smelling oil of the machinery; her lips are thin, pale, and pressed together, a smile seldom brightens her countenance, and when it does it travels so gloomily over it that it is like one of those light clouds that of an autumn evening glide past a waning moon, shewing that there is radiance beneath, but with mist and shadow checking its display. Her features were pretty when she was a child, but now they are irregular, rough, and sinewy; her neck is short, her hands are hard and feverish, her figure is growing uncouth, her feet are uncovered and her inner ankles touch the ground: a tattered shawl makes a hood for her head, and her dress is bare. Her whole look is that of anguish; her mind is uninformed, and her ignorance leads her to an unnatural contentment with her lot and submission to its penalties; but it is absurd, and opposed to every social and ethical truth, to applaud the contentment that springs from ignorance. Physical hardship and moral peril are the conditions of the poor mill girl's life-is there any succour for her, is there any anchor to cast into the dark sea of life in which she sails that will secure her against misfortune when virtue is assailed or faith begins to totter?

We find by the 21st Report of the Commissioners of National Education that there were forty-six Evening Schools in connexion with the Board on the 31st of December, 1854; and included in that number were seven schools for females. We have learned that very few adult females ever attended the latter schools, and that the number of junior girls in attendance was even very inconsiderable. They were evening schools for female children rather than for female adults. one was heard to repine at this state of things; there were no remonstrances made through Parliament or the Press against Government or Board, or any body else, for neglect or inaction; indeed, adult female education on a large scale had been, in fact hitherto regarded by educationists as impracticable.

No

There were objections, natural enough in their way, raised to any scheme that would lead females from their homes at night and expose them to the dangers and temptations of the streets. "Ignorance and innocence were thought more precious than knowledge and vice." This was a soothing and philanthropic fallacy for those to rely upon who thought female adult education a hopeless, undesirable, and unrealizable project. It was reserved for woman to ameliorate the condition in this respect

of the forsaken and ignorant of her own sex, and to declare the difficult and protracted problem solvable. The Sisters of Mercy, in Belfast, are the first who, on a scale of greatness and national efficiency, conceived the idea of educating adult females. They saw the mill girls in the state we have just depicted them, they saw them frightfully ignorant in the presence of the great commercial Mammon, and, with a courage and devotion akin to that which led so many of their order to eastern lands to comfort and console their noble compatriot soldiers, they tried an experiment which civilization had been so slow to attempt, and statesmen and economists so reluctant to approve.

The school was opened in the beginning of March, 1854. The crowd of grown females that sought admission on the first night, amounted to about twice the number the school could conveniently accommodate. The sisters made every exertion to reduce the number, by excluding those who could read or write, no matter how imperfectly; but the attempt was ineffectual on account of the persevering eagerness of all to remain. They rushed, and pushed, and cried, and begged, to be permitted to stay in the school. Organization, classification, arrangement of any kind were accordingly out of the question, and at the end of the first week, the sisters thought it the safest and most prudent course to close their doors altogether for a time. They hoped that the temporary closing of the school would allay the ardour of some of those who fought so hard to be admitted; and that the novelty of the thing would soon in a measure pass away. The school was, however, re-opened in a month, (in April), and the same old applicants with new and impetuous recruits in addition made their appearance. The sisters were then constrained to make such arrangements as would secure admission to all who came. They divided them into two classes. One class consisted of 250, who could read tolerably, and who were anxious to learn writing, arithmetic, &c.; and the other class was composed of 300 who could not read at all, and the greater number of whom did not know their letters. The former class attended on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the latter class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The pupils of both classes were adults and very many of them were married women. plan prevailed for a year, and in April, 1855, the school being then in perfect working order, the sisters determined to place

This

their evening department in connexion with the Board of National Education. Previously, however, to their doing so, they sent away 150 of those who were most advanced, and reduced the school to 300, that all might attend the five nights of the week, and learn geography and arithmetic, as well as reading and writing. The Board of Education, oddly enough, was slow to recognise the claims of the school, and their grant, to which we shall refer hereafter, only dates as far back as June last.

We may now conduct the reader to the school and describe its operations. We visited it on a cold, rainy, cheerless evening in the early part of January. As we made our way towards the building, we found the streets empty, for the wind was biting, the rain cold and incessant, the footpaths heavy, the lamps flickering, and the atmosphere dark, thick, and sickening. Is there anything in the world, we thought, so attractive as to draw women who have been for twelve hours pent up in a mill to-day from their homes and firesides, and make them indifferent to the inclement blast of to-night? In all seriousness it was a dreadful night, and we were prepared to find the school-room empty. In this we were agreeably disappointed. When we entered the room at seven o'clock, there were 205 young persons there assembled; their work in the mills had ceased at six o'clock, and in the meantime, they had gone home, washed themselves, arranged their hair, and dress, and then made their way dark, and stormy as it was, from various and remote parts of the town in all comeliness, and cleanliness to school. There are two school-rooms in the establishment, a large one about fifty-five feet long, and twentyfive feet broad. In the latter room are the girls who have only recently entered, and who are still unable to read in the large room are the girls who have passed the small one, or who have entered the school with some knowledge of reading. The rooms are plainly and humbly, but adequately furnished. Maps of every kind are suspended from the wall, the classes are well supplied with books at the expense of the nuns, the desks are of a convenient size, and well arranged upon the floor. The rules of the National Board of Education are conspiciously placed on the wall, over the principal rostrum, and the beautiful lesson published by the Commissioners, which inculcates christian charity and forbearance "to mankind of every description," is also in a prominent position

in the rooms. The records of the school, with a register and a report book are so accurately and neatly kept, that a stranger finds no difficulty in comprehending them, and learning at a glance what has been the history and progress of the institution since its establishment. We wish that teachers generally had the book-keeping and statistical genius of the good nun who has charge of these records, for, if they had, the annals of education would be more complete and reliable than at present, and vistors to schools would be saved a world of trouble.

The pupils pay 1d. per week, and for this they receive instruction, books, pens, slates, &c., gratis. An unalterable rule of the school is, that no one deficient in personal cleanliness or questionable as to morals and general propriety can be admitted. The nasty and unwholesome practice of daubing the hair over with the oil of the machinery, and the refuse grease of the mills, has been entirely abandoned by the girls attending the evening classes, and this alone, as a social improvement, is most creditable to the discipline of the school.

The course of education is so limited and humble that a stranger to the wisdom that directed it might over hastily pronounce it worthless and incomplete. It consists simply of reading, writing, and the rudiments of grammar and geography. As far as practicable, no girl is admitted who already knows how to read; it was to make the ignorant wise, and not the wise wiser, that the school was opened. In 1851, there were no less than 1,563,636 females in this country who could neither read nor write, and Belfast had its own large proportion of these. It is the resolution of the Sisters of Mercy to reduce this terrible quota of ignorance, and a noble task they have undertaken to accomplish. As a rule, therefore, none are admitted to the evening school unless those who enter for the first, or lowest class. As soon as they advance to the 4th, or highest class, they are requested to retire from the school altogether to make room for outstanding applicants, of whom there are always on the books a considerable number. On an average it takes only about five months, a very remarkable fact, alike illustrative of the system of teaching and the diligence of the pupils, to lead a girl from the lowest to one of the highest classes. By this arrangement there is a regular influx and efflux of scholars, and a constant tide of intelligence making its way into the mills. There was an average on the

school rolls of 425, and an average attendance of 275, for the last year. On the evening that we visited the school there were, as we have stated, 205 females present. Of these

29 were 18 years of age.
19 were 19 years of age.
14 were 20 years of age.
9 were 21 years of age.
4 were 22 years of age,
8 were 23 and above.

and

13 were 12 years of age. 12 were 13 years of age. 19 were 14 years of age. 26 were 15 years of age. 24 were 16 years of age. 28 were 17 years of age. The average age is then about 18 years-the very period of female life when moral danger is most imminent, when the affections and the passions are most active and least fixed, and the enemy to virtue sees in woman his richest prize. At such a stage in her life, Knowledge is offered as a shield of sweet protection, and the school in which the offering is made is as thronged as theatres in gayer places on gala nights. Of the moral phases of the school and the inducements to attend it, however, more presently. The employments during the day of those present were varied as follows:

Working at mills
Servants

Waistcoat maker
Dress makers

Muslin Workers
Fruiterer

Book-binder

Not employed

The classification, according to the proficiency of the pupils, was as follows:—

25 in first Book (still unable to read).

63 in second do.

42 in the sequel to second Book.

46 in the third Book, and

29 in the fourth Book.

One hundred and seventeen were engaged at writing on paper, and, for apparently sound reasons, the nuns had relinquished in the evening school the practice of writing on slates-176 were learning the arithmetical tables-151 were learning the easy rule of mental arithmetic-29 were working at commercial arithmetic upon slates, and the latter girls were also employed in the study of the rudiments of grammar and political geography. The classes were examined, and we found 4 who could read with care and expression, and about 90 who could read with as much clearness and intelligibility as the general mass of educated