Lord George Hamilton, who took the chair at the London
School Board on Thursday, gave the utmost satisfaction by his terse and admirable inaugural speech, in which he of course announced that as the first chairman elected from outside, it would be his duty to regard the Chair exclusively as a position of impartial trust on behalf of both parties, the party which had opposed his election no less than the party which had proposed and carried it. He recognised that there was much to be said for regarding the Chair of the School Board as the natural position of the Educational Prime Minister of the Board, which was Mr. Diggle's conception of it, as well as of the impartial guardian of order in the conduct of the discussions ; but the former view of the position could not possibly apply to a chairman who had not gone through a popular election at all. Mr. Lyulph Stanley, in moving that Lord George Hamilton's speech be entered on the minutes, expressed the greatest satisfaction at the upshot of that declaration, and offered him the cordial support of the Opposition in the discharge of his duties ; and Mr. Diggle, who seconded the motion, was of course at least as cordial. So we may hope that the Board will avoid controversy as much as possible for the next three years.
Previous page
