Even the London School Board clearly felt this to be
the drift of Lord Sandon's speeches, for at a Mansion-House dinner given to them by the Lord Mayor on Wednesday, the drift of Lord Sandon's remarks was referred to as constituting a critical era for School Boards, while the work completed by the London Board was aummarised with great clearness and emphasis by the Lard Mayor and by the Chairman, Sir Charles Reed. There are now 300 schools under the School Board, of which 132 are newly opened. 181,000 fresh school-places would have been provided by next November, and 164,000 pupils have been added to the school-roll of London, and 5,000 street" Arabs "have been with- drawn from the metropolis. The average attendance had risen from 174,301 in 1872 to 288,497 in the present year. Of the ragged-school children, 20,000 are now in efficient schools, and- of these, nine out of ten pay their penny a week with great regu- larity. This is hardly a result which could have been achieved by Municipal Councils or Boards of Guardians, armed with no organising powers.
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