THE LONDON EDUCATION ELECTIONS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—The facts of the election in Chelsea seem somewhat at variance with one of the conclusions in your interesting article on this subject. Here the supporters of the School Board gained a seat, securing three seats out of four. Three of the old members were elected again ; the Roman Catholic candidate—Mr. O'Donnell—I am sorry to say, was unsuccessful. The third Liberal candidate, Mr. Firth, came forward very late ; four weeks before the polling-day he was almost unknown in the borough ; he stood upon what you would term the "quasi-Secularist policy," a point of which every use, and I may add, abuse, was made by his opponents. Yet be polled over 13,000 votes, or nearly 3,000 more than any one else. A significant fact is that the working.. classes for the first time took a real interest in the contest, and the poll being open till 8 p.m., they had a better opportunity of voting than in Parliamentary elections.
I will add the opinion that we were much assisted by the general discredit into which the Conservative party has lately fallen, the local leaders of that party and of the opposition to the School Board being conspicuously the same.—I am, Sir, &c., F. H. A. H.
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