100 REPORT 1851. 



Thus one-third of the children in the schools which are not reckoned as infant 

 Bchools, are of the infantile ages not exceeding 7, while only 4"8 per cent, are up- 

 wards of 13, and only 9'9 per cent., including these, upwards of 12 years of age. 

 This latter therefore may be considered to be the age at which the children of arti- 

 zans generally cease to attend any day school, a large proportion of those above 

 that age being the children of parents of rather superior means. The relative excess 

 of boys at the younger and girls at the more advanced ages, is referable to the 

 greater usefulness of the latter at home; and the fact that a larger proportion of a 

 somewhat higher class are generally to be found protracting their stay in these even 

 than in the boys' schools. The children of the unskilled labourers being seldom al- 

 lowed to attend school to ages ranging so late within two years as those returned 

 in the preceding table, it is obvious that there is no opportunity for the " over-educa- 

 tion" of the people by the day schools, let them be made ever so vigorous; while 

 the following table of the school occupations of the 20,399 children under present 

 observation^enjoying the best advantages of any in their station of life — will further 

 evince how fallacious is any such apprehension. 



Abstract of the per-centage proportions of the preceding 20,399 Children returned as 

 receiving instruction in each of the following subjects in 161 Schools. 



BOTS. 



Letters and Monosyllables 22-1 



Easy Narratives 30-9 



Holy Scripture 58-2 



Books of general infoi-mation 505 



Writine P''"™ ^°P^'=^ ^^'^ 



on Slates 1 ^''°'" ^^^''''^'O" <"■ Memory 397 



(_Abstracts or Composition... 15'C 



M'^riting f From Copies 65-1 



onCopies. \ Abstracts or Composition... 10-1 



f Numeration or Notation ... 21"3 

 Addition, Subtraction and 



Multiplication 23-7 



■") Compound Rules and Re- 



duction 20-2 



I Proportion or Practice 11-7 



L Fractions and Decimals ... 8-1 



Grammar 50-5 



Geography 59 



History 30-0 



Vocal Music from Notes 17-9 



Linear Drawing 16'8 



Geometry 3'7 



Mensuration 4*9 



Algebra 2*4 



Sewing or Knitting 760 



Thus in this highest class of schools for the children of the poorer classes, there 

 is only about 84 per cent, whose occupations in writing abstracts or compositions, 

 and in learning the rules of proportion and practice, indicate their advancement be- 

 yond the merest elements of reading, writing and "counting." While only 5'3 per 

 cent, work in fractions, 1 "9 per cent, are acquiring the poorest elements of geometry, 

 and 1'4 per cent, of algebra. A large proportion of these more advanced scholars 

 are of the middle classes, to whose children even this amount of instruction has here- 

 tofore been almost entirely restricted. The greater part of that which is designated 

 grammar, geography and historj', in the accompanying table, is of a character to in- 

 validate the figures which describe the proportions receiving instruction in these 

 branches. 



M. GuERRY exhibited eighteen coloured Maps illustrating some important conclu- 

 sions respecting the Criminal Statistics of England for \Q years, ending 1850. 



He had brought over from France a similar series of maps to illustrate the same 

 points in the criminal statistics of France j but rs they had been placed in the Great 



