7 DECEMBER 1889, Page 19

The members of the London School Board hardly appre- ciate

the risk they will run at the next election. If they do not insist more earnestly upon a searching investigation into the building of their school-houses, they will all be turned out for negligent administration. Many of them are not even indirectly responsible ; but in the popular imagination Boards are continuous bodies, and, indeed, if the present members have caused no wrong, they can try to fix the responsibility for the wrong admitted to have occurred. Mr. Lobb on Thursday brought forward a whole series of charges as to the condition of certain schools, which were admitted to be true, but " by a vote of 22 to 14, the Board refused to grant Mr. Foster precedence for a motion upon the subject of defects in school buildings of which he had given notice." That may have been quite wise ; but if the Board is to satisfy the electors that it wishes punishment for wrongdoers, it must take up the matter more earnestly for itself. Did anybody within reach of the Board profit by the badness of the school-houses ? That is the real question to be cleared up.