[333] Circular of 9th January 1856, in Ninth Annual Report, 1857, pp. 13, 15. In 1856 it was reported that there were in Lancashire and the West Riding 48,412 children on outdoor relief, of whom about 30,000 ought to be at school. Yet down to December 1855, the boards of guardians had taken no steps to get them to school, in spite of the inspector's protests (Eighth Annual Report, 1855, p. 63). [334] House of Commons Return, No. 437 of 1856; Ninth Annual Report, p. 8. Newcastle-on-Tyne adopted it at once (MS. Minutes, Newcastle Board of Guardians, 10th October 1855). [335] Fifteenth Annual Report, 1862-3, p. 18; Circular of 29th September 1862. [336] MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 9th October 1862. The Manchester Guardians, whose early school experiment we have already mentioned, largely nullified their own action (and apparently contravened the spirit, if not the letter of the law), by insisting on the attendance of the outdoor paupers exclusively at the guardians' own school, which gave "undenominational" religious instruction, and refusing to pay fees for children to go to any other schools (except for a short time in 1862-3 when their own schools were over-full). In vain did the Roman Catholics and the Manchester and Salford Education Aid Society protest, pointing out that the children were in consequence growing up untaught (_ibid._ 26th May, 23rd and 30th June, and 10th November 1864; 19th June 1865). The Central Authority does not appear to have intervened.