388 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
This excess of population over means of employment is in some 
measure attributable to the advance made in the education of our 
boys during recent years, and is not confined to our own country. 
Only last week a large meeting of the unemployed was held at 
Manchester, when it was reported that in that city alone 40,000 
people were out of work. 
In view then of lessening the strain and worry now found in our 
schools and amongst our working classes, I would suggest that 
boys and girls be kept much longer at school than they are, say 
fourteen or fifteen, the argument that the parent would lose the 
earnings and domestic help of the children being met by absolute 
compulsory daily attendance being strictly enforced as in Germany, 
but that there should be only one meeting of the school per day, 
say from nine to one, or from eight to twelve. The children 
would then have the whole afternoon and evening for recreation, 
jobbing work, such as running errands for employers, thereby 
earning a trifle ; but should not be permanently employed, to the 
diminution of adult labour, until fifteen years of age. They would 
also have more time to prepare home lessons if required, and we 
should probably completely lose the cry of overpressure. 
But someone will say, "How can a poor man provide for a 
family running up to fifteen years of age 1 " Suppose we have to 
pay a little more for adult labour in the price of our articles, we 
should probably be recouped by diminished poor-rates and lessened 
poverty. 
I am confident that if children be made to attend school with 
unfailing regularity (if but for one-half of the present school time) 
they would learn more easily and readily, would give little trouble 
in the school or outside its walls, and would so completely come 
under the control of the teachers and authorities as to give ample 
time for proper attention to their religious teaching and personal 
welfare. 
From the voluminous correspondence and articles which have 
appeared in the Nineteenth Century in answer to the question of 
" What shall we do with our boys ? " we gather that the popular 
answer is, " Let them emigrate." People resident in the colonies 
unhesitatingly aver, however, that beyond the professional class 
there is not employment for any youths who cannot sink their 
quasi-respectability, and work hard in a manner they would never 
dream of in the mother country. 
