6 DECEMBER 1879, Page 3

The London School Board elections turned out very well. Out

of fifty members, twenty-seven served on the last School Board, while twenty-three are new. But of old members who .Mood for re-election only five failed, so that, on the whole, London supported those who had marked out the administra- tive system already in force. All the office-bearers of the late School Board, the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Chair- men of Committees, have been returned to the new School Board. On the whole, the women, too, have found favour in the sight of London, nine having been returned to the present School Board, as against, we believe, only five on the last Board; and five out of the nine were at the head of the poll, Mrs. Webster, for instance, having polled nearly 4,000 more votes than the member coming next to her on the poll for Chelsea, Mrs. Westlake 3,000 more than the member coming next to her on the poll for Marylebone, and Miss Helen Taylor over 4,000 more than the member coming next to her on the poll for Westminster. We are very well pleased to see more women elected, for there is not one woman to each of the educational districts of London even now. But we rather deprecate this over-gallantry in accumulating votes on women which they do not want, and which would be of much more use in determining the order of the other candidates. The only danger of bringing women into candidature at all is this tendency to treat them sentimentally as educational heroines, and not merely as candidates whose services you wish to secure, but whom you no more care to flatter by your votes, than you would care to flatter equally useful men.