ence is, that according to the report of a committee of physicians
and surgeons in 1840: "The ratio of infant mortality in Birmingham is very
considerable, greatly exceeding that of the metropolis, and of the
agricultural districts, though not as high as in some provincial towns."
"Severe burns and scalds, particularly the former, are so numerous, that in
the general hospital two rooms are devoted for their reception."

We have not been able to obtain any precise statistics of education among the
operative classes; but we find that among criminals upwards of ninety per
cent. are either totally or very imperfectly educated, and that of 15,000
young persons between the age of ten and fifteen engaged in manufacture, not
more than 1,000 have an opportunity of education, except from Sunday schools.

In Sunday schools the instruction is confined to reading the scriptures and
religious books, except in the schools attached to the meeting-houses of the
Society of Friends and the Unitarians, the conductors of which have had the
good sense to accommodate their plans to the peculiar wants of a
manufacturing district.

No general movement seems to have been attempted to correct this crying evil
of infant employment and neglected education, none of the patriots, bearded
or shaven, have ventured to exert their strong lungs in so unpopular a cause:
it is so much easier to stand on your own dunghill and abuse the lord of the
manor than to put on an apron and a cap, mix up the lime and water, and
whitewash your own cottage. But several manufacturers have honourably
distinguished themselves by beginning the work of reformation at home.

Mr. Gillet, the pen manufacturer, whose work is principally done by females,
admits no girls into his shops under thirteen; he makes ability to read
indispensable, and gives a preference in obtaining employment to those who
can write; and requires a certificate of regular attendance from a Sunday
school teacher.

Mr. Winfield, who employs nearly five hundred hands, of whom few are women,
established an evening school in 1844, at a charge of a penny a week, for his
own work people, in which reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar,
geography, and drawing, are taught, with occasional lectures on the
principles of mechanics, natural philosophy, and history. A small library is
attached to the school.

"When the school was first established, it was remarked that scarcely a boy
knew his companion exc