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France, to Italy, to the Canary Isles, to Madeira, to Germany, to the Mediterranean, to North Cape, were organized in 1895 at wonderfully low rates. There is a mutual benefit society, for life insurance, and assurance against sickness and accidents. There is also a savings-bank, and a registry office which publishes " The London Labour List." This polytechnic receives from the County Council £3,000 a year (about a penny per pupil per hour); from the Science and Art Department, £2,000 ; from the City and Guilds Institute, £300; from the Charity Commissioners, £2,000. The annual deficit is £9,000, which Mr. Quintin Hogg, the founder, pays out of his own pocket. 2. People's Palace ; In 1882 the Beaumont Trustees acquired a site in the Mile End Boad and invited subscriptions for the erection of a great assembly hall and a public library, and the Drapers' Company gave £20,000 for the establishment of a technical school in connection with the new institute. In 1887 the hall was opened by the Queen, and the foundation-stones of the other buildings were laid. Lord Bosebery provided a swimming-bath, and Lord Iveagh a winter-garden. The Drapers' Company built a gymnasium, transformed some old buildings, provided for the installation of electric lighting, and gave £5,000 towards a laboratory and a shop for work in iron. Up to 1890 the Beaumont Trustees had the direction, both of the instruction and of the social and recreative departments of the institution ; but in that year the Drapers' Company assumed the sole responsibility for the educational part of the scheme. In 1892 the Drapers, who had already spent £60,000 on the institute, undertook to grant £7,000 a year, and the Charity Commissioners added £3,500 a year. The Drapers' Company gives also £1,000 a year in scholarships. The People's Palace, being thus endowed, has no need of aid from the County Council, and is in no way subject to its control. The technical day-school at the People's Palace is more fully developed than the day-schools at the other Polytechnics. The pupils must be twelve years old, and must have passed the Fifth Standard. The fee is Is. a week. The course is spread over three years, and is designed to prepare the pupil to learn a trade, or to devote himself to a calling that requires special knowledge or a certain manual dexterity. Systematic instruction is given in sciences, arts, languages, and the handling, of tools. For the first year all follow the same course, and their special aptitudes are carefully noted. In the next year, while certain classes are common, the school is divided into two sections —a trade section, and a scientific section. In the third year there are three sections, the first relating to trades and mechanical industries, the second to chemistry, and the third to art and designs. In the evening classes the age of the students is generally from sixteen to twenty. The classes fall into three groups : (1) Science and art classes preparing for South Kensington examinations ; (2) general government classes (for French, German, Spanish, Latin, Greek, shorthand, arithmetic, book-keeping, &c.) —some of these classes are reserved for pupils between the ages of thirteen and sixteen; (3) technical classes, not intended to supersede practical work in shop or factory, but to supplement it. There is an engineering department with a three years' course, and a section of electricity and physics. The social and recreative operations of the institution are many and various. In 1896 a general exhibition of the works of the polytechnics and other technical schools is to be held in the Queen's Hall. 3. The Borough Polytechnic was opened in 1892; it is one of the largest institutions of the kind, and the first to be established through the intervention of the Charity Commissioners. Its name, "Polytechnic," was adopted, as in many other cases, to indicate its likeness to the pioneer technical school in Begent Street, which occupies premises formerly occupied by an older institution bearing the name of " Polytechnic " (and entertaining the public with scientific lectures and semiscientific shows). The Borough Polytechnic had in its second year 1,750 students; it has forty paid teachers ; it receives £7,000 a year from the County Council. The same body bore the expenses of erecting the workshops (£3,200), and of furnishing them (£1,200). The institute is devoted principally to the wants of the building trades. It seems to have an unusual proportional number of working-men in its classes. The first year of the course is taken up with such subjects as drawing and geometry, and students must show proficiency in the subjects of this course before they can join the more technical classes of the second and third years. The usual provisions for social enjoyment, mental improvement, excursions, &c, are made for the members. There are two affiliated institutions : a small technical school called the Norwood Technical Institute, where there is no trade instruction in the stricter sense, and a more important institution at Bermondsey, the Harold Institute, for instruction in all branches of the building trades, and in tannery. The tannery school is of great importance : the Company of Leather Merchants gave £300 for the installation of a laboratory, and has promised £300 a year towards the cost of its maintenance. 4. Battersea Polytechnic Institute was opened in 1894. The Department of Public Works gave the site (2J acres) to a private committee, which had been formed for the purpose of establishing the Institute ; but the committee had to pay nearly £5,000 to extinguish certain private interests in the land. The committee collected subscriptions to defray the cost of buildings, &c. (£55,000). The City Parochial Foundation contributes £2,500 a year, the County Council a like sum, and the City and Guilds Institute a much smaller amount. The technical and scientific instruction is adapted to the requirements of the industries of the neighbourhood. The evening classes in technology, pure and applied sciences, art, commerce, domestic economy, and music constitute the chief part of the work of the Institute. All who desire to attend classes related to the trades in which they are engaged, are recommended to take a preliminary course (extending over one year) in mathematics, and geometrical and freehand drawing. There is a technical and scientific day-school for boys and girls, a normal school of domestic economy, and a school of household work for girls—the normal school and the housework school being probably the best of their kind in London. In the year 1894-95 there were 2,930 students in the evening classes, and 160 in the day classes. As is the case elsewhere, many of the students fall off after the first few weeks of study. The indolent soon retire, and a great many drop out when the examinations are coming on. There are

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