Mr. Fawcett's resolution on Rural Education, moved on Monday night,
to the effect that "it is undesirable that a less amount of school attendance should be secured to children employed in agriculture than to children employed in other branches of in- dustry," was brought forward in an able speech, in which he showed how few school boards there are at all in the rural districts, and even of these few, how much fewer have adopted compulsion. In all broad Wiltshire, Mr. Fawcett's native county, there are only five school boards, and of these only one has adopted compulsion ; in Dorsetshire there are but twelve school boards, and of these only three have adopted compulsion ; while not a single municipal borough in that county has a school board, and only one Parlia- mentary borough (Wareham) has a school board, and that has not adopted compulsion. In Shropshire there are but four school boards, and but one has adopted compulsion. In Suffolk there are thirty-one school boards, but only three have adopted com- pulsion. In Essex there are thirty-five school boards, and only six have adopted compulsion. In Lincolnshire there are sixteen school boards, and three have adopted compulsion. Everywhere
the rural districts are deficient in the machinery necessary for compulsion, and even where that is not so, they will not apply it. As regards the plea taken from children's wages, Mr. Fawcett main- tained that the restriction of children's labour tends to increase directly the rate of wages for adult labour, and his general argu- ment for the resolution was statesmanlike both in its moderation and in its grasp.
