314 Proceedings of the Eoycd Society 
private one) to which his child is to be sent. In some places he 
has to pay the school fee all the same to the school for which his 
child was registered. In two parts of Germany there used to be 
no law of compulsion, namely, in the free towns of Hamburg and 
Frankfort-on-the-Maine. Frankfort, however, has now become 
Prussian. It was said that in these places the attendance of 
children at school was quite as universal as in Prussia itself; and 
some persons argue that the custom of the people might be relied 
on everywhere in Germany, and the law dispensed with. But we 
have already seen that the growing pauperism of places like 
Berlin tends to invalidate the custom. The law, at all events, 
helps to keep the custom straight, else it might well be doubted 
whether the ideas of the sixteenth century as to the duty of school 
attendance could be kept alive in manufacturing centres, and in 
very poor neighbourhoods. In the agricultural districts, it is said 
that the farmers dislike schools because they raise wages; in 
manufacturing districts, the parents dislike schools because they 
deprive them of a certain amount of wages which their children 
might otherwise be earning. In the cotton manufacturing districts 
of Saxony, the Government has made an equitable compromise 
between the claims of industry and of school learning, by allowing 
a system of half-time schools for children employed in the factories. 
The children under this system appear to be ultimately as well 
instructed as those under a whole time system. I think that this 
experiment deserves particular attention. For I believe that chil¬ 
dren up to nine or ten years’ old can learn as much in three hours 
per diem as they could learn in six hours per diem, and that light 
industrial tasks for the remainder of the day would rather tend to 
develope the intelligence of the child. In Prussia the minimum 
age for children being employed in a factory is twelve, and up to 
fourteen no child must work more than six hours per diem. Thus 
plenty of time is still left for attendance at a three hours’ school. 
We have now to consider the funds by which the elementary 
schools of Prussia are supported. There are very few endowments 
available for them. The Government has at its disposal for educa¬ 
tional purposes about L.50,000 per annum, derived from seques¬ 
trated Church property, and from charitable bequests.- But this is 
almost entirely devoted to higher education. The elementary 
