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noticed that she spelt it in various ways, while her hand-writing left no doubt as to her unfitness to teach. She herself also acknowledged that she could not keep the register.… In a second school I found the schoolroom 15 feet long, and 10 feet wide, and counted in this space 75 children, who were gabbling something unintelligible.”^[1] But it is not only in the miserable places above referred to that the children obtained certificates of school attendance without having received instruction of any value, for in many schools where there is a competent teacher, his efforts are of little avail from the distracting crowd of children of all ages, from infants of 8 years old and upwards; his livelihood, miserable at the best, depending on the pence received from the greatest number of children whom it is possible to cram into the space. To this is to be added scanty school furniture, deficiency of books, and other materials for teaching, and the depressing effect upon the poor children themselves of a close, noisome atmosphere. I have been in many schools, where I have seen rows of children doing absolutely nothing; and this is certified as school attendance, and, in statistical returns, such children are set down as being educated.”^[2] In Scotland the manufacturers try all they can to do without the children that are obliged to attend school. “It requires no further argument to prove that the educational clauses of the Factory Act, being held in such disfavour among mill owners tend in a great measure to exclude that class of children alike from the employment and the benefit of education contemplated by this Act.”^[3] Horribly grotesque does this appear in print works, which are regulated by a special Act. By that Act, “every child, before being employed in a print work must have attended school for at least 30 days, and not less than 150 hours, during the six months immediately preceding such first day of employment, and during the continuance of its employment in the print works, it must attend for a like period of 30 days, and 150 hours during every successive period of six months.… The

1. Sir John Kincaid in “Rep. of Insp. of Fact. for 31st Oct., 1858.” pp. 31, 32.
2. L. Horner in “Reports, &c., for 31st Oct., 1857,” pp. 17, 18.
3. Sir J. Kincaid in “Reports, &c., 31st Oct., 1856,” p. 66.