STATE PAPERS. 



2Si 



will cost the parish nothing ; 

 whereas there is no child now 

 which from its birth is maintained 

 by the parish, but before the age 

 of fourteen, costs the parish fifty 

 or sixty pounds. Anotlier advan- 

 tage also of bringing poor chiidien 

 thus to a working school is, that 

 by this means they may be obliged 

 to come constantly to church every 

 Sunday along with their school- 

 masters or dames, whereby they 

 may be brought into some sense 

 of religion : wheteas ordinarily 

 now, in their loose and idle way 

 of breeding up, they are as utter 

 strangers both to religion and 

 morality as they are to industry. 

 In ojder, therefore, to the more 

 effectually carrying on this work 

 to the advantiigc of this kingdom, 

 we further humbly piopose that 

 these schools be generally for 

 spinning or knitting, or some other 

 part of the woollen manufac- 

 ture, unless in countries where the 

 place shall furnish some other 

 materials fitter for the employ- 

 ment of such poor children ; in 

 V hich places the choice of those 

 materials for their employment 

 may be left to tlie prudence and 

 direction of the guardians of the 

 poor of that bundled ; and that 

 the teaching in these schools be 

 paid out of the jioor rates, as can 

 be agreed. 



" 'I'liis, tiiough at first setting 

 up, it may cost the jjarisli a little, 

 yet we humldy conceive that the 

 earnings of the children abating 

 the ciiarge of tlieir maintenance, 

 and as much woik being recjuired 

 of each of them as they aie rea- 

 sonably able to perform, it will 

 (piickly pay its own charges, with 

 an overplus. 



'• 'J'hat, where th< number of 



the poor children of any paiish is 

 gre;itcr than for them all to be 

 employed in one schcml, tliey be 

 there divided into t\vo, and the 

 l)oys and girls, if thought conve- 

 nient, taught and kejjt to work 

 separately. That tiie handicrafts- 

 men in each hundred be bound to 

 take every other of their respec- 

 tive ajiprentices from amongst the 

 boys in some one of the schools 

 in the said hundred, without any 

 money, which boys they may so 

 take at what age they please, to 

 be bound to them till the age of 

 twenty-three years, that so the 

 length of time may more than 

 make amends for tlie usual sums 

 that are given to handicraftsmen 

 with such apprentices. 



" That those also in the hun- 

 dred who keep in theii' hands land 

 of their own to the value of 25/. 

 per annum, or upwards, may 

 chose out of the schools of tiie 

 said hundred what boy each of 

 them pleases, to be his apprentice 

 in husbandry upon the same con- 

 dition. 



" That whatever boys are not 

 by this means bound out appren- 

 tices before theyaie full fourteen, 

 shall, at the Easter meeting of the 

 guardians of each lumdred every 

 \ear, be bound to such gentle- 

 men, yeomen, or faimers, within 

 the said hundred, as have the 

 greatest number of acjes of land 

 in their hands, who shall be oblig- 

 ed to take them for their appren- 

 tices till the age of twenty- three, 

 or bind them out at their own 

 cost to some handicraftsmen ; pro- 

 vided always, that no such gentle- 

 man, yeoman, or farmer, shall be 

 bound to have two such apijren- 

 tices at a time." 



There can have been no period 



at 



