358 Condition of the English Agricultural Labourer, 1871. 
healthy labour could be found for women, there is much that is 
rough and unfeminine in field work, and contrary to our ideas of 
the woman's place in life ; but as between the system of married 
women and young children under thirteen going out to Avork on 
the one hand, and young adult females on the other, those who 
read the reports on North Northumberland and East Lothian 
will, we think, find much to be said in favour of the customs of 
these counties. 
Educational questions have been much discussed of late, 
and recent legislation on the subject has not yet come into opera- 
tion, so that our remarks on this subject will be brief. During the 
last twenty-five years, mainly owing to the exertions of tlie clergy, 
great advances have been made, and opportunities afforded, for 
the education of the labourer. There are now very few districts 
in England where his children are not within reach of a gfood 
elementary school, well provided with appliances for education, 
and under the care of a certificated master or mistress ; and we 
may hope that, under the influence of the recent Education Act, 
the remaining blank places will speedily be filled up. Many of 
us cannot help remarking, amongst the generation now growing up 
in our villages, the result of what has been and is being done in 
this direction. The clergy tell us that the young people who come 
up for confirmation are much more able to read and understand 
the lessons given to them than they were formerly ; and the 
circulation of the penny newspaper of the locality is now 
not unfrequent amongst the labourers as well as the farmers. 
New schools are built on all sides, or old ones enlarged and 
fitted for modern requirements ; but the number of absentees, 
the irregularity of attendance, and the early age at which 
children leave, are great drawbacks to satisfactory progress. 
Parents are often most unreasonable in keeping children away 
for some small work at home — for a fair, for a feast, or for some 
trifling indisposition — and then complain that their children 
do not get on with their schooling ; and, unfortunately, there is 
still too much of the feeling that children are sent to school not 
for their own benefit, but to please the squire or the parson. 
The teaching power in many village-schools is insufficient, and 
the younger children do not receive the individual attention 
which at that period of life they require. At present, from five 
years of age to ten seems to many parents and employers the 
limit during which we can have regular attendance at school ; 
and although we hope to see the school age generally extended 
to twelve or thirteen, still, taking things as* we find them, we 
must endeavour to work more patiently and determinedly with 
the childi'en who attend ; and certainly those who have had 
experience in teaching know how much personal supervision 
