3. And, consequently, the statements in this Table representing the average number of children of the working classes neither "at school" nor "in employment" have no less claim for consideration than the Census Table, although it appears to differ in the result.

It has been stated in evidence (pp. 360. 391.) that about "54,670 children, belonging to the labouring classes, whether employed or not, are not attending day schools," and that no reason has been alleged, that ought to be considered satisfactory, why "one half, at least," of that number ought not "to be in some school receiving education." It is indeed highly probable that, at the present time, there are not fewer than 20,000 or 30,000 children of the labouring classes kept from day school, without being in employment or detained at home through sickness, domestic need, or any other sufficient cause; and who ought therefore to be gathered into school.

TABLE AND NOTE, No. V.

Alleged Causes of Absence from School. From Inquiries in Families, among the
Working Classes, wherein there were children between 3 and 15 years of age.

(Evidence, pp. 70. and 377 to 380.)

Total number of children between 3 and 15 years of age in

the 17,426 families visited

Children at work

Children stated to be attending school

CHILDREN, between 3 and 15, neither at school nor at work.

Alleged causes of absence.

Children who had,
at some time,
attended school.

Children who
had never

Total.

attended school,

17,177

From the above statement it appears that out of 31,374 children, between three and fifteen, not at work, 12,067, or nearly 39 per cent., were kept from school on account of the alleged inability of the parents to afford to pay the school fees. Probably in many cases this inability was induced by the improvidence or intemperance of one or both of the parents; but, be this as it may, 12,067 children out of 31,374 were found, among the labouring and poorer classes, deprived of education, as the consequence of the poverty or misconduct of their parents.

APPENDIX (G.)

A Bill for promoting Education in the Municipal Boroughs of Manchester and Salford, and in the contiguous Townships of Broughton, Pendleton, and Pendlebury, read a first time in the House of Commons in the Session of 1851-52.

WHEREAS the boroughs of Manchester and Salford, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, have been respectively incorporated, under the authority of the statutes in that behalf, and it is advisable to make provision for furthering and improving the education of the inhabitants within such boroughs and the adjoining townships of Broughton, Pendleton, and Pendlebury, by means of local rates to be raised within the same: May it therefore please your Majesty, That it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows (that is to say):

Constitution of the District Committees.

1. Constitution of the District School Committees for the Boroughs of Manchester and Salford. That for the purposes of this Act, the district comprised within the borough of Manchester and that comprised within the borough of Salford, with the adjoining townships of Broughton, Pendleton, and Pendlebury, shall form separate School Districts, each of which shall be managed and regulated by a committee hereinafter designated the District School Committee, and all the provisions herein contained shall apply to each district separately, except where it is otherwise expressly provided.

2. The Town Councils to elect the District School Committees annually. - The town council of the borough of Manchester shall, on the tenth day of November, in each year, or within fourteen days afterwards, elect out of the members of the said council nine persons, to act as the members of the School Committee for the Manchester Borough School District during the ensuing year; and the town council of the borough of Salford shall, on the same day, or within fourteen days afterwards, in each year, elect out of the members of the said council six persons to act with the persons elected for the said townships, as hereinafter provided, as the members of the said School Committee for the Salford School District during the ensuing year.

3. Election of Members of the Committee in respect of the Townships of Broughton, Pendleton, and Pendlebury.—On the same day, or within fourteen days after, a meeting of the rate-payers, qualified to vote in the election of Guardians of the Poor for the respective townships of Broughton, Pendleton, and Pendlebury, shall be held in the several townships, after notice given in the same manner and by the same persons as notices of township meetings are usually given therein; and the rate-payers so qualified as aforesaid shall then elect for their township a person or persons, as the case may be, qualified as hereinafter provided, to be a member or members of the School Committee of the Salford District, so that one shall be elected by the rate-payers of the township of Broughton, for that part of the township which is not comprised in the borough of Salford, two by the ratepayers of the township of Pendleton for their township, and one by the rate-payers of the township of Pendlebury for their township, and at such meetings the overseers, or, if they decline, some person to be then and there chosen by the ratepayers present, shall preside.

4. Qualification of such Member. — Every person not in holy orders, or a minister or preacher of religion, assessed to the poor-rate within the township,

Appendix G.

upon property whose rateable value shall not be under thirty pounds a year, shall be qualified to be elected by the rate-payers thereof as a member of the said School Committee for such township, and the member elected shall be required to be so qualified as long as he continues to be a member of such Committee.

5. Return of the Member.-The officer or person presiding at such meeting who shall conduct the election of such member or members, as the case may be, shall, when the election shall have been concluded, return, in writing, to the District School Committee the person or persons elected.

6. Term of the continuance in Office of the Members of the Committee. — Every person elected by the town council or rate-payers shall continue to act during the year for which he shall have been elected as a member of such School Committee, until he shall resign, die, or become disqualified to be a town councillor or member as aforesaid; and upon the happening of any vacancy, the town council of which he shall have been a member, or the rate-payers of the township for which he was elected, as the case may be, shall, as soon as convenient, elect another person to supply the vacancy during the remainder of the year.

7. Default of Election not to affect the acting of the Committee.-No default in the election, nor any vacancy, shall prevent the other members of the School Committee from acting as such Committee until the next annual election, or until the vacancy shall be sooner supplied.

8. Course to be pursued where there is any Defect in the Election.-If there be no due election at the time of the annual election in respect of all the members of the School Committee, such of the members elected for the previous year, as shall be qualified as aforesaid, may, if they think fit, serve for the ensuing year; and where some have been duly elected, such of the members of the said Committee, who had served for the last year and continue to be qualified, as shall be chosen by the member or members elected for the current year to fill the vacancies, shall act for the ensuing year.

Proceedings of the Committees.

9. Appointment of Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Committee. On the first day of meeting of the said District School Committee after the annual election, the members present thereat shall choose some one of themselves to be the chairman, and another to be the vice-chairman of such Committee, for the ensuing year respectively, each of whom shall continue to act as such, unless and until he refuse, become incapable to act, or disqualified to be a member of the said Committee.

10. Supply of Vacancies in the Chairmanship and Vice-Chairmanship.—If the chairman or vice-chairman cease to be a member of the District School Committee, or refuse or become incapable to act as chairman or vice-chairman before the expiration of the year of office, the members of the said Committee shall, within one month after the occurrence of the vacancy, refusal, or incapacity, elect some other member to be chairman or vice-chairman, as the case may require.

11. Who shall be the President of the Committee.-At every meeting the chairman, or in his absence the vice chairman, shall preside; but if at the commencement of any meeting both be absent, the members then present shall elect one of themselves to preside at the whole of such meeting, or until the chairman or vice-chairman shall arrive.

12. What shall be the Quorum of the Committee tion Expenses. No meeting of the Committee shall be competent to transact any - what Number required to sancbusiness, except that of adjourning to another time, unless three members be present; and no resolution shall be valid for the incurring of any expense other than payment of the school fees, and the salaries and remuneration of the inspectors and teachers in this act provided, unless two-thirds of the members present at the meeting at which the incurring of the expense shall be proposed concur therein.

13. Mode of voting at the Committee. meeting, except in respect of the incurring of such expenses as aforesaid, shall be Casting Vote. Every question at any determined by a majority of the votes of the members present and voting thereon; and where the number of votes on any question shall be equal, the presiding chairman shall have a second as a casting vote.

Manchester and Salford Education Bill.

479

14. Appointment of Officers by the District School Committee. - The District School Committee may appoint, suspend, and remove at their discretion a se cretary, and such clerks, assistants, and servants as they may from time to time find necessary, with such salaries, wages, and compensation for ordinary and extraordinary services as the said Committee shall deem fit, which salaries, wages, and compensation shall be charged upon and paid out of the fund hereinafter provided.

15. The District School Committee may make Bye-Laws -Proviso for approval by the Committee of Council.-The District School Committee may make bye-laws and regulations for the government of themselves, their officers, and servants, and for the due execution of the different provisions of this Act, so far as the same shall be under the control or management of such Committee; provided that no such bye-law or regulation shall be valid and operative until the same shall have been submitted to the Committee of Council on Education for the time being, and shall have been approved of by them.

16. Minutes of the Committee made Evidence.-The said District School Committee shall cause Minutes of their proceedings to be entered in a book to be kept by their secretary; and the book so kept, when produced by their secretary, or by any other officer of the said Committee, in any court of law, or before any justice or justices, or other competent tribunal, shall be taken as evidence of the proceedings of the said Committee therein recorded.

Union of the Schools with the Committee.

17. Functions of the District School Committee.-It shall be the duty of the said District School Committee to receive Schools into union with them according to the regulations of this Act, to pay the School fees to the persons entitled to receive them, and in all other respects to carry into effect the provisions of this Act, so far as the same apply to such Committee.

18. Trustees, Managers, or Proprietors empowered to place School in Union. — As soon as the said District School Committee shall have been elected, and from time to time afterwards, the major part of the trustees, managers, or proprietors of any such School as is hereinafter described, situated within the district, which shall be open to Her Majesty's Inspector, or to the Local Inspectors appointed under the authority of this Act, and wherein any teacher shall be employed who shall have obtained a certificate of merit from the Committee of Council on Education, or in default of any such certificate of merit, a certificate in writing, from some one of Her Majesty's Inspectors acting in the district or of such Local Inspectors as aforesaid, of the competeney of such teacher to conduct the School, may make application, in writing, according to the form set forth in the Schedule (A.) hereunto annexed, to the said District School Committee, to be admitted into union therewith, and shall transmit with such application a copy of the teacher's certificate of merit, or the Inspector's certificate of the teacher's competency, as the case may require; and such Committee shall forthwith, upon receipt thereof, ascertain whether the School be admissible into union according to the provisions of this Act, and if the same be so admissible, shall admit such School into union with them, and shall cause an entry of such admission to be made in the minutes of their proceedings, and a notification of such admission, in writing, under the hand of their secretary, to be transmitted to the trustees, managers, or proprietors of the School, as the case may be; and when the School shall have been admitted into union, whether by the said District School Committee, at once, or after appeal, as hereinafter provided, such union shall be deemed to have been complete from the date on which the trustees, managers, or proprietors of such School shall have duly transmitted the required certificate to the secretary of the District School Committee; and if the said Committee shall be of opinion that the said School is not so admissible, they shall forthwith communicate to the persons making the application that they decline to admit the said School into union, and shall state their reasons for such refusal in writing.

19. Appeal from Refusal of Admission to the Committee of Council on Education. When the said District School Committee shall decline, upon any such application as aforesaid, to admit any School into union, the persons who shall have

made such application may appeal to the Committee of Council on Education against such decision, forwarding a copy of the reasons assigned by such District School Committee for their so declining; and the said Committee of Council shall thereupon investigate the merits of the case; and if they shall decide that the refusal was justified by the provisions of this Act, the same shall be confirmed; but if they shall decide that it was not so justified, and that the said School should have been admitted into such union, they shall communicate such their decision to the said District School Committee, and thereupon the said School shall be forthwith admitted into union, and shall become entitled to all the advantages of this Act, as if the same had been admitted by the District School Committee at the time of the application.

20. No School to be united without Consent of the major part of Trustees.—School Committee may act upon the Application purporting to be signed by Majority.-Proviso. No School shall be admitted into union without the consent of the major part of the trustees, managers, or proprietors, as the case may be, of such School; but it shall be sufficient authority for the said District School Committee, with reference to any act done by them or by their direction in regard to such School, if the application to them purport to be signed by the major part of the trustees, managers, or proprietors; and it shall not be necessary for such Committee to inquire whether the persons whose names are thereunto affixed be duly and legally qualified to act in such behalf: Provided nevertheless that the said Committee shall reject any such application where they shall be satisfied that it is not made by a majority of the persons so legally qualified: Provided also that if it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the said District School Committee, at any time after the School shall have been admitted into union, that the application had been made under false and wilful misrepresentations or with the wilful suppression of any fact or circumstance, to such an extent that the School would not have been admitted by them into union but for such misrepresentations or suppression, the said School Committee may make an entry on their minutes that the School is no longer in union, and shall forthwith cause a notification thereof in writing, under the hand of their secretary, to be transmitted to the trustees, managers, or proprietors of the School, as the case may be, and the said School shall thereupon cease to be entitled to the benefits of this Act, unless and until, upon a fresh application, it shall be duly admitted into Union.

21. Application if unsuccessful may be renewed. No refusal to admit any School into union, whether confirmed by the said Committee of Council or otherwise, shall prevent the admission thereof into union, if an application be duly made on behalf of the same School at any time after such refusal, and the School shall upon such subsequent application be admissible, according to the provisions of this Act.

22. The Proceedings of Trustees not to be impeachable in Law or Equity.-No act of the trustees or managers of any such School or the major part of them, in placing it in union with the said Committee, shall be deemed in any court of law or equity to be a breach of trust, or require the sanction or direction of any such

court.

23. Provision for the Change of Schemes of Management.-Proviso.-In the case of every School admitted or proposed to be admitted into union with the said District School Committee, where, by the terms of the deed of conveyance or trust, the trustees, managers, or other persons entrusted with the management of the School, are eligible, by or out of the subscribers to the said School, the major part of the trustees of the said School, or in default of their taking the requisite steps for three months after the admission of such School into union, any ten persons, being then subscribers to the said School, or in default of there being so many subscribers, any ten persons who may have been subscribers thereto within the space of three years previous to their application, may prepare a new scheme for the election of a Committee to manage the said School, and having settled the same in writing, may summon a meeting of the subscribers to the said School, if there be any such, or, in their default, of the persons who shall have been subscribers thereto during the time aforesaid, by an advertisement in two or more newspapers circulating in the said district, ten days at least previous to the day of meeting; and at such meeting may submit the scheme to such of the persons as shall be then present; and if the majority of the subscribers, or of the persons