There are now some 130 or 140 candidates of a
very good class in the field for the Metropolitan Education Board, and room for only 49. The tenor of the addresses is, with the rarest possible excep- tion, in favour of liberal religious education,—thereby amply supporting Mr. Forster's statement that a vast majority of the ratepayers wish religious education to be given to their children. Even Professor Huxley acquiesces, after the Act last of Session,
in the reading of the Bible, though he wishes to prohibit all 'theological' explanations. The working-men candidates them- selves seem to admit the Bible, and the only address from one of this class which we have noted as at all peculiar in its views is Mr. Applegarth's, who attacks school-pence and demands universal free schools. This is not, however, an appropriate subject for a School-Board election speech,—rather for a Parliamentary election speech. The School Board must follow the Act :—only Parliament can alter it. A judge might as well declare himself hostile to thb law he has to administer, as a member of a School Board to the principle adopted by the Education Act.
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