to learn, are the envy of every town which has sent inspectors to look over them. We have twelve of these admirable schools, and they educate in all 2,419 young people for the profession of teacher. The members of the Board have to see that the subjects are well taught, that proper discipline is maintained, that the tone of the school is good, and that the expenditure is kept within reasonable but efficient limits. How to save money is the one great problem always before them, but no money can be saved until the increasing number of children thronging into our popular schools is limited and lessened in some way.' In 1895 the School Board expended close on three millions of money, which sum was raised as follows: 1,500,000l. by rate, 625,000l. by grant, 600,000l. by loan, and the rest in smaller sums under sundry headings. It was spent thus: 1,500,000l. on teachers' salaries, 45,000l. on loans and interest, 500,000l. on land and buildings, and the rest in smaller sums.

There are special schools-for the deaf,2 in which 513 children are being taught. These are deaf, not dumb children, and by care and infinite patience they may be taught to speak, but it is a very long and very tedious process-for the blind, but only 140 sightless little ones are in our care, there being so many charities for the blind-for the mentally defective, i.e. those dull children who cannot profit by the teaching given in an ordinary school. In the thirty centres there are no fewer than 1,035 of these poor little things. Now these schools for the deaf, blind and mentally defective children are in proportion the most expensive part of

1 Handbook, p. 120.

2 Ibid. pp. 125, 126. 3 Ibid. p. 126. Ibid. p. 125; see also Mrs. Burgwin's paper, The Education of Defective Children,' p. 66.

our work; yet no one who has seen them ever grudges the money and the pains expended. Our Blessed Lord promised that His followers should do greater works than He did, and this seems like the fulfilment of His Words the deaf are being taught to speak, the blind made independent and able to earn their living, and mind is being given to those who seem to be without reasoning faculties. These are things to see and thank GOD for.

In the manual training schools every boy receives instruction in the drawing of plans and objects, use of tools, kinds of wood, to enable him to be better equipped for whatever trade he takes up afterwards. In the Cookery Centres 2 the girls are likewise taught what will be useful at home and in after life. Care, cleanliness, exactness (by the use of the scales), and the preparation of cheap but tempting and nicely made dishes will help to make the coming generation of women more efficient than their mothers, and perhaps the digestion of the men will be improved, and less drunkenness ensue. In the Laundry Centres 2 they are shown how to do the necessary washing with the least expenditure of time, money and energy. In the Housewifery classes the great importance of making and keeping the home clean and in order is insisted upon, and instruction is given in cleaning metal and stone, and in the most elementary principles of sanitation and ventilation. These subjects are taught in the Evening Continuation Schools, the attendance of which has increased from 1,700 in 1882 to 17,000 in 1896.3 The Board schools, which belong to the ratepayers, can be used for Sunday

Handbook, p. 123.

2 Ibid. p. 124.

The average number on the Rolls was in 1882 2,692, in 1896 27,832.

schools or for public meetings, by payment of a small

fee.

A body of managers is attached to each group of schools; they are expected to be in touch with everything that goes on in the schools, and to encourage both teachers and scholars in their work. There are now 2,000 of these unpaid coadjutors in the work of the Board. Whenever possible the School Board places a piano in each department, for the purpose of accompaniment to songs or drill. There is a lending library in each school, from which books may be borrowed by the children; this is greatly appreciated. Penny Banks have also been started in many of our schools, and it is hoped there will be one in every department eventually.

In most of the boys' schools an effort is being made to teach swimming, and general interest is shown in the games of all the children under the Board.'

Time will fail to tell of the industrial schools, of the schoolkeepers, of our legal work, of our scholarships, of the store with its millions of pens, pencils and copybooks, which weigh 2,300 tons in all, of the Committees and their work. I will only add that it is impossible to conceive of any occupation more varied in its interest and more engrossing in its demands.

It is extraordinary to watch the great machinery at work helping the child to become a worthy citizen, basing its whole teaching on religious influences, with its prayers and hymns at the commencement and close of each day's work, its careful teaching of the Bible and the plain duties and morals enforced therefrom; to see the skilful way of the teachers, the interest of the

scholars, and to know that this is going on in 436 School Board buildings as well as in many others not connected with the Board.

A. W. JEPHSON, M.A.

Education in Poor Law Schools

The chair was taken by the Countess of Warwick. In her introductory remarks, she urged upon women who already were or intended to be Poor Law Guardians the necessity of thoroughly studying the question, and said that it was the children to whom we must look to reduce pauperism, for they would be the men and women of the future. 'Am I too sanguine,' asked Lady Warwick, ' in hoping in future years that we shall see our workhouses empty, and in their place hospitals, schools, and similar institutions? Is it too much to expect that the day will come when every man and woman will feel the dignity of labour and throw off the curse of pauperism? This Utopia may be far from us, but certainly our best chance of realising it lies with the children.'

Mrs. Barnett and Miss Lidgett then read the following papers:

The Pauper Child during the Reign of Queen Victoria

The very name of this Exhibition, and the mental atmosphere in which we have all lived during the last Mrs. few months, compel me, even if inclination did. Barnett not induce me, to take a brief survey of the pauper child during the reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria.

So badly were the statistics kept in the thirties that it is not possible to obtain them all now, and therefore the figures are not complete; but in the year 1837 the total sum expended on the poor was 4,044,7417., or 5s. 5d. per head of population. The cost last year was 9,866,000l., or 6s. 7d. per head of population. It is

D

difficult to get the number of paupers accurately for 1837, but it is known they were large; not, however, so large in proportion to the population as they were in 1896, the number then being in England 840,265, in Scotland 95,868, in Wales 51,168, in Ireland 92,892, making for the United Kingdom a total of 1,029,216, or nearly 3 per cent. of the entire population.' It seems to be a very large figure, but careful consideration has shown that it does not exhaust the number of persons who are more or less dependent on the State, because the Local Government Board statistics record merely the number of persons in actual receipt of Poor Law relief on a given day, not the number of persons who have been dependent during the year.

Some forty years ago a careful computation was made in various ways of different persons who during the year had been paupers at one time or another, and as a result the total was found to be three and a half times the number recorded for one day. If this calculation is accepted (but many dispute it) we get something like 10 per cent. of the population, or at least 3,500,000, as the class who during the year had been actually paupers.

To many people figures are a weariness, statistics merely confusing; but the vast amount of pauperism in the midst of this jubilant London is brought home to us by the simple statement that in London one person in every five dies in the workhouse, lunatic asylum, or hospital, and Canon Blackley said that out of every 100 persons who died over sixty years old 42 were paupers. All such statistical studies have their lessons, but, without going further than the figures furnished by the Local Government Board for a given day, we

See p. 27 Work of the London School Board.'