962 REPOKT— 1898. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. A Plea for the Study of Economic History. 

 By W. Cunningham, LL.D., D.D., D.Sc. 



Though economic history proves attractive to the general reader, it has 

 received comparatively little recognition in academic and scientific circles. But, 

 when treated, not merely as the history of particular arts and institutions, but as 

 the study of the material side of the life of a people, it offers a training of 

 very great importance- — 



1. To the historian. Economic conditions have done much to determine the 

 course of political history ; but a mind which has been trained by the study of 

 economic phenomena in the present is needed to detect, and to trace the influence 

 of, economic phenomena in the past. Such training is a safeguard against false 

 analogy. 



2. To the economist. Economics is an abstract science, which assumes the 

 conditions of modern society. Economic history gives the means of bringing the 

 principles of economic science to bear on periods and areas, to which, as usually 

 stated, they do not obviously apply. It thus enlarges the scope of the science, and 

 gives its principles the real truth of observed fact, as well as the formal truth of 

 hypothetical principles. 



o. To the man of affairs. Since Englishmen are brought in contact, both as 

 traders and administrators, with primitive and half-civilised peoples, it is important 

 that they should understand the economic point of view of those with whomthey 

 have to deal. It may sometimes be advisable for those who are legislating for 

 England to fall back on mediaeval experience, but this must be much more fre- 

 quently instructive to those who are concerned in the administration of India or 

 Egypt. 



2. A Defence of Poor Lmv Schools. By W. Chance. 



Attention is first of all called to the small number of children in Poor Law 

 Schools comparatively to the total number of children who are classed as paupers 

 in the official statistics of pauperism. Thus, out of 225,652 children receiving 

 relief at the cost of the Poor Kate, less than 23,500 were in Poor Law Schools, 

 and nearly half of the 23,600 in London Poor Law Schools. The question to be 

 considered is whether these children are being brought up so as to fit them to be 

 independent and self-supporting in after-life. The argument assumes that the 

 care and control of these children must remain in the hands of the existing 

 authorities, although it would be quite possible, and desirable, to transfer the 

 inspection of their education to the inspectors of the Education Department. The 

 various methods in use at the present time for bringing up indoor pauper children are 

 then described— viz., the two kinds of AVorkhouse School, the District School, the 

 Separate School, the Sheffield system of detached houses with references to 

 boarding-out, and Certified Schools for special classes of children. Next, attention 

 is drawn to the kind of children which the Poor Law has to deal with, and to the 

 special difficulties under which the managers of Poor Law Schools labour, arising 

 from the short time which so many of the children remain in the schools ; and 

 the experience of the Swinton Schools is instanced. It would be quite impossible 

 to ' board out ' all the children in village homes, and therefore it is difficult to see 

 how the Poor Law School can be replaced. The best method seems to be to 

 arrange the school on the ' Cottage Homes ' plan, or on what is known as the 

 'Block System,' as la the existing Girls' School at Sutton. But if the various 

 systems are to be judged by results, the much-condemned ' Barrack ' Schools seem 

 to have done wonders, as the statistics, and, in regard to girls, those supplied by 

 the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, show. But 

 * Barrack ' Schools should not be too large. It is mainly their size which has 

 brought them into disrepute. If limited to hold not more than 500 children there 

 is plenty of scope afforded for individualisation. The objections to pauper schools 



