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school census then taken enumerated 574,693 children of school 

 age, and needing elementary education. For these children 

 only 262,259 school places were at that time provided, and 

 there were 312,434 more children than places. Over two hun- 

 dred new school houses have been provided since that date, 

 and now the Board Schools and Voluntary Schools have ac- 

 commodations for 505,323. The compulsory law has worked 

 with little friction and marked success. As a result, there has 

 already been a very considerable reduction in the cost of juve- 

 nile crime and pauperism. The magistrates of London and 

 the Commissioners of Police have all borne cordial testimony 

 to the fact that there has been a great diminution of juvenile 

 offenses, and that every gang of young thieves known to the 

 police has been broken up. The Superintendent of the Hollo- 

 way Prison says the juvenile criminals have yearly decreased, 

 so that instead of 136 males and 21 females admitted in 1869, 

 the numbers for the last year were only 28 males and no 

 females. In 1871, Hon. W. E. Forster, the father of the new 

 educational bill, said to me, " In America you can have little 

 idea of our difficulty in dealing with these myriads of street 

 Arabs in London, who are so degraded and ignorant that they 

 and their parents alike can appreciate neither the evils of igno- 

 rance nor the advantages of education." One of the inspect- 

 ors now says, "These street Arabs sit side by side with the 

 sons of industrious citizens, and so healthful is the tone of the 

 school that complaints are seldom heard. These schools are of 

 the deepest interest and first importance, receiving children 

 from indigent and neglected homes, and supplying all that per- 

 haps they will ever obtain of moral training and cultivation in 

 head and heart. No one can continue to visit these schools 

 and notice the sad state of these children at the outset without 

 observing the gradual ameliorating effects of the care bestowed 

 upon them." 



By invitation of Sir Charles Eeed, I witnessed in July last, 

 the gathering of 5,000 of these children in Crystal Palace. 

 The spectacle of so many children seated in ascending tiers in a 

 semi-amphitheater near the great organ, was itself inspiring, 

 and the grand choral singing, especially considering the brief 

 period of their school attendance, was excellent. Besides the 



