The Education Bill passed through Committee on Thursday, and Teceived
the third reading on Friday night. It has been debated for twenty-one days, during which the Vice-President in Council has never been absent from his place, never been assisted by any -colleague except Mr. Gladstone, never lost his temper, and never given up a principle of the Bill, which, as we have endeavoured to show elsewhere, remains in all essentials the original Government plan. The principal changes introduced this week have been the -substitution of an elective for a nominee chairman of the Metro- politan School Board, which will, we fear, prove a great mistake, as the Board will be the only one able to fight the Department ; the substitution of ratepayers for Town Councillors as electors of the Board, a doubtful change, as ratepayers can know very little about a schoolmaster's qualifications, but still in accord with our modes of government ; and the introduction of a method of ballot which we do not profess to comprehend. Clauses for which we hoped, creating a Minister of Education, are not apparently to be introduced, unless the Lords should undertake to make the Department in that way complete.
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