88 Me. G. Andebson on the Education of the Wot-king Classes, 



thus, by combining moderate industrial training with useful intellectual 

 teaching, gradually to raise the factory population to the status of an 

 educated class. A very noble object indeed, and a seemingly feasible 

 plan for its attainment ; but alas ! when we examine the actual results, 

 our illusive hopes vanish like a dream. We find that though for upwai'ds 

 of twenty years the factory population have been under the bondage of 

 this teaching, and though generations of children have grown up under 

 it, the race of to-day is as ignorant and untaught as those that went 

 before. 



It was reasonably enough expected that when the labour of 1,000 

 children was reduced from 12 hours to 6i, nearly 2,000 would be required 

 to do the work, and thus, that not only the children then in employment, 

 but a largely increased number would at once be brought under the 

 benefits of an educational training. The very reverse of this occurred ; 

 for whereas in 1835 there were employed in factories nearly 60,000 

 children (56,455), we find that in 1838 there were only half that number 

 (29,283) ; and even now, with all the immense extension of the factory 

 system that has taken place, we are still 10,000 short of the numbers of 

 1835, the numbers now being 46,071. 



Thus, instead of doubhng the number under education and lucrative 

 employment, the immediate effect of the measure was to banish from 

 factories one-half of the children employed in them, and substituting 

 nothing — providing nothing — simply to di-ive them out, helpless and 

 uncared for, to the tender teachings of the streets. 



In Scotland the banishment was almost total. I have no return for 

 1835; but I find that in 1850, in the whole of Scotland, there were only 

 929 children receiving education under the Factory Act ; and in Glasgow, 

 with her population of 400,000, there were only 140. 



Very complete returns, moved for last session, by Mr. Brotherton, 

 have just been laid before Parliament, and through these I am enabled 

 to produce the most recent evidence on factory education : — 



The total factory hands in Great Britain and Ireland are 682,497 



Of these are school children, 46,071 



Or about 6 per cent, of the whole. 



The census of various districts is as follows : — 



England and Wales, total workers, .... 572,077 



Schoolchildren, 44,769 



Or about 7f per cent. 



Ireland, total workers, ....•■ 32,988 



School children, 114 



Or 3^ per 1,000. 



