20 JANUARY 1877, Page 3

The School Board, we are glad to see, have not

been fortunate in relation to their somewhat ridiculous proposal to get a Royal Commission appointed to carry a reform of the principles of English spelling. While twenty-one local Boards have expressed their willingness to support this proposal, thirty-seven Boards have declined to do so, so that of the answers received the majority are against this crude suggestion, and on the side of common-sense. You might just as well propose a Royal Com- mission to reform provincial dialects, or to abolish cockneyisms, —say, to make people pronounce their " h's," and prevent their pronouncing them where " h's " do not occur.