nding school in the
borough of Birmingham at the time the schools were visited.

According to the population abstracts of 1821 and 1831, one-fourth of the
total population consists of children between these ages. Hence it would
appear, that of the 45,000 between the ages of 5 and 15 in the borough of
Birmingham--

21,824 or 48.5 per cent. were receiving instruction in day and
Sunday-schools; and

23,176 or 51.5 per cent. were not found receiving instruction in
either day or Sunday-schools within the borough of Birmingham.

(Grainger, Evidence: App. Pt. I., p. _f_ 185, 1. 13.)

In the Wolverhampton district, including the neighbouring towns of
Willenhall, Bilston, Wednesfield, Sedgley, Darlaston, and also in the
towns of Dudley, Walsall, Wednesbury, and Stourbridge, though there are
many day-schools, yet the chief means relied on for the education of the
working classes are Sunday-schools. In the Collegiate Church district in
the town of Wolverhampton, containing a population of from 16,000 to
20,000 persons, there is no National or British School. There is not a
single school, reading-room, or lending library attached to any of the
manufactories, foundries, or other works, with one exception near
Wednesbury; there are no evening-schools, and there is only one
industrial school in these districts, namely, at Wednesbury. It is
stated in evidence that the great majority of the children receive no
education at all; that not one half of them go even to the
Sunday-schools, and that those who do go to these schools seldom attend
them with regularity. Throughout the whole of these districts, the
proportion that can read is represented as being unusually small; some
who stated that they could read, when examined, were found unable to read
a word; and out of 41 witnesses under eighteen years of age examined at
Darlaston, only four could write their names. (Horne, Report: App. Pt.
II., p. Q 16, ss. 182 _et seq._)

"The number of children on the books at the different schools in
Sheffield, comprising every description of schools," says Mr. Symons,
"was made the subject of minute and accurate inquiry in 1838, by the Rev.
Thomas Sutton, the vicar; and I have reason to believe that no material
difference has taken place in the amount of scholars taught at the
'common' and 'middling' private day-schools since Mr. Sutton's census was
made." From this census it appears that the maximum number of children