Mr. Bright in two speeches, made on separate days, showed
the unfairness as regards "school-treats," under which the children of Dissenters often have to suffer, and in both speeches insisted on the necessity of having an organising power to con- nect together the educational system of any district, by taking over Voluntary schools when necessary, and providing new ones, which the Poor-law Guardians, or a Town Council cannot do. Mr. Mundella charged Lord Sandon with an inveterate animosity to School Boards, and with regarding compulsion as lowering to the national character. However, after these little amenities were got over, Lord Sandon, urged, no doubt, by his colleagues, accepted qualification after qualification to Mr. Pell's clause, quali- fications which we have described elsewhere, and which take the practical mischief out of it, though nothing can neutralise the mis- chief of the impression, if that be once produced in the country, that the Government like to have School Boards complained of, and lend a willing ear to the attacks upon them. To inspire
that belief is, we fear, the tendency, though, we hope, not the intention, of Lord Sandon's remarks.
