In London, at all events, repeated experiments have shown that
the Nonconformist cry for limiting the School Boards to secular teaching, meets with no response. That was the precise issue of the contest between Mr. Owen and Mr. Allen for the district of Finsbury last week. At the ballot, Mr. Hugh Owen, who repre- sented religious education, received 4,693 votes, while Mr. S. Allen, who represented the Nonconformist principle of separating altogether religious education from the education given by the State, received only 3,407 votes, showing a majority of 1,286 votes for religious education,—a good proportion of the whole number of *3,100 votes given, especially in a district like Finsbury, which is the stronghold of the working-class politicians. We are sorryto add that here, as in Marylebone, the apathy was very marked. Of upwards -of 60,000 voters, only 8,100, say about one-eighth, polled at all. We feel the greatest fear that, even in Parliamentary elec- tions, the ballot will be regarded by the indolent and indifferent as a screen for their indolence and indifference, and so extinguish a. great deal of the vital force of our public opinion.
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