TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 133' 



class-rooms to the various branches of industrial pursuits in which the population; 

 of this country are engaged. 



On the Diminution of Accidents in Coal Mines since the Ajjpointment of 

 Oovernment Inspectors. By George Seniok, F.S.S. 



After briefly explaining the Acts of Parliament relating to the inspection and 

 management of mines, the author showed that the saving of life from gaa explo- 

 sions in pits amounted to nearly fifty per cent., and from accidents in the shafts 

 to forty-six per cent, since the appointment of inspectors in 1854. The average 

 loss of life in raising coal in 1864 was 1 to every 110,000 tons raised. 



On Hindrances to the Stuxess of Popular Education. By the Eev. C. Sewell. 

 The author said that our imperfect success in education must not be charged 

 upon the construction of the system we had adopted, but upon its administration. 

 It was almost impossible to plant an organization in an inorganic mass so as to be 

 prolific ; and for all purposes of popular education England was thoroughly inor- 

 ganic. Her education had always been done for her. What popular education she 

 had had in past generations had come from charity, neither general nor systemati- 

 cal in its operation. What little the State had done had been done by the free 

 royal bounty of an Edward or an Elizabeth. England had never felt her want of 

 education sufficiently keenly to submit to direction in the matter. One great 

 secret of the success of popular education abroad is, that the preparation of a 

 system of instruction and the preparation of the people to receive and use it had 

 gone hand in hand. Tlie absence of such a natural organization to work out tlie 

 svstem of education was a great hindrance to om* success. It was the statesman's 

 duty to supply such an organization, and it was the educator's to supply a system 

 and method of instruction. It would be no unworthy occupation for a statesman 

 to win the legislature to sanction an ordinance which should compel every part of 

 our country to provide the means of education for the poor, as it is already com- 

 pelled to find them food and shelter in distress. It appeared to some not imprac- 

 ticable for the religious bodies and the State to work in real harmony together, and 

 not, as it were, upon the terms of an armed tmce. After dwelling on the fact that 

 many children were not sent to school for various reasons, s ich as the ignorance 

 and greed of the parents, he said he doubted wliether it would be wrong to impose 

 some restriction on a parent's right to his child's labour, when he had not intelli- 

 gence enough to consult that child's interest. Whether the State regulated the 

 attendance of childi-en, or, the next best thing, regulated their absence, it would be 

 intolerable that the State should organize so great a boon, and her subjects be left 

 at libei-ty to neglect or ignore it. 



Statistics of the Charitable, Educational, Industrial, and Public Institutions 

 founded by the Native Gentry of India during the last five years. By 

 Colonel Syees, M.P., F.B.S. 

 ' The author commenced by giving an account of the contributions during the 

 years 1862 and 1863, which had been given by fire-worshippers, Hindoo idol-wor- 

 shippers, Jews, Jains, and other natives for educational, hospital, and other pm-poses. 

 He o-ave numerous instances of the spontaneous and princely munificence by which 

 many of the native gentlemen had distinguished themselves. For example, David 

 Sassoon, a Jew, gave £5000 for the erection of an hospital at Poena for aU creeds 

 and opinions, and supplemented that sum immediately by a fm*ther sum of £10,000 

 for its endowments; Nerwanjee Framjee gave £16,O0O for establishing a fund for 

 the relief of indigent Parsees of his own community ; David Sassoon, a Jew, gave 

 £4000 for the erection of a synagogue for his own community ; Km'sondass Maha- 

 dowdess, of Goojrat, contributed voluntaiily the sum of 1000 dollars for the relief 

 of families who had suffered by the war ; Cowajee Jehsangeer, a Parsee, came for- 

 ward with £5000, which he oflTered to increase to £10,000, if necessary, for the 

 establishment of a strangers' home in Bombay. The author then proceeded to give 



