[330] Ibid. 1st September 1847, No. 9, N.S. p. 131.
[331] MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 1850-5.
[332] 18 & 19 Vic. c. 34 (Education of Poor Children Act 1855). "An enactment involving the important admission that want of education was a form of destitution, which ought to be adequately relieved" (History of the English Poor Law, by T. Mackay, 1899, vol. iii. p. 428).
[333] Circular of 9th January 1856, in Ninth Annual Report, 1857, pp. 13, 15. In 1856 it was reported that there were in Lancashire and the West Riding 48,412 children on outdoor relief, of whom about 30,000 ought to be at school. Yet down to December 1855, the boards of guardians had taken no steps to get them to school, in spite of the inspector's protests (Eighth Annual Report, 1855, p. 63).
[334] House of Commons Return, No. 437 of 1856; Ninth Annual Report, p. 8. Newcastle-on-Tyne adopted it at once (MS. Minutes, Newcastle Board of Guardians, 10th October 1855).
[335] Fifteenth Annual Report, 1862-3, p. 18; Circular of 29th September 1862.
[336] MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 9th October 1862. The Manchester Guardians, whose early school experiment we have already mentioned, largely nullified their own action (and apparently contravened the spirit, if not the letter of the law), by insisting on the attendance of the outdoor paupers exclusively at the guardians' own school, which gave "undenominational" religious instruction, and refusing to pay fees for children to go to any other schools (except for a short time in 1862-3 when their own schools were over-full). In vain did the Roman Catholics and the Manchester and Salford Education Aid Society protest, pointing out that the children were in consequence growing up untaught (ibid. 26th May, 23rd and 30th June, and 10th November 1864; 19th June 1865). The Central Authority does not appear to have intervened.
[337] That the children should be accommodated in a separate building, under a separate superintendent, and educated by "a person properly qualified to act as a schoolmaster" (page 307 of Report of 1834, reprint of 1905).
[338] The children in the Bakewell Workhouse were found, in 1855, to be in a dreadful state of health, owing to the literal application throughout the workhouse of the principles of the General Consolidated Order of 1847. The inspector protested at last, and recommended special arrangements for the children in the way of more nourishing diet and outdoor exercise. The guardians framed a new dietary, ordered "the swings, etc. recommended by the inspector," and directed the schoolmistress "to take the girls out for a walk every day when the weather is fine" (MS. Minutes, Bakewell Board of Guardians, 1st October 1855 and 29th September 1856.)
[339] From 1846 onwards the Committee of the Privy Council on Education had, as part of the nation's educational policy, actually made grants to the boards of guardians to pay the salaries of qualified workhouse schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. In 1848 it was announced to the boards of guardians that, whereas "no comprehensive effort has hitherto been made" to raise the standard of efficiency, henceforth the inspector of pauper schools will examine the schools and the qualifications of the teachers as part of the conditions for sharing in the grant (MS. Minutes, Newcastle Board of Guardians, 31st March 1848).