384 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM OF. 



results, the commission do not propose to 

 abolish, but the income of the school should 

 not be wholly dependent thereon, and the re- 

 sults ought to be more thoroughly tested, since 

 under the present system the children lose 

 with extraordinary rapidity the knowledge that 

 has been so laboriously and expensively im- 

 parted to them. In view of the fact that the 

 training of teachers is now mainly conducted 

 in denominational colleges, the minority of 

 the commission proposed that secular normal 

 colleges should be established on a large scale 

 by the state, while the majority thought that 

 such schools should be at first of an experi- 

 mental character, and that they should depend 

 on private liberality. The minority thought 

 that Sunday-schools could relieve the day- 

 schools of a large part of the religious and 

 moral instruction, but the majority reported in 

 favor of compulsory religious instruction. The 

 commissioners were unanimous in recommend- 

 ing that the minimum age at which a child can 

 be taken from school and sent to work should 

 be eleven, instead of ten, as under the act of 

 1876, and that attendance at school for half the 

 time should be required for two years longer. 

 They concurred, too, in the opinion that the 

 process of recovering fines for non-attendance 

 by distress, instead of by commitment, has en- 

 couraged parents to defy the law. They rec- 

 ommend, in the place of a uniform curriculum 

 for all schools that is only adapted for the larg- 

 est and best equipped, a simplified standard 

 for the small village schools. Eeading-books 

 should be increased, and prepared with the aim 

 of infusing in the minds of the scholars a con- 

 firmed taste for reading, for the gratification 

 of which school libraries should be provided ; 

 drawing should be taught as an aid to instruc- 

 tion in writing ; and the teaching of arithmetic 

 should not be confined to dry exercises in num- 

 bers, but ought to show the applications of the 

 science. The commission recommended the 

 extension and improvement of instruction in 

 English, history, geography, and elementary 

 science. Singing should be taught by note, as 

 well as by ear. Boys and girls should receive 

 some physical training, and the girls receive 

 instruction, in addition to their needlework, in 

 practical cookery and elementary physiology. 

 The commissioners recommended the introduc- 

 tion of manual and technical training in the ele- 

 mentary schools, but were not in agreement 

 as to the method and extent. The number of 

 schools inspected in 1886 was 19,022 in Eng- 

 land and Wales, as compared with 18,895 in 

 1885, and 3,092 in Scotland, as compared with 

 3,081. The average attendance was 3,438,425 

 in England and Wales and 476,890 in Scotland 

 in 1886. There were 89,180 teachers in Eng- 

 land and Wales, and 11,389 in Scotland. Of 

 the schools in England and Wales, 4,402 were 

 directly under school-boards ; 11,798 were con- 

 nected with the National Society or Church of 

 England; 554 were Wesleyan ; 882 were Ro- 

 man Catholic, and 1,387 were undenominational, 



or conducted under the auspices of other so- 

 cieties. In Scotland there were 2,569 public 

 schools, 96 connected with the Church of 

 Scotland, and 154 Roman Catholic, and 273 

 belonging to other religious bodies or unde- 

 nominational. There were 41 training colleges, 

 with 3,259 students, in England and Wales in 

 1886, and in Scotland 7, with 859 students. 

 In Ireland the number of national schools in 

 operation in 1886 was 8,024, with 490,484 

 children in average attendance. The English 

 schools in 1886 received 2.866,700 in annual 

 grants from Parliament, and 3,960,489 from 

 endowments, school fees, local rates, and vol- 

 untary subscriptions; the annual grants for 

 primary schools in Scotland amounted to 419,- 

 217. and the income from other sources was 

 594,161 ; in Ireland 851,973 of annual grants 

 were supplemented by 84,837 from other 

 sources. The education estimates for England 

 and Wales for 1888-89 are 3,576,077. The 

 increase in the number of children enrolled in 

 in 1887 was 129,000, and the increase in daily 

 attendance over the preceding year was 89,000. 

 The number on the school registers amounts 

 to 16'41 per cent., or nearly one sixth of the 

 population, having increased from 7'08 per 

 cent, in 1869. The average cost of mainte- 

 nance for each scholar in daily attendance is 

 2 14s. ll$d. in the board schools!, and 1 16*. 

 <i$d. in the voluntary schools. 



Commerce and Industry. The total value of im- 

 ports in 1887 was 36*1,935,006, against 349,- 

 863,472 in 1886, and 370,967,955 in 18S5. 

 The exports of British produce in 1887 had a 

 total value of 221,398,440, against 212,434.- 

 754 in 1886, and 213,044,500 in 1885. The 

 exports of foreign and coloninl produce amount- 

 ed to 59,106,598 in 1887, against 56,234,263 

 in 1886, and 57.359,194 in 1885. The imports 

 of gold bullion and specie inl887 were 9,939,- 

 934 and the exports 9,323,614, as compared 

 with 13,392,256 of imports and 13,783,706 

 of exports in 1886, and 13,376,561 of imports, 

 and 11,930,818 of exports in 1885. Theimports 

 in 1887 were divided among the different classes 

 of commodities as follows: Articles of food 

 find drink, 148,860.404; tobacco, 3,409,- 

 267; metals, 16,618,148; chemicals and dyes, 

 7,728,884; oils, 6,088,246; raw materials, 

 111,963,919; manufactured articles, 54,- 

 134,820 ; miscellaneous, 13,131,318. The ex- 

 ports of domestic products were divided as 

 follows : Articles of food and drink, 10,093,- 

 317; raw materials, 12,753,980; textile fab- 

 rics and thread, 108,060,714; metals, raw 

 and worked, 34,930,183; machinery, 11,- 

 145,745 ; apparel, etc., 10,227,990 ; chemicals 

 and drugs, 7,028,392; all other manufactured 

 or partly manufactured,27,158, 119. Thequan- 

 tityof grain and flour imported percapi ta, in 

 1886, was 185-76 pounds, as compared with 

 155-85 pounds in 1869 ; the quantity of sugar, 

 65*96 pounds, as compared with 42 - 5f> pounds ; 

 of butter, 7'17 pounds, as compared with 4'52 

 pounds; of bacon and hams, 11 95 pounds, as 



