376 



GKEAT BRITAIN". 



31, 1875, were 10,179,485=150,897,425. This 

 does not include the building of any new ves- 

 sels except those built by contract, though it 

 makes allowance for the completion of the few 

 now on the stocks. 



EDUCATION. 1. Public Schools. There is 

 commendable progress made in public school 

 education in Great Britain. The latest returns 

 are at the close of 1873, and show that in the 

 United Kingdom there were at that time 

 21,114 national schools which had been in- 

 spected, having accommodations for 4,163,186 

 pupils, and having on their registers 3,510,926 

 as in attendance at some time during the year, 

 while the average daily attendance was 2,157,- 

 101. The total grants for the financial year 

 1874-'75 to public - school education were 

 2,577,389=$12,886,945, an advance of near- 

 ly $5,000,000 on the grant for 1872. The 

 greater part of this progress has been in Eng- 

 land and "Wales, though, when the constantly- 

 decreasing population of Ireland is taken into 

 the account, it is not so far behind as it might 

 otherwise seem. The " Act to provide for 

 Public Elementary Education in England and 

 "Wales," passed in 1870, has done much to im- 

 prove the public-school system there. That 

 act orders that " there shall be provided for 

 every school-district a sufficient amount of 'ac- 

 accommodation in public elementary schools 

 available for all the children resident in such 

 district for whose elementary education effi- 

 cient and suitable provision is not otherwise 

 made." It is enacted further, that " all chil- 

 dren attending these public elementary schools, 

 whose parents are unable, from poverty, to 

 pay any thing toward their education, shall be 

 admitted free, and the expenses so incurred be 

 discharged from local rates." The new schools 

 are placed in each district under " School- 

 Boards " invested with great powers, among 

 others that of making it compulsory upon par- 

 ents to give all children between the ages of 

 five and thirteen the advantages of education. 

 Under this act, the public elementary schools 

 of England and Wales had increased, in three 

 years, from 8,986 to 11,846; the accommoda- 

 tions from 1,950,641 to 2,665,467, and the av- 



erage attendance from 1,255,083 to 1,538,552. 

 There was less proportional increase in Ireland, 

 where this act was not in effect, but there was 

 also a diminishing instead of an increasing 

 population. 



2. Higher Education. In former volumes 

 of the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA a full account has 

 been given of the universities and great en- 

 dowed public schools of the United Kingdom, 

 but these do not properly pertain to popular 

 education. The twenty-first Report of the 

 Science and Art Department of the Committee 

 of Council on Education gives some particulars 

 of interest on this subject. The number of 

 schools for art and science at the end of 1873 

 was 1,182; the number of persons under in- 

 struction was 48,546. In these schools there 

 were 4,231 different classes ; there were 1,258 

 teachers who received aggregate salaries of 

 33,027=$165,135; 27,026 students came up 

 for examination at 754 provincial and 78 met- 

 ropolitan centres. The number of persons re- 

 ceiving instruction in art-schools was 290,176. 

 Of these art-schools there are 988 in England 

 and Wales, 106 in Scotland, and 302 in Ireland. 

 They are mainly intended for the instruction 

 of artisans and their children in the principles 

 of practical art, and correspond to some extent 

 to our schools of design, though the instruction 

 is less extensive. There are also 613 night- 

 classes, in which 20,352 students are taught, 

 and drawing is taught in 2,074 elementary 

 schools for the poor, to 237,733 children. The 

 South Kensington and Bethnal Green Museums 

 afford much instruction to those who frequent 

 them. In 1873 the former was visited by 

 859,037 persons, almost 300,000 less than the 

 previous year ; and the latter by 709,472. 



There are also in England and Wales thirty- 

 four " Training Institutions," or, as we should 

 call them, "Normal Schools," many of them 

 very large. Of these, twenty-seven are con- 

 trolled by the Church of England, two by the 

 Wesleyans, one by the Congregationalists, and 

 four by the British and Foreign School Soci- 

 ety. 



VITAL AND SOCIAL STATISTICS. 1. Births, 

 Deaths, and Marriages. 



The proportion of male to female children 

 born in England and Wales is 104,811 to 100,- 

 000. In Scotland, the ratio, in 1872 and 1873, 

 was 107 boys to 100 girls. These proportions 



are changed so that, at adult age, there are 

 100,000 women to 94,900 men. 



2. Pauperism. The statistics of pauperism 

 are to January 1, 1874. They are as follows : 



