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choose to dine at the school on the working days; for which they are to pay each sixpence per week.

6th. In case of illness, the dinner may be sent for to their homes.

7th. The portions, if the dinner is sent out, to be as follows:

One pint and half of peas porridge.

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One pound and half of potatoe pudding. Those, who dine at the school, to have as much as they choose to eat, and a quarter of a pound of bread each; except on the pudding and rice milk days, when no bread is allowed. 8th. The whole of the earnings to belong to the children.

A spinning school had been established at Oakham, in 1787: but, till this arrangement took place, the children used to go home to their dinner; which was attended with great inconvenience in wet and bad weather, and with loss of time; as, frequently, when the weather was very bad, they did not return after dinner; and sometimes did not go at all.

In order to establish the present system, the dinners for the first fortnight, were given gratis,

and the parents invited to taste them; after that they were informed that the children of those who approved of the plan, might dine there, upon paying sixpence a week; and those, whose parents preferred their dining at home, might continue to do so. The whole of the parents approved much of their dining at the school; and the whole number, which amounts to between sixty and seventy, dine there, and pay their money. They do more work in the week by these means, and get a much better dinner than they could at home. Several children come there, whose parents do not receive relief.

By purchasing the different articles wholesale, by the use of barley bread (which is customary at that place), and by means of a Rum. ford copper, the expence for the dinners and fuel has never exceeded the sixpence per head.

The peas porridge, and pudding, are taken from Count Rumford's book, with some alterations, which made them rather more expensive, but certainly better.

I conceive that the success, which has hitherto attended this plan, is owing to its having been left to the option of the parents, whether their children should dine there or not.

16th March, 1797.

No. X.

INDUSTRY SCHOOL AT LEWISHAM.

In April, 1796, a meeting of the inhabitants of Lewisham was called, for the purpose of Setting up a school of industry,* for the children of that parish. The subscribers came to a resolution to prepare accommodations for the reception of sixty children, and the house was opened on the 30th of May, 1796.

The children are admitted on the recommendation of subscribers, and by order of the Committee. In summer the school is open from six o'clock in the morning to six at night, and in winter during the hours of daylight; but the children have usually finished their task by two o'clock; they then go away, unless, which is the case with some of them, they prefer to work additional hours on their own account. They receive two meals a day, a breakfast and a dinner; one hour being allowed at dinner, and half an hour at breakfast. They are employed in spinning, winding, and knitting; * Reports, No. XXIX.

and one boy in weaving. The present weaver, is an active boy, not ten years of age: his predecessor had been employed but a very little time, before he had an offer of a permanent engagement at a cotton mill. In rotation they all receive lessons in reading. The children's weekly maintenance is estimated at 1s. 6d. per head; and where they earn more in any week (as some do 6d. a week, and some 1s.) they are paid, and carry home the overplus. One little boy (who came from the workhouse with but a bad character, but who now possesses a very good one), earns not less than an extra shilling a week; he has during the last month, put into the master's hands, in trust for him the sum of 5s. In the case of the parish children, who are entirely maintained at the parish expence, there is, as yet, no certain allowance; but they are rewarded according to their industry and good behaviour. It is however in contemplation to make them a certain allowance; probably a sixth of their earnings.

Spinning wheels are lent, and materials are furnished at home, for any of the adult inhabitants of the parish, who wish employment; and they are paid for their work upon delivery. A suit of clothes, made of the cloth and camblet

of their own manufacture, is yearly given to each of the children, who attend the school, as a reward for their good behaviour, and to enable them to appear decently and regularly at church on Sundays.

In the infancy of a manufacture, there is necessarily a loss from the waste of raw materials. In the present instance it must be admitted, that very little profit accrued from the labour of the children, during the first six months: but, for the next half year, the profit was gradually increasing and it advanced so much, that at the end of the year, on the 30th of May, 1797, the net profit of the manufactory had amounted to 557.—That profit may be fairly stated at 100l. a year in future. The school of industry now supplies the parish workhouse with most of their articles of clothing: besides which, a stock of knitted stockings, and of camblets and worsted, is kept in the warehouse, to be sold by wholesale and retail. The demand for them has been gradually increasing; and the inhabitants have found their advantage in the purchase of them.

The weekly expense of the family, upon an average, is 3d. a head per day; including the

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