[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR, —A5 an admirer both
of School Boards and of the cumulative vote, I should be heartily glad to endorse all you say in your article of last week ; but I must point out that when you contrast the number of those who voted at the School-Board Elections with the numbers of those who vote at Parliamentary elections, you overlook one general and one local difference between the cases. The general difference is the addition to the School- Board electors of the female ratepayers, who may possibly have supplied that combination of enthusiasm and moderation which you so justly admire. The local difference is that in the case of Marylebone, on which you dwell so much, the School- Board borough is much larger than the Parliamentary borough, since Hampstead, which for Parliamentary purposes is in the county of Middlesex, is for School-Board purposes in the borough of Marylebone. Perhaps it would be argued that one should set off against this the fact that there is no lodger franchise at School- Board elections, but those who know anything of the working of the lodger clause in the last Reform Bill know how, in Maryle- bone, at any rate (and I suspect it is the same in most boroughs), the restrictions on the lodger franchise (as to time of residence in the same place, forms to be filled up, &c.) have made it almost useless.
As to the question of moderation, I should also like to point out that the clerical party has also in one respect improved in that matter ; for whatever may be said of the tactics of their supporters, it seems clear that among the candidates there were few or none of the " irreconcilable " stamp of Canon Gregory, Canon Cromwell, or Dr. Irons.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Eland House, Hampstead, December 10. C. E. MAURICE.
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