many, and generally has happened in the course of six months after they have been received into the school; as the habits of order and industry, which the children acquire there, render them so desirable as apprentices, that, though there has been a difficulty heretofore in finding situations in private families for any parish children, because they come out of a workhouse, yet they are now sought for, and the parish is relieved from the expense of their maintenance at a much earlier age, than if they had been kept in the workhouse.

One other very great advantage resulting from this establishment, and from its necessary connection with the poor of the parish, is, that the gentlemen, who have interested themselves in its success, have thereby been induced to take a very active part in the management of the poor; and one of them, Robert Saunders Esq. is now serving the office of overseer for his second year. It will be obvious that a great benefit to the poor, and a considerable saving to the parish, must be the consequences of such an institution. The poor are more happy, and better taken care of than they were before; and the saving, from the new system, will hardly be less than 500l. a year.

By the preceding account it will appear, how

much may, at a very small expense, be effected by a judicious and spirited adoption of one of the measures, directed by the statute 43d Elizabeth. It is needless to observe upon the effects which this establishment has necessarily produced on the morals, the cleanliness, and the health of the children; who, being now habituated to industry, instructed in reading, and accustomed to a regular attendance on divine worship, are bred up in the knowledge and practice of obedience and reverence to their Creator, and of that utility, which he has enjoined as a duty to their fellow-creatures.

Besides the advantage of separating the parish children from the contagion of those dissolute and profligate characters, which are to be found in all workhouses, the maintaining them at a less expense, and the educating of them in the habits of industry and virtue (circumstances which apply to the parish children removed from the workhouse to the school of industry), it should be observed, that a very great relief is also given to the other poor of the parish, by easing the parents of the burthen of maintaining so many of their children, and by giving the mothers profitable employment at home; a

relief, that by improving the circumstances of the cottager, has a just and honourable tendency to reduce the poor's rates.-Establishments, like that at Lewisham, have also the merit of correcting the little pilfering habits of the infant poor, the source of so many vices and crimes in society; and of preserving them from idleness and bad example, and training them in virtuous and industrious habits, so as to make them blessings to their parents, and useful and valuable members of society.

22d Feb. 1798.

No. XI.

INDUSTRY SCHOOL FOR GIRLS AT BAMBURGH.

SIXTY Y poor girls,* elected from the township and neighbourhood of Bamburgh, in the county of Northumberland, are taught to spin jersey and flax, to knit, to sew, and to mark; and are also instructed in religion, psalmody, reading, writing, and the elementary parts of arithmetic. None are admitted under the age of five years. Twelve of the youngest are only taught reading and knitting; the remainder are divided into two sets (of twenty-four each, when the school is complete) which are alternately employed for a week at a time in two rooms, superintended each by a different mistress.

The lower room is about forty feet long, twenty feet broad, and above twenty feet high. This is wholly appropriated to spinning; the jersey spinners occupying the floor with twelve wheels and a large reel; and the flax spinners employing the like number of foot wheels, on

an open gallery about seven feet high, erected for that purpose along one side of the room, so that the mistress has a full view of the whole number at once. These are again subdivided, so as to work three days in the week on the gallery, and the other three on the floor.

The upper room, for sewing and knitting, is about eighteen feet square; it is high and well lighted on three sides. Here the youngest girls do no other work than knitting: the twenty-four eldest sew in the morning, and knit in the afternoon.

Besides the two mistresses attending these two rooms, a master is employed in a smaller room near the sewing school, in their instruction as above mentioned. For this purpose, the whole number is divided into six classes, of ten scholars each; these classes, being taken in rotation from the works, and remaining with him each one hour a day. He likewise reads an appropriate form of prayers to the whole school every morning, and keeps the account of their absences, and of the after mentioned tickets. On Sundays the scholars of both schools assemble in the boys' school, where a preparatory form of prayer is used, and a psalm sung; after which they go down in procession