27 APRIL 1872, Page 3

Wtatminster has ratified the decision of all the great districts

-of the Metropolis in favour of religious education. In M.arylebone, -a Liberal clergyman was preferred to a most eminent mathemati- cal professor, because the former was identified with the religious view of education. In Finsbury, the representative of the Man- -cheater Conference was defeated by Mr. Hugh Owen, who favoured religious education. In Westminster, Mr. George Potter, with the working-men at his back, polled only 1,130 votes against nearly five times as many for Lord Mahon. Consequently, Mr. Potter sees very -clearly the advantage of the cumulative vote, and reminds his sup- porters that at a general election, under that arrangement, his 1,130 supporters will be able to accumulate upon him 5,650 votes, and so to give him one of the five seats. It is a capital lesson for the Democratic party on the rights of minorities. We do not despair of seeing the majority even of Mr. Bright's own supporters learn- ing to extol the only fair and only truly democratic principle of voting, which he himself has so harshly and so thoughtlessly ridiculed and condemned.