THE BEST METROPOLITAN SCHOOL BOARD.
THE excessive number of candidates for the Metropolitan School Board, and the difficulty of manipulating the cumulative vote, renders it a matter of the greatest importance to lay down clearly what objects the electors ought to propose to themselves in the election of next week. What we want for the London School Board is, we take it, a fair representation of the various tendencies of the London public on controverted points, especially religious education,—the special representa- tives, however, being chosen for their reasonableness, and capacity for entering into other points of view than their own ; next, a sufficient number of men skilled in the practical work of education and familiar with the best methods and tests of efficiency ; lastly, a certain number of administrative politicians who have been accustomed to deal with representative bodies, and who can represent the Metropolitan School Board in Parliament, and will give it a certain amount of weight -with the Central Government. These are, as it seems to us, the three main ends to be kept in view, to obtain a body truly representative of the wishes of the people, to make it truly educational, and to have it efficiently organized and working in complete harmony with Parliament and the Education Department. Now, to apply these general principles as far as possible to the list of candidates we have had for the various districts is, of course, a work of great difficulty, and any list which we could draw out must, of course, be modified by the special knowledge of electors as to the candidates of their own district. If we suggest a list in each district, it is less for any guidance it can give to individuals than for the sake of illus- trating the principles which ought, in our judgment, to guide the electors. But this can be done so much better in relation to a particular group of representatives for any district, that we will suggest a list in each case, which, if elected, would, we think, combine fairly the elements of adequate representa- tion, adequate special knowledge, and adequate political capacity. To begin with the City, which is to have four representatives, the election of the Rev. W. Rogers, Mr. S. Morley, M.P., Mr. Henry Hoare, and Mr. G. W. Hastings would, we think, be com- pletely satisfactory. Mr. Rogers has already organized a great and successful middle-class City school, and is, perhaps, in some respects better fitted for the Chairmanship of the School Board than any other candidate. He is, indeed, a clergyman of the Church of England,—no doubt an objection to his taking such a position ; but a clergyman of studiously moderate, perhaps even too moderate religious tone of mind,—religion being an influence which without a germ of enthusiasm in it is not worth much. Mr. Rogers, however, is master of the subject of education and its organization ; he is a man of great breadth and force of character, and it may be said that a -clergyman of the widest school, who thoroughly understands laymen and is accustomed to act with them, will know better how to harmonize the various elements of possible discord, than anylayman, however broad. Whatever, however, his claims for the important post of Chairman of the Board may be, the City election will be a farce, and a most unintelligible farce, if Mr. Rogers is not elected in it. Mr. Morley we name as a very influential representative of the Orthodox Dissenters, a Member of Parliament, and a well-known public benefactor. Mr. Hoare as connected with one of the great banking firms, and, also as having access to a well-known school in the Church, will strengthen the Board in the City, and in the opinion of an important religious section of the country. Mr. Hastings is a lawyer of very considerable attainments, who through the Social Science Association, of which he has long been the real centre, has become familiar with all the most active and energetic of educational and social reformers, and will therefore be the channel for ideas well worth represent- ing, as well as the spokesman of his own. If the City chooses these four, it will, at least, contribute an adequate part of the brain of the School Board, and that, too, without losing the confidence of the wealthy merchants and bankers of London. Westminster has five seats on the School Board, and Westminster will not do badly if it chooses Dr. Alfred Barry, Mr. W. H. Smith, M.P., Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, M.P., Lord Howard of Glossop, and Mr. C. E. Mudie. Dr. Alfred Barry, the head of King's College, and a man of very considerable vigour and ability, would represent the Church of England no doubt, and is disposed, we see, to be "cautious." in the use of the com- pulsory powers, but is too sensible and political to attempt anything like a sectarian policy, and he is, at all events, thoroughly skilled in the administrative organization of edu- cation. Mr. W. H. Smith is not only a Member of Parlia- ment, but one who has efficiently organized a very great busi- ness of very wide ramifications, and whose judgment on any question of organization will be of the highest value. He will help to keep the Board to its work. Lord Howard of Glossop is one of only two members of the House of Lords who are candidates for the London School Board, and one of only four Roman Catholics who are candidates for that Board. His presence on the Board would do much to gain it the confidence of Roman Catholics, and he has sat long enough in the House of Commons, and should have learnt enough as a Roman Catholic statesman there, to know how to command the respect of Churchmen and Dis- senters. Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice is a young Member of Parliament and a promising one, who has already spoken with great ability in favour of liberalizing the Universities, and has the leisure to make good use of his abilities in the public service. In a body which threatens to be, as all English representative bodies are too apt to be, composed of middle- aged men, Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice would be even more useful on account of his youth and energy, than on account of his connection with Parliament, though that is not without moment. Finally, Mr. Mudie represents a considerable Dis- senting body, and represents the wise and liberal side of Dis- sent; he struck out by his library a new line of education, which has expanded to very great dimensions, and his election would do a great deal to make the nomination of West- minster really representative.
Chelsea, which has four representatives on the School Board, will not do badly if it chooses Lord Lawrence, Mrs. William Grey, Mr. John Osborne, and Dr. J. H. Gladstone. Lord Lawrence is a considerable statesman and a really great administrator. Though known to be somewhat narrow in his private religious views, which lean to Recordism, he is far too statesmanlike to allow himself to be betrayed into narrowness in administering such an act as the Education Act of last Session. Probably, he would in some respects make an even better chairman of the Metropolitan Board, if he would take the post, than Mr. Rogers. Though his administrative ex- perience of the department of education has been an Indian, and not an English one, and he has, of course, less familiarity with the details of the work than Mr. Rogers, his experience of the duties of government in the great position of our Indian Viceroy, as well as in those other less great, but very great posts which he filled in the Punjaub, would more than com- pensate for the comparative inferiority of his knowledge as an organizer of London Schools. It would be simply absurd not to elect Lord Lawrence. Indeed, we hold his election to be even more certain than that of Mr. Rogers. Of Mrs. Grey we do not know much, except that she is one of only three women who are candidates for places on the Metropolitan School Board, and that three seats in forty-nine will be far too few for women to hold in organizing schools of which half will be girls' schools. Mr. Osborne is a working- men's candidate, of whom there should certainly be several, if the School Board is to represent fairly the views of the parents. He is in favour of compulsory education, and though something of a Secularist, not bigoted, being "not opposed to Bible reading if the parents desire it." Dr. Glad- stone is a fellow of the Royal Society, whiclkis, so far as it goes, in his favour, tending to connect the School Board with one of the most influential of English Societies; he is in favour
of compulsory education, and is, we have heard, also a Dissenter. With Lord Lawrence, Mrs. Grey, Mr. Osborne, and Dr. Glad- stone to represent it, Chelsea would increase greatly both the political weight and the representative adequacy of the central School Board.
If Marylebone, which has seven members, should elect Professor Huxley, Miss Garrett, M.D., Dr. Angus, Mr. Cremer, Mr. E. J. Hutchins, Rev. A. W. Thorold, and Alderman Sir Sidney Waterlow,—it would elect one man of genius and great deliberative weight ; one woman not only an experienced physician, but of consummate ability and large special know- ledge of London wants—a learned and Liberal orthodox Dissenter who has made education the study of his life, an energetic working-man of fair talents, a Roman Catholic gentleman, heartily favourable to the fair execution of the Act, a liberal clergyman, and an alderman who has made a special study of the metropolitan building question, and would probably be of great use in relation to the con- struction of the necessary School buildings. From Professor Huxley's views on the religious question we differ very widely, as our readers are aware ; but he is a man of such singular energy and power that we should give him our support on the same principle on which Conservatives who would never have voted for a common-place Radical have often voted for Mr. Blight or Mr. Cobden, as representative men who ought to be in Parliament,—besides that on all questions except the religious question Professor Huxley's great knowledge, his influence over men, and his singular practical lucidity, would be of the first utility. Miss Ganett's defeat would be a real misfortune for the London School Board. She knows some of the poorest districts of Lon- don as few women know them ; she is mistress of all the great sanitary aspects of the education question ; and she has more general knowledge, sense, and ability than, say, five- sixths, at least, of existing Members of Parliament. If Finsbury, which has six members, elects for its representatives Mr. MacCullagh Torrens, M.P., Mr. J. R. Morrison, Mr. Lucraft, Mr. Hartley, Mr. Rivington, and Dr. Tomkins, it will have, not perhaps a brilliant, but a very respectable and important influence in the education Parliament of London. Mr. McCullagh Torrens is a man of very considerable influence in Parliament, and has brought on and passed one of the most important London Acts of recent years, one which compelled him to study the condition of the poor in London very minutely. Of Mr. J. R. Morrison we only know that he has issued an exceedingly good address, with more reflection in it than has marked the great majority of the addresses. Mr. Lucraft is a working-man's candidate. Mr. Hartley is the Statistical Secretary of the Sunday School Union, and as such has special knowledge of the educational needs of the children of London ; Mr. Rivington is, we believe, a surgeon of some position, and medical men will not be too numerous on the School Board ; and Dr. Ton-It-ins (an LL.D.) is, we believe, an accomplished lawyer, of whom, again, there are apparently not too many among the candidates.
Hackney, which has five members, can hardly do better than elect Mr. Charles Reed, M.P., Rev. John Oakley, Rev. J. N. Picton, Mr. J. Hale, and Mr. A. Sonnenschein. Mr. Reed, besides being the member for the borough, and a man of some weight in Parliament, will represent fairly the orthodox Dis- senters. Mr. Oakley is one of the ablest and most earnest and successful of London Church clergymen,—a little "high," no doubt, but not too high for the widest sympathies, and one who believes genuinely in the religious principle, and in the means of applying it to education without any sec- tarianism, and he favours direct compulsion. Mr. Picten is an Independent minister of singularly wide mind, and high intellectual attainments, with a bias towards "purely secular" day schools, though he will "faithfully pro- tect schools preferring unsectarian religious teaching." He also approves direct compulsion. Mr. Hale is a working-man's candidate in favour of direct compulsion, and not bigoted against religious teaching. Mr. Sonnenschein is a very able teacher, who has studied the science of teaching in both Ger- many and England, and done not a little in some departments of teaching (especially mathematics) to improve and popularize the methods. Of this class of candidates there are far too few on the Education Board, and we should be very glad to see Mr. Sonnenschein elected. The Tower Hamlets (which has five members) will do very well if it chooses Mr. E. N. Bux- ton, Mr. E. H. Carrie, Mr. Langdale, Mr. Matthias, and Mr. F. Young. Mr. B. N. Buxton represents a great and already
admirably organized educational influence in Spitalfields, and' has put forth an admirable address. Mr. Currie is, we have an idea, an India civilian, of a somewhat narrow religious school, but with an able civilian's administrative powers and experi- ence. Mr. Langdale is one of only four Roman Catholic candidates in all London. Mr. Matthias is a working-man's candidate "in favour of secular and technical education " ; and of Mr. F. Young, of whom we know nothing directly, we understand that very high expectations are formed in the locality itself.
Of the Southwark candidates,—Southwark has four seats, —we speak with more hesitation than of those of any other district, knowing hardly any of them except through their professed opinions. Mr. Wallace is one of the four Roman Catholic candidates, and if the London School Board contained four out of forty-nine Catholics the Roman Catholics would certainly be under-represented. Mr. Bayley is a strong corn- pulsionist, which is good so far as it goes, as is Mr. W. E. Baxter ; and Mr. William Stafford is a working-man's candi- date. In Lambeth, which has five seats, Mr. Applegarth, Mr. McArthur, M.P., the Rev. G. M. Murphy, Mr. Samuel Sheen, and Mr. Charles Few would probably be a good choice. Mr. Applegarth is by far the ablest of the various working- men's candidates, indeed a man of no common viguur and knowledge. He is a compulsionist. Mr. McArthur, M.P., is a compulsionist, and would represent, we believe, a large Dissent- ing body. The Rev. G. M. Murphy has spoken out for giv- ing the poor "the higher range of instruction so much needed," and is strong for unsectarian teaching ; Mr. Samuel Shaen is a man of ability and force, if something of a doctrinaire ; and Mr. Few issues a sensible address. Finally, in Greenwich, which has four seats, hardly better members than Miss Emily Davies and Canon Miller could be chosen, the one a woman who has spent years in the study of the subject of women's education, and never written upon it without saying something of mark, something that has commanded attention far and wide ; the other, Canon Miller, a Liberal Churchman of great ability and zeal, to whom Mr. Gladstone is said to have owed his election, whose theology has a somewhat evangelical bias, but who, nevertheless, is far too earnest in the popular cause to be obstructive in the educational parliament. Of the other candidates, two have protested very sensibly against false economy, especially in paying schoolmasters ; and this is so important a point, that though we know nothing else of them, we should suppose that Mr. George Offor, who "considers that it is the truest economy to pay well the best teachers that can be selected," and Mr. G. White, who "deprecates the payment of small stipends to schoolmasters," have sense above the average of their brother candidates.
At all events, if the Metropolitan School Board contains as many men of political mark, of special capacity for the work of education, and as many representative of the wishes of London, as we have named, it will be likely to take a great lead in the education of the country.
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