24 JULY 1869, Page 2

Mr. Forster presented the budget of his department on Monday.

The Education grant is 1840,711, the grant for schools 2414,926, the school fees 2420,742, and subscriptions 2474,158, costing us, say a sixth of the expenditure for paupers, or a tenth of the vote for the Army. With this sum, 1,060,000 children above six are taught, of whom 692,499 were presented for examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Of these, 67 per cent, passed, a great improvement on last year. Mr. Forster quoted figures to show that there ought to be 1,650,000 children of the working- class, between 6 and 10, on the school registers, whereas there are only 670,000; and 755,000 between 10 and 12, whereas there are only 250,000. Our machinery, therefore, does not yet reach half the children, and of this half a majority only pass the lowest standard. In 13 English regiments examined, only one-third of the men could read well, and one-sixth write well, while in Saxony the fact that 4 men out of 800 could not read was considered so extraordinary that a special report was ordered as to the cause. And we are the people who are to fill the world