Mr. Fawcett on Thursday made a great effort to bring
the children employed in agriculture under the protection of the Fac- tory Acts. He specially wanted that the attendance of agricultural children at school should be made compulsory up to twelve years of age. Mr. Barclay, the Member for Aberdeen, supported him, his experience in Scotland showing him that educated children developed into more efficient and therefore cheaper labourers ; while Mr. Mundella pointed out that the present law tempted operatives to work their children too early in the fields, as they could not enter the factories. Mr. Clare Read, however, resisted, imploring the Member for Hackney " to let farmers alone for a little while ;" and Mr. Cross adopted his argument, saying that 15,000,000 out of 27,000,000 of people would shortly be under the operation of the Act, and that it was better to wait for its exten- sion over the whole country. He himself preferred to promote agricultural education through School Boards, rather than to multiply Inspectors. Mr. Fawcett's motion was therefore lost by 208 to 93. Mr. Cross may be right about his School Boards, but he has still to show that they are 'willing even to make an effort to extend the educational age up to twelve or thirteen. Their notion in the country is that long before that time boys are useful on the farms.
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