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National School nor any other school under the sun, necessarily developes the scholars with the knowledge that confers power. These schools turn out mere parrots, and it is obvious that under present circumstances, bearing in mind the exigences of labour, not much more can be expected of them; their pupils are merely reading, writing, and spelling machines, more or less faulty, who on leaving school for work, as a rule straightway forget everything they have learned, on the monotonous treadmill of daily labour from sunrise to sunset. The fruitful knowledge or the pregnant parts of it, men acquire for themselves and by themselves. The National or any other school, it is granted, sows the seed more or less carefully; but the plant is nurtured, fostered and brought to maturity by self-labours, by "burnings of midnight oil," by selfsacrifices and self-denials. Most men who have risen from lowly lots—who have made themselves—have been practically their own educators; and there are many notable instances of such selfrisen men who had less advantages less time, less opportunity than even agricultural labourers. Stephenson out of many may be cited as a signal example to prove the truth of this; but it must be considered that the disadvantages are so great, the labour so terribly up-hill, so dead against the collar all the way through, that it cannot be expected that there will be more than an occasional phenomenon of this kind-an exceptional meteor, at least under the present system of education and the present condition altogether of the agricultural labourers of this country.

Though the country schools have improved wonderfully during the last ten years, and have increased to a very great extent, there are still parishes where there is only an apology for a school—a mere humble dame's school, only serving as a kind of crêche for troublesome and inconvenient children; and there are parishes where there is no school of any kind, where generations have come and gone uninstructed and barbarian. Happily these instances are few and far between; and it is to be hoped that

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the Government will so extend their educational grant that no village in England shall be without its recognised schoolmaster certificated and assisted by Government, but working with and subject in a degree to the local authorities as according to the present national system. Employers of labour must hesitate to take children away from school for work until they have fairly mastered the rudiments of learning, and parents should be encouraged to make every effort to keep their children at school until this result is attained, or at least until they are twelve or thirteen years of age. Failing this, if employers will persist in having children on their farms under a certain age, and before they have had these few poor elements of education thrust into their understandings, and if parents still keep wilfully blind to the advantages of education-to the absolute necessity for it in these times the Government must step in and say positively that these children shall not be employed until they are of a certain age-that they shall have a certain amount of education. Compulsory enactments are objectionable, but they must be resorted to if public opinion is not strong enough to enforce general education and to bring about practically the ends and objects of some clauses of the Factory Act. If children go to hard work on the farm at a tender age, while their limbs are weak and their frames delicate and tender, it is impossible that they can develope afterwards into stalwart, sturdy men. Their constitutions are impaired, their proportions stunted by early exposure and premature toil, and years of life are often sacrificed for the sake of a poor weekly payment which, after all, if fairly estimated hardly compensates the parents for the additional wear and tear of clothes. There is but a poor chance of the minds of these poor children ever being properly trained according to their station, if they are taken away from school at an early period and engaged in manual work, which naturally enough they prefer in their ignorance to the restraint and discipline of the school.

Even if greater opportunities were given to such children who had been to school for a year or two, of carrying on their education afterwards, it is doubted whether they would be embraced or prove of much service. Directly he begins to work the juvenile assumes independence and manliness. He is above school and school rules directly he assumes the weeding-spud or the bird-rattle. His little sackcloth garment for the fields is his toga virilis. Toying, delicately at present, with his tobacco, with a fast-coming consciousness of the overwhelming attributes of beer, he kicks at learning and despises the paths of wisdom. He may condescend to patronise a night-school occasionally; but experience has shewn that such young pupils, who know literally nothing, or next to nothing, are most difficult to teach and to manage, they come merely for the fun of the thing, and it is almost impossible in a night-school proper, to benefit to any extent those who have not mastered the rudiments before. Night-schools are specially for those who know how to read, write, and cipher fairly; they are intended to enable lads over thirteen years of age to carry on their education after the hours of work. If they are established for any other purpose they will fail, and probably this is the reason why more liberal aid and greater recognition have not been accorded them by successive Governments. When public opinion or law has positively required that all children shall be primarily instructed, and that none shall go to labour regularly until they are of a proper age, night-schools, and indeed a regular night-school system, will be imperatively necessary;-the night-school class will be a part of the curriculum, just as Oxford is the next step to Eton. In Holland whose system of education is far more perfect and advanced than that of any other country, except Prussia perhaps in one or two points, there are, besides the elementary schools in every parish, "Bürgerscholen," or schools for tradesmen and the labouring-classes, for the purpose of carrying on the edu

cation of the tradesmen and working-classes in any line of study which they may elect. These schools are carried on in the daytime as well as in the evening.* Night-schools may be connected with the day-schools as far as the machinery is concerned, but they must be well worked, liberally kept up, and considered part and parcel of the whole scheme of National Education. If the children of the agricultural labourers are simply taught in the day-school how to read, write, and cipher fairly until they are twelve years old or eleven, as the very earliest time at which they forsake school and go to daily work, and then allowed to attend a well worked night-school, the whole class of agricultural labourers would be improved in mind and physique. Their condition would soon be essentially advanced as education made its way among them, as the truths and stern axioms of political economy were demonstrated to them. They would see for themselves, without the aid of flatterers or interested demagogues, what they must practice and what they must avoid. After education has become general, after it is established that every child shall be educated, the important addendum of technical knowledge may be made. It is not of much use trying to give the latter until the former is acquired ;or this remark may be modified by saying that the educated person will be a much readier and more apt pupil in learning a trade, or an art, or a "skill," than the utterly ignorant clown. The time is coming fast when technical knowledge will be absolutely necessary to agricultural labourers. The use of valuable and complicated machinery is becoming so general, and will become universal when the wages of the agricultural labourer are at a maximum and proper point, that every labourer must necessarily know something of its mechanism and working. All

*In the Fortnightly Review of September, 1869, there is a very concise account of education in Holland.

the men who work steam ploughs receive higher wages than those on the same farm who drive the horses. In the former case special knowledge and special skill are required :—the drivers of the steam plough have received a technical education. In the latter case it is assumed that the most ignorant clown can "go with the horses;" nothing but strength and health are supposed to be required for such as these. Even for ordinary work upon farms technical education would be of important benefit;there are correct and incorrect modes of digging and handling a pitchfork; the man who knows the right mode does his work more easily and saves himself a deal of "powder." There is no kind of training, no apprenticeship, no special education of any sort or kind thought necessary for the agricultural labourer. It would be of inestimable advantage to him and to his employer if some mode of instruction in the various agricultural operations could be devised. Large employers of labour are loud in their demands for technical training; and Mr. Bailey Denton* may be cited as one out of many who is continually advocating its immense advantages to both employers and employed, and no man is better qualified to give an opinion upon this subject. The time will soon arrive when the farm-labourer will be compelled to study his business and to acquire some notion of the principles of the simple mechanical operations of his daily work. Such knowledge would tend to lighten the labour and to give a certain dignity to it which at present it sadly lacks. Farmers should endeavour to impress upon their workmen the advantage of technical skill as tending to improve their characters and to make their labour far more valuable and efficacious.

*See a paper on the Agricultural Labourer, read at the Society of Arts by Mr. Bailey Denton in 1868.