120 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION.— 1835. 
tion of 142,000 in 1831, there were entirely omitted in those returns 
1 infant school, 10 Sunday schools, and 176 day schools, which 
existed at the period when those returns were made, and contained 
10,611 scholars. False returns were made by one individual of three 
Sunday schools that never existed at all, and which were stated to 
contain 1590 scholars; and double returns were made of three other 
schools, containing 375 scholars; so that the total error in those re¬ 
turns for the township of Manchester alone was 181 schools and 
8646 scholars. Besides this, eight dame schools were reported as 
infant schools. 
The tables annexed to the report of the committee gave a classi¬ 
fication of the schools in the borough, showing the relative number 
of scholars of each sex, and the date of their establishment; the 
mode in which supported; the terms of payment in the dame schools, 
common day schools, evening and infant schools ; the course and 
mode of instruction pursued; the country and religious profession 
of the masters or mistresses; the number of years they had been 
engaged in teaching, and the number who had been educated for 
the employments, &c. 
Upon the superior private and boarding schools no minute report 
was given. One of the Mechanics’ Institutions was stated to be in a 
very prosperous condition. 
The education given in the common day schools, containing nearly 
7000 children, was represented to be generally very poor, few of the 
teachers being at all qualified for their task; and the committee 
consider that no effectual means can be taken to render these schools 
efficient until proper seminaries are established for the instruction of 
the teachers themselves. 
The report states that of 4722 children attending the dame schools, 
the vast majority receive no instruction at all deserving of the name, 
and derive little benefit from their attendance at school but that of 
being kept out of harm during a few hours of the day. The esta¬ 
blishment of infant schools on a large scale is recommended with a 
view gradually to supplant the dame schools. 
The Sunday schools which had above 33,000 scholars on their 
books, with an average attendance of nearly 25,000, are classed in 
various ways in the tables. They are reported by the committee to 
form a most important feature among the means existing for the 
education of the lower classes of the people, and their influence is 
represented as highly beneficial. 
Mr. Greg and Mr. Langton also presented to the Section an un¬ 
published Table showing a general summary of schools in Bury, Lan¬ 
cashire ; drawn up from an investigation just completed in that 
borough by the Education Committee of the Manchester Statistical 
Society. 
