory only 30 were able to read, and of these only 12 could read well, The instruction given there did not go much beyond the three R's, but a great deal was learnt in the course of learning these; religious training was made a special subject. The next great division of discipline was labour, and whether considered in its relation to health and the proper development of bodily powers, or in its influence on the mental and moral life of criminals, it was invaluable. After referring to other matters of detail respecting reformatories, the paper stated that the result up to this time was most gratifying, as 70 per cent. of those who passed through reformatories became industrious and honest, instead of remaining a pest to society.

SCHOOLS OF ART.

Mr J. C. SWALLOW, in a paper on the "Relation of Schools of Art to the Government," after tracing the history of Schools of Design from their first establishment in 1837, the establishment of the Department of Science and Art in 1852, the minutes of 1862-3, and the Government inquiry in 1864, pointing out the manner in which the provincial schools had been starved in order to benefit South Kensington Museum, said he considered schools of art had not paid, and in all probability never would; therefore it was the duty of the State to contribute to their maintenance. That was done by the Government, who had voted upwards of £100,000 for the purpose, but only about £10,000 of this sum reached the London district and provincial schools. The combined association of masters and committees were about to ask Parliament for a direct grant of £20,000. It was of the partial manner in which the grant had hitherto been distributed that the provincial schools of art complained. Mr. Swallow proposed that elementary art should be taught in every school; that there should be a more extended system for grammar

and all middle-class schools; a professorship of art at the colleges; a visiting artist at all the public galleries where students are admitted to copy; that the provincial schools should be schools of painting, sculpture, and ornament, with picture galleries and museums attached to them, and the staff of teachers should be thoroughly efficient. There should be no training school for masters, but a central board of examiners, the same in constitution as the College of Surgeons, to grant diplomas and travelling lectureships. The South Kensington Museum should only be the depository for feeding the local museums, and not the exhibition for the whole country. To the carrying out of such a system, three things would be necessary— local subscriptions, a liberal scale of fees, and a liberal assistance from the Government. By these means such a development of natural taste in art would be produced as would raise this country to the highest pinnacle of artistic fame.

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