of the school for work in the mill or other employment at home. The returns of the numbers at each school, with other particulars about them, will be found in the Appendix.

The number of places visited during this tour of inspection, at which were schools aided by grants from the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury, previously to the existence of the Committee of Council on Education, is, as I have stated above,

It is obvious that this is a high average. It is owing chiefly to the large schools at Liverpool (several of which are included in the list), the sites of which in some instances have cost above onethird of the whole expense. At Christchurch, for instance, situated in the centre of the town, the site of about 300 square yards— cost 13487.! At St. Luke's the site was valued at 4007.; at Toxteth Park, St. John's, the price was 5447. 16s.; at St. Bride's, 4427. 9s. 6d. It seems important to mention this circumstance, lest any calculations made on the cost (per child) of schoolbuildings should lead to error rather than be of any practical benefit.

At 22 of the 36 places, the buildings are of stone; at 14, of bricks-the greater part of them are slated with blue slate. A few of them are handsome and well finished. Among these may be mentioned the infant-school at Chorley, the National Schools at Clitheroe, Crashaw Booth, and Walton-le-Dale, with the Sundayschool at Stand. Several schools in Liverpool, though spacious and substantial, are badly situated and inconveniently arranged. One room in them-generally appropriated to infants-is below the level of the street or road, and is therefore unavoidably dark and cheerless, noisy, and not unfrequently damp. This fault of construction has arisen, no doubt, from a laudable desire of economising and making the most of ground which it is difficult to procure in central situations, and which in the large towns is, as we have noted above, a considerable item of expense. But such

cellar-like rooms are unfit for the purposes of education, and least of all for that of infant-teaching. The little ones require welllighted and cheerful rooms almost as much as well-skilled and kind teachers.

Of the 36 places on the Treasury list, 16 have only one schoolroom; 15 have two; 5 have three separate rooms. In very few cases are there any class-rooms attached to the schools. I need not say that this is a great deficiency; and it seems no little sign either of imperfect knowledge or very straitened funds of schoolcommittees, that they have not more frequently and urgently applied themselves to remedy this deficiency. But there is a still greater want, for all educational purposes, at the majority of these schools: at only 5 out of the 36 are there teachers' residences belonging to them and connected with, or adjacent to, the school-buildings. The value of a master's residence is greatnot only that the rent which he pays for another house is thereby saved, and his stipend (usually insufficient) is by this means proportionally increased, but the protection afforded by it to the school property is no small consideration in places where there are many ill-disposed and mischievous lads. And the respectability which it adds to the teacher's position, as his appointed and official residence, is well worth the additional expense of its erection.

In 36 places the means of warming the rooms are these :—

This return, as far as it goes-and it is often confirmed by similar statements-seems to assert the superiority of stoves to any other means of warming our schools. They not only give a higher but more equal temperature to the different parts of the room; they are better suited to its constant and thorough ventilation; their expense, on the whole, both of prime cost and working, is less; the danger of accident to the children is almost entirely removed by their use.

Of the comparatively few schools which are warmed by hotwater pipes, hardly any are sufficiently heated. The apparatus is cumbrous, costly, unsightly, and generally produces very little effect in the room. At one school in Lancashire (Shaw, in

Crompton) which I visited this year, apparatus of this kind was fitted round the school at the height of 7 or 8 feet from the ground. It was like a large black snake coiled round the classes. A more unsightly method could hardly be conceived; and it produced very little effect in heating the room. A National school does not seem to be a fit place for such experiments, especially in the factory districts, where the children, accustomed to the high temperature of the mill, require a warm and well-ventilated school

room.

There is, however, no point on which these schools (and indeed the same may be said with less excuse of buildings more recently erected) are more defective than in the very important one of ventilation. Notwithstanding all that has been said, and written, and provided for this object, our National schools are not often well ventilated. Of the 36 schools (in this list) only 4 are reported to be in a good state of ventilation; 22 are returned as tolerable only, and very imperfect in this respect, being ventilated only from the doors and windows, without other means; and 10 others are marked as "bad," having no special means of ventilation, and with few or no windows opening for this purpose. Not many teachers seem aware of the necessity of good ventilation for the health of children assembled in considerable numbers, nor of the important aid which it affords to themselves in maintaining the order and good discipline of their schools. In a close room, where the air is impure and unfit for respiration, the children soon become either sleepy or restless. In either case the work of the school is hindered. Fresh stimulants must be applied in the shape of the cane or the strap; and when this application becomes habitual, it is not easy to say how much the school loses both in tone and progress. I am convinced that many a blow would be spared, and many a task acquired, by the constant circulation of fresh air in the school-room.

The buildings at the 36 places are generally in good condition. Of the whole number

22 are in good repair.
9 are in tolerable state.
5 are in bad repair.

Those which are returned as tolerable are dirty and defective in small things, such as whitewash, bolts, hinges to doors, &c.

The 5 in bad repair are these:-Cabin-End (Oswaldtwistle), where the building seems originally defective, and unable at the south and west sides to keep out the heavy rains to which it is exposed from these quarters. Lower Darwen has apparently no drainage; the room is intolerably damp; the lower part of the west side quite green. It is said that a boy, who lay down on the floor to sleep, lost the use of his limbs in consequence. I consider the rooms unfit, in their present state, for children to remain in

6 hours of the day. At Hambleton, also, the room is very damp; the floor (made of bricks laid, it seems, with sea-sand) is always wet; the whole fabric needs repair. At Pemberton (Goose Green) the master's house, which is in the middle of a good garden, is almost uninhabitable from the state of the roof, walls, and floors; the master does not reside in it. And at Samlesbury the school (used only on Sundays) does not appear to have been substantially erected or well finished; the walls at each end are very damp, as if frequently pervious to the weather. It was built by contract, and only ten years since.

With these exceptions, the buildings at the places which received grants from the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury are generally neat and substantial. Few of them are provided with playgrounds, and little or no use is made of them, where they exist, for educational purposes. In no single instance is there a garden, or border round the playground which the children might cultivate, and thus acquire a habit as well as a taste for one of the most innocent and lasting enjoyments of the poor man's life. I have further to observe, with regard to these schools on the Treasury list, that of 36 places 3 have never had the school-property duly conveyed to trustees for educational purposes. At 4 others, where deeds have been prepared and executed, they have never been enrolled in Her Majesty's Court of Chancery, and are therefore void; whilst in 8 other places the deeds have either been mislaid, or are in the custody of absentees, or (as in 3 instances) held by the solicitors as security for the payment of their accounts, or have never been duly executed. It seems, therefore, that only 21 out of 36 places are in a satisfactory state on this important point. I must mention again, whilst on this subject, that in auditing the building accounts of these schools I have frequently found all the law expenses (with the exception of fees paid by himself) contributed by the solicitor to the building funds of the school.

Under the head of "Building Accounts," of 36 schools aided by grants from the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury, it seems that 5 have not been able to give a full statement of them. At 2 of these places, the treasurers were abroad on the day of my visit. At 2 others, the accounts had been lost, owing to the change of incumbents and length of time since the erection of the schools. At the 5th, it seemed that the accounts had been audited some years since, and then destroyed as useless. But at none of these places is there any debt yet remaining due for the erection of the school. Of the 4 other places from which no returns have been received, it appears that at 2 of them the building accounts are so mixed up with those of the church or chapel (in the course of erection at the same time with the school), that they cannot easily be thrown into a separate balance-sheet. At the other 2 places I could obtain

no information as to the cost of the building, or its particulars. The 4 places mentioned here are—

There is every reason to believe that the accounts have all been duly settled within a short time from the erection of the schools. In making any calculation as to the relative cost of these buildings, regard must always be had to their particular localities-whether in large town or open country-whether also the site was given or purchased (often) at considerable expense-whether the materials have been contributed-the stone and timber carted by the farmers, free of expense to the school-funds-and other circumstances which considerably increase or diminish the cost of their erection.

The result of the examination of these schools as to their progress and discipline, where such examination has been requested by the clergyman or other trustees, appears in the "General List" of schools which I have visited. The evils to which they are exposed, and the degree of success which they attain, they share much in common with the other schools in the district, with the exception that, having been in general erected at an earlier date, they have in some cases neither the conveniences of arrangement nor other economical advantages which the later schools possess.

It may be well to state, in conclusion, their position with regard to inspection :

and seems

This return is much in accordance with that of last year, to point out that at two-thirds of those schools which do not necessarily come under the examination of Her Majesty's Inspectors, the clergyman or other managers desire that they should be examined.

Other particulars with regard to these schools-the cost of erection and of maintenance (per child)-appear in the Tables appended to these Reports, in which the schools are arranged alphabetically in the different counties.