The Rev. Canon O'Sullivan, the Roman Catholic representative, headed the poll with the smallest number of voters, and the largest number of votes-voters 3,171; votes 35,120,

These figures sufficiently demonstrate that the cumulative vote gives the control, not to numbers, but to organisation. In other towns the anomalies were quite as glaring, and the general result of the first elections was, that in most Liberal boroughs in England the Tories and the Church secured the control of the School Boards for the first three years, with the power of taxing the majority to teach the religion of the minority.

Much has been said in disparagement of the "Caucus," but the caucus, which is simply another name for electoral

organisation, was the offspring of the cumulative vote and the minority vote.

The system of voting papers adopted in the first School Board elections has, happily, been abolished. While it existed, it was the parent of every description of trickery, deception, and fraud. Mr. Swinglehurst wrote from Kendal : "I have seen something of voting in half civilised States, but Mr. Forster's School Board voting has no equal in fostering falsehood and trickery."

This electoral chicanery was accompanied by a revival of sectarian quarrels in their most objectionable form. Accusations of bigotry and intolerance on the one side, and of infidelity and irreligion on the other, were freely exchanged amongst candidates. The Bible was brought into the fray, to serve as an election rallying ground. The Church party in Birmingham declared that the question was one of "Bible or no Bible," notwithstanding that their opponents advocated the reading of the Bible; and this hustings' cry was advertised by huge placards, on posting stations, from the windows of gin palaces and beer houses, and on the backs of cabs. The Church rate controversy was renewed under another semblance, and with more intense passion and irreconcilable hostility. No parliamentary or local contests had for generations previously been known to provoke the same amount of bitterness and division between parties.

Protests against the cumulative vote were sent to the Government from the Birmingham Liberal Association, and other Liberal centres. An exhaustive analysis of the results of the early elections, with an able essay on the subject, was prepared for the League by Dr. James Freeman, of Birmingham, and was widely circulated. In the next session of Parliament, Mr. Dixon introduced a bill for the alteration

of the law. He met, however, with little support, and the bill, which was opposed by some members of the League, who belonged to the school of philosophic Radicals, and who were anxious to experiment in forms of proportionate representation, was withdrawn without a division. The working of the system has since been greatly improved by the abolition of voting papers, and the application of the ballot; but it still depends upon nice calculations of strength, upon perfect organisation, and upon implicit submission to discipline. The natural tendency of such artificial forms of voting is to make electioneering a science, and to reduce political arrangements to machinery. By the practice of these means a more equitable balance of parties on the School Boards has been secured at recent elections. If evidence were wanted to prove how completely the majority were baffled and misrepresented in the first contests, it is only necessary to compare the results with those of single elections to supply the vacancies which arose. In many places Liberals were returned without effort, and by large majorities, where Tories had obtained the control of the Boards.

The effect of remitting religious questions to the decision of School Boards was exhibited the moment they began operations. The choice of chairmen, clerks, school visitors, and other officers, was determined by theological qualifications, and on sectarian grounds. The system of proportionate representation had no influence in restraining sectarian majorities from administering the Act, in matters alike of principle and detail, to their own advantage. The School Boards were the arenas in which solemn questions of religion and delicate matters of doctrine were made the shuttlecock of debate. No better device could have been imagined for encouraging a spirit of irreverence. Candidates for the post of schoolmaster were publicly examined respecting their

interpretation of selected passages of Scripture. The doctrines of the Trinity, the Atonement, the Inspiration of Scripture, of Eternal Punishment, of the Actual Presence, became subjects of dispute. Extracts were read from the lesson books of the Catholic Church, to the cry of "No Popery," and sometimes a Jew would possess himself of Watts's hymns from which to quote " specimens of Christian charity." There was no cohesion upon the majority of the Boards, except that of sectarianism. Acrimonious personal disputes were frequent. It was not an uncommon thing for a minority to leave the room in a body, or to refuse to serve on committees with members of opposite opinions. The first meeting of the London Board was marked by a long and heated discussion as to the propriety of having private prayers before the opening of business. It was eventually decided that a room should be set apart for the purpose for the use of those members who desired it. But at the next meeting the whole of the requisitionists were absent, and the chairman, Lord Lawrence, was left to his solitary devotions. The first chairman of the Birmingham School Board published a pamphlet, in which he indulged in personal reflections and criticisms upon the characters, abilities, and conduct of his colleagues in the minority.

It is notable that these discussions arose in towns which had been remarkable for liberality of thought and toleration upon religious questions. If the occasion sometimes seemed trivial, and if the personal feeling evoked was at times little short of scandalous, it was the more evident that nothing but very ingrained convictions could provoke divisions of such extent, in a society where different denominations had worked harmoniously together for many years for the promotion of social happiness and improvement. The conflict, though fought out on matters of detail, was throughout one of principle. On the one side it was an attempt to revive and

re-enact religious privilege and prerogative, and on the other to preserve and advance the fullest measure of religious liberty and equality.

The signal for the conflict was given at the Birmingham School Board, and for the following three years the proceedings of the Board were watched with intense interest throughout the country. The Rev. F. S. Dale, the most able and persistent member of the Church majority, gave notice of two resolutions, one for the enforcement of the powers of compulsion, and the other for the payment of fees in existing schools. The motion was brought forward before there was any school under the control of the Board, and its object, as generally received, was to fill and to assist the denominational schools at the cost of the ratepayers. The resolution took the form of empowering the remission of fees under Sec. 17. It was shown that this could not be done, as the Board had no Schools; but it was discovered that fees could be paid at existing Schools under Sec. 25, and it was to the powers of this section that the subsequent debates had special reference.

Mr. Chamberlain led the country agitation against the 25th section. At the School Board he moved an amendment to Mr. Dale's resolution declaring that the payment of money out of the rates to the denominational schools would be an infringement of the rights of conscience, and would delay the establishment of free schools. At a later stage of the discussion the special reason advanced in support of the 25th section, was the alleged "right of choice" which it gave to the parents. But, as Mr. Dixon pointed out, the clause was introduced when there was no right of choice—the only schools being those of a denominational character. The party which opposed compulsion as un-English and unconstitutional was now trying to use the law to force children into sectarian