180 REPORT—1840, 
The number of adults who can both read and write and cipher, 
amounts to nearly two-thirds of the ascertained cases, of whom at 
least nine-tenths can read; while at Pendleton, in Lancashire, only 
about one-third of the ascertained cases amongst the adults were able 
to read, write and cipher, though nearly the same proportion as in 
Hull were able to read only. In Pendleton, 405 adults out of 4855 
ascertained cases had never attended a day school; but some few of 
these had acquired the power of reading, and even of writing. In 
Hull, 417 only, out of 14,526 ascertained cases, had never been at a 
day school, and none of them had learned even to read. Those who 
could read were in the proportion of fifty-five in Pendleton to sixty in 
Hull; those who could write were twenty-four in Pendleton to thirty 
in Hull; and those who could cipher were twelve in Pendleton to 
twenty-two in Hull. 
An attempt was made in Hull to ascertain the age at which the 
children had been taken away from school, and the information was 
obtained in about three-fifths of the cases. ‘The result obtained on 
this subject shows, that out of about 2798 children, only 
131 had remained at school after reaching the age of 13. 
1108 left at 12 and 13 years of age. 
964 ,, 10 and 11 = 
595 left before 10; about one-half of whom had been removed before they 
were 9. 
Hardly any of those who had left school before the age of nine had 
acquired any knowledge of figures or of writing; and for ninety of 
them who were able to read, there were as many more who did it very 
badly, and above 120 who could not read at all. Out of 5250 children 
who were at school at the date of this inquiry, 305 cases occurred in 
which no satisfactory account could be obtained as to the regularity of 
attendance ; and the attendance in 997 cases was admitted to be very 
irregular ; so that in 3948 cases alone can it fairly be assumed that the 
children were deriving from their attendance the whole of the benefit, 
little or great, which the schools were capable of affording. In the 
case of the children who had left school, the result was still more un- 
favourable; out of 4097 ascertained cases, only 2426 had attended re- 
gularly, and 1671 irregularly ; 628 cases occurred in which no satis- 
factory information on this point could be obtained. Taking the whole 
of the minors who either had been, or were, at the time of the inquiry, 
at school, 6374 were stated to have attended with regularity, and 2668 
irregularly; and in 943 cases no information on the subject could be 
obtained. The number of children who could read with ease corre- 
sponds very nearly with the number of those who had been regular in 
their attendance at school. The former amounted to 6166, the latter 
to 6374, and the number of those who could write and cipher was much 
smaller—the number of those who could write amounted to 3038, and 
the number of those who could cipher to 2207. It may with tolerable 
certainty be inferred from the Hull tables, that there is the greatest 
regularity of attendance between the ages of eight and eleven. 
Amongst the number of parents whose children were of an age to 
