ABSTRACT
The employment of children in agriculture and their opportunities for receiving education had come under investigation from time to time from the thirties onwards. In 1842, four assistant commissioners were specially appointed to make a report to the Poor Law Commission on the employment of women and children in agriculture. As regards the number of children affected, the problem was one of considerable importance. The cause was commonly to be found in the lowness of the wages of the agricultural labourers, which made the latter anxious to send their children out to work to augment the family income. The accounts of education in agricultural districts given by the Assistant Commissioner who inquired into ‘the state of popular education in England’ for the Education Commission of 1858 show that by the latter year little, if any, progress had been made.
