hours for breakfast and tea, and the hour for dinner," and continuing this excessive labour (which had to be performed mostly in a standing position) for nearly six months. This great evil of overworking children is as rife in Birmingham as in London. It is not surprising, therefore, if children who are sent to work at the age of seven, or even younger, become in after-life listless, and indifferent to education or any sort of mental improvement.

Savings Bank attached-Library.-To each School a Savings Bank is attached, and although the day on which it meets is Sunday, the deposits are taken in, and by this means a large sum is annually saved instead of being devoted to useless if not vicious purposes. In the Junior School alone, at Birmingham, this amounted to about 120/. in one year. A library is frequently added to a First-Day School, from which books can be borrowed by the pupils on payment of a small subscription. No fee is required from those whose attendance during the quarter is very regular. In the Adult Classes Sick Funds are also established, to provide a weekly sum in case of illness. The money in hand is usually divided at the end of each year.

Average Attendance of Scholars.-The success of a school may usually be judged of to a great extent by the average attendance of the scholars. In this respect the First-Day Schools show a remarkable result. From the percentage of attendances given in the Report of the present year (1870) it appears that in the sixty-seven Schools in connection with the Association, the results are as follows:

School the average attendance was over 80

In

per cent.

Birmingham has best Attendance-Regulations to secure this.— The highest average is at the Birmingham Adult Male School, which amounted to So'02 per cent. for the quarter. This may, perhaps, be due to the strictness of the regulations, which require that those who profess to be on the rolls of the School shall not absent themselves without leave, under pain of dismissal. In the upper division, all who are absent for five days in a quarter, are warned; and should they continue irregular, they are dismissed. Those who are thus punished are not

allowed to enter the School again for, at least, a twelvemonth. Some might think this rule severe, and likely to be detrimental to the School, whose interest it is to reach the lowest classes and those caring least to come. In reality this is not so, for the poor usually are more anxious to get that which requires some effort of their own to attain than to accept that which is unwillingly forced upon them. The experience at Birmingham certainly bears out this view, for very few Day or Sunday Schools, of any description, have such a high average attendance.

Action of Association. The Association does not, in any way, exercise control over the First-Day Schools. Its objects are to diffuse information with regard to them, to establish regular intercourse among them, by correspondence, by mutual conference, and by other means to increase their efficiency, and to encourage the formation of new schools. A meeting of the deputies from all the Schools is held every year, and at this meeting any alteration in the rules or other matter of importance is discussed and mutually agreed upon.

Chiefly confined to Adults.-As already stated, the tendency of the Society's Schools is to give increased attention to the Adult Classes. When first commenced, this was not so much the case; but of late years the attention of the Society of Friends has been largely turned to the Adult Schools, and indeed, in not a few instances, almost to the exclusion of the Children's. In this respect they differ in an essential particular from the ordinary Sunday Schools of other denominations, which are usually composed chiefly, if not entirely, of young children. Considering them from this point of view, with the present extensively deficient state of Adult Education, their action is most important.

Schools in London.-London was for many years far behind other places in the development of First-Day Schools. For several years previous to 1857, that held in the Old Room at Spitalfields, with some four or five hundred scholars, was the only one in the Metropolis. Since that time good Schools have been opened at Ratcliff, Shoreditch, Westminster, Deptford, Walthamstow, Holloway, and other places.

Hours of Attendance.—The early hour of meeting, as has been already incidentally mentioned, is one of the features of these Schools. When first commenced they were usually held in the afternoon, but in many instances great benefit was found in

changing the hour to the early morning, and now the Birmingham Schools for men meet at half-past seven. In many other places they assemble at eight or half-past, whilst in some the afternoon hour is still adhered to, to suit the requirements of the localities.

Statistics. At the present time the statistics of the working of these Schools are as follow:-67 are in connection with the Association. They are situated in 50 different places, and employ 586 male and 385 female voluntary Teachers. These give instruction to 7,671 men and boys and 4,752 women and girls, making a total of 12,423 pupils. Besides these there are 19 Schools unconnected with the Association, having 88 male and 69 female Teachers, and 957 male and 727 female students. The total number of pupils in all the Schools is therefore 14,107.

Attendance of Teachers.-The attendance of the Teachers is carefully noted, the Society of Friends being fully aware that almost everything depends on the energy and punctuality with which the Teachers fulfil their part of the work. Their labour is necessarily a labour of love, but it becomes almost useless if irregular and spasmodic. A careful record is kept in each school, and it appears that, out of a hundred meetings, every Teacher was on the average present the following number of times, viz. :

It will therefore be seen that the attendance of the female Teachers is slightly more regular than that of the male Teachers.

Conclusion. The order, discipline, and general tone of these Schools is quite in keeping with the general character of the Society to which they belong. They are conducted on the most liberal principles, and embrace many of a very ignorant class, who are too old to be likely, without considerable pressure, to enter the ordinary Sunday School. Their extension and success must be the wish of all who are sincerely interested in the improvement of the community.

47. RAGGED SCHOOLS.

Early History-Public Grants.-The distinction between Reformatory, Industrial, and Ragged Schools before State aid was given to Education was not very clear. Many were called Industrial Ragged Schools, and in fact there were but few of the last-named class which did not include Industrial training as a branch of their work. By whatever name they were designated, all had one common object, namely, to endeavour to reclaim that portion of the lower stratum of the community which was growing up in vice and ignorance. For many years Ragged Schools were similar to those now called 'Industrial,' and were eligible to receive public grants from the Committee of Council under the conditions of the Minutes of 1846. These grants were usually for rent, purchase of tools, and assistance towards the Teachers' salaries. The amounts thus expended by the State, however, were not large. In 1850 the Bristol Ragged School was the only one which took advantage of the aid, and received a grant of 8. In 1855 the number had increased to four, namely, two schools at Bristol, one at Gloucester, and another at Liverpool, and the amount of assistance had risen to 292/.

Petition for increased Grants.-In 1852 a memorial was presented to the Committee of Council from the Preventive and Reformatory School Committee, urging that additional grants should be made to Ragged Schools. This memorial stated that these Schools were intended for children who, by reason of the vice, neglect, or extreme poverty of their parents, were inadmissible to the ordinary Elementary Schools aided by Government. It was urged that the existing provisions on which assistance was granted under the Industrial Schools Minute were virtually such as to exclude Ragged Schools from reaping any benefit

from them. The reasons for this were, Ist, that the Masters were not qualified to pass the examination, though they were often far better fitted to teach Ragged School children than those more highly educated; 2nd, that the Industrial training given to these children was not intended to teach a trade, so much as to instil habits of industry. In consideration of these circumstances, the Memorialists petitioned, Ist, that Masters who gave satisfactory proof of their being fitted to conduct a Ragged School should be eligible to be aided by a Government grant; 2nd, that Monitors assisting in these Schools should likewise receive payment from the State; and 3rd,,that the conditions of the Building Grants should be somewhat modified, so as to meet the circumstances of Ragged Schools. The Committee of Council considered this memorial, but found it unadvisable to make the alterations proposed.

Stoppage of State Grants All Schools Free. In this way the Ragged Schools continued to receive the public aid, to which they were entitled by virtue of their fulfilling the conditions required of Industrial Schools, without having any peculiar advantages themselves. The Acts of Parliament by which Industrial Schools were certified,' led to a complete change in the system of payment. They ultimately brought about the regulation, that no school of this description, whether styled a Refuge, a Home, an Asylum, or Ragged School, which admitted of being certified, should obtain any assistance whatever, unless it consented to be examined, and was granted the certificate under the Act. From that time, therefore, all State aid to Ragged Schools, as they now exist, has ceased; and this large class of Institutions is supported entirely by private subscriptions. A main characteristic of them all is, that they are free, and consequently cannot depend on the usual resource derived from the children's pence.

Early Schools. Among the earliest Schools was the one established in 1835, in Gray's Yard, which was called a Free School.' Others started shortly after by Miss Howell, chiefly in Westminster, were styled 'Schools for the Destitute.' In 1844, when the Ragged School Union was originated, it appeared that there were twenty of these Institutions in London; and the number has gone on increasing so rapidly that now there is hardly a district of London, or a provincial town, where one at least has not been established. Many have been originated by