ON

No. V.

DAY SCHOOLS IN WEST STREET.

N the 3d of May, 1802, there were opened in West-street, in the parish of St. Giles, day

*

schools for two hundred children of the

poor in that neighbourhood. They have since been increased to the number of two hundred and forty children. The schools are of the esta blished church, and connected with the free chapel in West-street; and are either kept in the house adjoining the chapel, and belonging to it, or in the chapel itself, where the children attend at the times of divine service on Sundays, morning and evening, and Thursday evenings; and also on Thursday mornings, from nine o'clock to one, being the time fixed for their public examination.

For the education of each child, the parent pays, in advance, a shilling + a month.—It is curious that, in these payments, until the severe weather came on, there had scarcely occurred

Reports, No. C.

The payment is now reduced to ninepence a month. 21 Jan. 1809.

an arrear of a shilling, from their first opening, Some failures in payment have since occurred, but not in many instances; and though the payments amount to thirteen shillings a year for each child, yet the rapidity with which those vacancies have been filled up, and the applica tions that are daily made for admission of children, give some reason to believe, that, if the school-house were adapted to receive five hundred children, instead of two hundred and forty, it would soon be filled.

As it will shew one mode in which a general and national system of education for the poor might be adopted at a very trivial expense, I will state the outgoings of these three schools, and the funds by which they are supported. The only persons employed in them, are a master, and two mistresses; dividing between them the charge of two hundred and forty children, collected in three separate schools; each of which occupies one of the three upper floors of the house: floors which, it must be confessed, are not sufficiently commodious for so large a number of scholars. The salary of the master is 50%. a year, and of the two mistresses 321. and 30l. a year; which includes their board, and every other incidental expense, except coals and

candles for the schools, and the cleaning of the house. For these three articles the master is allowed 167. 10s. a year. The charge for house rent, &c. is 50l. a year. Of books, paper, &c. the annual expense is about 15l. To this will remain to be added the sum of 90%. for clothing ninety of the children, who are the nominees of annual subscribers of one guinea each, or of benefactors of ten guineas each.

Before I had stated the expenses of these schools, I should have observed, that there are also, on this establishment, Sunday schools for one hundred additional children, who are not paid for by their parents. The children of all the schools attend in the free chapel on Sundays,* and lead the psalmody of it with a degree of correctness and intelligence, that must surprise any one, who considers the short time which they have had to learn the tunes, and how unpromising scholars they must have been at first. Their progress is owing chiefly to the schoolmaster; who possesses not only a parti

* This has increased the congregation at the free-chapel, not only on Sundays, but at the Thursday evening lectures; many of their parents attending out of curiosity at first to see their children, and to hear them sing. Of these parents, the greater part are now become regular frequenters of the chapel, and devout and attentive hearers.

cular talent for instruction in sacred music, but a singular pleasure in teaching it. The singing is also improved by a weekly practice after Thursday evening lecture, when Mr. and Mrs. Gurney, and their children, and about fifty of the congregation, join with much benefit and pleasure.

The total expenditure of the day schools and Sunday schools, being 2831. 10s. is provided as follows:-1st, by 84l. of annual subscriptions; 2dly, by 1567. paid by the poor for their children's education, at thirteen shillings a year for each child; and 3dly, by the collections of two morning and two evening charity sermons, producing together* about 50%. making together a total of 290l, and leav ing a trifling balance to answer contingent expenses. When the cost of clothing the ninety children is deducted, the current expense of these schools for two hundred and forty children, and of the Sunday schools for one hundred childred (in so unfavourable a situation as the centre of St. Giles's), will not exceed by more

*The sermons are in May and November: the latter were on the 14th of the preceding month of November, when the collection, from an audience of one thousand persons, the greater part of them the poor of that neighbourhood, amounted to 287. 11s. 6d.

than 37%. 10s. the payments which the parents do willingly make for their children's instruc

tio n.

In my observations upon these schools, I will exclude all general topics, and not trespass further on the time of the reader, than by a few brief remarks upon the peculiar features of this recent experiment, with respect to the edu cation of the poor. It will not be easy to name a local situation where the remedy was so much wanted, and where circumstances were so adverse to the success of the experiment: and yet through the conduct and attention of the Rev. Mr. Gurney, and the intelligence and assiduity of the master, Mr. Neeves, and of his wife, and the other school mistress, these schools have, within nine months from the first proposal of them, been established with a success which promises increase both in number and effect. It may be proper to inform the visitor of the school, that if he is desirous of viewing a splendid establishment of pupils, a striking arrangement of building and appendages, and a surplusage of well appointed instructors and attendants, with handsome salaries and commodious apartments, he will find nothing of the kind in West-street. The size